Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The new Joplin High School: Students can design their own classes

If Joplin High School students have a course they really want to take and it is not offered, they can get together with a teacher and create it.

This new frontier in education is being explained to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education by High School Principal Kerry Sachetta as this is being written.

"Students can design courses with their teachers," Sachetta said, during a presentation in which he described the increasing number of classes that will be offered beginning this fall.

The new student-designed classes will also start at that time, Sachetta said.

"The students will have a personalized learning expeirence."

This kind of cafeteria-style class selection was also featured in a list of new or redesigned classes that was presented to the board this evening for its approval. Those courses were noted in a couple of Turner Report posts earlier today.

This new and different high school was a product of the Dream Sessions started by departing R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer shortly after the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, a time in which Besendorfer guided those who participated as they searched for "a silver lining in a funnel cloud."

Introducing Sachetta, Besendorfer talked about those dream sessions and compared them to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

"We had a dream, too," she said, noting that this new 21st Century high school would offer "the right thing for every student."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the biggest bunch of crap yet. Good lord. There won't be a teacher left there. Not one prep or two, not even three. Different preps every hour of every day to make that many kids happy. Which one of them thought up this stupid idea for the taxpayers to foot?

Idiocy. Must have been Huff and Bess. No high school person would ever come up with something so stupid and expensive. I don't want to pay for any more of their crap. Voting against any and all of Huff's people so we can get some common sense back on the board. Such foolish expenses cannot be maintained.

Anonymous said...

She did not! Tell me that egomaniac did not compare those idiotic dream meetings to anything like the Civil Rights Movement. OMG!

I'd like to say what I really think about that, but that would lower me in my own eyes and I know Mr. Turner has a lot of kids who read his blogs. But that is just horrific.

Please make her leave right after she gets one last photo op in with the governor tomorrow. And please, don't let her say one more thing. It gets worse by the minute. Good grief.

Anonymous said...

This is so insulting to all who were a part of the Civil Rights Movement and heard King's speech. If there was a way to sue her for that kind of egocentrism, I'd be happy to do it. Please, Dr. Besendorfer, for the love of God and all that is holy, please, please stop talking. Every thing you say is offensive. Except good-bye. That we could live with.

Anonymous said...

Let's see. Joplin has the most crowded classes in the state and the poorest pay for teachers. And now they have to create classes to make all of their kiddies happy. Why would anyone ever want to teach there? They have more administrators than any other district their size and those administrators and their flunkies make more than the state average. But those teachers work harder than anywhere else. Sheer stupidity.

I'll be thanking God every day that I don't teach there anymore. I'd recommend to all of you who do to jump ship. They never will support you. They never have. But it will look good in the books and sound good when cj cries about it in his speeches, and that's all that counts is the way it appears. The reality doesn't mean squat. I'm still amazed that the town lets them get away with this kind of waste to make cj look good.

Anonymous said...

Self-aggrandizement at its worst. Comparing herself to MLK? After all the people she fired and tried to destroy, she compares herself to one of the greatest freedom fighters of all time? She is a sick person.She truly is.

Anonymous said...

Ignorant. It's all just ignorant. 138 new courses plus whatever classes the kids come up with and not supporting your staff. Only Joplin would do that and brag about it.

Anonymous said...

Also would like to point out the lack of discipline in Joplin schools. The teachers have no backing by the principals or the so called administration. They cover up bullying and kids being beat up bhai y never reporting it. That would make them.look bad admit h Ethan a gold star rating. I personally believe that safety is more important than an award and another night to see Huff cry. Some schools have principals with no experience teaching and got the job because of who they know. There are teachers , staff and students being hit, poked, threatened daily. In my day if a student did that they were suspended and or expelled. Not here. Grow a pair R8 and handle the issues and not wait until it suits your needs and there is a photo open.