South Harrison Community School Corporation challenges
teachers to provide engaging, authentic standards based work for
students. Collaboration across grades and curricular content is
encouraged. A high school English teacher was concerned about his
students who were not interested in pursuing a post high school
education and felt that school was not really relevant to their
lives. A third grade teacher was concerned because she wanted to
find more authentic activities for her students. These teachers
collaborated to create the POWERS initiative.
The high school students found themselves becoming
role models for the younger students, their self-esteem and their
interest in writing and research increased, as they needed to know
more to help their younger counterpart. The third grade students
were excited about working with high school students. They admired
the older students and wanted to make them proud of their work.
The real success was the increase in competency in
language arts writing, research, and literacy skills for all students.
When creative educators collaborate and take risks amazing things
can happen.
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