近期，北京中心学生踏上前往大洋彼岸的航班，来到加州圣地亚哥，开启了为期一个月的与友好学校——美国高科技高中（High Tech High,HTH）交流之旅。初到圣地亚哥，一缕暖阳照拂了同学们初抵异乡还有些许惶恐的内心。同学们在学校里同年级的影子学生陪伴，深入课堂、亲身体验项目学习的魅力；居住在本土家庭中，在寄宿家庭里体会不同的生活方式，感受着别样的异国风情。

HTH是一所始建于2000年的公立学校，服务的学生由周围的社区随机派位产生。就是这样一所生源普通的学校，在短短的十几年中，颠覆了传统的教与学的方式，采取项目式学习的模式，要求学生通过跨学科合作的形式完成各项学习，获得了辉煌的成果，在教育界声名鹊起。漫步校园，每个角落都充斥着学生的五颜六色形态各异的作品，令人惊叹于学生的想象力和创造力。究竟学生们是如何在这个看起来更像一个『厂房』的校园里创造出奇迹的？

柔道数学 

江宛月

教室四面墙上都是白板，稍有潦草地写着当天的“appetizer”，展示着同学们拿到各种“belt”的情况。同学们以各种舒适的姿态，自由地讨论和钻研着纸上的图形和角度；老师身着便装，穿梭在同学们之间答疑解惑。

这就是我们看到的数学课。课堂时间一小时，同学们可以充分沉浸在数学的海洋。

*这里每个人的进度和任务各不相同。

不同于北中的研修、导修选课模式，他们这里分不同的period和“belt”，同学们通过考试得到不同颜色的手环，颜色和柔道的级别划分一样。所以即使一个班的同学在一节课学的内容也不一样，我们看到，有的同学才刚知道什么是三角函数，有的人就已经能熟练运用公式计算了，这可谓是把个性化学习做得淋漓尽致了。老师只是开始时稍微留点很简单的题，或给进度慢的同学一起讲点概念，之后时间全是自习和答疑。

于是，有时候课堂任务是需要自己设定。不同于我们的老师统一发印好的卷子，他们可以选择上网找题打印后完成，或直接在电脑上自学。

每周三和周五可以参加小测，通过后得到新的“belt”，更有趣的是，根据成绩的情况可以获得不同颜色的belt，对应的则是柔道中的段位。这种有选择地参加的小测是我们没有经历过的，但这种方式的效果似乎和北中数学课上的加分制差不多，原则上都是做的多就有回报。只是他们通过小测升级，我们通过回答问题加分；他们每个人达到的级别主要取决于做题水平，我们拿到的分数多少主要取决于积极性。但我觉得也许可以试试把二者结合，可能会更全面反应学习状况吧。

*这里学的和我们国内不太一样。

虽然主题是一样的，但内容不一样。好些人总喜欢说我们学的比他们难很多，所以我根本没想到自己会拿到有关正弦、余弦定理的任务单，所以这么说还是有点片面的。

同样是学习三角函数，我们国内需要背特殊角的函数，他们不仅要背，还得经常用计算器解决各种角的问题。于是我就遇到了点麻烦，因为使用计算器不熟练，花了半天做不出简单题。可见，虽然这里的学习内容某些方面上比我们的简单，但很重视实用性，毕竟生活中很少会恰好出现我们背的特殊角。

*考试后的反思很重要。

有些同学会花一两节课写规定要完成的考试反思，内容有打印好的错题和重做，分析为什么会出错及如何改进等内容组成的。相比之下我们许多人的考后万事大吉的处理方式就显得很让人汗颜。我想，打印下错题的题干，会比我们习惯运用的手抄题干要节省时间。抄题的麻烦也是我们经常只在卷子上改错的原因，后果便是数礼拜之后错题跟着卷子一块找不到了。

*这里没有作业。

当然不是不可以给自己留，网站上有很多题。只是，老师并不会在下课时留硬性作业，也不会把周末看成很好的练习时机。虽然这看上去很有利于培养学生的学习积极性，也让同学们开心面对每一天，但我并不认为这是很好的方式。由于缺少日常练习，他们解题的熟练度普遍不如国内学生。所以我认为作业还是要有的，但也不用像国内那样一个班内人人相同。最好能让同学们自己选择合适的任务，并让老师审核质量。

总之，我们可以明显感受到，这里学习气氛很自由。但自由是建立在自律的基础上的。如果很多人在自习时间互相闲聊，几乎没人主动参加选择性的小测，如果多数人只等着老师推着进度，我想，个性化学习还是行不通的。所以，我们来这里不仅是要看到他们课堂上展示的个性，更要注意他们背后的共性，就是积极进取之心，“和而不同，乐在其中”。

人文课

李昊

不知不觉中，我们已经在HTH学习了一段时间，虽然说对周围的一切已经渐渐熟悉，但有时回想起来，还不由得感觉有一些不可思议。比如在HTH，他们在同一个学期每天都上同样的三门课，而每门课的上课时长都有所不同，老师授课的方式也与中国有所不同，我最感兴趣的莫过于人文课。

人文，它的涵盖面很广，它包含着历史，地理，政治等多个学科，要把这么庞大的知识体系杂糅在一起并嵌入短短的几节课当中，我很好奇这门课会如何教授。我现在可能理解得还不深刻，这门课似乎训练的就是中国学生学习英语时梦寐以求掌握的四项基本技能：听、说、读、写，并把语言课与社会课相互融合在了一起。我甚至会觉得把这节课叫做人文未免有些浮夸。但抛开这点瑕疵不谈，只看上课内容就使我惊喜连连。

在刚开始上课时，老师会给我们大约半个小时的时间来进行阅读，在那一段时间里，唯一的要求就是安静，充分地感受文字。就凭这一点，我就已经喜欢上这门课了，我从小就喜欢阅读，在小学初中阶段，我总是安排大量的时间去阅读，但到了高中，随着课业负担的加重，相对来说，阅读的时间越来越少。所以，每到这种时刻，我都会格外珍惜。在一侧的黑板上，会写着同学们从开学到现在读过的书的数量，以及去年大家所读的数量，激励着大家更快、更多地阅读。这种在课堂上的持续阅读，既可以保证每天固定的阅读量，也可以培养学生们阅读兴趣，一箭双雕，这种模式不得不让我十分欣赏。

阅读过后，我们才正式开始上课。在HTH，每周人文课都会有一个不同的主题。比如在这一周，我们的主题是食物，老师会要求大家选一道你最喜欢的菜，写一篇作文来记述你和它之间的故事。故事，按中国的习惯来讲，就应该有故事的“六要素”，除此之外，你可以不仅仅拘泥于这道菜，可以运用象征、比喻等多种修辞手法，赋予它某种意义。比如这道菜蕴含着亲情、激励着我的进步抑或勾起了我的回忆等等，各种各样的想法都可以写下。可能因为环境与气氛的感染，以前英语作文最多只能写两百多字的我，这一次洋洋洒洒写了四五百字，这对于我来说，已经是一个很大的突破了。

最后一点，也是让我最惊讶却又最喜爱的一点。他们有时会用一节课的时间，来讨论一些社会上的问题。比如这一周，我们讨论的问题是“Abortion”，这一看就是一个很有争议的话题，所以在我准备时，我就仅仅准备了一方的内容，准备来说服他们。但当他们开始表达时，我惊讶了，他们的话语并没有攻击性，他们仅仅是阐述自己对这个问题的一个看法，他们更具有包容性，在持续讨论中，又迸发出新的灵感、新的想法。这也是让我羞愧的一点，我也应摒弃一些固化思维，变得更具开放性、包容性，而我也希望在将来的学习中有更多这样的讨论性活动，有时，认同和理解可能会比反对产生更多的火花。

就像在人文教室门口前写的一样，在这里，你是被爱的，你是优秀的；相信自己，充分表现；相互包容，汲取意见。这可能就是人最基本的良知，这也是最基本的人文精神。

Physics 

赵子暄

Physics is the most important branch of science, every single country in the entire world have this subject in their school, not having it is simply idiotic, but every country has their own special way for teaching this subject, and what we experienced last week actually wasn’t that much different from how we learn it in China.

I will first give you a walkthrough of every physics lesson we get every day: we start each lesson with a few questions on the topic we are learning about, for last week, those questions were all based on the topic of static electricity, those questions can get the students to start thinking about what we already know about the topic and share their knowledge with the rest of the class. After everyone has finished and has shared their answers with the class, because we just started on a new topic, we were given some materials and were told to read them, we were told to find and highlight whatever we find important and write some notes on it. Then, if we have time, we would share with the class about what we learned and would look back at the questions that were asked at the start of the lesson and see if we still have the same answer.

This method no doubt is very good because firstly, by going through that process repeatedly, you are actually slowly learning a method of learning, and each time you are learning something new, you can use this method to help you, and secondly, when you are learning this way, you not only learn the knowledge your teachers are trying to teach you, but you can also understand it, thus your understanding of the topic will be deeper than of others. This is a method that we are currently using in Beijing Academy, and I like that very much.

Of course, everything has some flaws, and the flaws with the physics class is that there is a chance that not all the students are on the same page, because every person is different, they not only learn at different paces, but their speed up understanding an opinion is also different, so if someone is a bit slow at understanding, they might miss out on some important details or if they simply aren’t participating, the entire period is pretty much wasted.

All in all, the physics lesson at HTHI is really quite good and I have enjoyed much of it.

An Afternoon 

吴芷婧

I have never had an afternoon like that. That afternoon, we sat near the beach, under the shadows with my friends. After the two-hour physics class, we had a free period to choose whatever class we wanted. I followed some of my friends to a class that allowed you to play on the grassland near the school and draw or write what interested you. At first, I was kind of tired and wanted to attend something like a Spanish course or even just sit in the classroom and finish my writing assignments but my friend dragged me there anyway. They took me into a classroom where the teacher told us the rules, welcomed us, and then led us to the grassland. It was not a long walk - from school to the beaches; we paced on a stone sidewalk which led all the way to the beach.

The wind blew softly, like Chopin’s serenade. The sun was bright and the skies were blue. We walked slowly, talking and laughing together.

Many people were on the grassland when we arrived and more were coming, from four-year-old children to eighty-year-old adults. Many students were playing volleyball on the grassland and others were sitting in circles, chatting and playing games. We sat in circles under a tree, in the shade overcast by the green leaves. In the distance, an ice-cream cart stopped and many children went running towards it shouting for ice-cream. I went too, grabbing an ice-cream cone and racing down to where my friends sat. They had all pulled out their sketching books and began to draw everything they thought up, everything in their minds were portrayed through the ink on the paper. I sat there painting with watercolors. I modelled the tree we were sitting under, the people, and the sky.

In the distance, I could hear shouting. The boys were playing soccer. My friends and I chatted about nearly everything, our daily lives, our families, ice-cream, dancing, everything we thought about.

Time passed like a little child trying to sneak out under his parents' eyes.

The wind still blew, probably a little cooler then, we walked back at a slow pace. Glancing back, holding ice-cream, I thought I saw the leaves shining like gold, wind shattering the sunlight, breaking it into thousands of pieces that fell onto the grass and faded away. That afternoon went fast, I thought, But I guess we will have lots and lots of afternoons like this.

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