Kirsten Hansen:
Passages are an opportunity. Passages provide a venue for kids to delve deeply into a topic, experience, area of study, and/or process that will help them become who they want to be! Pros – It’s an honor to be a part of kids finding and pursuing their personal and academic goals. Cons – It’s hard to grade! I would make class sizes smaller so that each student could benefit from more individualized mentoring. Teaching Passages has taught me that I wish I’d had this class when I was in high school! It’s so impressive to see what kids can do when the sky’s the limit. |
Sonia Burns:
How would you describe Passages? A challenging, but potentially highly rewarding experience where students can experience a true "Right of Passage" and learn something about the world and themselves. What are the pros of teaching passages? I love seeing students get to follow their own interests, and its nice to have a more free-flowing, less structured class. What are the cons of teaching passages? The free-flowing part of the class can also be a con, wen its hard to make lesson plans for students in very different places. If students are struggling to pick a topic (or narrow down) something they're interested in, I feel lost as their teacher trying to help them. What would you change/Improve? Having taught the class for the first time, I now know some of the bumps in the road that I could anticipate for next time. Having been on the committees for several years I notice students tend to identify their biggest regret being procrastination- I need to figure out a way to get that through to future students! Anything else? Students should have an idea of what Passages is about- and how much work it takes- before starting the class. Its okay to feel overwhelmed, but there can be a lot of growth in pushing through and overcoming that. |