The Most Amazing Job I Didn't Know I Wanted -- Thinking Outside the Classroom

Perhaps I should have entitled this post "The Most Amazing Job I Didn't Know Existed" because, if I would have known about Personalized Learning and this school, I would have pursued nothing else.

First, let me tell you about my amazing job: I am a sophomore facilitator, the art teacher, the English department head, and the social media liaison at my school (we're small, so we all have like 15 jobs). As a facilitator, I am currently working with 28 students and their families to create personalized education plans. I mostly have 10th graders, and they are all doing their own thing. It's kind of a multi-tasking nightmare, but I love it. Our deal is, "how do you want to do school?" What a concept... the students and parents get to work with the facilitator to come up with educational solutions that work for them. We offer on-campus classes (I teach the art classes), they can take concurrent classes at one of the district high schools, they can take up to 11 units TUITUTION FREE at our local community college, they can do home school course, on-line classes, or private lessons with a vendor (you want to learn the violin? we've got a guy for that.) We also have tutoring if they need it. Also, I get to work with amazing like-minded educators and I get to teach art in the classroom! I pretty much have it all. Oh, and my high school counselor from back in day founded this school... so that's pretty cool.

When students come to us, they are often amazed at the idea that they can make choices when it comes to their education. We have the freedom to be innovative; we are not bound by the restrictions of four walls. We find solutions that work for specific students. I have one student for example that hates English but loves history. I have him reading and writing about history in a fully integrated curriculum. I have another student that really wants autonomy over her learning and doesn't believe that you can get a true picture of History from a single textbook, so we sat down and together using the state standards and backward planning, we mapped her curriculum. I gave her options, but she made specific choices about what kinds of projects she would be doing and how she would meet the learning goals. I have a student that has taken so many concurrent college courses that when he graduates high school next year, he can transfer to a four-year university as a junior... I could go on and on. The freedom we have to meet our students' needs is a thing of beauty and I don't think I could ever go back regular school.

The best part about my job is that I meet with my students and their parent(s) one on one. I really get to know them which makes it all possible. I worked at a high school once where I had an art class of 42 students in one section. I didn't even have working space for all of them. I certainly was not individualizing curriculum, and I didn't really have the opportunity to get to know my students. I have the ability now to be a lot more effective as an educator. If I truly know my student, I can better meet their needs. 

Looking back, I don't that I would go back and change anything about my path to Shasta Charter Academy and Personalized Learning. The struggles I faced and the experiences I gained made me the educator I am today and prepared me for the many challenges of this job. If I didn't serve as a substitute teacher for so many years, I wouldn't have the diverse subject matter knowledge I have. Coaching athletics made me a good motivator and counselor. Also, when you are a coach you work more directly with families and you help find creative solutions for your athletes who are struggling with their academics. The years of struggling to secure a full-time jog, working part-time at up to four school sites in a single day taught me tremendous tenacity. Just like how I never gave up on my dream of being a teacher, I will never give up on my students. I struggled to find my tribe, but I truly have. I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing the work I was made to do,

That star is this amazing job, at this school, with these people 

I recently attended a tech conference for educators and like always, I struggled to briefly articulate what our program is all about. I found myself saying things like, " Well, we're not classroom based but..." or "This is really cool, but it would have to function completely differently for our needs," or "I could implement this, just in a totally different way." I found myself visiting with a teacher from the LA Unified School District and as I explained how we function, she was blown away. She just kept saying things like, "wow, do you know what you have there?" She asked me why I was not a presenter at the conference and then came the questions about employment opportunities at my school and relocating her family to Redding.   

I also discovered at the conference that "Personalized Learning" is the latest buzz term. There is a huge push in this post-NCLB (No Child Left Behind) world toward individualization. The real tragedy of NCLB was that teachers were teaching to standardized tests, we were killing creativity and graduating students incapable of critically thinking. Innovation was dying. That's why our school was created. Now, the educational community is starting to see the value in Personalized Learning and preparing students to be Future Ready... I guess we were about 17 years ahead of the game on that one.