ED Secondary Alternative teaches creative skills for the digital age

(TNS) – Students of Thurgood Marshall Learning Center obtain practical education in creativity in the digital age, podcasts with creative writing.

Chris Britton's digital media course on the alternative secondary program of the Rock Island-Milan school district covers everything, digital audio workspaces and sound engineering with self-expression and photo and video skills.

Class sizes generally go from seven to 10 students, said Britton. Due to the emphasis on the program on transferable skills and creativity, it tends to be popular among students.

“Students are excited because they learn new things, and they are able to express themselves,” said Britton.

“I think that, in another school environment, sometimes students are not used to being able to express in a creative way (things) that take place outside the class,” he said. “So we can somehow mix academics with” real “things.”

On Thursday, students practiced how to conduct interviews on a podcast.

Juniors Daniel Irakoze and John Britton said they wanted to take digital media because they like music – although the latter admitted that his uncle teaches the class was also a factor.

“They don't have this course in Rocky (Rock Island High School), so it's something that stands out too,” said John.

Their classmate, Jakayla Walsh, said that she wanted to take the course after hearing stellar criticism of other students.

“I heard that it was the most fun class and that we can do a lot of different things,” she said. “I like that we can make beats … different types of beats, with different instruments.”

TMLC students learn sound engineering from an application called Bandlab – allowing them to work on missions or refine their creative skills, at home without the need for fantasy equipment.

“I do it at my own pace,” said Daniel, adding later that he was interested in pursuing music as a career after having graduated.

“I know rap,” said John.

The students in the class make their sound producer debut by making three to five intro beats for their future podcasts, which they can personalize.

“They learn the whole concept and the history of the production of hip hop beats … But we make them (also) well balanced. They must learn to create rock stuff,” said Britton. “They learn that, if they are producers, they could have customers who do not want sounds they like.”

Students practice their communication skills, their podcasting label and their digital audio workspaces by giving “simulated” interviews with TMLC staff. After the fall holidays, they will start developing their own unique podcasts on various subjects of their choice.

“It is then that it becomes really interesting,” said Chris Britton, adding that students also acquire team consolidation skills via podcasting.

Acting as the “host” of a podcast can be intimidating for some, he said.

“But the aspect of team consolidation understands that everyone can still play a role. We need someone who writes (scripts), making the beats in the same way we need someone,” said Britton.

While some, like Daniel, prefer the aspect of production of podcasting, Jakayla liked to learn to handle the microphone.

“It's going to be fun to do interviews and (understand) questions to ask,” she said. “If you like music, or if you like to speak (and) get to know people, it would be a good class for you.”

Whatever the element of the digital media that a student could favor, Britton see positive results of the class.

“Honestly, I'm just grateful for the district and the administration to see like that in alternative space, we can use these alternative methods to help students do something that may not be interested at the start,” he said. “I see the academic enrichment in which we want (Rock Island-Milan).”

Creativity to a career

Nate Wirth graduated from Thurgood Marshall in 2020, after having frequented rock Island High School until he was in mid-June.

Until Britton's creative writing course, Wirth said that he “traveled the movements” by Thurgood Marshall.

Now he is writing his first science fiction novel.

“I did not know completely if I wanted to continue creative writing as a career at the time,” said Wirth. “(Britton's class) was honestly very inspiring. … He has always been very passionate about everything we have done and has always been super happy to hear our creative voices in any context.”

At Rock Island High School, he remembers having “a lot of problems” with his social life and his return to school work. But Wirth said Britton's practical teaching style was the “perfect match” for him as a supplier.

“Not only that, but at the time, he was one of the few people who really believed in my creations and my aspirations,” Wirth said. “It certainly helped a lot with motivation, keeping me on the right track.”

For Wirth, his teachers were the “best part” of his time in TMLC.

“My teachers were much more receptive to me and my difficulties with school work,” he said, adding later that he thought that alternative education programs (and students) tend to obtain a “bad rap”.

“I feel like one of the greatest false ideas on alternative education is that they are bad children or exhaustors,” added Wirth. “But this is not what the alternative education centers serve … It had a positive impact on me and could have a positive impact on another teenager like me.”

Thurgood Marshall's junior John Britton had an equally positive experience, citing his “character development”.

“I'm not going to lie, I was not going to graduate if I stayed in Rocky,” he said. “So that helped me a lot on the academic level, and it just helped me get out of this state of mind of” little child “in which I was.”

Wirth said he also had the opportunity to finish the assignments of “alternative” tests in certain classes at Thurgood Marshall, allowing him to sharpen his writing skills outside the Britton class.

“At some point, I just started to do them for fun, an additional credit on the side,” he said.

Even in the middle of the construction of the world, his first novel, Wirth, always takes the time to write other fun projects next to it. He recently entered poetry via QC stories, a non -profit organization of Rock Island offering free poetry lessons on Wednesday – by coincidence, taught by Chris Britton.

“When he graduated, I did not know how some of the creative writing things would stay,” said Britton about Wirth. “So hearing that he has been working on this (novel) for a few years was incredible, it was incredible.”

Come on spring, Wirth also plans to continue a creative writing diploma at Western Illinois University Quadies or Black Hawk College.

“The best thing he (Britton) taught me was to” jump “in things; don't think about it too much and do not write,” said Wirth, admitting that he had trouble with perfectionism in the past. “Get everything you want to withdraw from your system, on paper … You can go to the end details later.”

He tries to use this approach with his own creative writing process. After starting to think about the construction of the world of his novel and the intrigue in adolescence, Wirth said he had learned a lot.

“I now have a detailed roadmap of how I want history to be written,” he said. “Everything must do now, it's just writing it.”

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