What The Tech Is Going On At AHS

Alleghany High School is well over half way through its first year as a New Tech school. 
While we have encountered a few stumbling blocks along the way, the progress we and our students have made has surprised us. 
Our students have already turned out some world-class projects, and we have had requests from businesses and individuals from California to Australia wanting some of the research our students have done. 
The change in some of our students has been very profound. They are starting to take ownership in their work, and some students that not long ago had trouble working with a group and speaking in front of a class, have mastered both skills to the point that they often take the lead role for their groups. 
Students are now starting to see how things in a modern world are interconnected and are developing the skills needed to live and work in the technology age.
As teachers, we are often learning from our students. We have graded student work for more years than I sometimes care to remember, and so it had become second nature, but never before have I had students tell me that after I was finished with their report, a major corporation wanted us to e-mail it to them. 
I must admit that it can be a little unnerving. Dealing with businesses, members of the community and even corporations is giving our students real world skills they never would have gained in a traditional school setting. 
They have learned about product placement when taking photos, how to schedule interviews with people often half way across the country, in a different time zone, and often with little time to spare so they have to make certain that they have everything ready before picking up the phone. 
We have been contacted by a number of schools in Virginia that want to know more about Project Based Learning, and some of these schools will be sending groups of staff to AHS to see firsthand what is going on. 
The old way of teaching served its purpose for a number of years, but the world has changed and continues to change in ways that a few years ago would have seemed impossible. 
I had just gotten used to a few lanes of self-checkout at the store only to go in on Saturday and find that most of the checkout lanes are now that way. I must admit that I am still intimidated by self-checkout, but one thing is very clear to me, and that is the more of these a store has, the less cashiers they need. 
If this were the only case, it might be easy to overlook, but every day traditional jobs that we all assumed would always be there are disappearing, replaced by technology. More and more educators and parents are realizing this and are looking for ways to make sure our children are well prepared to live and work in this ever changing world. 
Research backs up what we are already finding out at AHS, and that is that Project/Problem Based Learning goes a long way in meeting our student’s needs.
Work is underway now on our Spring Extravaganza which will be held at AHS on April 16. 
Over 600 parents, community leaders and business professionals came to our Fall Extravaganza, and our goal is to make this one even larger and better. 
After being a part of our first event and knowing now what to expect, many of our students are excited about being able to showcase their work. 
A number of students have told us that their projects this time will be even better than their last ones. The drive to do better work for some of these students is not coming from us or from their parents, but from themselves. 
They have taken ownership and a sense of pride in their work, something that was seldom seen in the past. 
Everyone in the community is invited to attend our Spring Extravaganza and see for themselves what the tech is going on at AHS.