For our first blog this week, we sought connections between our own prior learning experiences, K-to VMI!, and those we might find in the local learning cultures of Rockbridge County Schools. To make these connections and qualify what they mean, we’ll also draw on the roots of EL Education and PBL with Dewey’s progressive writings on experiential and social learning.

In reading over Expeditionary Learning’s Core Practices for designing and developing learning inquiries in schools, especially their focus on case studies and anchor texts (6-7), I noted that my own education seemed far from principles emulated in this model. I grew up learning in the 70’s and 80’s; though we did some collaborative, project work, I would say the authorities in the classroom were still my teachers, and my memories of projects were that we spent lots of weekends in small groups squabbling over poster and presentation design. We didn’t always like our assigned groups, and someone often dropped the ball.  In my academic classes at Kent Place High School, learning was largely traditional with academic benchmarks, individual assessments, and worry about grades–lots of competition there with only 50 students in my entire grade. I did appreciate the quality of my learning experiences,  but I did not learn in an expeditionary fashion. The one place this did seem to happen was in the theater.

I spent a lot of time hanging out in rehearsal and performed on the stage because I was drawn to the learning culture; theater was a real event, an experience much like Dewey describes in his writings on the continuity and interaction. As we moved from rehearsal to performance, and we interacted with our words, bodies, and even reflections on how the work of the play was going, the authority shifted to us. We could take ownership and energy from each other. We discovered what we could do as characters, but also as people seeking connections to civic and personal concerns-we did shows about political resistance (HAIR), shows about nuclear testing and our relationship with nature (ANIMAL).  We did address the civic, but we did it in creative terms. The script was an anchor text that allowed us to spring into action.

MAJ Stephanie Hodde