Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry:

– independent high school (9-12)
– Inquiry framework
– builds individual curriculum for each learner based on their questions and passions
– teachers are professional facilitators of learning who adapt learning conditions to be developmentally appropriate to students
– encourage/ seamlessly incorporate legitimate in and out of school learning
– offer/find expertise for individual learning
– teachers are responsive and learners have agency in their learning

PSII Competencies:

– ecological literacy: understanding of closed systems, including relationships of elements or organisms with one another/ their context / physical surroundings
– reading, writing, listening, and speaking
– mathematical literacy
– collaboration and leadership
– critical and creative thinking
– cultural awareness and understanding
– media and information literacy
– personal planning and responsibility

My Thoughts:

• I liked the learning artifacts on the PSII website that had evidence of student learning. The first one I read was students reflecting upon a conference it attended, how it has informed their goals for the future, and how that experience is influencing their future learning. I think it is a smart idea on the school’s part to have such evidence of learning readily available so that interested parties can get a better understanding of what happens at PSII compared to a traditional school. Here is the link to that page:
  https://psii.ca/learning-at-psii/
• I read through PSII’s accessibility statement and I really liked it. The nature of the school’s approach is quite accessible alone, due to it’s highly individualized nature, but beyond that the school makes active inclusion efforts. The accessibility statement discusses proposals made by students to work with local businesses to improve accessibility in the community and establish a sensory room in the school. They also talk about having the instructors and resources available for student’s to learn American Sign Language and Unified English Braille. Here is the link to that page:
  https://psii.ca/accessibility/