In Whatcom County, a brand new public highschool for grades 9 and 10 opens at Bellis Truthful Mall on September seventh. Whatcom Intergenerational Excessive College has secured a 15-year lease for the 9,200-square-foot facility within the Macy’s wing.
The college gives a singular different to conventional excessive faculties by giving college students the flexibleness to personalize their schooling with hands-on interactive studying by 4 tenants.
Phenomenon Primarily based Studying
Phenomenon-based studying focuses on matters that college students are passionate and inquisitive about and that intersect with real-world neighborhood issues. The scholars purchase related expertise that apply to their space of curiosity with a view to develop their very own particular person studying type.
Vital Schooling
In a saturated info age, college students study to view revealed works (together with information and social media) and views via a vital lens. This allows them to acknowledge and analyze which occasions and persons are traditionally most well-liked and what significance they’ve for their very own lives.
The Spanish trainer Maria Torron-Gomez organizes an info occasion in entrance of the college in the summertime. After college students enroll, lecturers meet with them at residence, via Zoom, or in cafes to finish the paperwork and get to know them. Photograph credit score: Daisy Hartman
Cross-generational studying
Native ward elders present mentoring and assist out and in of the classroom, and produce invaluable life experiences that may nurture an prolonged ward household. The mentors are assigned to a small group of 4-5 college students and are current within the morning throughout the Group Circle and can be found for check-ins all through the day.
Studying rules of the indigenous peoples
All college students are supported and inspired to develop a optimistic self-image, interpersonal and cultural consciousness. These rules embrace viewing humanity as a bigger endeavor and connecting with our tradition and ancestors.
Headmistress, Cliff Poage and Spanish trainer Maria Torron-Gomez. Photograph credit score: Daisy Hartman
“It seemed like a faculty that introduced collectively earlier expertise I had gained in different faculties through the years, and I cherished the chance,” says Principal Cliff Poage.
Poage’s ardour for this distinctive studying surroundings led him again to the Pacific Northwest after an project overseas. He was nonetheless residing in China when he acquired the principal’s job posting and was involved with the college’s CEO and co-founder, Cindy Reuther. Poage prefers the small college mannequin due to the depth of relationships and the flexibility to tailor to a pupil’s particular person wants. “There’s extra flexibility and extra time to develop relationships,” he says.
Poage believes that the bravest factor a toddler does is get up day by day, go to highschool, and work together with their friends and lecturers. And he strives to be the kind of accessible college principal who has an ongoing relationship with college students slightly than simply interacting with them when issues come up.
“I need to get to know our college students nicely and study what they’re enthusiastic about and what their challenges are,” he says. “This will increase empathy and understanding and allows us to unravel issues collectively.”
First summer time showcase in June 2021 within the Squalicum Boathouse. Lecturers, board members and directors are proven. Photograph credit score: Lauren McClanahan
In keeping with Poage, mother and father who’re searching for an built-in and versatile educational mannequin like WIHS usually provide you with the concept of their kids they usually make the choice to enroll collectively.
In different circumstances, kids study of the likelihood via mates. “Dad and mom absolutely assist the data that their kids can reveal themselves as their entire selves, and we are going to get to know them nicely and acknowledge all components of their identification,” says Poage. “Some kids are formally residence schooled or new to the realm searching for a brand new expertise. Our college is open to everybody as now we have no neighborhood or border necessities. Any pupil in Washington State is welcome to attend with no tuition, and now we have enrolled college students who stay in Bellingham in addition to Ferndale, Blaine and Kendall. ”
WIHS works with native corporations like Bellingham Makerspace, the place college students take a course to show them design. “You place collectively a mission, current your design, and study 4 to five completely different instrument units,” says Poage.
WIHS opens September seventh and can occupy 9,200 sqft. within the Macy’s wing of the Bellis Truthful Mall. Small class sizes encourage interactive and particular person consideration. The college follows a 180-day calendar of state and federal holidays. Seasonal breaks coincide with the opposite public faculties. Photograph credit score: Monica Romano
Dad and mom and college students additionally respect the cross-generational side of this college. “We now have a singular instructing mannequin that includes the entire youngster and their particular pursuits to foster a tradition of inclusivity and neighborhood,” says Maria Torron-Gomez, a Spanish trainer who has taught and mentored for over 30 years. She moved right here from Florida in June to hitch the instructing workers at WIHS.
“The small college surroundings and a teacher-to-student ratio of 20 college students per class and 30 college students per grade had been the principle causes for my last choice to show right here and make WIHS my new residence,” says Torron-Gomez. She praises the outstanding studying curriculum and appears ahead to assembly the scholars in her model new constructing and dealing collectively.
A newly enrolled pupil leaves his handprint on the barricade in entrance of the college campus. College students attend class from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and are allowed to depart campus for lunch or benefit from the meals court docket within the mall. Photograph credit score: Daisy Hartman
Torron-Gomez teaches Spanish 1 and a couple of for the ninth and tenth grades. “Studying one other language opens a window to grasp the world round us and to get to know different cultures,” she says. “It helps to form world residents who’re able to work together with others at work and in on a regular basis life.”
The primary a part of the day features a common class schedule, and after lunch lecturers and workers work with college students, companions and elders on the phenomenon-based studying expertise.
“The schedule is completely different from different faculties,” says Torron-Gomez, “however I am wanting ahead to the change.”
“We nonetheless have 10 locations left in our ninth and tenth grade cohort,” says Daisy Hartman, coordinator for enrollment. The college remains to be accumulating names of volunteers for mentoring adopted by an interview course of and coaching. For info on the college’s mission, find out how to turn into a neighborhood mentor and enroll for college students, please go to the college’s web site.
