Student-led Explorations empower students & increase choice

Friday Explorations emphasize student choice, allowing students to select classes specficially to explore passions more deeply or in a new direction, augment their learning, or try something entirely new. Explorations also provide new learning possibilities: teachers share interests and skills beyond what they regularly teach, take students off campus, and bring in guest experts. One of the most exciting ways that Explorations create both student choice and new learning possibilities is through student-led Explorations.

“As a teacher, it is our job to inspire and empower students, and this is a totally different way to do that.„

A big value to student-led Explorations is the diversity it creates in options, because there are more minds working on creating plans,” Ms. Katie Petersen-Snider, sixth grade English teacher and Exploration Coordinator said. To lead an Exploration, a student partners with a faculty or staff member, a partnership that either unfolds naturally as the result of work they are already doing together, or through an idea a student proposes.

Nali Coan, a senior, resdiscovered her passion for creative writing last spring in Explorations led by English teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Young. “I’ve been doing creative writing my whole life, but I had stopped because of school work and other passions. Being involved in the writing Explorations got me back into it. It was amazing working with a group of people who love writing as much as I do.” Based on her enthusiasm for those Explorations, she and Mrs. Young decided that she would lead some. This semester, Nali is taking the lead on a series called the Altered Book Project, which blends writing and visual art. Nali’s Explorations are forming an integral piece of her Senior Internship, “The Writer’s Notebook.”

Student-led explorations support other TGS programs.

Working with social sciences teacher Dr. Kerry Adams, senior Gigi Kimme-Hea is also offering Friday Explorations as part of her Senior Internship–a study of pilgrimage and its cultural, historical, societal, personal, and spiritual significance. Gigi has led a series of Friday Explorations in which students visit, research, and reflect upon shrines in the Tucson area. “We talk about how it’s not just a physical journey to a sacred site, but it also encompasses multiple levels of significance,” she said. Gigi and Dr. Adams will reconvene with the students during Explorations throughout the course of the Internship.

Student-led explorations benefit everyone.

“Students who sign up for another student’s Exploration see their peers in a new light and find another trait of value for that person," Ms. Petersen-Snider said. "They may also try something that they would not normally choose because a friend is teaching it. It helps them become more open to new things.” 

Students who choose to lead Explorations benefit in many ways. “They learn how to plan and lead, develop organizational and logistical skills, and communicate their passions,” Ms. Petersen-Snider said. “It empowers them. They feel a sense of pride, ownership, and accomplishment.”

Fifth grader Nathan Pozez, who led a latke-making Exploration for Upper School students, agreed. “The hardest thing was trying to figure out the right day and to get people to sign up. I only had one person, so I asked if I could go to an Upper School meeting. I went and presented my idea to the upper schoolers, and I got five more people to sign up.”

Nathan asked for the opportunity to lead the exploration because, “I’ve always wanted to share Jewish culture with people who aren’t Jewish to show them what it’s like and I thought, ‘I should just do this,’ and, of course with the help of Mr. Saul and Chef Noelle, I got to do it.”

Students who lead Explorations gain interesting insights into being on the other side of the classroom equation. Nathan said, “I learned that I need to show people how to do it, but to also interact with people and then they actually can help out.”

Nali said that at first she was nervous about public speaking, but then, “I put myself in the place of a student and realized that we’re not judging the presenter; we’re there to learn. If you really think about it, what you’re doing is benefitting people and they are excited about it and you are all there to learn from each other.”

This is true for our actual teachers, as well. “As teachers, we get the opportunity to learn from students and to be involved in their Explorations as partners and participants, discovering something we may know nothing about,” Ms. Petersen-Snider said. “There is something really lovely about co-hosting with a student. As a teacher, it is our job to inspire and empower students, and this is a totally different way to do that.”

New student-led Explorations coming soon include soccer knowlege by seventh graders Dylan Hunter and Taha Mapara and healthy eating by seventh grader Ethan Strebel.