Raise your hand if you enjoy doing things that have no meaning…
Now a show of hands if you enjoy showing off something you are proud of?
WATERLOO’S 2021 FALL STUDENT SHOWCASE
We just wrapped up our first term of classes with a showcase of student learning. Students in each class presented and showed off what (and how) they learned to a public audience. It is real outcomes of real learning — making Spanish picture books to read to bilingual preschool children, teaching a crowd in ten minutes how to write a persuasive paper using classical rhetoric, analyzing data to make recommendations to a business.
This wouldn’t work if we taught it in the conventional way, giving students a textbook, assigning chapters and problems (maybe worksheets!), and then giving them a test to let them prove they ‘learned’ the content.
No one wants to see someone else’s test. But to see students’ creations, their accomplishments — to learn something useful from them? It is as enjoyable as the learning is real.
LEARNING GETS REAL
What is really real in your day? What do you do that is valuable? How can you get better at it? How can you do more of it? These are questions for our students — because they are also questions that drive US! When they drive learning, learning gets real.
EXPERIENCE WATERLOO FOR YOURSELF
If you (or someone you know) would like to learn more about Waterloo, join us on South Congress for a Student Experience Day on December 1. Through a “day in the life” your student will experience project-based learning in action right here in the school! (Click here to register).
