My Experience at UPSM!

Last week, I went to UPSM (University Prep Science and Math) in Detroit with Rachel Phillips where I enjoyed observing a learning environment different than one I have ever witnessed before. As I walked into Compuware's beautiful gigantic headquarters equipped with an amazing water fountain, a Hard Rock Cafe, a Borders and other stores, I was already overwhelmed that middle schoolers were somewhere in the building. As soon as we got to the 11th floor where the middle schoolers were, I heard a bunch of kids screaming at the top of their lungs. It was Halloween so everyone had colorful costumes and tons of energy. Even most of the teachers and staff had costumes on!

Although I mostly observed the students, I learned so much about how a different learning environment can enhance a student's motivation and willingness to learn. This is an amazing experience for the students because there are only a couple hundred students and they receive a lot of attention from their teachers. Even more exciting, within the next year the prep school will be having daily classes at the Detroit Science Center so they will be exposed to museum exhibits and the like on a daily basis! That is an extraordinary opportunity in my opinion!

There were a few small things that I noticed that were different than conventional methods / approaches to teaching that I would like to highlight:

The layout: Although the Compuware headquarters is a temporary location for the students, it works extremely well for middle school students or students with high amounts of energy. Everything is in close proximity, even the superintendent's office is a heartbeat away from anyone of the classrooms. There were no 'doors' to the classrooms. I really can't even classify the rooms as 'classrooms' because all that separated any one of them was a wall, which I thought was very effective because it gives the students an opportunity to have more face time with all of the teachers. Also, the classroom was not set up with rows of desks like most normal classrooms. There were about 4 - 5 tables in the room so students were forced to sit in groups which makes it easier for the teacher to be more interactive. Although the rooms were a little crunched, the intimacy between the students and teacher, with the teacher not standing in the front of the room, but walking around constantly seemed to encourage the students to ask and answer questions and be motivated to be involved with the lesson.

Teachers going to lunch with the students: I understand that these kids are a little younger, so they need more guidance, but the fact that some of the teachers have the chance and the time to eat lunch with the students is an important factor which I believe builds respect and trust, which could really enhance their limited time in the classroom.

Letting the Students Pioneer: This was a brilliant idea in my opinion. There are a lot of advantages to starting a brand new school system, and that is there are no rules! It seems that the management of this new school is very focused on reaching the students in a way that takes the least prying and that is the most effective. Since a lot of communication in our generation is through technology, and this school has the resources to use different communication devices and applications, they are appropriately making an effort to use technology whenever possible. I briefly met the superintendent and she was discussing to Rachel, another TF, how there are currently no student clubs and how the students need active extracurricular activities like a debate club, or a student council. The neat thing is, they are going to let the students pioneer these student clubs, kind of like they will be entrepreneurs starting their own business. Not only is this a practical experience, the students would have credit for building their own organizations from scratch which is generally not offered in traditional systems that don't offer much leverage.

Students looked happy: One of the biggest things I noticed is that the students looked happy to be at school. Again, this is slightly hard to compare to high school students which are a little older and mature, and have a million and one other things to worry about, but these students were definitely excited about learning and I feel as though the openness of their environment and the setting had a lot to do with it. They seemed motivated by the fact that they could feel like someone had a lot invested in their learning and took pride in beginning to appreciate their self-worth.