Most Likely To Succeed Video Reflection.

What was the Most Likely To Succeed Video about?
The video ‘Most Likely To Succeed’ is about a school (High Tech High) that is trying nontraditional approaches to education methods. The film aims for its viewers to reimage what changes can be made in the education setting and how these changes will be more beneficial for student’s overall learning in the future.

What Did I Learn From The Video?
The traditional block subjects we use in school today were an idea that originally was founded during the Industrial Revolution. The block schedule school system was structured around creating students who could become transferable factory workers. High Tech High tries a different approach than having the traditional core block subjects they have a no-bell schedule. Students go to whatever classes they need to go to and spend however much time in the class that they need during the school day. The students at High Tech High liked this schedule as it promoted self-confidence to take charge of their own learning.

What Was Surprising About The Video?
The video focused on the importance of students gaining soft skills so they could succeed in the future workforce. For reference soft skills are skills like teamwork, communication, creativity, etc. High Tech High prioritizes soft skills in education over the typical memorization and regurgitation method. As time moves into a more predominantly technology-based workforce many middle-class jobs will be non-existent. That is why High Tech High believes soft skills to be so important because they are skills that computers cannot complete.

What Problems Or Opportunities Did I Find About The Video?
The teachers at High Tech High sign off on a one-year contract and have complete control over what they teach to their students as they have no curriculum they need to follow. I find this to be a problem and an opportunity. On the bright side as a teacher, you can spend however much time you think is needed to teach your lessons and you can focus on what you find to be the most valuable information. On the negative side, you only have a job for a year. That can become very stressful as you don’t know if you have a guaranteed job in the future. Another problem is the teachers at High Tech High had backlash from parents. Some parents thought because their child was not learning from a curriculum they were not learning as much as a child who did follow the curriculum learning standards.

Will I Take Any Of My Learnings From The Video Into My Own Classroom?
I really enjoyed the importance of teamwork and soft skills that was demonstrated by the students at High Tech High. As a future elementary school teacher, I think spending extra time with students to learn those soft skills is a necessity for my students to be successful later in life. Teamwork in the classroom is huge in my opinion. Teamwork helps promote confidence, hearing other people’s ideas, and builds friendships. I really liked how High Tech High was a project-based school. I like projects and will be incorporating them in my classroom because I find them to be an effective way to see what students know and what they have learned. Projects also encourage students to fully understand what they are explaining not just memorize a definition for an answer on a typical test.