Reinventing the way students and teachers learn
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Olsen Park looks like most other schools on the outside...it's once you get inside that you start to comprehend the differences, changes that started about two years ago.
Superintendent Rod Shroeder challenged Principal Alan Nickson to try different ways to teach, leading to a four point plan: how to develop problem solvers and problem posers, how to integrate what they want to know with what they need to know, how to develop a growth mindset and how to develop seamless outside learning.
That plan lead to major changes. Report cards are optional. Students are no longer students. Students and instructors are now learners.
It's more than a paradigm shift, it's a leap into something new. Learners, or students, seek out knowledge in and out of class, keeping what's called a "learnal" where they write about their interests, which are then integrated into daily lesson plans.
"It's a different way to learn and I tell them how I do it. It's less work. I've always learned after school but didn't recognize that. It only works if you turn yourself into a learner," said Nickson.
Something echoed by the teachers as well.
"They're learning to see learning everywhere in the air, schools, it clicks for them. I believe in this and if I came in here with that attitude, I can go home happy."
And anytime you can get parents excited about their children's education, learning becomes contagious.
"I think it's going to revolutionize the education system. They're able to connect with every walk of life and this type of teaching gives the students the ability to learn. And just because they're not brilliant in one aspect, doesn't mean they're not in another."
Nickson is hoping the program will progress to middle schools so his learners can continue this type of education.
"I think opening the lid up and looking for alternative ways to better provide an education, that's going to prepare them as thinkers. I think there's a different way to do that and I think Amarillo is a community that will support it whole heartedly."
