{"id":8787,"date":"2014-04-08T13:50:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T18:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=8787"},"modified":"2014-04-08T13:52:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T18:52:00","slug":"phs-offers-different-learning-styles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=8787","title":{"rendered":"PHS Offers Different Learning Styles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The familiar face of Plymouth High School. Photo by: Emory Smith.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Emory Smith<\/em><\/p>\n

Plymouth High School\u2019s Principal, Mr. Condon, said, \u201cPlymouth High School is unique in that it has accepted the fact that students need choices. They need choices not only in the curricular programs that we offer them, but also in the learning environments that we provide for them. Hence, we have two schools within a school; we have the traditional Plymouth High School, and we also have The Weidner School of Inquiry at Plymouth High School.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Notice, Mr. Condon emphasized that PHS\u2019s students need choices. Students at PHS have the opportunity to choose how they learn; they decide whether they want to learn in the traditional way or with a new, project-based style.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Felke, Co-director of the Weidner School of Inquiry, said, \u201cPlymouth High School is a diverse learning environment where students have a lot of choice. They have the opportunity to pursue core subjects, as well as a variety of extracurricular activities and elective classes that meet their interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plymouth High School is defined, by students, with various words. Freshman Bayli Czarnecki simply said, \u201cMy school.\u201d \u00a0Sophomore Sophia Smith connects Plymouth High School with \u201cBand. Sports. Education. Rockies\/Pilgrims.\u201d The educational aspect of PHS is defined by Freshman Jessica Drury as, \u201cTeachers. Classroom. Computers. Independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A group of students read for English. Photo by: Emory Smith.<\/p><\/div>\n

Students have to decide which part of PHS houses the learning strategy they are most compatible with. Sophomore Roger Karr said, \u201cI chose traditional because I was new to the school and wanted something I was comfortable with, and I had never heard of the WSOI.\u201d This is not the only factor that a student might consider. \u00a0Freshman Jennifer Sayer said, \u201cI selected traditional, mostly because books and paper are just easier to focus with. Computers are very distracting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assorted things about these \u201ctwo schools within a school\u201d are admired by students. Regarding the Weidner School of Inquiry, Czarnecki, who goes to the traditional school said, \u201cYou get to work with groups all the time.\u201d Students admire similar elements; Drury, another traditional student said, \u201cThe concept of being able to work together is important to your future no matter what career you are going into.\u201d<\/p>\n

These positive aspects do not necessarily signal that students in the traditional school and The Weidner School of Inquiry feel unified, a subject that Mr. Condon has identified as \u201can area of concern.\u201d \u00a0Though he realizes that this unification question is one for the students, he said, \u201cWe recognize all our students as Plymouth High School students. The way that we look at it is that: we just have two really good choices for students, unlike most schools. And, students are welcome to make that choice of which environment they want to learn in.\u201d Information Library Assistant Nathan Mayer agreed, \u201cEvery student is a student of PHS, and not strictly one or the other.\u201d Contrastingly, Sayer said, \u201cThey are both two different schools with different approaches.\u201d Karr said, \u201cI think they are not because of the separation in the building.\u201d On the same page as Karr, Drury said, \u201cI don’t believe they are. There are moments in the day that you will see some of the students from the WSOI school, but other than that, there are a number of students that don’t leave the WSOI building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Condon had some ideas about how we can unify the two approaches. He said, \u201cNumber one: we\u2019ve created more and more opportunities for The School of Inquiry students to passport out of Inquiry into elective classes, that they might have a personal interest in. Number two: the plan for the near future is to create some classes, within inquiry, which accept non-Inquiry students. So, that will help the traditional students learn in that environment and… understand it more greatly than they do now.\u201d Similarly, Mr. Delp, Co-director of the Weidner School of Inquiry, said, \u201cIn an effort to unify us, it would help if more people were able to visit and see what the learning is like. He said, \u201cWe do need to do a better job of connecting and showing why we value this way of teaching, not that it\u2019s better, but why we personally feel that it connects with students in a different way.\u201d \u00a0Mr. Condon said, \u201cThe first one we\u2019re going to roll out next fall is Project Lead the Way Biomedical Class. We\u2019re very excited about that class. We are going to welcome, not only Inquiry students, but non-Inquiry students as well. I think that class is going to rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students and teachers have suggestions too. Sayer said, \u201cYou could try and make them both into one school with both qualities.\u201d Mr. Mayer said, \u201cMake it [The Weidner School of Inquiry] open to anyone and not just whoever signs up first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Green Room in the Weidner School of Inquiry awaits its next occupants. Photo by: Emory Smith<\/p><\/div>\n

To entertain Sayer\u2019s suggestion, the \u201cqualities\u201d of both styles of learning must be scrutinized. On the one, project-based hand, Czarnecki connected, \u201cTeamwork, nice environment, good rewards, nice teachers, and success,\u201d to The Weidner School of Inquiry. Sayer said, \u201cTechy, Intense, Expensive, Complex, and Intriguing.\u201d Mr. Condon said, \u201cExtremely progressive. Really, a new way of learning for high school students. When I think of The Weidner School of Inquiry, I think of partnerships, I think of opportunities for teamwork and to work independently.\u201d Mr. Delp said, \u201cSchool of Inquiry learners will take on, or learn, the same standards and lessons and objectives that traditional students will take on, but they will use the PBL methodology, pedagogy to do that. The other part of that, the assessment of students, is including five different learning outcomes. So, you got your content and knowledge, which are your basics, what a traditional student would get, but we also assess collaboration, oral communication, written communication, and agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other, more traditional hand, Smith thinks of, \u201cFun. Unity. Discipline. Education. School Spirit.\u201d \u00a0Drury said, \u201cIndependent, classroom, lectures, notes, work.\u201d Words that come to Freshman Ellie Switzer\u2019s mind are, \u201cStandard, normal, easy, simple, traditional.\u201d Karr said, \u201cOriginal, individual work, fun, separate classes, basic learning.\u201d Mr. Condon said, \u201cI would say that the traditional side features opportunities for group learning and team learning, but I think, as a whole, it is more traditional in nature.\u201d Mrs. Felke said, \u201cI think learning, on the traditional side, is sometimes teacher directed and it\u2019s more teacher-led, where the teacher decides the direction the kids are going, but not always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>

Students assiduously work in a traditional English classroom. Photo by: Emory Smith.<\/p><\/div>\n

Balancing the Weidner School of Inquiry and traditional school could be as simple as creating equal opportunities. Mr. Condon recognizes an imbalance. \u201cI think that in the traditional classroom, one of the things that it doesn\u2019t offer to students, that the School of Inquiry does, would be those strong partnerships with businesses, where the businesses actually come in and critique students\u2019 work as part of the assessment process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps businesses could contribute to the unification of Plymouth High School.<\/p>\n

The affiliation of businesses and the traditional School is not the only foreseeable adaptation of School of Inquiry ways. \u00a0Mr. Condon would not be surprised if, over time, the traditional school, incorporates more \u201cideas from The Weidner School of Inquiry.\u201d In fact, traditional teachers could be trained in the project-based-learning-arts. He said, \u201cI do think that project-based learning is an effective learning strategy. I think that it is very much in line with the current workforce environment. People learn in teams. Seldom do they work on their own anymore. It is very open concept, inviting input and ownership from multiple parties. So, I do think that it is a really good strategy to promote learning. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the only one. I think it\u2019s a really good one. I could see the traditional teachers wanting to learn more about how to teach project-based learning. My hope is that we will offer that training for them, so that they can use that strategy, if and when, it applies.\u201d Mrs. Felke said, \u201cI think one of the biggest things that the traditional side could do, that we do, is a lot of what we do, we label as PBL, but we reach out to businesses, and we reach out to community members by simply making phone calls, by making contact with them. The traditional side could take those same steps, what we do is not completely unique to PBL, but we just take the time to decide what community member, what authentic person we could bring in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plymouth High School- an establishment that has recognized the diversity of students. In this educational institution are two halves, the Weidner School of Inquiry and the traditional school. These halves are joined, yet separate; they have different functions and different challenges. These two could be compared to the halves of the brain; they can function alone, but create an advantage together. Some people are right-brained, some left; some prefer the traditional ways, some project-based. The unification is concerning, the qualities of each are important, yet divergent, and the embodiment of both ideas are evolving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emory Smith Plymouth High School\u2019s Principal, Mr. Condon, said, \u201cPlymouth High School is unique in that it has accepted the fact that students need choices. They need choices not only in the curricular programs that we offer them, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-8787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news","tag-april-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8787"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8816,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8787\/revisions\/8816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}