Piloting New HS Trips with the Class of 2016

Last semester the Advisory Council (the High School Leadership Team) decided to use a design thinking process to re-imagine our high school trips. Over the past few years the feedback that we have received from teachers and students is that they are "good" but not "great". So, we defined our task as the following.

"Redesign the experiences to make them indispensable and unforgettable so that the mission and core values come to to life."

To do this we did the following:

• Reviewed student and teacher surveys from this past year.
• Held focus groups with small groups of 11th and 12th graders to brainstorm the possibilities.
• Informally gathered information from teachers.
• Met with travel agents to brainstorm options.
• Surveyed other international schools to research what other schools are doing.

From feedback from students we learned that many students wanted us to consider offering choices that allowed students to explore their passions and service opportunities. When we asked about other characteristics students mentioned that the prefer the following:

• Immersion in a new environment
• Learning new and different skills
• Thinking about others (Service)
• Learning with a group
• Visiting new places
• Stepping outside their comfort zone

After several iterations of trip scenarios we decided to present a plan to the grade 10 students. The pilot is to give next year's 11th graders multiple options to choose from. This means that there will be smaller groups traveling to different locations during the week of September 15.

• Scuba Diving in Fernando de Noronha
• Immersion in Amazon (on boat)
• Ilha do Cardozo Trip
• Hiking in Patagonia
• Local Build with Teto
• Experiencing Sampa
• Internships
• College Visit Trip in United States

The survey results show that the overwhelming majority of students favor this new model.

We are now in the process of gathering feedback from parents and teachers to find out if these trips will become a reality. If we pilot them in September 2014 we plan to have students sign up and commit to trip later this semester.

We are interested in hearing your thoughts on rolling out these trips to next year's 11th grade students. What do you think? What questions to you have? Please share your comments and questions using the comment feature below.

What do Graded's Core Values look like?

Students Sharing their Core Value Examples

Students in Integrated Math Standard I started the year by sharing stories from the vacation and they had to connect their experiences to our new Core Values. The members of the class then had to guess which classmate matched the story. The second half of the class the students defined how the they specifically use these attributes in the classroom.

This is just one example of how the Core Values are coming to life in our classrooms. Below are examples from their vacation and how they can practice the Core Values in the classroom.

Over time, our students will be easily able to identify these attributes at the time of the action and/or event.

Risk taking
"Went scuba diving for the first time."
"Ran a half marathon in Rio ( Time = 1:49)."


Reflective
"When you do a mistake and you try to figure out what you did wrong."
"When learning a new concept, reflecting on something that you learned previously can help because the concepts might relate."

Innovative
"Be innovative in finding new study habits or patterns that work for you."

Curious
"I went to see researchers trying to capture sea turtles."
"Don't be afraid to ask if you are confused..."

Inclusive
"Invite someone you don't know to work with you."
"Helping someone who didn't understand what to do."

Responsible
"Bring calculator to class."
"Having to spend three weeks without my parents doing things for me."

Communicator
"Today I talked to a guy who is new to Graded."
"Meeting new people at a place that was completely new to me."

Graded's New Mission Design

You will soon see this design all over the school as we formally role out the new Mission. The design was created by Adam Fertig, Matt Lewis, and Alejandro Torres.

GIN and Graded's Mission

While our Graded's new mission was presented to the community this week we realize that the mission matches well with much of the work that our teachers and students have been doing. The new mission statement gives us an anchor that focuses our efforts. 

Below is the opening video for the GIN Conference and this is a wonderful example of a collaborative project that fosters "intercultural competence and empowering students to become engaged, ethical citizens in a dynamic world." After the hummingbird story you'll see the creative stop motion animation video that was created by a Graded student (with help from our community).

Graded Mission Statement
Graded is an American school that serves an international community of learners by inspiring individual excellence in a collaborative setting, fostering intercultural competence and empowering students to become engaged, ethical citizens in a dynamic world.