We Do This Everyday #16

Hi everyone,

Lauren McMinn and Olivia Grugan here! We are Virtual Learning Specialists with the World of Learning Institute. We did a podcast takeover this week while Pat was away. We have had some ideas brewing about what we dream of in designing a learning experience and just had to share.

First, we talked about experiences that we’ve had in the past that stood out for us as particularly wonderful:

• Lauren shared about her experience creating a new scope and sequence for level 1 French alongside a Spanish colleague. The Real World Homework idea from Creative Language Class provided her students with a way to interact with the language outside of the classroom. Quick takeaway: shampoo bottles can be an authentic resource! 

• Olivia taught at a summer program for high school students interested in health care at the University of Pittsburgh. The course Olivia designed and taught was called “Hippocrates in Court.” This interdisciplinary course provided students with information about Supreme Court cases and the chance to role-play as justices, gavel and all.

Next, we talked about what we currently do at the World of Learning that we feel is pretty dreamy:

• The NaTakallam partnership allows our Arabic students to have refugee conversation partners visit their Zoom classrooms to talk with our students about their experiences. Our students get to use their Arabic language skills as well as the disciplines of history, politics, social studies, and geography to fully understand the experience of their NaTakallam partner. Olivia makes a great point that learners want to know how to use what they are learning. 

Our past and present experiences tell us that great learning experiences are cross-curricular and contain some kind of real-world relevance. So where do we go from here?

We’ve been dreaming of some classes we’d love to teach along with the subjects they would connect. Would you want to take any of these?

1. Holocaust and Human Behavior - Psychology, History, German

2. Living on Mount Olympus - Latin, English Literature, Ancient History 

3. Experimenting in French: The Amazing Life of Marie Curie  - French, Science, History 

Wouldn’t an elementary-level course based on the life of Marie Curie be an amazing experience for any child, but especially girls interested in STEM? When learning isn’t “siloed” so much is possible! As Olivia states: “We don’t start out in life knowing anything about disciplines. You have to be taught that disciplines exist. You have to be taught to separate stuff out. You start out with it all integrated.”

What if we reimagined learning with courses that were integrated across subject areas and incorporated real-world experiences? Clearly, we have our work cut out for us, but we are very excited about the possibilities. 

What do you think about the multidisciplinary approach to learning? Do you have any dream classes that you’d love to teach or take? Tell us in the comments below!