This past week has been a really great experience for me. I know that we haven't quite yet started with our Innovation Academy, but this week really gave me a sense of what the program was going to be like.
I used to be a person who would come to school and be motivated to start projects and just , learn ( when I was like in fifth grade) until grades started being much more important than the process of learning. Soon I found myself memorising just to score a decent grade on a test and coming to school with the worst expectations. I could finally recuperate the sense of working not for a grade but for a greater goal. We were motivated to participate, pitch our ideas and consider each others opinions. This is something that for years, I haven't been able to do.
Not only did I have an good time being able to collaborate with a much wider range of ages, but I learned what validated learning is. I learned that there is nothing better than learning from experience and being able to reflect on your own strengths and weaknesses. In my specific group and project assigned this week we had to create a solution so that the upcoming 6th graders felt less intimidated by the older secondary school students. We went from observing these kids in their natural habitat, to talking to them and finally planning a meal for them. We made mistakes we laughed, we argued; we learned.
I look forward to the upcoming weeks of school.
I used to be a person who would come to school and be motivated to start projects and just , learn ( when I was like in fifth grade) until grades started being much more important than the process of learning. Soon I found myself memorising just to score a decent grade on a test and coming to school with the worst expectations. I could finally recuperate the sense of working not for a grade but for a greater goal. We were motivated to participate, pitch our ideas and consider each others opinions. This is something that for years, I haven't been able to do.
Not only did I have an good time being able to collaborate with a much wider range of ages, but I learned what validated learning is. I learned that there is nothing better than learning from experience and being able to reflect on your own strengths and weaknesses. In my specific group and project assigned this week we had to create a solution so that the upcoming 6th graders felt less intimidated by the older secondary school students. We went from observing these kids in their natural habitat, to talking to them and finally planning a meal for them. We made mistakes we laughed, we argued; we learned.
I look forward to the upcoming weeks of school.