A big part of our trip to San Diego was our time spent at High Tech High. HTH is a different kind of school, but is also directly connected with PLP. We are not connected through the use of technology, in fact HTH isn’t High Tech compared to your average school at all, the similarities are in the projects. In PLP and at HTH we are all on the PBL system, Project Based Learning. This means that instead of having a series of lectures, worksheets, and eventually a test, we work with real world experiences, we work in groups, we constantly revise, and we are always doing projects.

When at HTH we were paired up with a buddy. Our buddies took us around every day, and we followed them to their classes for 2 days. I shadowed a grade 9 named Nate. Below is a photo of me, Nate, my classmate Ethan, and his buddy, Caitlyn.

I got along really well with Nate, so I quite enjoyed our two days together. But, because are are on th PBL system, and because it’s a PLP trip, there was a project involved. The project was to make a podcast. What’s new? Well, it was very open ended. We could ask our buddies anything we wanted, as long as it was appropriate for school, and was about something we found interesting.

Through the lead up to our trip, when we talked about HTH, and when at HTH I noticed something interesting. They have a Humanities block, a science and math block, and then they had an X-block. I had absolutely no idea what this was, because for the first day we had left after lunch to do other things. So when I say down with my buddy Nate, and his two friends, Mason and Jacob, I asked them about what the confusing X-block is.

So, it’s not as complicated as I thought. At Seycove we recently have had a similar program starting this year, we call it flex time. Every Tuesday we have a block where we can do a different kind of class. We sign up every five weeks for a different class run by a teacher, the teachers chose what they teach, and we choose what to do. This block is all about doing things that we like to do, and in turn improving the learning experience at Seycove. This is similar to the X-block. They are trying to help build skills, so that the students enjoy and get more out of their school experience. My buddies earlier in the year build a bench for example. They joined a shop class and built a beautiful natural wood bench, that is now in the 9th grade commons. They are also in the process of building another one.

This project and our days at High Tech High were very eye opening to me. Not only did I meet a lot of super cool people, but I also learned a lot about what schools are doing to try and create a better generation. Especially at places like HTH, where the students work collaboratively and in cohorts, through their high school years. This in turn will not just make better students, but better people. People who work hard, and work well together, because in the end; that is what we need in this world.