HIGH TECH HIGH

I like the name of the school. Very intriguing, eye catching, curious and unique!

My focus is going to be just on this! What makes this school 

"HIGH?" 

It is not like the conventional schools where students are compartmentalised. This school does not draw any lines any where between the school and the community neither  among the students that are there in -whether one has attained a college education or not nor categorise them according to their social class -Learners and their teachers share the same bathrooms. It is an integrated school where children disadvantaged in one way are put together with other children so they learn from one another. - The primary goal of constructivism is to help students learn how to learn

THE WHOLE ESSENCE IS THAT EVERYBODY BELONGS, IN HIS /HER OWN RIGHT. EVERYBODY HAS SOMETHING TO OFFER WHICH THE OTHERS CAN LEARN FROM (previous knowledge) IN THIS HUGE OPEN SPACE THAT IS A CLASSROOM WHERE THE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION IS EMPHASISED  AND WHERE STUDENTS CURATE THEIR WORK:

• Children can see what is going on with each other
• They get to look at each other's work
• See what is going on in class

Through all this the learners make evaluative judgments and improve themselves. -The constructivist classroom is an active one, which encourages the evolving of knowledge and where  students learn from their peers. -This  school is  HIGH indeed!

This school is HIGH!

 Rosenstock summarises his intent as : " School is a place where children find out who they are.Rosenstock found out his talent in carpentry which he uses to study the world - It is for this reason that he encourages the students to study with purpose- in order to feed the un- met needs of the communities  they live in -In studying, the students do what the adults do. They do not just study about a subject- the behave  by being like it. For example, a journalist, a carpenter, a film -maker. - Inquiry based learning - the main activity in a constructivist classroom is problem solving.

The syllabus is  always covered because the areas of learning are drawn from the unmet needs in their community.

High Tech?

The school uses technology as tools because: "knowing how to use them makes you able to demonstrate things to people"( Rosenstock.). At the school the children are engaged in  using technology to make things, to calculate to craft, to explain, to discover, to research - in this manner the students are always thinking- " appreciating the pleasure of the rigour of thinking in learning". In this manner they are "Stupid". beacuse they are HIGH TECH! 

High Tech High!

The most captivating part of this are the teachers!

They are a special lot who connect what they love to do with what they love to teach making the teaching- learning experience a memorable one.

Rosenstock puts it this way: "Being in the company of a passionate adult who is rigorously pursuing inquiry in the area of their subject matter and is inviting students as peers in that adult discourse." He calls this " RIGOUR"- The product of this is sophistication in the work of the children which in turn is the mark of a good teacher.

This teacher makes the children feel that what they are learning is worth doing, is of value to them and memorable. The learners are treated with respect like it would be in the adult world. Rosenstock enacts this in his passion for carpentry which he has developed into the HIGH TECH HIGH school!

This last bit of the teacher integrating  passion into his/her teaching is the new energy that needs to be injected into our teacher training institutions- especially today where teachers are frowned upon by society and we teachers have a low self esteem because society despises our profession as being a lowly one.Very few teachers are in there as a matter of choice- they are in there as a matter of a last resort.