Reflection #1
This week, I watched the documentary Most Likely to Succeed, directed by Greg Whiteley. I found this documentary very interesting because I have never seen or experienced this kind of school before. There were a few things that particularly stood out to me. The first is that the school curriculum we have today was created so long ago that it has resulted in teaching students things needed to participate in a society we no longer have today. A significant change within our society highlighted in the documentary is that many of the jobs our curriculum prepares students for no longer exist due to advanced technology. I think this idea of trying to shift our school system to one that teaches students how to think for themselves, be creative, learn from their failures, build teamwork and leadership skills, be critical thinkers, and develop GRIT is going to better prepare students to participate in today’s society that values those skills. When I considered the results of when students were re-tested on the same information they were tested on three months prior, and the test scores went from an average of a B+ to a F, the idea of teaching students things they will actually remember and take with them into the world, as opposed to biology facts or advanced math formulas they are just going to forget after the test is over, started to make a lot more sense. This idea reminded me of a TedTalk I watched for another class that talked about how higher-level math seems to be useless for most people. Overall, I think High Tech High has taken an insightful approach to teaching, and I hope to incorporate some of their ideas into my teaching someday.
