‘Passion’ drives South Putnam Education Beyond Boundaries event

Thursday, February 28, 2019
Sophomore Evan Steffy explains the function of a piece of equipment as high school science teacher Theresa Doud looks on Wednesday evening during the Education Beyond Boundaries event at South Putnam High School.
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With South Putnam High School abuzz with activity Wednesday evening, parents and community members got the unique chance to engage with students in the classroom.

They also got the opportunity to hear from a renowned Finnish educator on the greater role experiential learning can play in education.

During South Putnam’s Education Beyond Boundaries event, the focus was not just on innovative teaching and learning practices in theory. The night was fundamentally student-centered.

Petteri Elo speaks on the importance of hands-on learning in the high school gym after the presentation sessions Wednesday evening.
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Spread throughout four sessions beginning at 6 p.m., students and teachers worked together to present their work in - and out of - the classroom through engaging activities. In turn, audiences got up close and personal learning about the important skills South Putnam students are learning on an everyday basis.

A common element throughout was how they had taken charge of their studies, and this ownership would be touched upon as a key tool by the event’s featured speaker.

The highlight of the event was a keynote address by Finnish education expert Petteri Elo, who has extensive experience in teaching and curriculum development. Elo has worked with school systems in Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Colorado and Florida, and has been invited to speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In his native Finland, he has worked for the Helsinki Education Department as a consultant while serving as a classroom teacher.

Dressed in Revolutionary-era attire, South Putnam junior Jaxon Hodge talks about how AP U.S. History students helped fifth-graders prepare for the ILEARN social studies exam as junior Karl Egold listens.
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Though his presentation would focus on two measures of effective learning in the classroom, Elo felt that he could not help but be impressed by the dedication of the students and staff who organized and participated in the event.

“I’m just so impressed with the staff and faculty, and especially the students,” he began. At South Putnam to do more than just sit in on the event, Elo worked on professional development with school staff, and even co-taught classes on Tuesday and Wednesday in an engaging style that would be utilized in Finland.

“What I’ve seen tonight and in the past two days is passion,” Elo said. “I saw passion for the subjects and how students explore them, and I know that kind of learning is crucial.”

Dean of Students Brady Rhodes shares his experiences traveling with EF Educational Tours in the high school cafeteria.
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Elo also commented that the students all seemed inspired by their respective subjects, which he himself felt he lacked when he was their age in school. To him, the questions he heard fueled that inspiration and set in motion the main ideas of his talk.

“The students were creating questions and were interested,” Elo observed. “Traditionally, tackling questions requires normal skills such as reading, writing and research. Those are still important, but I argue that it’s narrow, because students need to think.”

Elo related one statement he said he heard from South Putnam Principal Mike Schimpf that seemed to encapsulate this point: “If you can google the question, it’s probably not very good.”

“They need to know how to read and find context, but they need to get different kinds of gears going,” he said further.

Elo then transitioned to Bloom’s taxonomy, a hierarchical model that classifies learning in terms of increasing complexity and student involvement. Remembering and understanding lie at the bottom of the model, while creating and evaluating stand at the top, and are thus more challenging for students.

“It has to be more challenging as you go up, but this gets us thinking about going beyond merely remembering or understanding information and concepts,” he said. “Students need to consider how their learning can be enhanced.” It’s there where both educators and learners can take the lead.

“I urge students to challenge teachers with ideas to better their learning, but I want them to make an argument in a civilized manner,” Elo said. “The same goes for parents. I urge you to trust educators, because they know what can be done with this framework.”

The second concept Elo spoke about was process orientation, which puts attention not on the finished product, but the way in which it is developed. Elo argued that this scrutiny is not considered enough, and may be more important because it’s practical.

“How to get there is not given the attention that it’s needed,” he said. “I will go back to students and ask them what they learned, and they may not have the answer. But if I ask them what they did, they’d tell me how that shaped their learning.”

Elo went back to the act of research as an example.

“Not all kids like reading about the information, and it’s refreshing to do things like calling experts for their input on a specific topic,” he suggested. “It encourages the students to present their argument.”

“Experiential learning results in getting something that sticks with you,” Elo summarized. “To the students - take it seriously, because it’s valuable, and you’ll get a lot out of it.”

Being mindful of the time, Elo finally reiterated his impressions of the event, and went back to the importance of passion.

“I’m so happy that I could experience this with you all, because this is 21st century learning,” he said. “Be passionate about things. Be curious.”

The Lilly Endowment and EF Educational Tours were the event’s featured partners, without which the night would not have been possible. The endowment recently awarded a counseling grant to the high school which covered expenses, and EF Tours has partnered with South Putnam Schools to offer students the opportunity to travel outside Putnam County.

After Elo concluded his lecture, Schimpf provided some parting comments on the “great turnout” for the event, as well as again thanked the students and staff who made it possible.

“I want to thank all the teachers and students for the hard work they put into all of this,” Schimpf said. “As far as I’ve been told, no extra credit was involved in this, either.”

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