PSII Visit

I thought I was excited to become a teacher, but I was dead wrong. After visiting the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry and seeing what learning and teaching can look like, I’m now truly excited to be a teacher. I have never felt more inspired than I did during my visit to PSII. The experience refined my understanding of what school can be.

My cursory understanding of how the school works is this: students begin with an inquiry. That inquiry might be a subject they want to explore or a question they want to answer. They research, generate more questions, and deepen their understanding over time, often uncovering new inquiries along the way. If you’re really curious about photography and want to learn how to use a darkroom, you can. If you’re interested in figure skating, go for it—learn physical literacy and physics along the way. If you want to know how to make tapioca, there’s a kitchen. Want to build a robot? Sure. Want to synthesize dopamine? Well… maybe not—but you can go to the university and talk to master’s students who are more than happy to nerd out with you about dopamine for a while.

Students are active participants in their learning. They understand that they need to pursue inquiries in certain subject areas to meet graduation requirements and post-secondary prerequisites, and they take responsibility for navigating that balance.

Teachers connect closely with students to help them develop time management and study skills, access information, and refine their learning. They offer mini-lessons one-on-one or facilitate group lessons when multiple students’ inquiries overlap.

Students also have access to higher education systems, libraries, gyms, and the wider community to further their learning.

Walking through PSII feels nothing like a traditional school. There is a studio filled with art supplies, music spaces, sewing machines, pottery wheels, and a kiln. There’s a darkroom, a tech room, a science lab, and a library. Beyond that are countless meeting rooms, offices, and open spaces where students collaborate and work independently.

The biggest difference from a traditional school, though, is the energy. The learners are pumped about their inquiries. They’re excited to be there, excited to share, and deeply passionate about what they’re learning—and of course they are. They’re learning about things that genuinely matter to them. The teachers, too, seem more relaxed. Imagine not spending hours prepping lessons for students who don’t want to learn what you’re teaching, but instead working with a handful of students who are genuinely excited about what you’re saying, and spending the rest of your time facilitating, supporting, and learning alongside them.

I thought I was excited to teach because the BC curriculum is now so flexible. I imagined tailoring it to my future students’ interests, engaging them, and supporting them the way some teachers supported me growing up. But now that I’ve seen how education can—and should—be, I’m not just excited to become a teacher. I’m excited for the future of education.