Our goal at Hemet Unified School District is to prepare students for life after high school. In order to ensure students are prepared for college, the workforce, or to enter into a branch of the military, they must be thinking about what they would like to do in terms of a career. Alessandro High School staff has created the Friday Explorers Program to introduce students to new activities and subject areas.
The Friday Explorers Program was created by teacher Francis Garrison. Garrison created this program to engage students on campus in hands-on activities, continue to build a positive school culture, and present an opportunity for students to accrue hours toward elective credits. The Friday Explorer Program will be offered on the last Friday of every month by staff members on campus who have an expertise in a certain area. Garrison said, “Student will leave each monthly class with a new skill and, often, with something they’ve made with their own hands.” For example, last month’s Friday Explorers Program was a design/engineering project where students used newspapers to build tables.
Future lesson plans for the Friday Explorers Program will vary in diversity; this month students will be learning how to crochet. Garrison said future lesson plans will include sports and delving into the instruction in officiating; there will be a yoga workshop, a cooking class, and a biology lesson that will include the dissection of owl pellets. Garrison the maximum enrollment for these classes is around 20, but that can vary depending on the topic.
Thank you to the Alessandro staff for creating a program that helps engage students on campus and provides an opportunity for them to learn new skills and subject areas, and start thinking about their future.