Podcast Reflection #3: Rural 21st Century Learning

I watched this podcast by Kevin Honeycutt who interviewed the Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center principal Mrs. Vogt on the charter schools approach to education. They are an Ag-Tech based school that focuses on collaborative projects/problems, hands on instruction for diverse learners, and promoting technology and agriculture. Each of the classes is sponsored by a farming family who allows the students to come to their farm and study various things for educational benefit.  For example, the school had lower scores in the measurement category so the farming families allowed the students to come and measure tires, acres, formulas for planting crops, and various other objects. The school held a salsa making project where the students measured their own ingredients, made their own recipe, and had a taste-test for the best salsa. It was a project that the students really enjoyed! Mrs. Vogt said she would the school to get in touch with other schools for collaboration and they did do this one time, for instance, with Flat Stanleys based off of the book. They had the other students take the Stanleys to various farming events and it taught the students quite a bit. Walton is an elementary school the Kevin said has "a better greenhouse than most high schools." The school does numerous farming projects at the school as well as on the farming families ground. At the school they were chosen one of only a few schools to have a windmill put in from the Wind For Schools Project. One of the students from Walton had a goat from home that he donated to the school for their mascot and they also have chickens that they use for research and egg production. The students use the farm ground by the school to plant seeds to grow natural Kansas prairie grass and weeds. It is a project that requires lots of time, hard work, and attention.

I found this to be a GREAT podcast because I think it is important to get ideas from other schools and it is amazing to see what students and a community can do when they come together. I believe this is their 3rd year of being a charter school which means they will no longer be a charter school after this unless chosen again. I think they set a great example of how we can use natural resources that we have in Kansas to help learn many subjects, teach students about the hard work required behind agriculture, and how it can bring families and communities together. I would love to tour this school and use some of the ideas in my classroom!