Extracurricular+Activities+Case+Study

Extracurricular activities are a big part of Ridgewood High School and are certainly looked at from many points of view. Like everything else there is a lot benefits for both students and teachers and disadvantages of all kinds.

There is over …(?) extracurricular activities (e.g. drama club, political discussion club, math team, video games club…) in RHS which (unlike most of high schools in USA) offers students a wide range of choice so almost everyone can find a sport, club or activity that they would enjoy. If students feel like they can’t find a suitable activity they can start their own club by going through a process that involves finding a mentor within the school staff, finding a suitable location and finally bring up their club suggestion to the principal. New club suggestion are hardly ever declined which encourages other students to set up a club that would be best for them and also widens the range of activities offered to students.
 * What is personalised?**

Benefits
 * 1) Help students socialize
 * 2) Improve student-teacher relationship
 * 3) Exploring new interests and learning new skills that may lead to deciding on future career
 * 4) Improve feeling of uniqueness, individuality
 * 5) Improvement of links between classes and activities outside curriculum
 * 6) Teach responsibility (going to rehearsals, managing time…)
 * 7) Form of relaxation

Disadvantages
 * 1) Students overloaded in order to impress colleges
 * 2) Element of fun lost dues to pressure from parents/colleges
 * 3) High consumption of time


 * Benefits**
 * 1) Thanks to extracurricular activities students get to break out of their social groups and get to know new people in the school. Students can benefit from this even outside of school while socializing with other people. This also gives students the feeling of belonging somewhere within the school which is very important considering that there's more than …(?) students in the school which can be problem for some of them after coming from a smaller middle school. - Video game club is aimed at students with socialization problems and this way they can meet other students with same kind of problems which improves their social skills as well as their chance to find friends
 * 2) Students feel like the teachers who mentor extracurricular activities pay more attention to students as individuals which greatly improves self-confidence as well as learning in extracurricular activities. Some teachers mentioned that they think it is very beneficial for the students to “know another adult” in the school
 * 3) Through extracurricular activities students explore activities and learn many new skills (e.g. team work, speaking in public that may help them decide on their future career
 * 4) Thanks to the special student-teacher relationship students feel that they're being looked at as individuals and since there are so many activities in the school and each student plays a specific role in each of them they feel unique and noticed which again improves their self-confidence and also makes the experience more enjoyable.
 * 5) Most of the extracurricular activities are focused on the same curriculum areas as compulsory classes which gives students a chance to develop a link between theory and practice which they consider a big advantage.
 * 6) Both teachers and students think that extracurricular activities are a very good way to teach the students how to be responsible. Most of the activities have different rules than classes which forces students to deal with different kind of responsibility. Another important part of this is that students have to try their best and be responsible if they want to achieve something within the activity.
 * 7) “It shuts your mind off from the other things. You know, kids forget about a test they’ve failed or a fight with their parents or, you just forget that. I don’t know how it is in, you know, sports or other clubs but with us I know that… I mean that’s how I feel when I come to work in the theatre. I just shut my brain off about, you know, arguments, stress, bills, I just work. And it’s a relief I think.” //L. Luisi, theatre club producer//


 * 1) One of the biggest problems with extracurriculars is students’ need to take up as many activities as possible so that their college application resume would “look better”. This opinion is shared by most of the members of staff. This affects all the benefits of extracurriculars as well because when a student is not fully dedicated to the activity they chose then it loses its point as well as all the benefits.


 * 1) Sometimes there is a lot of pressure put on the students by not just colleges/universities but also their parents who want them to build up their college resume and due to this students often lose interest in the activity and again all its benefits.


 * 1) In order to be fully dedicated to extracurriculars students usually have to spend a lot of time doing them which means less time for homework and less time at home generally.

We think that extracurricular activities despite all the disadvantages are still a great example of Personalised Learning because students get to choose what suits them best and that is one of the most important aspects of Personalised Learning.

We would like to thank everybody who took part and helped us with our research!