- Year 2022
- NSF Award #1758344
- Registration Former Noyce Scholar
- First Name Olivia
- Last Name Cruz
- Discipline Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geosciences, Mathematics, Physics
- Institution Fort Lewis College
- School Name and District Currently Teaching Durango Big Picture High School
Abstract
In a world of ever-changing circumstances, being a first-year teacher can be challenging in the best of times. With a global pandemic influencing factors at both work, home, and schoolteachers have become intermediaries working to help students better cope with life outside of academics. The Big Picture model of learning attempts to meld together the skills of real-world learning and the passions of students to give them the motivation they need to build stable relationships and healthy interactions with their community. Utilizing technology and coping mechanisms to deal with becoming an adult that is questioning sexual orientation, race, gender identity, and trauma so that authentic learning can take place are just some of the challenges facing this year’s high school teachers. Durango Big Picture High School has become a haven for first building relationships to foster authentic learning in an at-risk population by using melding technology, proficiency-based grading, project-based learning, and genuine connections to help build a better way of learning today. This poster will discuss the strategies crucial to building relationships in a school as loosely structured as Big Picture are morning circle-ups to get a gauge of everyone’s mood and motivation level, active listening to engage with students, one on ones to set up strong learning plans to guide learning and creating innovative new tools to streamline processes in schools.
