Images from videos by Erik Friedl that describe and talk about principles in Big Picture schools

The following images come from several videos that Erik Friedl compiled between 2011 and 2014.

This video was the first visit by Erik Friedl to Highland Park High School
where Enrique Gonzalez was principal.

Enrique Gonzalez

The "Palabra" program is adapted to the students
in the Los Angeles area

In other schools, teachers just teach what’s on the board and switch to the next subject.  Here we have the opportunity to work on that subject for a couple of days.

 

Our principal is a man.  Unlike other schools, where it’s just some suit with a face.  Our principal has a personality and he gets through to us.

The video was completed in October 2013.

It is different here than where I came from.  I didn't have help from my other schools.  Here I have an understanding about what I'm supposed to do.  and what I'm going to do after I graduate.

At regular high schools, you don't really know what school is really about.
Here you learn a lot about yourself and what school is really about.  you want to educate yourself.

Over here nobody judges you.  We are all seen here as students.  

The Big Picture Website

We use a portfolio system but we bring it home by asking students to show us your best work.   What are your strengths?  What are your weaknesses and deterrents?  How can we help you?  We bring in every parent to set up the learning plan to graduate.

By bringing in the community, lie the guitar and music, and having a place that is driven by the passions of young people, it changes everything.

COMMENT ABOUT A SCRATCH ON A TABLE
at Nightingale Middle School:

Is the student guilty of a crime?  The educational community is guilty for not engaging the child to respect his environment.  Most young people in America don't believe that the school belongs to them.

Screenshots from a 2005 video visit to the Met Center in Providence, Rhode Island

This nine-minute video was assembled in 2005 after a visit to the Met Center in Providence, RI.  

MORE CAPTIONS COMING SOON.   I'm having a nap...  


Here are some screenshots from the video with comments.

November 2, 2005:  The typical school day at the Met
starts with a "pick me up" (a pep talk).  

It was a cold day (about 45 degrees at 8 am.) and some students
wore hats and overcoats inside the classroom.

The teacher placed a shoe in the center of the table and asked students to
write about the shoe.  The class also read a Bertoldt Brecht poem about
the maker of the shoe.

This agenda was written and observed at 8:15 am.  The advisory is the time spent with the fifteen students discussing the shoe.

The student describes her recent project to the filmmaker.
The temperature outside at 2 pm (around the time of this video clip) was
about 60 degrees F. (15 degrees C.)
See the weather report for Nov. 2, 2005

These two students walked up to the filmmaker and asked,
"What TV station are you with?"
The students then interviewed each other about their interests
and how the school work follows their passions.

These meetings took place during IWT (Independent Work Time).
The advisor sat with the student to go over recent work and plans for future work.

The Bertoldt Brecht poem  was read together and disucssion,,

Notice the shoe in the center of the table.  The discussion started with a Bertoldt Brecht poem,
expanded to investigate the countries where clothing items were made, and ended with
a discussion of the percentage of items that were made overseas.

The students posted their current interests and their hoped-for future professions

This reading group met after lunch to improve their reading skills.

Key questions are posted on walls of the classroom.

Principal Jody Woodruff in 2005
Head of the Entrepreneurship Center at Met Center in 2014.

Reading class at Met Center, 2005

Students interact at the morning meeting, November 2005

Students in the ninth grade advisory meeting count the number of
clothing items that were assembled in other countries.
The class blended math, geography, science, history, English litearture (with analysis
of a poem) and languages.

Here is an excerpt from the Bertoldt Brecht poem