|
Renaissance is Twinfield's personalized learning program that enhances the curriculum in our small, rural high school. It provides opportunities for all students to design rigorous, in-depth, standards-based learning experiences that emerge from individual interests and learning styles. Experiences occur within a real-world context and through real-world experiences. Work-based learning apprenticeships, internships, academic studies, college courses, community service and/or service learning projects (not part of scheduled classes), school aides, purposeful travel, study groups, on-line courses and/or research projects are all within the realm of possibilities/options for Renaissance learning experiences.
|
Most Renaissance experiences include a mentorship with a professional in the field of study. At the end of each study, after the student’s final presentation, a panel consisting of the student, the mentor, the Renaissance coordinator and a teacher within the field of knowledge appropriate to the study assess the student's learning.
Vermont's Transferrable Skills are at the heart of the Renaissance program. These standards assess clear and effective communication, self-direction, creative and practical problem solving, responsible and involved citizenship, and informed and integrative thinking. These are dispositions and habits of mind any student needs to succeed in higher education, professional life and personal life.
Vermont's Transferrable Skills are at the heart of the Renaissance program. These standards assess clear and effective communication, self-direction, creative and practical problem solving, responsible and involved citizenship, and informed and integrative thinking. These are dispositions and habits of mind any student needs to succeed in higher education, professional life and personal life.
Who We AreOne Student
|
The Story Behind Renaissance: The story of how Renaissance began is one of my favorite public education stories. I love to tell it as it demonstrates the power of one student and an open-minded administrator to change a system. In 1997 a very bright, outspoken Twinfield freshman made her way to the Principal's office. This student had a very progressive elementary school experience during the decade of Vermont's Math and Writing Portfolio initiative. Richard Mills and then Marc Hull were Commissioners of Education during that era. These commissioners steered Vermont closer to John Dewey's vision of education than any other commissioners in Vermont's educational history. This student loved school and was a fully engaged during those elementary years,. She was a poet, a debater, and a blossoming concerned citizen. She was fiercely independent even as a 7 year old. I know because I was her teacher for 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. At that time Twinfield's middle school was pretty conservative so her transition to high school was hard. By the time she experienced one semester of high school, she was frustrated and angry. She loved learning but she hated school. So, she went to the principal and essentially said, "Twinfield is a public school and public schools are supposed to teach all kids, but I am not learning anything. Like my brother I am ready to drop out. I want to learn but I am bored. I don't want to drop out." The open-minded, student-centered principal, instead of dismissing the student as, well -- just a student -- considered the situation. She engaged the student in a conversation. That dialogue grew into a study group of about 10 adults who searched for a model that would meet the needs of students whose learning styles were not being met by the traditional classes of that time. A year later, in December 1999, Renaissance, Twinfield's personalized learning program was launched. My former student became Twinfield's first full-time Renaissance student and I, the coordinator of her studies. As a full-time Renaissance student, she designed all of her high school studies. They were rigorous and standards-based. During her seven semesters, this student raised enough money to travel first to Africa and then to India. She studied U.S. history through the eyes of the African-American experience, learned how to African dance and interned with an herbalist for a year to fulfill her biology graduation requirement . She graduated in 2000. She studied at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and Warren Wilson College in Ashville, NC. After receiving her BA, she became an herbalist and professionally taught African dance in Ashville for seven years. In 2011, she entered not one, but two Master's programs in Brattleboro, Vermont and in 2013 received two Master's degrees; one in International Service Leadership and Management from the School of International Training Graduate Institute and the other in Education for Social Justice from Marlboro Graduate Center. Her focus was youth development and international education. While interning at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School she organized a cultural trip to Guinea for Wofa (the school's African dance troupe). She is now a certified social studies/history teacher and has a small herbal business called Melia Botanicals. The Twinfield community will forever be grateful to Melina Palumbo, class of 2000, for her gumption and tenacity. And, to Christine Barnes, principal from 1997 to 2007 for her foresight and vision. -- Debra Stoleroff, 2014 Renaissance Program Director NOTE: Since 1999 hundreds of students have designed part of their learning experience through Renaissance. At the time of this writing 70% of all graduating students design one or more learning experiences during their four years in high school. Fifteen students have opted to design their entire learning experience for one semester or more. |