Well hello there! Let me start with the basics: there was no musical at this school, I just wanted to insert a reference into the title.

But, we went to High Tech High! High Tech High is a charter school that allows students to do projects and learn in different ways. Pretty much, it’s PLP all over the school.

We got to attend two days there, and it was really fun! We got paired up with partners, and I got paired up with a nice girl called Nova

Nova’s a grade nine student as High Tech High Media Arts. We bonded right away over Hamilton, Steven Universe, and the fact that I had brought a small thing of cereal to eat (I was hungry, don’t judge me). She had awesome friends (who I didn’t get pictures of… whoops), and we all had great conversations about being general nerds. I felt like I fit right in.

Anyways, back to the post. We got to see how the students learned, what their electives were (Nova’s was DnD. I can respect that), and how their school was different to ours.

So, we got there on the first day, and were greeted with this:

It looks like something out of a movie! I mean, I don’t know what I expected from a California high school. I’m expecting generic teen music to play as I walk down the halls.

Anyways, we got paired up, and got a tour of the campus. It’s so big! They have five different buildings, and there’s art all over the walls.

Next, we did a brainstorm of the difference between HTH and PLP. Some differences were obvious, like the fact that we’re on different sides of the border, or that HTH is way bigger. But some differences were things I didn’t expect, like the fact that they get to run their projects and choose what they do, and that some students live an hour drive away.

Next, we did math… yay. But it was actuallly really cool, because we solved The Locker Problem. During which, I didpoorly at math (what’s new). Though, a really nice guy who’s name I forgot came up to me and was like “hey, I heard you saying you thought you were bad at math. Don’t think that way, all it takes is a little bit of practice and perseverance. Everyone learns differently”. I’m really sorry I forgot this kids name, but he was helpful.

We went to a thing they do called ‘Media Monday’, where we talked about everything from controversies about race and gender, to some sports star kissing his son on the lips. ‘It was really interesting, and I hope we do something like that in class (hint hint, wink wink).

Day two came, and we started off with a debate. We did four corners, where the room is divided into four areas: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. Then, the teacher would a read a statement. An example: Cola is better than Pepsi. And then, you’d arrange yourself into whatever corner fit your personal opinion. We did this activity surrounding Equal Education. We got into some good debates about different income households get different education, and if we could do something to help equalize the education system.

The next class was Media Arts, where we got to make mini magazines. You printed out four pictures on one page, and folded it to make a booklet. Here’s mine:

We also got to make a podcast! The issue was, HTH is very close to one of the busiest airports in America. So there may be planes in the background. My group got to talk about American vs Canadian stereotypes, which was really funny:

All in all, High Tech High was really fun! I still keep in contact with Nova, and we have great discussions on how we live in -5 degrees and she lives in 34 degrees (celsius. Fahrenheit is too confusing for this blog). I really wish we could go back, and I hope to keep in contact with Nova.

Some good things I experienced at HTH:

– Girl Scout Cookies. Seriously, if you get the chance, eat Samoas. Beautiful.

– They don’t have smarties? Well, they do, but it’s this:

Imposters. And, yes, I can call them imposters. Ours were here first

That’s all

Read ya later

Sincerely, Me