Flexible pathways > Center of Community Connections (C3)

Center of Community Connections

The Center of Community Connections (C3) is about “outside-of-the-box” learning.

It's student-designed and student-driven. C3 provides a flexible learning environment by utilizing the community as an extension of the classroom.

High school students can satisfy graduation requirements and develop important transferable skills through a variety of experiences, including internships, career exploration, independent studies, teaching assistantships, and work-based learning.

Common elements

C3 experiences are personalized, which means that, to some degree, no two C3 experiences are alike. That being said, C3 experiences have some common elements, including the starting place of all C3 experiences: a learning plan developed by the student with the support of the C3 staff. That learning plan addresses one or more of these key questions:

  • What do you want to explore?

  • What do you want to learn?

  • What do you want to do in service to the community?

Connecting with Community

A second key element of a C3 experience is a connection with a community partner who serves as a mentor/guide to students as they put their learning plan into action. The amount of time a student spends with a community partner (who can be a member of our school community) varies based on the goals established in the learning plan and agreed to by the student, parent/guardian, community partner, and C3 staff member. This time could be a little time as a day (e.g., a day spent job shadowing) or 5-10 hours per week over the course of a semester or year.

Scheduling and School Credit

Along with regular participation at their community site, students meet regularly with the C3 staff and their peers to reflect on their experience and the knowledge, understanding, and skills they are developing. The duration of a C3 experience is typically a semester or a full year. While a C3 experience can take place during and/or outside of the regular school day, students must have at least one block committed to C3 to be enrolled. Credit varies. The number of credits awarded for the successful completion of a C3 experience, as well as how a C3 experience will appear on the student’s transcript, is included in the C3 Learning Agreement.

Stages of a C3 experience

Counselors will work with students to plan out their C3 experience and prepare for its different milestones.

    1. Register for C3 the semester before

    2. Discuss interests, goals, prior related experiences, potential community partners/mentors, and type of C3 experience with C3 staff

    3. Begin draft of a Learning Plan 

    1. Attend and participate in C3 seminars (held on Mondays) 

    2. Finalize Learning Plan  with specific learning goals, an identified community partner  and final product(s) or “deliverables” (signed off on by student, C3 team, teacher/community partner, and principal)

    3. Create a rubric for the assessment of the final product(s) 

    4. Begin an annotated bibliography of print and online resources that will be used to achieve stated learning goals 

    5. Develop an “Elevator Pitch” (oral) and a Project Bio (written)

    6. If a student in participating in a C3 project which occurs outside of the building, student, parent, community partner, principal and C3 staff member will sign the Community Partner Agreement, which is created by the C3 staff based on the student’s Learning Plan and relevant labor laws and district policies 

    1. Students attend C3 seminars on Mondays during scheduled block (activities will include: discussions, written reflections, providing and receiving peer feedback, self-assessment of progress and HOWLs, workplace readiness skills) 

    2. Tuesday through Friday students are carrying out their individual projects 

    3. Mid-semester check-in on Learning Plan progress with C3 staff.

    4. Mid-semester community partner/cooperating teacher  evaluation and review with student

    1. Final reflections and evaluations (including self-assessment) 

    2. Thank you letter to community partner/cooperating teacher

    3. Presentation of learning

 

C3 project examples

Woodstock's Center of Community Connections was developed through the generous support of the Rowland Foundation, which provides Vermont secondary school teachers with professional development and leadership opportunities to positively affect their respective schools.