Does it work?

Know Safety, No Injury

No Safety, Know Injury

Our class did a quick assignment yesterday to help them review for their MAJOR safety test. Our students aren't allowed to start at work until they have mastered the key safety concepts (usually demonstrated by achieving a 80% or higher on the unit test, or retest, or retest, or retest). One pair of lovely quiet young ladies walked us through the bolded quotation above. I was so impressed. The play on words was terrific and the fact these young ladies both have English as a third language made their choice of activity even more meaningful.

I was quite impressed with all the students choice of focus. Many reviewed the key concepts of Right to Refuse Unsafe Work; Right to Participate and the Right to Know. They brought these concepts alive in unique and amusing ways. Others chose to focus on specific aspects of safety. Some reviewed the types of hazards for example and provoked some interesting discussions. I'm optimistic that students will recall what a biological hazard is after my quite graphic definition.

We have some nice flash cards, posters and other written material to share in the future as well.

We are quite obsessed with safety in our program. We devote more than the required time to it as the statistics about youth safety at the workplace are really quite frightening. The videos we show and the discussions we have are often quite enlightening for students but it's hard not to worry that they will still make poor choices around personal safety at work. Adolescents often have a sense of immortality that makes them feel safe in any circumstance. Experience can be a very hard teacher of this lesson.

This was the first time we tried letting students review for the test in this way so I'm curious to see if it worked to help them retain central ideas or if we will be moving back to the silent study, teacher lecture model that bores me nearly senseless.

You Don't Have to Be a Sheep

Journals are a mandated part of coop. Most students type a very traditional journal. They write one or two a week. They select a topic (either on their own or from a list of prompts that we email out to students every couple of weeks); tell us what happened; and then reflect on the growth they have demonstrated or what they have learned from it.
Some students get a little creative. They do some oral journals. One kept a blog of her experiences. One chose to hand write her journal as she felt it was more personal that way. Some students want worksheets to fill in. Some students keep daily records and then reflect on one item from the week. As long as there is meaningful reflection and open communication students have met the biggest requirement of the journal assignment. Reflection is personal - and demonstrates growth.
Journals are graded by levels. Any product a student creates that meets the criteria for honest meaningful reflection is evaluated on the same standard.
Any student is welcome to be as creative as they would like when trying journals. Just because we haven't yet read a script; watched a film; had a brochure or poster handed in doesn't mean we wouldn't welcome them! If this is a place a student wants to be creative - GO FOR IT!!