Back when I was teaching “Designing for College” for the then Ascent Program (Now Pathfinder), the biggest challenge I faced was getting students to talk and engage with me and their fellow classmates. Especially the new, first year students. I started doing WYR’s with them when I started the class. Some of them were quite fun and would actually turn into some heated debates between some of my more vocal and outgoing students. But, they were talking, engaging, and speaking to one another. Plus, they were debating silly topics (be 11ft tall or 9 inches tall?) but students would very logical explanations and create follow up questions.I continued this practice in my TWP class. It went over very well.

Now teaching TWP again, I plan to continue this practice to incorporate more of the HoM’s, including Integrated Perspective, Problem-Solving, practicing their debating skills while also staying curious.