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Pathways of Curiosity
Cameron Yuen-Shore, Director of Special Projects
“Cam…..when will the electives be posted?”
“Cam…..when will the electives be posted?”
“Cam….what time do you think we’ll find out our electives today?”
“Cam....I know they’re not posted yet, but do you know which elective I’m going to be in???”
For one week at the beginning of each semester I get to feel like the most popular middle school employee that’s ever walked the halls at Brandeis. After hearing about all of the elective options, students fill out choice forms and eagerly, if not always patiently … wait. At first I wrote off this avalanche of questions as the status quo approach tweenagers take to anything and everything they’re interested in. If they want it, they want it now. Snack, feedback on a quiz, more snack, etc. Caring about an administrative timeline, process, or protocol is not at the top of a middle schooler’s priorities. However, I’ve started to notice a different feeling around the electives in assemblies and those one-off conversations with students. There is a palpable buzz students feel when given the agency to choose part of their class slate, and each one of those questions is a window into that student excitement.
When I read in the 2023 Strategic Plan that “the school gives students agency in their learning by allowing them to design their own meaningful projects and curious pathways through learning,” I immediately think of the middle school electives. Want to learn how to manipulate images in Photoshop? Great! Build a bookcase out of a single board? Excellent! Fabricate a Rube Goldberg machine to set the table for Shabbat? We got it! Screen print on fabric, cook traditional Israeli cuisine, perform or tech crew a musical, publish a zine? Sign up! No matter what your curiosity, there are so many pathways for students to pick, it will make your head spin.
The 2023 strategic plan further mandates that we “create a plan to guide innovation and integration throughout the K–8 program and across the curriculum, including in our experiential education and arts programs.” The arts team has been hard at work in the middle school to make that goal a reality, crafting the right blend of challenge, choice, and skill building into their elective curricula in fifth through eighth grade. The graduating class of 2020 is the first middle school group to have three years of Tuesday and Thursday Arts Elective in their schedule. While negotiating that time in the week was an important canvas to create, the work of that faculty has truly filled it in with vibrant color and learning and will continue to use the strategic instructional plan to shape their work.
Finally, the strategic plan implores that “Brandeis teachers model lifelong learning and collaboration, working in teams to design innovative curricula.” I can think of no better example of co-teaching and collaboration than the work our arts teachers have done in the fifth and sixth grade rotations. Maker Education, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts are all being taught by brilliant teams of educators, and their work of blending their teaching voices, styles, and talents are a great model to our middle school students on a weekly basis.
Now, instead of answering those student questions each spring and fall in a monotone, “Electives will be posted online, Thursday, at noon”, I’ve started to look at each one as an invitation to start a conversation. In those conversations this past month you would have heard me say, “Which elective did you put as your top choice? Why did you pick that one? That’s so cool! I didn’t know you were so interested in that! That would be my favorite one too!” The curiosity and eagerness to investigate that Brandeis students show will never cease to amaze me, and I can’t wait to see where all of their curious pathways take them this semester!
