Two Eagle Butte High School teens joined principal, Cal Koch in presenting the Prairie Rose School Board trustees with an overview of their recent Alberta Education Speak Out forum and the new student/board advisory council when the PRSD held their regular board meeting last Tuesday.
Deputy superintendent Brian Andjelic introduced the girls to the trustees and gave brief background of the forums and the formation of the advisory council.
"In March, Alberta Education hosted a Speak-Out forum an Eagle Butte High School and Jessica and Chelsey both participated in that and one hosted by Prairie Rose and we have recently put together a student board," said Andjelic.
Last year, Speak Out forums were held at 37 high schools around the province. Alberta Education introduced the Education minister's student advisory council to give students a voice with the provincial government, to discuss their issues regarding education.During the 2009-10 school year, 25 Speak Out forums were hosted across the province. "What We Heard" documents the results of the information gathered from the Speak Out forum.
"We had the students go onto the Alberta Education website and do a survey. Then, knowing we could volunteer to host Speak-Out, we went ahead and it all took shape in mid-February," said Koch, adding the participating students were divided into groups of six or seven students for the forum.
"We want to look for themes of where we want to go and hopefully, come up with a plan that fits our school and our students," he said.
When asked how the students learn at their best, they responded that they learn by doing and by doing.
"Our kids are moving away from being audio learners to being visual learners," said Andjelic.
More than 80 percent of respondents use either Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter and 34 percent have between 100-249 people listed as friends.
"Don't let anybody tell you that social networking is not important to our students," said Andjelic.
One-quarter of the respondents said they spend about an hour doing homework each night and 36 percent are holding down part-time jobs. Seventy-four percent are volunteers. Thirty-one percent get eight hours of sleep a night.
"That is an interesting observation because you immediately think the rest are getting less, but they may be getting more," said Andjelic.
When asked what it looks like when the students are learning at their best, 26 percent said through discussion (teacher/student interaction, debating, and involvement), 18 percent said through physically motivating activities, and 12 percent said through interest in the subject.
The students were also asked what is holding them back from learning at their best and 23 percent said teaching styles (monotone, rambling, unclear instructions, lack of control), 18 percent said classroom atmosphere (loud, distracting students, classroom size) and 13 percent said teacher interaction (poor explanations, not answering questions, not enough time to ask questions), and another 13 percent said personal obstacles, including boredom and cigarette breaks, and uninteresting facts or topics.
The students also looked at how both adults and students could improve how education looks and feels and found numerous options, including teachers being more creative in presenting lessons and students needing to get more involved and to contribute more in the classroom.
"Our board has been really committed to listening not just to teachers' voices or parents' voices, but to the student voices, as well," said superintendent Doug Nicholls.
Alberta students can share their thoughts online at www.speakoutalberta.ca. Students are talking with their peers about teaching styles, curriculum, technology, the future, and how to improve education. The site includes videos, contests, moderated discussion boards, and blogs, There is also information on Speak Out forums, the annual Speak Out Conference, being held next month in Edmonton, and the Education minister's student council.