A New Rhythm

There’s no getting around the fact that the Burlington City & Lake Semester program is different. By the time they arrive in BCL, students have spent more than a decade of their school lives moving from room to room, marking the hours with predictable timetables and bells. The real world, of course, is less predictable, less standardized, and less time-bound. It’s not surprising that BCL feels unique.

Luckily, it doesn’t take long to adapt to a new rhythm. At this point, we’re a few weeks in, and students have met with dozens of community partners; they’ve already engaged in real-world research; they’ve taken full ownership over Morning Meeting. There are already inside jokes. The laughter is comfortable laughter. They are BCL, and BCL is theirs.

At this point, the experience is comfortable enough to be embraced, but new enough to still be seen. These early weeks offer a unique vantage point. It’s a great moment to gather students’ impressions about what makes this experience different.

Sitting in a circle and actually engaging with other students is different from BHS. Also the little five minute breaks are different. I appreciate this because doing continuous work for long periods of time without a break gets overwhelming. It also feels good to actually do activities and talk to all these different kind of people and not look at one teacher for knowledge. Students are given more freedom in assignments like the projects we do., We’re also allowed to do different things to show our learning, not just in essay format.
– Ifrah

BCL feels like it’s out of school. It feels good I guess to get out, and not be stuck at a desk all day.
– Hilowle

BCL is a total 360 from traditional school. A big thing for me is that BCL incorporates fun which makes students actually want to be in the space. There are also no lectures or assigned chapters from a textbook, it is very student and discussion focused. Partners from the community come in all the time to talk to us which has only happened once in my traditional high school experience. Being in a space with windows, going outside, talking with your peers, hearing from people outside of the classroom is what makes BCL unique.

It’s very freeing as well, and feels like a weight off my shoulders. There are no bells in the ONE Center to direct you to your next block, there are opportunities to learn about the history of Burlington by getting outside and working with community partners, there are windows! It feels less tiring and stressful to be here.
– Layla

Our O.N.E. Center classroom already feels like a welcoming home base.

Students read stories inspired by fellow students’ memories.

BCL is unique because we get to experience what Burlington is really like. We also get to talk to people to get more information about Burlington. I like that we are focused on making Burlington a better community. I don’t see traditional school doing this.
– Semin

The environment at BCL is truly unique, blending interactive learning with a vibrant community atmosphere. The dedication of the teachers is noticeable, with everyone united by a shared commitment to making BCL to make the best possible experience for us, the students.
– Dylan

It feels strange to be in a different building from BHS, but I’m getting used to it still and I kind of like the walk despite how long it is. I am curious to see how this semester goes.
– Kylee

BCL is different from a traditional school because we’re in a smaller place with a smaller group of students. It’s also different from a traditional school because we do outside activities we make our learning based about what we see and hear and problems going on. We make our learning more about Burlington and things we can do to help. This feels important, because at school they don’t teach us much about Burlington. BCL helps us learn more and more about [this place.] It’s nice to learn more because once we grow up it’s good to know the environment we’re in and the community we have.
– Bahja

On Monday we learned about the Abenaki way of knowing with Judy Dow, then after that, we all went for a walk. Judy was talking about how there was a lot of smuggling of moonshine, which is a homemade liquor, during the prohibition period of the US during the 20s-30s. She was explaining how a taxi business on the north street would smuggle moonshine all around Burlington. She also showed us the buildings made in the 1920s and what the buildings were used for. This was all new information.
– Zeke

Abenaki Educator, Judy Dow, invited us to peel off the layers of the neighborhood’s history.

With practice, it became easy to see North Street’s past.

Did we do this activity before lunch? (While designing an ideal city, one group was apparently hungry.)

With the help of Emily Schaller, a colleague from Shelburne Farms, students overlayed the 17 U.N. SDGs over their illustrated cities.

Pausing for a group shot, after Ryan Nest and Filipe Vivanco helped us explore frameworks related to equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Stories are everywhere. Students were rapt as Sam Dingba shared his immigration story.

As students reflected on what feels different about BCL, it didn’t take long for a common theme to emerge. After only a few days of learning about the geography, history, and culture of our city, students began to notice the feelings that emerged: curiosity, wonder, and relief.

Whether they have recently arrived, or whether they’ve been in Burlington all their lives, students noticed how distant their school experience is from the city they call home. Some remarked that they had never learned about the place they live. Interestingly though, rather than feeling uncomfortable, BCL’s place-based focus feels meaningful, and natural.

My traditional high school experience isn’t that connected to Burlington. Even though our school is in the center of Burlington, it’s not as connected to the city as it should be. What makes BCL unique is we actually get to explore Burlington instead of just staying inside at the high school, and we get to meet with community partners and learn from their experiences in Burlington as well. [In BCL,] I explore the city and I’m actually moving around and really feeling the environment and locking in on what’s happening in Burlington.
– Khamis

Because we go to school right here, our school should teach us about our history. Everyone knows how…we just don’t get the chance to learn about it.
– Mustafa

I think it’s important to learn about where you live because most likely this is where we are going to spend a big part of our lives, and it’s important to know what’s going on around us.
– Caleb

What feels different about doing school in the O.N.E Center for me is that I’m exited to see what adventures we will go on. I also felt like it was a big change in my schedule and the environment meeting new people places and things so it felt like a win, and I hope to keep it that way. I also…like how everyone’s voice is heard and seen and able to have open discussion, because we don’t get that at school. BCL has really brought brighter creative ideas for me.
– Fataiya

Journaling in the (rare) winter sunshine

Students’ “Understanding Burlington” projects gave them a chance to use qualitative research methods out in the real world.

It was fun to be an audience for these projects, as every one offered a new perspective on the city.

We never learn about the about the city in regular school or see the light of day because we don’t have windows. It’s important to know about the place you live and being with a small group everyday creates deeper community than high school.

BHS happens to be in Burlington, and students take pride in being Vermonters (hence vt day in spirit week) but other than that there is no history of Burlington or even Vermont at school, only American history or world history. I feel connected to Burlington outside of school usually although you can go downtown at lunch sometimes. Learning about a town deepens your connection to it and that curiosity will stick with you when you go to other places.
– Helen

My high school experience is not very connected to the community. We don’t learn a lot about Burlington, and I think it’s really important to learn about the city because this is our place. It’s important for us to know the history of our land, so maybe we can take better care of our place and treat it better and also understand our place more.

BCL also makes us really slow down and actually see what’s going on in our community, and it gives us the opportunity to go outside and experience the world… It also feels like we’re learning things for a purpose. All the things we are learning are about the world and the community, and it makes us have different perspectives on the world and helps us think in a different way. Those are really important things for life.
– Tobey

BHS doesn’t make me feel connected to Burlington very much. I don’t feel any community connection at BHS. BHS and Burlington are in two different t categories in my mind.

Here, I feel like we learn more about local history, something that we don’t learn much in class at BHS. It also feels like we have more freedom about what we want to learn about and make projects on, and we don’t have to be stuck writing an essay about some guys from 1800s Europe.
– Ahmed