I was so excited to have Jeff Hopkins from Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry come and talk with our class today, as I was very intrigued by what they are doing. I first heard of PSII when they were opening, as I had a friend who sent her son there. A few years later, another friend in the neighbourhood started to teach there, between her 3 and 4th child. I loved the idea of the school, and so was keen to learn more. Unfortunately, I got cut off of zoom when the power went out, and by the time I got back on I had missed half of it. I am going to follow up with Jeff, and potentially see about doing a practicum with PSII, as I would love to learn more about how to implement a PSII type model based on what students are keen to learn about and using inquiry methodology.
When Jeff first mentioned that they still grade their students I was surprised. He went on to discuss more their grading methods, and I saw how it could be a great learning opportunity for all. I really appreciated his critique of the current grading system and how truly arbitrary it is, “why is it out of 10 and not 10 1/2”. When I taught at Camosun, I created a rubric to try and be more transparent with my marking. I would also download all the papers I had to mark and would NOT look at who wrote the paper to make sure I was not biased in how I marked. I would assign a temporary grade and then go over again after I had finished all of them to try and weed out any inconsistencies that might have unintentionally crept in while I was marking (eg.was I hungry or tired when I read their paper and thus it impacted the mark I gave them?). On reflection, I realize that marking is very subjective, even multiple choice. As an instructor, we are choosing what students will learn and what they will be tested on and thus how they will be evaluated. One of the things I love in PSII is that although they need to grade, they do not pick what the student will learn and thus what they are tested on is also more in the hands of the leaner. The potential for empowered learners and CITIZENS is apparent. I want to know how I can bring that to the public school system… maybe a practicum at PSII is a start?!
Being interested to know more, I went to Trevor Mackenzie’s website (I actually have known Trevor for years as we cycle with the same club). I loved this video – If students designed their own school on his site as it gives a good idea of how an inquiry based education might be done in the public school system.
Now time to read Trevor’s books that I bought last year, send an email to Jeff.. and……
