Da Vinci students share new tech approach to education
Da Vinci High School students have always been proud of their school’s innovative approach to education, and this past week they got the chance to show off just how much to education reformers and leaders from across the nation.
On Nov. 2, Da Vinci High School students gave tours of their school for attendees of the Bay Area Innovation in Education Summit, who included some of the nation’s major players in education reform.
The summit is a quarterly conference sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation to foster communication among education leaders and reformers with the goal of positively impacting national education policy and standards.
The November conference was hosted by Big Picture Learning, a Bay Area-based education network, which decided that the best way to inspire a meaningful discussion was to visit nearby alternative schools, including Da Vinci.
The New Tech Network, which includes Da Vinci, employs project-based learning and heavily incorporates technology into the classroom. The curriculum, which meets all the California state standards, focuses on student group work under teacher supervision to complete projects that usually end in presentations to the class and a panel of teachers.
Each Da Vinci student has a laptop computer. Educators use the computers to facilitate independence and responsibility in their students and emphasize the importance of professionalism and critical thinking in the classroom.
On Wednesday morning, six Da Vinci students showed representatives from Imagine Schools, the Stupski Foundation, Stanford University and other education reformers around their school, discussing the new tech method of learning.
Students answered questions on everything from how projects and group work are graded to the number of electives offered and the reception in the Davis community.
After lunch and a panel discussion with the teachers, the students participated in their own panel, discussing with the attendees what their perceptions of new tech and project-based learning were as a whole and how it compared to their experiences in traditional education systems.
Principal Rody Boonchouy said he was pleased with the tour and what it meant for Da Vinci.
“(We) are one of the oldest schools in the New Tech Network, and this tour represents a celebration and spotlighting of the successes of this program,” Boonchouy said. “We represent a lot of very progressive values and ideals for teaching and learning.”
After the panel, students Chloe Weinstock and Sam Warren also were part of the summit’s keynote “speech” — a panel of students from alternative education systems who answered questions from the whole conference — and participated in the conference itself. Both were excited about what they saw and did.
“I thought it was incredible to be able to share my voice and know that I could potentially change something,” Weinstock said. “Coming back to Da Vinci, I’m seeing all these things being put into action and seeing everything that we’ve done.”
Both are eager to help improve on their school and the new tech model as a whole.
“(The improvement) isn’t in a negative sense, it’s just exciting because I’m looking at things and thinking that this could be even better,” Warren said.
Their sentiment is shared by the school staff as well. Boonchouy cited Da Vinci’s status as one of the oldest new tech schools as the driving force behind this.
“When we first launched, Da Vinci was all about implementation … and now we’re old enough that it’s all about sustaining and innovating — ‘How do you go to the next level? What’s 2.0?’ ”
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Posted by Ruth Krabacher
on Nov 8 2011.
Last Login: Thu 17 May 2012 02:59:30 PM PDT
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Ha ha my hair looks like trash.