PSII: Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry

This week we had a guest speaker, Jeff Hopkins, who talked about the school who he is principal of: Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. I found this school extremely interesting because of the approach it takes on learning both in the classroom and online. The school approaches accommodations for diverse learners in such a different way than standardized schooling.

I searched the school’s website and found their Competency Assessment Framework (see photo above). While searching through the school’s website, I discovered that it is a constant cycle of student developed inquiry based questions which creates the students’ learning. I found this cycle extremely similar to the film we watched “Most Likely to Succeed” because of the self-paced learning and research, where students learn through their own research and interests, falling away from standardized schooling. I really appreciate how school of Innovation and Inquiry allows students to work independently but also gives them the opportunity to come into school for guide and help from instructors when needed.

I watched this video called “What the PSII learners are doing at school” to learn about what the students choose to learn. Although this video is short, I found it really interesting the types of projects and research that each student chose to learn about. The video made me feel that this school really allows students to learn self-motivation because they have the ability to learn the way that best suits their learning styles and needs. Students took up things such as leading Harry Potter camps, publishing music albums, oil painting, math, different languages and more. It is really inspiring as a future educator to see how students succeed when they are given the opportunity to learn in a way that engages them. As a future educator, I realize that I need to set my own thoughts of learning aside, because it may not be what is best suited for my students. As a future educator, I realize that my job is to help guide my students to success by allowing them to use their own strengths and to help them turn their weaknesses into strengths. This may mean implementing different methods of learning into my classroom to make learning accessible and engaging for all my students, just like the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry has done for their students.