/GAT Project/ Intro - Steve Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is

O hai everyone! Welcome to the revamped website!

This is the first in a series of posts tracking a radical new school structure I am pioneering with my colleague Ms Talar Khatchoyan in Years 9 and 10. It's a pilot program that could become universal.

We're calling it the GAT Class, for reasons I shall explain one day. 

The premise: No program. No tests. No teacher talk. No outcomes. No bureaucracy.

The students will show up on day 1, and will begin to define their own learning pathway as they find clarity regarding where they want to go.

We're starting with a modest number of students, with an entire spectrum of academic track records. In fact, during the pilot, the students themselves will help equip the structures around the course.

Structure?! Well, yes, of course: structure is the million dollar question.

Structure does not equal bureaucracy or paper work, does not need to emerge from the teacher, does not need to be the same for each student, does not need to be set in concrete.

Structure, rigour, pressure, accountability, wild ambition, real-world application, light-bulb moments at two-a-penny. All this and more, is the aim. / GAT / is going to be nitro-learning, steroid-learning; the sort of learning that happens when you're obsessed and in love and are veritably seduced by the process.

More, I cannot tell for the moment. Stand by for the unfolding saga! Talar will post her thoughts here too, as will students. We'll document the whole journey and hopefully we'll see how structured learning can be without any of the standard structures we associate with schooling.

This is the first in a series of blog posts entitled /GAT Project/ They will appear regularly at this website, categorised under 'GAT Project'. If you'd like to receive future posts, you can:

- click here to subscribe to Steve's blog in general by email, or here in a reader.

- click here http://www.happysteve.com/contact/ and indicate 'GAT Posts Only' in the message body - I'll email you when I update the GAT Project just for the duration of the series.

- or regularly check this link for new posts: http://www.happysteve.com/blog/tag/gat-project