A 21st Century Education

Steffany Labree: The biggest difference in teaching in a New Tech school versus a traditional school is the methodology of instruction. The best hope for me, in my classroom, is if I'm doing project-based learning correctly, is the students are going to direct their own learning and then they're going to be internally motivated and excited to then figure out the content that I ultimately need them to learn. And so, it very much is student-centered learning, rather than teacher-centered learning. Jessie Estep: I'm a collaborative, more hands-on person. It's unique. You don't do this in regular schools. I mean, if it's motivational, it just keeps me going. And just, I love coming to school and working with my friends to complete a goal. That's what pushes me through it. Chris Stinson: You know, our students are from a rural community so the obstacles of this community: a lack of job opportunities, welfare, poverty, lack of belief. You know, a mindset of failure. A stereotype that we're not expected to do well. So when you provide these opportunities and they begin to realize that they can compete in the larger global economy, then it starts getting them excited. And here, it's almost open-office business environment. What we're guaranteeing our students to be able to represent are work ethic, collaboration, critical thinking, technology literacy. So we ultimately want them to be able to adapt and work in the real working world. Jaquavia Melton: I plan on going to college to become a pediatrician. They actually help you get into a college, you know, and if you're not sure about what you want to do they sit down and talk to you and help you plan out your future. Steffany: We really strive to integrate ourselves into the community and to provide for what the community needs. Chris: When I sit down with economic developers, businesses are saying that they don't have a work force that is able to sustain us so therefore we're going to leave or move, or we're not coming. And so we have to develop enough graduates that are going off to school to be educated, to where business wants to develop here, and then we have a work force that's able to come back and be those engineers, and be those small-business developers, and be those marketing agents. And what I see is that when given the opportunity and provided expectations and structure, these students begin to rise up to the expectation. And so last year was our first graduating class and 100% of them graduated. And every one of them was accepted to a post-secondary education.