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I recently went back in time and visited an eleventh-grade high school classroom, no longer as a high school student rather a college senior. I had a simple task while there, to be a “fly on the wall” to listen and learn. What I quickly realized is that the passion teachers have can be infectious, and before I knew it, I was alongside the students trying my best to give advice on their assignment. Unlike my partner who also attempted to give advice was welcomed a curiosity I have yet to understand but am grateful for. My only thought as to why I was welcomed, and my parent was less welcomed, was because I similarly to the teacher would “get on the same level” as the students. I noticed early on in the class period that the teacher never looked down at a student but instead always knelt, sat next to or squatted alongside a desk. This classroom culture showed a level of equal respect for students’ opinion but also a relaxed approach. This can also be back with students having earbuds in during the class, the teacher never once disapproved, but the students also never wore them while she was talking only during individual working sessions. Before I launched into helping where I could, I noticed one last exciting theme of Project Based Learning or PBL. As mentioned in Project Based Teaching by Suzie Boss and others presenting or cocreating a “Challenging problem or question” pushed students to, “engage in deep inquiry to make their own meaning. That means they need to be asking questions, conducting research, carrying out investigations, and weighing evidence to arrive at answers.” (47) Each step of the above described PBL was happening in this classroom. The students started the semester by picking a topic or job that they found interesting, next they were tasked with finding problem in that field. While I visited, they were conducting research on that very question and in the future, they will be interviewing members of the community in that field to get a better understanding of how that question might really affect those in the field. Truely remarkable work by the teacher, the students wanted to be in class, they wanted to learn, they wanted to research, and all the while Mrs. Pagin is giving them the tools they need to do so effectively.

I cannot say enough good things about my experience there.