Click here to listen to Episode 49: Diving Into the Deep End
Our Upper School students and faculty jumped right into the deep end this year, launching the year with a 3-week Immersive program focused on the City as Classroom. Students joined one of three interdisciplinary, team-taught, transcripted courses – Civics in Action, Art as Activism, or Water. The courses are the newest component of our Reach Beyond programming, a core piece of our JK-8 program and one of the biggest differentiators in the Hillbrook experience.
So how did it go?
The early returns are very positive. Students were immediately engaged in real world learning, whether it was visiting City Hall and meeting with elected officials, touring murals and connecting with local visual and performing artists, or analyzing water from the Guadalupe River that runs through downtown San Jose. Students immediately grappled with relevant and timely questions – “How are civic leaders working to address the challenges for the unhoused community in downtown San Jose?” for example – and then heard from the people who are actually tackling these issues about the steps they are taking and the challenges they face as they deal with ambiguous and complex problems.
Students discovered that we don’t only learn from the people at our school. Our students met and learned from an extraordinary array of people, including US Representative Zoe Lofgren, Council Member Omar Torres from District 3, artist and activist Asha Poet, Assistant District Attorney Mattia Corsiglia, entrepreneur and co-founder of Jam Chris Pruett, owner of Pizza My Heart and founder of the Downtown Association Chuck Hammers, and former NBC producer and education entrepreneur Chris Rose. They even learned about AI from Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who partnered with OpenAI founder Sam Altman in the creation of ChatGPT. Not a bad person to share a thing or two about the most transformative technology of our times.
They also designed and are preparing to deliver authentic displays of learning – podcasts, documentaries, Ted-talk style presentations – to an audience of parents, younger Hillbrook students, and other community members this Friday, September 15 from 12 – 3 pm at CreaTV in downtown San Jose. These presentations will highlight the ways in which students have learned about complex real world issues and, using their analytical and critical thinking skills, have begun to wonder about possible solutions. They will also highlight the highly collaborative nature of this work, as they learn with and from a broad range of people.
To be clear, things did not always go smoothly and we are learning along the way. Starting the year is great, in some ways, and challenging in others. The biggest challenge is that the students are brand new high school students who are adjusting to all types of new things – new school, new location, new friends, increased responsibility, increased homework – and having an immersive experience adds a level of complexity to that transition.
And, yet, in true Hillbrook fashion, we took a risk and dove in – knowing that the type of educational experience we are providing each and every day – and particularly through Immersives – is the type of education all students deserve and need in order to be prepared to thrive in the future. Curious to learn more? Join us Friday to hear directly from the students themselves.