Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Last week, about 50 Peetz schools' stakeholders, including students, teachers, parents and school board members, attended a screening of a documentary about innovation in school systems. This week, a discussion was held about ways to better engage students.
A group of students, teachers and administrators at the Peetz Plateau School District is brainstorming ways to better engage students and prepare them for the future while continuing to meet state standards and learning benchmarks.
Last week, about 50 people turned out for a screening of the new documentary, "Most Likely to Succeed."
The film, directed by Greg Whiteley, examines the history of the U.S. education system and contrasts previous educational models with the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century.
"'Most Likely to Succeed' points toward a future of innovation and revitalizes teachers and students alike," a description of the film from the Milwaukie Film Festival states.
Leslie Raffelson, a technology and yearbook teacher at Peetz High, said after hearing about the documentary, she was interested in learning more about what other schools are doing to transform education.
While there is usually a $350 fee to screen the movie, Raffelson was able to secure a scholarship that covered the cost.
"We hosted the screening last week, on Thursday," she said. "We had about 50 people – we had students and parents, school board members and teachers."
The film jumpstarted a discussion about different ways of thinking about the education system, she said.
A follow-up discussion was held in Peetz on Monday, examining how aspects of the documentary could be applied to the school district.
"We had 20 people here [Monday] night, and we have some notes and priorities that they hope to send to the administration and school board to look at" Raffelson said.
One of the ideas included starting a pilot class where kids could work on individual projects.
"What does that look like? We don't know yet," she said. "We're still in the planning stage, but maybe allowing kids to work on some genius-hour projects or passion projects."
Another possibility would be allowing students with specific passions or knowledge to help teach other students.
"And spread those passions around," Raffelson said.
Allowing parents and community members to share their expertise was also an idea.
"Is that something we can do and still achieve some of the standards the state is requiring us to hit?" Raffelson asked. "Probably, we just have to be creative in figuring out what that's going to look like."
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