Norris learners spend the first 10 days in orientation. Orientation includes several components, including development of the learner profile, exploration of the opportunities the learner can experience at Norris, and a culminating Who am I? presentation.  Together these components focus on developing the skills and dispositions to be successful learners and building a deep understanding of self and others. When these elements come together they offer a dynamic understanding of the learner all while building trusting relationships between peers, staff and learners, and our school community. 

During the orientation phase each learner is provided with the Opportunity to Learn (OTL) the practices of successful learners. This provides opportunities to learn routines and platforms used to navigate the Norris environment but also opportunity to explicitly teach learning practices that will transfer into navigating future learning opportunities. This includes building a network of support to develop into the person they aspire to become and prepare for the successful integration into the learning community.

Learners complete self exploration, learn about the routines at Norris, and learn about community-based opportunities that lead them to reflecting and gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and across the four dimensions of wellness, employability, citizenship and academics.

Another focus of orientation is for each learner to develop a deep understanding of self. This involves providing learners with the Opportunity to Reflect (OTR) on who they are and who they might become through self exploration and a series of assessments, inventories, surveys and learning experiences across the four dimensions. Learners interact and discuss results of assessments and reflections with members of the Norris learning team resulting in learners and staff gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and the path they wish to take. Collectively these experiences and reflections lead to the learner building a robust Learner Profile that is a dynamic picture of who they are and who they want to become.

As members of the Learning Network interact with the learners throughout orientation, they too develop an understanding of each learner including their interests and hobbies, learning styles and preferences, competency attainment across learning progressions, and dimension of urgency.  This knowledge is used in conjunction with the learner profile to confer with learners to develop Plans and Pathways that support the needs and aspirations of each learner.

As learners complete the orientation process they will have completed their initial Learner Profile, successfully demonstrated strategies for self-regulation and management of their own learning, established initial plans and pathways reflecting their dimension(s) of urgency, and developed a network of support for successful learning engagement.  At this point learners transition to being an active member of a learning community. Once they finish their first 10 days, their initial orientation is completed, but learners continue to work on updating their profile, adding evidence to their evidence portfolio, and reflecting on what they are learning in their pathways. Learning "Who am I?" is an ongoing process that will continue throughout school and life.

The Who Am I Interview takes place at the Trimester Learner Showcases. Learners prepare their vision board, evidence for their portfolios, and everything they've learned over the trimester. Then, at the Showcase they have the option to present in 1 of 3 ways. They can present to an authentic audience of parents, community members, staff, and learners. They can do a small group presentation after the whole group presentations complete. Finally, if they aren't quite ready to present, they can have their evidence displayed for the audience to see.

Urgency Stories are a tool to identify each learner’s dimension of urgency and align supports to areas of highest need. By engaging learners in “urgency conversations” we are able to monitor progress and develop conferring points to engage learners and develop agency in adjusting plans, pathways and levels of support.

Each learner’s individual stories begin well before they enroll at Norris and continually develop.  Therefore, we believe that the best way to serve our learners is to learn each individual’s personal story so we can capitalize on personal strengths and align supports to help learners set and reach their personal goals.  

A pre-enrollment urgency interview and conversations with learners during the first weeks in orientation combine to form each learner's initial “Urgency Story." Urgency story evolve with the learner and are used to align supports and identify relevant plans and pathways across the dimensions.