Something new: J Term

Pleasantville Community Schools are trying something new this school year. We have implemented a “J Term” for the first seven days after we return from Winter Break (remember when it used to be called Christmas Break?) The actual length of time will be from January 2 through January 10. This was a result in building the school calendar for this school year and having a need to balance the two semesters while not starting school until the Iowa State Fair was completed on August 18^th.

            This will be for all students in grades 6 through 12 and the students will have choices as to what classes they will attend. We hope that the students will find something that they are passionate about and willing to spend some time in learning. The concept is that students will take one or two classes during these seven days that will have connections to the Iowa Core and teacher and student passions.

            Kudos to Gary Friday and the secondary staff here at Pleasantville in taking this step and trusting that it will work. There are always risks and fears when trying something new. We have modeled this after Spirit Lake’s model and hope that it will be as successful as theirs.

            What’s the biggest risk from my standpoint? I have volunteered to help teach a class. Granted, I haven’t been a lead teacher for a few years but I will have help. Angie Graham from our tech staff will be working with me. Personally, I just hope some kids sign up for our class. We are going to be developing some sort of video that can be used by the school or the city and/or a type of music video starring teachers and students to promote a specific activity. To be honest, I’m more than a little nervous about this whole ordeal. Why am I so nervous? Because I’m counting on the students to teach me how to use iMovie and the editing materials that come with it. I’ve never edited a video before.

            We hope to have the videos posted on our website and other places once we are finished and proud of our product. Our goal is to be able to have our work on You Tube and be seen by thousands. We’ll see and we’ll keep you posted on our progress.