Student Exhibitions

One of the 10 Common Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools states that students should demonstrate mastery and understanding through exhibitions. We know as educators that when students present their work to a real audience, with community members as well as teachers, they feel much more connected to their learning and more motivated to push themselves to new levels.

This week we had several wonderful exhibition opportunities.

On Wednesday, we had a visit from author Sherman Alexie. Our students had the chance to interact with this writer and thinker, and showed themselves to be thoughtful and sensitive citizens, posing thoughtful questions on topics as diverse as the "Sonic Death Watch" and the threat to indigenous cultures.

On Wednesday night, Hale teacher Larry U. created an opportunity for his students to present their works on apocalypse, or, "Gazing into the Abyss: Reacting to Eschatologies Environmental and Otherwise" to our community.

Here is his invitation:

I firmly believe that we have created a powerful culture of learning in this particular class. My thought in creating the class was that we are daily bombarded with messages that the end is nigh. What does this do to us emotionally? Where and how do we store and process these feelings? Historically speaking, this is not a new phenomenon either. So in the class we looked at examples old and new of imagined end time scenarios and related issues. What I attempted to always emphasize to the students is that I was interested in their emotional reactions to all of this and that they ultimately express these feelings through their own original works of art. In response, students have choreographed a dance piece, written music for solo bass, produced and directed films and created many outstanding pieces of visual art. I really hope you can come and be an audience to this amazing work of your children.

Here are just a few samples of work:

On Thursday night, we had our culminating 9th grade exhibitions. 9th graders have been working on the Human Ecology Project, exploring issues of population, natural resources, waste, and water in China and India. The evening began with an overview of the project from teacher Tim A.:



Note the intent concentration from teacher Matt H.:



An exhibit of Matisse-like images representing the issues was on display in the PAC lobby. Thanks to teacher Barbara K. for supporting this art component:



And finally, students engaged in seminar-like dialogue with one another, with their teachers, and with their families. Note the questions that students were addressing:





Thank you to our teachers, students, and families for being a part of our learning community!