“Whenever I talk with someone about my classes, I wish they could come meet the kids. I want them to see what we’re doing here—to experience it. Renewal is allowing students to find their passion again, their excitement to learn. I want them to meet our students and see what that’s all about.”
Do you know that feeling when you’ve had too much sugar? Renewal teacher and coach Alexis Greer certainly does. She fondly remembers one afternoon when she left school with all the energy in the world after eating too much candy. She had assigned her class an entrepreneurial project which included developing, testing and making their own sweets. She says if you’re brave enough to give students the challenge, you must be brave enough to try the results!
This assignment was just one creative project in the course she teaches, which is focused on challenge-based learning. She assigns students a challenge—such as designing a school building out of shipping containers for underprivileged countries—and the students are off. The projects empower students to gain real-world experience, right in school.
This semester, students are working on a marketing campaign with Historic Salisbury Foundation. From interviewing the Historic Salisbury Foundation leadership to receiving feedback from the team there, they are treating the class as a real client-PR agency relationship with the nonprofit. The students have completed tours of the city, are learning from real marketing professionals, conducting quantitative research and developing real-world job skills. From learning how to create a website to podcasting and design, the students are creating a full communications plan for the nonprofit. Their work will actually be used, giving them a sense of accomplishment in addition to learning important skills.
For Alexis, empowering the students to show this kind of creativity—all while learning teamwork and life skills—is one of the most important parts of Renewal. As she puts it:
“I’ve seen that in the traditional school system, teachers often don’t have enough freedom in how they get to teach their courses. As a result, we have squelched all the creativity out of our students. Renewal allows us to help students find their passion again. We get to find out what excites them, what helps them learn. We’re finding the multiple intelligences that might otherwise go neglected. Reenergizing kids’ creativity and excitement over learning is a huge win that we’re already seeing.”
Alexis extends an open invitation to her classroom to all foundation team members. Her students are the reason she gets up every day, and she knows seeing the Renewal difference is understanding the difference it can make in a child or teen’s life.
