In today’s class, we had the pleasure of listening to Jeff Hopkins speak on the school he created – PSII. It was fascinating to look at the blog post and watch the videos of the school. Currently, it’s set up quite different than normal due to COVID. For example, they can’t use the kitchen, so they’ve turned that space into a room where students can sit and work together. They have also decided to rent out space outside of their normal school space just so that they can increase the distance between students during COVID.
I find this school so interesting because it’s all built on inquiry – everything starts with questions. This is great since one person’s inquiry can lead to multiple new questions from other students as well. Which can therefore bring multiple people together.
From a teacher candidate’s perspective, it’s awesome to see how the school is built on teacher collaboration. Teachers will have their one or two specific subject areas and if a student has a question about something outside of those areas, then teachers have the ability to collaborate with each other. The school is set up for this purpose, since there’s no formal classes with teachers. This gives them the flexibility to go and collaborate right when students need assistance.
Overall, it was super informative and thought-provoking to hear Jeff speak to our class today!
Photo from Unsplash.com by Tim Mossholder