SelfDesign High Virtual Guidance Office
Welcome to the VGO.
The SelfDesign Virtual Guidance Office is here for you.
While you are involved with SelfDesign High we want you to know that your concerns and questions are ours.
This office is where you can bring any questions that you have when considering joining SelfDesign High, or that arise once you are enrolled with us. You may have questions about courses, mentors, your grad program, post grad information, service learning in our community or globally, exams – or other things we haven't thought of yet!
We have a form you can complete here and this will go directly to our guidance counselors who will take up your concern.
At SelfDesign High we are interested in your experience with learning and life. As an online learning community we know that we have a lot to learn from you about connecting virtually: talk to us about your experiences as your reflections can only improve what we offer and how we grow. At SDH our vision is to nuture connection between who you are, your life, interests and passions and learning. Connecting is at the core of our vision and mission and so the more connection we have with you, the richer your experience will be. Our online courses have been developed, and continue to be refreshed and developed with this purpose in mind. Hearing from you, whether it is the good, the bad or the ugly, supports this.
At SelfDesign High we like to do things differently. The most important feature of this is that you are at the centre of what we do. This is also support by the B.C. Ministry of Education. Since 2006 the BC Ministry of Education has put the power back into the hands of the students/learners to create their own graduation program. Learners have the right to blend their courses between different schools whether they are brick and mortar or online. This is very exciting. What this means is that learners have so many more options about what and how they will complete their high school program or their school leaving certificate - or, how they might explore learning as they really want independent of those goals.
We are here to guide and support any and all of these processes.
Experience has shown us that for some learners, adjusting to the self-paced format of online work can be a challenge, depending on the individual and on the learning experiences and history of each student who comes to SDH. Come speak with us about this. What we know is that the clearer the communication and connection between a learner and their mentor, the smoother the adjustment will be. We can share with you how we track all the course work and information concerning each learner so they are held and supported along their journey.
Many youth are engaged in all sorts of dynamic learning experiences outside of school, be they music lessons, singing, volunteer programs and on. We offer a credit assessment service for high school learners so that where-ever possible, these rich experiences become accredited and registered on their transcripts.
We are interested in hearing about what excites you, what you want to learn about and explore, so please tell us. That way, we can support you in realizing your passions and interests. We can either set you up with a mentor to individually create a course of your dreams or, if you gather 5 others, a mentor can work with the group to create a workshop of all your dreams!
Did you know?
- We now are piloting a dynamic Integrated Program for youth 13-14 years old which will embrace foundation course skills and tools, rich elective resources as well as an active outdoor ed component. This is available for learners all over the province and will have local learning centre elements also.
- We are now offer an Integrated grade 10 session based program.
- We have e-portfolios for each learner while they are with our school. These will hold all of their work from each of the courses/programs they take with us, as well as individual projects and explorations that they wish to store there for future. Any and all of their work is exportable.
- We are very proud to offer some newly developed and exciting courses such as Media Studies 11, Creative Youth Entrepreneurship 11, History of Ideas 12, Studio Arts 10-12, Film Studies 11 and more.
- We are always seeking new ways to cultivate relationships between our learners and their community (where-ever they are in BC), be it through mentorship's’ with local professionals or jointly created and held projects. If you have collaboration ideas, come speak with us.
- We value inter-generational learning. We are fortunate to have so many elders around us whose experience, vision and wisdom are waiting to be tapped into. Can you think of a project you'd like to initiate with an elder?
Again, we want to hear from you and address your concerns and interests. Even if you are not sure if your questions are appropriate for the VGO, we'll be happy to redirect you.
Click here to send a message to our Guidance Counsellors.
