Just off San Juan Highway, surrounded by lettuce and pepper fields, there’s a high school with programs like no other in the area – and it may gain statewide recognition for its hard work.
Anzar High School’s application for the Golden Bell Award, an award given by the California School Board Association (CSBA), is in the mail and en route to Sacramento where it will be reviewed. The award is given to schools and districts that “reflect the depth and breadth of education programs necessary to students’ changing needs,” according to CSBA.
One way Anzar is doing that is through exhibitions, which is the project its hoping to be recognized for. Anzar requires its students to take an elective course during their junior or senior year called exhibitions. The semester-long course requires students to research and look into an issue through a written, oral and question and answer analysis.
“They begin with a topic, and then through research the topic becomes an issue,” Principal Charlene McKowen said. “They have to ask themselves, ‘well what difference does this make?’ and ‘what does it matter?'”
The projects should be something the students are passionate about, McKowen said, and it shows in their choices.
“This isn’t something where the teacher hands out a list of topics and they choose one,” she said. “We’ve had students do everything from skateboard to homing pigeons. It’s really about what they’re passionate about, and if they lose interest throughout the semester, they find something else.”
Spending a semester researching, preparing a presentation and asking themselves a series of questions about the issue helps prepare the students for college, McKowen said.
“A week doesn’t go by when I don’t have a past student calling me asking for a copy of their paper to use in college,” McKowen said jokingly.
Many students interviewed around graduation said the work they did for exhibitions prepared them for college, and the numbers show it’s working. One-hundred percent of the 47 students who graduated in 2004 are going on to college or military service.
From the moment students begin as freshmen at Anzar, they’re encouraged to follow the schools learning pattern called “Habitat of Mind.” In every classroom there is a list with five words: evidence, perspective, extension, relevance and reflection. Under those words are a series of questions formulated to help students ponder the ideas they’re learning and absorb them rather than just memorize, McKowen said.
“By the time the students get to their junior or senior year, they’ve already practiced putting themselves into others shoes,” she said.
The winners of the Golden Bell Award will be released sometime in October. For more information on the award, lot onto: www.csba.org.
