ORANGE — Last year Mahar Regional High teachers Ian Bashaw and Matt Parsons started a journalism course at the high school; this year when a new group of students returned, the course offered something a bit different – a new and improved space.
“The whole space is brand new. Some of the tables were built from scratch, everything on the table is a white board to encourage students to jot down any ideas they have,” said Bashaw.
Along with the new desks, students have access to televisions mounted on the walls, laptops, audio equipment and everything else they need to successfully produce the news. A row of clocks stretch across the wall hanging above the students’ heads that detail different times in other cities, mimicking the feel of a major newsroom.
According to Parsons the class aims to encourage students to report on issues that interest them most – whether they are local or national.
“We tell them, go find your story. It is intimidating but it is also empowering for these kids because they are framing something they really want to work on,” he said.
The journalism course is not the only class that fosters each student’s passion and allows them more independence. A course started last year by teachers John Speek and Lauren Cerillo, called Senior Honors Project, is back once again and working to expand from its initial launch.
Senior Honors Project allows students to create solutions to problems they see in their own communities right here in Orange. After completing independent, initial research, last year students were divided into three groups to tackle separate topics. One group created a running club for Orange elementary school students at Dexter Park to get more kids active, while another group ran a competition between local schools to see who could reduce the most waste in their cafeterias. The course is designed to bring problem solving straight to the hands of its students.
“This year we have 14 kids, up from 12 kids last year. So we are seeing numbers climbing slowly and surely as people are seeing the value and getting over the initial reluctance about entering something new,” said Speek.
Though this year’s students in Senior Honors Project are still in the early stages of their research, Speek said they’ve started to engage with subjects ranging from the extinction of bees to the great ape trade and anxiety among teenagers.
“It is fun because some of them have really set some high goals for themselves because they saw what the students did last year,” he said.
Principal Scott Hemlin said the courses are part of a push to bring more innovative educational practices to its classrooms. The goal, he said, is to rethink the traditional educational model education in order to give students the skills they need to be successful in the real world once they leave Mahar.
“There are so many more new jobs now that exist today that didn’t exist years ago. So we are trying to prepare kids now for jobs that we don’t even know what they are going to be yet,” he said.
Another new addition to Mahar this year is a fresh, new makerspace for students to develop their ideas. After years of working toward acquiring a larger, more suitable room, teacher Keith Bevan said he finally has a classroom that fits his needs. Bevan teaches the middle school class MakerSpace and a corresponding high school class, Maker.
“Actually having this physical space after trying to run MakerSpace for two years in the other room… it is such a gift and we are making it a place where kids can come and work on whatever they need to work on,” he said.
The new space will allows students to have more room to complete their work, said Bevan, along with a conjoining door to the wood shop.
Along with these innovative courses, Hemlin said Mahar is also planning on creating two parallel tracks for students: one being the traditional educational model, while the other is more personalized. As of now the Mahar Innovation Team, a group started in recent years with the purpose of redesigning the educational model at Mahar, is calling the project the School for Applied Research.
“If we can personalize it based on interest, based on students needs or based on their experiences, there is more of a chance the kids are going to make a connection – that is what our goal is,” said Hemlin.
Last school year members of the Innovation Team won a $15,000 grant from Mass IDEAS, an initiative from Next Generation Learning Challenges at the nonprofit EDUCAUSE. Hemlin said the funds are still going toward implementing these programs at the school, such as the Senior Honors Project.
Back in March four teachers, along with Hemlin, traveled to California for a three-day visit, funded by the Barr Foundation, to multiple schools that focus on personalized learning and innovative methods to teaching.
This November, Hemlin said Mahar is doing the same thing. A team of eight, including teachers, a student council member and one student, will head to Colorado to visit other schools doing similar innovative practices associated with Next Generation Learning Challenges.
“Over the course of a couple days we are going to be visiting about five or six different schools,” said Hemlin.
According to Hemlin without the initiative from Mahar’s teachers, none of these classes, trips or ideas would exist for their students.
“We are fortunate because folks are willing to come to the administration with these crazy ideas and we are willing to listen to them, implement them, and support them,” he said.