Our visit to PSII was incredible. At first, the difference in learning design—project-based learning and inquiry—compared to the traditional structure of public school seemed too good to be true. However, when Jeff Hopkins started going over the assessment process, I started to see things I wanted to bring into my teaching philosophy. The idea of cross-curricular or cross-subject assessment within individual projects is amazing. Say I have a student who wants to work on a project for Social Studies that revolves around climate change and food waste in Victoria. They start looking at statistics. That’s a math competency. They look at the causes and effects of climate change. That’s a science competency. They write up a well-researched paper about their findings. That’s an English competency.  Yet, as a Socials teacher, I’m only able to tick off boxes within my particular category in the curriculum? After visiting PSII, that seems insane.

Sensory Room at PSII

When we were exploring the school, I was blown away by the sensory room. What a fantastic idea for self-regulation and stress-management. I wish I had that when I was in high school… honestly, I wish I had that in university. I’d love to advocate for this in all of the public schools I end up working in during my career—they’d be a great addition to the counselling office, especially if we continue to successfully de-stigmatize self-care.

While the option of having a singular room amongst 95 students might work fairly well, for larger schools there would need to be more available. There is a possibility for multiple students to decompress in this space, but sometimes an individual needs isolation for a short period of time to truly recognize themselves.

Screen Capture of Richie’s Plank Experience

The Virtual Reality room was a really cool experience, and I wish we could implement VR in every public school. Using technology for art, sculpture, building, architecture, or just a creative outlet is beneficial to the development of adolescents. The world continues to be shaped by new technology, and we’re very much moving into the realm of AI and Virtual or Augmented Reality.  The student who showed us the lab was doing a study on conquering phobia of heights through use of a game called Richie’s Plank Experience—where you step off a small plank about 80 stories up in the air. This safe environment can be used to experiment with exposure therapy. How cool is that?!

You can watch a video of the VR plank simulator here.