My visit to the Apollo School (https://theapolloschool.weebly.com/) at Central York High School was very inspirational. The Apollo School is a semester long, 4 hour program that combines social science, language arts and art. The program began 4 years ago by Greg Wimmer (social science), Wes Ward (language arts) and Jim Grandi (art). Truth be told, it’s hard to believe that in the middle of a conservative area of Pennsylvania such an innovative program exists. At its inception, the program was only offered to students in grade 11 or 12, but two years ago the program was expanded to include grade 9 and 10. During the first semester students in grade 11 and 12 can elect to be in the Apollo School and during the second semester the program runs for those in grade 9 and 10. The Apollo School is centred on 4 major thinking skills which act as the glue to bind the three disciplines together. Mr. Wimmer, Mr. Ward and Mr. Grandi decided upon these 4 main skills after some reflection on their individual subjects and some experimentation in the first few years of the program. These thinking skills are contextualization, perspective, reasoning and synthesis. Students in the Apollo School complete 4 major projects a semester, each focused on its own thinking skill. In addition, throughout the entire course, students are assessed on two main skills that are essential for their future success – communication and time management. Each project takes students about 3 weeks to complete and culminates with an end of project conversation between each student and the three teachers where they defend their project and its connection to the thinking skill and the content standards for each subject. Students can invite others to be present at this meeting, especially those that were helpful to them in the learning process such as peers or outside experts. As I heard about this process and listened to students describe their experience with it (terrifying at first, but then not so bad after all) I was struck as to how well prepared these students will be for what lies ahead of them. The first time I had to do something like what was described to me was when I defended my Master of Education Thesis. Imagine all of the practice the Apollo students will have had at defending ideas, answering questions and communicating their thinking to others. Amazing!! These learning conversations take about 3 days to complete. While they are going on, the students work on mini-projects in small groups in order to develop their collaboration skills. The students also have an opportunity to work on their portion of the Apollo website that acts as their summative portfolio.
The Apollo School program is optional and available to all students attending Central York High School. On average, there are about 45 students that take the program each semester. There is about a 90% retention rate from year to year. I asked the teachers whether they ever got pushback from administration about the small teacher to student ratio, but they are very supported by their principal, Ryan Kaufman and the district’s superintendent. The teachers love that they have the freedom to try something new and innovative, the autonomy to run their program the way they think is best and the support they need to take such a risk. They would love for this program to extend beyond 3 out of 4 periods a day or even into a full year program, but have had trouble finding other colleagues willing to take a risk with their courses. Mr. Grandi explained to me that teaching in such an environment means giving up control. This can be a very hard thing for many teachers to do. It also means being ready to help students with anything – even content that is less familiar. For example, Mr. Wimmer explained that students sometimes ask him to give mini-lessons on a topic that he knows little about. He never turns a student down, but rather asks for a few days so that he can do his own background research to present a competent mini-lesson. This type of teaching might be scary for some teachers. It’s also a lot of work. Although the program runs 3 out of 4 periods, there are students there all day and, as a result, the three teachers involved rarely get prep time. The love it though and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Each day at the Apollo School begins with a “family meeting”. During this time all the students and teachers meet and discuss the day. Students are required to plan out how they will spend their 4 hours and they can sign up for options and note their location using scheduling software that is used in the program. For example, they can schedule individual meetings with any of the three teachers, they can sign up to attend mini-lessons that are offered by the teachers or they can work on their projects. The students are not required to stay within the Apollo space; they can work anywhere they would like as long as they note their location on the scheduling software. What the teachers find interesting is that the majority of the students choose to work within the Apollo Space due to the close bond that is created between students and teachers. Within the Apollo space, there is a more social open area where students can work, an art classroom that functions as a maker space and two classrooms which house the mini-lessons or can also be a quieter work space for those that need it.
Each project begins with an incubator where students are introduced to the thinking skill of focus and then brainstorm their project ideas. Students get feedback from their peers on their ideas and then begin the project planning process. Students are given planning sheets to help them with this process and a shared google document for planning and tracking progress along the way is also used. Students must choose which standards they are learning as part of the planning process. Mr. Ward explained to me that this is one of the most powerful pieces to the Apollo School. He explained that prior to Apollo, it almost seemed like the standards were a secret that only the teacher really knew about. Within the Apollo model, the standards are a large part of the thinking process for students and they must defend their choices and make sure they are completing all required standards for all subjects over the course of the semester. Students also have a great deal of choice in how they wish to present their work. Mr. Grandi explained that it is not his job to mandate or dictate a particular form of artistic expression. He has seen a wide variety of creative choices such as painting, drawing, textiles, graphic design, 3D printed materials, culinary arts, etc. He loves that the focus is not on him determining what is and isn’t art, but is on the students defending their choices. He also loves that it is not his job to judge what “looks good” as the assessment is based on the thinking skills of the project not on how “pretty” the piece of work is. He actually finds that this focus can help those that are reluctant artists since it is not about how well you draw or paint but on how well you justify and present your thinking and learning. In addition, he explains that this program is different from others that claim to be personalized. He has seen many courses where the only thing that is truly personalized is pace. There is no choice in terms of content or material, students simply choose to work faster or slower in order to master said content. That is where Apollo differs, as long as the content standards and thinking skills are being learned, students can choose to do this in any way they choose.
During my visit I sat down to speak to two grade 9 students about their experience in the Apollo program. The two girls raved about the program and told me that they had already signed up for it for grade 10. As they described their first two projects and the learning that they experienced throughout, I was struck by a few things. First, the students were so passionate about their areas of choice. They had truly become experts on their chosen topics. Although their content was very different from each other, both girls could articulate common subject standards and could explain how their projects demonstrated the required thinking skills. In grade 9, for example, students are required to take American History. Mr. Wimmer explained that the focus of the Apollo School was not to have students memorize dates and facts about American History, but rather choose something of interest and explore it with the content standards and thinking skills as a guide. He finds that the projects (and the resulting learning) that come out of this program are at a far higher standard and a deeper level of thinking than anything he had ever seen before in his years as a more traditional teacher. The second thing that struck me was that the students were learning so many valuable skills beyond the curriculum. The girls mentioned that at first, the freedom they had was an adjustment. One of the girls admitted that her first project was rushed at the end and was not done as well as it could have been because she chose to socialize too much and wasn’t as focused on her work as she should have been. As she explained this, I knew she had reflected on her progress and was learning important skills to become a better student. Mr. Wimmer explained that some students in the past have told him that they did not want to take the Apollo program because they weren’t very good at time management. He argues that it is exactly these students that should be in the program. They need to experience supported freedom and perhaps need to fail and reflect in order to get better. Being in a more traditional program that imposes structure will never allow them to learn the skills to improve their time management. Mr. Wimmer also explained that some students at the school have told him that they did not want to choose Apollo because they had spent so long figuring out how to excel at the “game of school” and didn’t want to risk being in such a different program. The final thing that struck me when I spoke to the students was how articulate they were. They could explain their thinking, defend their ideas to me and were not shy to speak to a complete stranger. It was clear to me that they had spent a great deal of time focused on the skill of communication. Just as the teachers loved the program because of the freedom they had, the autonomy they experienced and the support they felt, I got a sense of these exact same reasons from the students. They loved the freedom to choose where they wanted to work, what they wanted to work on and when they wanted to do it. Their teachers trusted them and they had autonomy to plan their day; yet, they always felt supported and knew their teachers were there for them at all times.
As you read this, you might be wondering whether the Apollo students are special or elite. I mean, it kind of sounds Utopian that the students magically show up, work independently and produce amazing results. Of course, it doesn’t always work out perfectly. Mr. Ward admits that he knows that the students are not always on task. Even one of the students I spoke to admitted this to me, but isn’t that part of the learning process? Don’t students need to have a chance to learn from their mistakes and make better choices? Within the program the teachers do make sure that students are booking appointments with them in order to track progress and can request meetings if they feel they are warranted. If need be, the teachers can request meetings with parents as well, but this is rarely needed. Mr. Wimmer explained that it is amazing what can happen when you have high expectations for students, show them that you trust and believe in them and support them along the way. Under the right conditions, such as those within the Apollo School, students can achieve amazing things.
From Teaching to Learning 