Sitting on the Edge of the Nest - part 5

This is part 5 of a five part blog writing that I have done. It is about the teen years and a choice that I have been mulling over for one of my sons. If you want to read Part 1-4 - please follow these links:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

So now we have a boy with his own space to take care of, and the beginning of projects rather than simply paperwork. It will take time I know, for him to loosen up. When I first told him I was releasing him from having to do a required list of lessons he was a little unsure of what to do.

He will have to complete his last two classes for the year. But now, rather than worrying about credits and a government diploma, Dane is working towards a Portfolio.

So what is a Portfolio?

It is a 'container' that holds evidence of an person's skills, ideas, interests, and accomplishments. It is a tool that can be used to tell what has been learned and what steps a student has taken to master a subject. It shows evidence of what a student may or may not have had difficulty with and how they might have conquered those problems.

It is a self-assessment for the student themselves, to assess what they have accomplished over the years of 'highschool'. The timeline within will show how the student's interests have changed and grown over time, and it will also provide other people an opportunity to look into a young person's world to see where their interests, abilities, and talents lie.

For instance, Dane loves airplanes. He has had an interest in planes since he was 18 months old. As well, his knowledge of World War II is extremely extensive.

When he heard that the local highschool's aviation class was working on building an airplane at the airport, he called the teacher and asked if he could assist in the construction. The teacher was happy to have Dane, even though he is not a student of the school.

A few days ago, when he was up at the airport helping a teacher drill holes in the wing of the aircraft, he overheard a student mention a Social Studies test he had coming up. A question that was mentioned as possibly being on the exam: How did the Japanese get onto Wake Island? The boys at the airport were throwing out all possibilities of the answer. Not one of them mentioned the correct answer.

When Dane came home, he told me of this question and proceeded to tell me the whole situation of what was going on on the island, how the Americans were protecting the island and how the Japanese managed to get on land and it was surrendered to them.

Dane has a fascination with World War II and knows so much about it. He has read every book and seen every movie that he can get his hands on. He has also written, illustrated, and self-published an amazing story of self-sacrifice and heroism of a Canadian soldier during World War II. People who have seen his artwork say he is very talented.

Because of this interest in World War II and airplanes Dane wrote an aviation program for himself this year.

I met a girl last year through my blog, whose husband was interested to hear about Dane. When this man was a boy he did everything he had to to work his way up in the flying world. He hung around the airport and watched planes. He became known by the men and soon got a chance to clean out the airplanes for people. These pilots eventually offered him to fly with them. He then worked his way up through his licenses, until now he is flying a 777 from Vancouver - Hong Kong.

Well, this kind man inspired Dane last year, by sending him an amazing care package full of pilot books, tools, and paraphenalia. Dane has taken the main text (Transport Canada's Flight Training Manual) and is using this book to learn to fly... in the kitchen!

This is the very text that he would be using in a Private Ground School course!!

Everyday, he reads a chapter of the book and then proceeds to do the lessons on the Microsoft Flight Simulator that hooks up to his computer.

This is Dane's passion. Do you think I have to push him to learn all he can about World War II or airplanes? No!

By the time Dane takes his pilot's license he will know that textbook inside and out! And he will have had hundreds of hours of experience flying through a simulator.

And if you remember, when I took Dane to California two years ago, he went in a flight simulator. The people there were so impressed with him that they gave him an extra hour for free. They said his hand-eye coordination was outstanding.

So, back to the Portfolios.

Reviewing a student's portfolio can show a much wider picture of their aptitudes, talents and abilities than a traditional bubble test. In a homeschool, a portfolio can reflect homeschool activities, social activities, and self-directed learning projects that might not be part of a standardized test. Dane will show evidence in his portfolio of the hours he has put into the simulator and his knowledge of the textbook. He will show photos of himself working up at the airport building the airplane.

When I stop to think of what Dane has learned by spending a week on board a sailing boat! That was learning that could not take place in a classroom or at a computer desk. And this opportunity of learning would not have taken place if I had not listened to Dane's interest in experiencing sailing for the first time.

He will now see if he can get on board another of these sailing trips - this time for a two week period. From there he will have the chance to get his Level 2 tall-ship certification.

All of the things he learned on the sailing trips will go in his Science section of his portfolio. He has taken many photos of his trip, written notes on what he has done and this will now be added.

And all of his knowledge and experience in World War II history falls into: Social Studies and airplanes: Science: physics, aerodynamics, Newton's Third Law of Motion, meteorology, the Laws of gravity, mechanics, mathematics, map and compass and so much more

Research shows that students see assessments of their work as being something that is done 'to them' by other people. Outside of the letter grades and percentages, corrected grammar and math questions, students often are not really aware of what it is the teachers are evaluating them for.

On the other hand, making a portfolio is something that a student does as a self-examination/evaluation. Through the course of their highschool years they take note of what they want shown to college admissions professors or prospective employers. Examples of work that they have done in the key topics: Science, English, Math, and Social Studies will be put into their binder/dvd portfolio.

Research has also shown that students benefit from being aware of the strategies and processes involved in writing, solving problems, researching topics, analyzing information, or describing their own observations.

At the end of the day, when Dane is done, he will have a dvd compilation that is so much more than a piece of paper with letter grades on it. Because honestly, just how much value are there on letter grades, anyway?

My oldest son was in public school grade 10 English. The teacher did not have time to teach the segment on Shakespeare and poetry, as she spent so much time on learning how to write paragraphs. Each evening, she had them write three in-depth paragraphs from each chapter of The Chrysalids. By the time he was done, my son had written 51 paragraphs. Do you think he knew how to write a strong paragraph? (sarcasm) That is what is called busy-work.

When it came time to do his Provinical Exam in English 10, he had no clue what the Shakespeare and Poetry questions covered, as he had been too busy doing 51 paragraphs! Suffice it to say, his exam mark was below what it should fairly have been. That particular teacher was like any other teacher - doing her own schedule. There are no guarantees that a letter grade is fair or a class well-taught!

So you see, Dane will continue to learn, but now he will learn in a more interest directed way. He will gather evidence of his learning in his portfolio for if he wants to go on to higher education and he will be able to show his passion for what he has learned. He will not remember the last three years of 'school' as being forced to learn things that are not relevant to his life. He will be encouraged to explore anything and everything that piques his interest.

By the time he is ready to enter the real world he will have an idea of what he wants to do with his future, because he was given the opportunity to explore while he was still young. Instead of doing it the other way around: study and then when he is eighteen go out and have experiences and try to see what he wants to do with his life.

UPDATE: This post was written in April and not published til October. Therefore, there will be a new updated post on what Dane is doing at a later date. When I have time...
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