There’s something special happening in the classrooms at Roland Michener.
Every week, students are choosing their own adventures, and in some cases the teachers are learning alongside them.
It’s Friday afternoon and Grade 7 and 8 kids are busy with robotics, printing T-shirts, staging and editing photos, baking cookies, doing karate, and more.
It’s all part of the new Elements program officially launched at the South Porcupine school today.
The new Grade 7 and 8 program features choose your own adventure options, which integrates students in both grades to learn topics chosen by them.
Since the program launched in September, Grade 7 student Grace MacLean said it’s been a lot of fun.
“I think I like it the most because we get to be creative and pick what we want and what we feel like we like to do and what we enjoy, we get to learn more about the things that we enjoy,” she said.
So far, some of the classes she’s taken are piano, sweet treats, and just dance.
Her favourite was swimming.
“We actually got to go swimming and I got to learn crazy new things, I learned how to do diving going straight down, and then I got to learn how to do butterfly strokes...that was really fun,” she said.
For choose your own adventure, students spend about 4.5 hours a week for four weeks on each topic.
Lindsay Johnston was looking forward to having the power to choose what to take.
For music class, she said it was nice to focus on one thing, such as piano.
Some of the other classes she’s taken include entrepreneurship and T-shirt printing.
“I really enjoyed volleyball and weightlifting and circuits. The weightlifting thing just made me feel so powerful, it was a lot of fun,” she said.
Principal Kirsten Elvestad said there’s been a two-year revisioning process at the school.
“We’re trying to figure out how learning and teaching could look different in our school and so last year we started taking a look at inquiry-based learning and how students can drive their learning by voice and choice,” she said.
“That kind of transitioned into our choose your own adventure program for this year and so we packaged it all together and are now launching our Elements program.”
The choose your own adventure options will change each year depending on the interests of the students.
While core subjects such as math, language, geography and history are still happening daily, the lens it’s taught through is different.
“Students are more driving that learning, which is a little different than when you and I were in school at desks and rows and textbooks and worksheets. There’s some of that still happening, but the students are more in charge of their learning now,” Elvestad said.
The change is all about student engagement.
When students have a voice, said Elvestad, they’re more engaged.
“With the age of social media and digital age, the skills that kids need to be able to function in society are a little bit different than when you and I were younger. This type of learning helps hone those skills and gives them an edge in job hunting, in social skills, in 21st Century competencies, all those types of things,” she said.
The program has been running since September and has been receiving fabulous feedback, according to Elvestad.
“We often have kids angry at their parents when they have doctor’s appointments during choose your own adventure time, they’re definitely engaged. They really designed the program, the course offerings, the little sections of learning we offer were all chosen by them and they really get to pick and choose what they want to take and they absolutely love it,” she said.
Teacher Samantha Chin has noticed a change in the students as well.
She said they’re more excited and engaged, and there has been a decrease in visits to the office.
“And the best thing is integration, so some of the students that are in high-support classes get to be integrated with the mainstream classes and they get to meet and work with all sorts of students that are learning in different capacities,” she said.
Some of the elements from the program are being transitioned into high school.
Elevestad said Grade 9 and 10 electives are going to be half credits, with a narrow focus similar to the choose your own adventure. Instead of being four-week sessions, however, students will take it for half a semester.
