Transcript – The Role of the Student in Summit Learning

The Role of the Student in Summit Learning

See the original YouTube video on The Summit Experience page (length: 3 minutes 29 seconds)

[scenes of children participating or listening in a classroom]

 

Jackson Lacroix, Student, 8th Grader at Camp Ernst Middle School:
Sitting at a desk and stuff, is kind of boring, because you and everyone else are all the same. Everyone says that you want to be different, be your own person, that’s what pretty much Summit is.

Grace Carrigan, Student, 6th Grader at Ockerman Middle School:
I think it basically means how you learn best. So like it’s easier, because we can go as fast or as slow as we need to. They’re not exactly telling you what to do right away, but they’re telling you how you can get better at it, which is really helpful. I like how I can choose how I want to learn.

Carson Redman, Student, 6th Grader at Ockerman Middle School:
I’m more independent. It helps me way more because I actually learn it.

Darla Payne, Principal at Ockerman Middle School in Florence, Kentucky:
I think the biggest part was a mindset change for teachers and students, where failure was a part of the process and not a conclusion, and where students could take accountability for their learning. And they had the freedom to learn at their own pace and how they could learn material.

Jackson:
A lot of people say it’s like all on computers, but that’s not really what it is.

Last year in Summit I did a project about injustices in the community and it was about Cyber Bullying, so I just thought I should make a film, and that would probably tell more people about Cyber Bullying than just the tri-fold that’s that’s going to be at school only. But this film could be shared, like anywhere, anyone can look it up online. That’s one of my favorite projects, because I took filming which was one of my favorite hobbies and put it into a project.

I took the video, I’ve inserted it in a few film contests. I posted it on YouTube and Amazon, and it’s also on IMDb.

After I get out of high school, I want to go to University of Florida and take a film class. I really thought about what I might want to do in my future.

Darla:
Usually when students are doing something out in the community, it’s something that’s told to them, now students are coming to me with proposals, presentations, young men with bow ties on wanting to talk to me about projects that they want to do in the community that have a connection for what they’re learning in class.

Carson:
I love my mentor. I love having a mentor. I think all students should have a mentor because it’s better to tell your mentor what’s going on, like if you’re getting bullied or something, it’s better to tell them how you feel about it.

Jackson:
She is an amazing mentor because she talks to you and it’s not all about school. This year I feel more comfortable talking about personal life. You’re growing more of like a friendship with your teacher, someone that you can trust, talk to if something goes wrong.

Carson:
She really just checks on how we’re doing outside of school, inside of school, like every week. She checks on if we’re ahead, if we’re off track, she checks on how we’re treating other people.

Grace:
Daily goals, I think about weekly goals. I even think about future goals. I’m always setting goals for myself and always trying to meet that goal. And if I don’t meet that goal, I reset it and I say, okay, I didn’t meet this goal today but I want to try to meet it tomorrow.

Darla:
I’ve seen a huge change in our students. They’re more engaged in classrooms. Students are talking about the content. They’re being involved. They’re coming to my office wanting to do community projects, do service learning projects, wanting to show me the projects that they’re working on.