WISE was the focus at a recent meeting of the Berkshire Principals Group, held in Pittsfield, MA, on a (surprise – for the Berkshires!) icy winter morning, February 11, 2016. Despite the weather, the principals from Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS), in Great Barrington, Drury High School in North Adams, Lee Middle and High school in Lee, Taconic High School in Pittsfield and The Berkshire Readiness Center in North Adams met with David and Karen Spidal, WISE Services liaisons, and Ed Barrett, WISE Coordinator for MMRHS.

It was an opportunity for the people who knew WISE well, Marianne Young, Principal of MMRHS, and Ed Barrett, along with the Spidals, to share with other local educational leaders the unique opportunities that WISE offers.

Monument Mountain Principal Takes the Lead in Introducing WISE                      Marianne Young, chair of the Berkshire Principals group, started by introducing the topic of “opportunities for individualized student-directed learning”, then turned the session over to the WISE team to show the way WISE gives students opportunities to create their very own individualized educational experiences.

Karen Spidal spoke of the need to prepare students for life after high school. WISE is the partner that can help high schools develop a program for seniors of all ability levels and give them the opportunity to design individualized, passion-drive projects that empower that transition from high school to college, work and lifelong learning.

Dave Spidal outlined WISE’s history, showing how it has more than stood the test of time since its beginnings, 40 years ago, with its expansion since then to over a hundred schools, including MMRHS where the program began in the 1998 – 1999 school year. WISE there has grown into a model program, involving not only current students and faculty but members of the community and WISE participants past and present in a dynamic and ever evolving program.

WISE Flourishing at MMRHS                                                                                                      That was the cue for Ed Barrett, MMRHS’s WISE coordinator, to talk about the program as it now exists in Great Barrington. He traced its growth from the original model to the current format in which the Task Force, consisting of faculty members as well as thoroughly invested members of the community and past and present students, is an integral part of the WISE experience.  It is the Task Force at MMRHS that begins the process for WISE students in their junior year with initial interviews about their possible hopes and plans for WISE, that has its members pitching in during the process on an individualized basis, and that conducts the ultimate evaluation of finished projects and the process as a whole.

WISE: Its Variety, Its Individualization, Its Reach and Its Effect                                          Ed also shared the variety of projects taken on by students and the ways in which all schools involved in WISE programs individualize their programs to fit their own specific needs. He cited the importance of the WISE network, with so many participating schools contributing ideas to each other through formal and informal channels alike, and especially through WISE conferences, such as the Coordinator Forums where WISE ideas become positively contagious.

Transformation, for Students and Teachers Alike                                                              Both Ed and MMRHS’s Principal, Marianne Young, were vocal about the change they see in the students as the WISE process unfolds, the ways in which their attitudes change during the process, the motivation they develop, and the amazing quality of their final presentations. And it’s not only the students who develop as part of this. Teachers who act as mentors go through no less of a transformation as they begin to see themselves as guides, not ‘teachers’. P

Marianne Young finished up the session with some further description of the MMRHS program and numbers (normally between 15 and 25 students participate in WISE each year) and, after a brief question and answer period, closed down the session. She is sending out a summary of the presentation along with WISE handout packets to the principals at all of the schools in Berkshire County, including those who had originally intended on being there but had been prevented from doing so by the usual challenging school responsibilities and the Berkshire County winter weather.

We look forward to welcoming more Berkshire County schools into the WISE fold!