This is the home of Big Picture and the school has been operating for about 15 years. It has a beautiful campus with multiple buildings and I think students and staff feel privileged to be there. Everyone understands that the school is the people who work in it and if the school moved into less attractive buildings everyone would go with it. This characteristic of the advisers, students, coordinators and principals in the three diverse settings I’ve experienced.
One of The Met campus buildings.
Inside the centre for entrepreneurial studies.
Today I was treated to participating in Advisory sessions with grades 10, 11 and 12, a student-conducted tour of the campus, an hour with the principal, lunch with the students and advisers and time with one of the Big Picture co-coordinators.
Some students have already started their own businesses and have entered competitions that have earned them money to further develop their business. Some are already going concerns.
What I have to do now is find some practical ways in which Big Picture ideas can be used in the rural and remote setting. Some things, like flipping the classroom, are ideally suited to a blended learning model. I’m sure that’s what I’m going to see in Western NSW as well. I think I can see a way to present such ideas to teachers. Other things, like developing a mutually supportive environment where trust is natural, have been obvious to good teachers for many years. What’s some advice I can provide on doing this in a blended way? I’m sure my enquiries at the University of Oregon and my travels around the xsel schools will reveal all (or some)!
Gorrods 