New school year, new way of learning for New Tech students and teachers

SOUTH BEND -- South Bend students head back to school today. For many it means a new teacher, a new classroom and new classmates. For South Bend New Tech High School students it means a new way of learning.

This is the first year for this brand new program in South Bend. Only 102 freshman students were accepted. Their first day of school is today and teachers have spent weeks preparing their lesson plan. That is because New Tech teachers and students have to be ready for a whole new way of doing things.

Susan McClements has been teaching for many years, but this year she is no longer a teacher -- she is now a facilitator at South Bend New Tech High School.

"The students are the center of the classroom not the teacher. And the teacher is the facilitator of student learning," says Principal John Kennedy, "You are asking teacher to teach in a different way and you are asking students to learn in a different way."

Kennedy says teachers like McClements have had to change their way of thinking and teaching in preparation for this year's first batch of New Tech students. That is because New Tech is a new concept -- a new approach to teaching and learning. It is project based learning which is very focused on technology.

"They will be learning all the same academic skills students learn because we will meet requirements for an Indiana HS diploma," says Kennedy, "but those kills are taught within projects and we will integrate certain courses."

For example, Biology and Internet Technology will be taught in the same class and students will be learning the two subjects doing one project.

"We group our standards for state testing and we get together and we say, 'okay these group of biology standards will work well with these technology standards,' and we put those all the in the project," says McClements, "so when you plan a project, you start with the end in mind and you work backwards."

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http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-new-school-year-new-way-of-learning-for-ne...