VR Tech Staff Development: Ropes Course 2011

VR Tech High School is a very different kind of high school. It is a school that is based on online classes, but the students have a staff that keeps track of them, gives guidance, cares about them as individuals, and helps them to persist in their studies. I can honestly say that I have never, in all my years of teaching, enjoyed my work place as much as I have at VR Tech. I say that having taught for years in alternative education, which I loved with a passion. VR Tech is something of an alternative education situation, but remarkable in that it is well-structured and well-supported. Our students didn’t do well in a traditional high school, but they are doing very well here. The trust and respect between the teachers and the students is quite remarkable. There are many reasons for that, but much of this success is due, really, to Deb Feenstra who runs the program. She has a remarkable ability to create a positive, cooperative atmosphere, that is low-stress, but highly productive. She is also good at networking with many community groups and churches to give the students opportunities they would not otherwise get, and she is a very good advocate for her program, students and staff. It is a “happy ship”, as Patrick O’Brian, the author of the “Master and Commander” series would say, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it.

One example of how different the program is, is shown in this video. It is of our staff development. Instead of having long meetings full of the usual in-service work and seminars, from which teachers come away feeling tired and sometimes even lectured to, Deb arraigned for us to go out to a place called the Filmore complex in West Olive, Michigan, to a ropes course that has been set up for troubled teens to push themselves and find out what they can do. Deb wanted us to use the course to do some team building exercises. I really appreciated it. I also appreciate the fact that we have pretty much the same group of teachers and staff that we had last year in spite of all the lay-offs and economic trouble my school district has had to face. I’m glad because we are a very good team. We work well together, and that makes us better able serve needs of our students—and those needs are very real, and run very deep.