To educators, Washington Metropolitan High School (DC Met) is an alternative school with a devoted staff. To district leaders, it is a failure. To many of the school's students, it is home - a safe haven from sometimes unsparingly difficult lives. Whatever one's vantage, 180 Days: A Year inside an American High School provides an intimate portrait of this fledgling school's day-to-day stories, condensing a full school year - 180 days - into four hours (2 two-hour episodes). With a dynamic and charismatic young principal and five remarkable kids at the center of the story, 180 Days invites viewers in for an unprecedented first-hand look of life inside of a school that tries to meet the needs of some of our nation's most challenged students.
This Engagement Toolkit version includes only one hour of the documentary, but has two discussion guides: a general discussion guide and a youth discussion guide. The questions and activities in these guides are designated primarily for: Teacher educators, educational leadership programs, professional development specialists, and professional learning communities.
Ideal for use in faculty meetings, workshops, college classes and online courses.
Topics include:
School reform policies in which standardized test scores are central to accountability;
The realities of teaching in an under-resourced urban high school;
The challenges faced by a first-year teacher;
The job of principal in a turn-around school;
Teaching students whose backgrounds differ from your own;
Teaching students who have experienced trauma;
Striving for educational equity in the face of racial and economic disparities; and much more.