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New Hawken campus offers firsthand learning
(by Sue Hoffman - July 21, 2010)
New Hawken campus offers firsthand learning
By SUE HOFFMAN
New opportunities for firsthand learning will flourish when Hawken School opens its new extension campus in University Circle on Aug. 29, according to Head of School D. Scott Looney.
For students at the upper school campus in Chester, the opening of the extension campus at the start of school will coincide with a new rotating block schedule that's geared to open up several weeks for experiential learning, he said.
"In order to give kids firsthand experience, we have to take them out into the world," Mr. Looney said last week. "The concentration of artistic, musical and intellectual talent in University Circle is incredible. It's as good as it gets in the Midwest and maybe the country."
The new Sally and Bob Gries Center for Experiential and Service Learning at 10823 Magnolia Drive is strategically located, Mr. Looney said. Within a mile of the renovated three-story, seven-classroom building are 200 nonprofit organizations involved in the arts, education and medicine, he said. Students "will have multiple exposures to some of the most brilliant and talented people in the world."
The building faces the back yard of the Western Reserve Historical Society and is a block from Wade Oval, he said. It's within a half-mile walking distance to museums, medical centers, Severance Hall and Case Western Reserve University.
The new campus is also close to some of the Cleveland public schools with which Hawken has a partnership, as well as numerous organizations in which students will become involved, Mr. Looney said. Firsthand education involves service learning, he said. At the new location, students can participate in the same effort over a period of several years and "develop a real relationship," he said. "I think at the end of the day they'll become better people."
English teacher Jack Breisch's course in homelessness at the upper school is an example of effective service learning, Mr. Looney said. In addition to producing written papers in various styles on the subject, students meet people who are homeless over the course of a year. Students realize "they are good people. They just have life challenges," he said.
For upper school students, the new extension campus is one of several major changes that will open up opportunities for firsthand learning.
"For us to have more firsthand experience, we had to change the schedule," Mr. Looney said. The resulting "rotating block schedule," developed by the faculty over two years, will allow a continual flow of upper school students to the new building.
Rather than taking six courses a semester, students will take five classes in the fall until Thanksgiving. Uniform 45-minute classes will be replaced by blocks that can range from 60 to 120 minutes and longer.
From Thanksgiving to winter break, students will study one subject in an intensive full-day class, Mr. Looney said. They will also study one subject for the three weeks following Advanced Placement exams the first week of May. With that structure, teachers can take their students to the Magnolia Drive campus or even Europe for the three weeks, he said. "They can be anywhere in the world."
Mr. Looney, who joined Hawken as head of school in 2006, said the idea of having a campus close to Hawken's roots in University Circle was developed during a strategic planning process.
What came out of that process was an emphasis on experiential learning, he said. "Simply stated, sitting in a classroom isn't enough" to develop students who will be productive members of society, he said. Classroom studies are largely "second-hand," he said. "Whenever you can show kids firsthand, they remember it better."
With three floors, the school's building on Magnolia Drive can accommodate students from the elementary, middle school and upper school every day, Mr. Looney said. The new extension is an approximate 20-minute bus ride from the lower and middle schools in Lyndhurst and about a 30 to 35 minutes from the Chester campus.
The $2.8 million cost to acquire and renovate the building was raised as part of Hawken's Readiness Initiative, Mr. Looney said. So far, the campaign has raised $4.4 million toward the goal of $6.5 million. Sally and Bob Gries, of Shaker Heights, provided the lead donation for the project.
Some of the money raised is being used to upgrade technology, Mr. Looney said. This year, Hawken's middle school students will have "tablet computers" that they can write on. The tablet program will expand to the upper school next year.
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