Opportunity

System of Opportunity

Our culture is built around the underlying belief that all students have value: intelligence comes in many forms. Our values include persistence, initiative, follow-through, and community care. These are ways to move from spark (innovation) to engine (entrepreneurship).

Our culture cultivates persistence by fanning the flames of motivation. Teachers will design plans with purposeful play, optimize choice, allow time to focus on specialized interests, and coach with appropriate scaffolds. This essential factor moves kids from “I have to” to “I want to,” an underlying sentiment of many students in school, especially for students who struggle at traditional schools. Additionally, twice-exceptional students who have autism, dysgraphia, dyslexia, or other diagnosed or undiagnosed differences often struggle with persistence due to perfectionism. Valuing imperfection, laughing and working through mistakes, and increasing flexibility address underlying antagonist properties that prevent persistence in students. By targeting persistence, we cultivate the 21st-century skill: construction of student knowledge.

Taking initiative relies on motivation and knowing yourself. Students may need explicit instruction on executive functioning skills like metacognition, planning, organization, and getting advice from others. As the charter school follows UDL, students will set meaningful individualized goals that address academics and executive functioning. People who set their own path are motivated to take initiative. When students learn to take the initiative in learning, they become lifelong learners. By targeting initiative, we cultivate the 21st-century skill: decision-making.

To cultivate follow-through, we will design options for emotional capacity and self-control. Learning that progress is not linear, that progress is on a trajectory, and watching their own progress will help struggling learners internalize that growing is possible for all will be cornerstones in student learning. Developing student’s awareness of self, reflection skills, and feeling uncomfortable while developing in the zone of proximal development will help students who give up easily push through and apply the discipline it takes to grow at their highest rate. By targeting follow-through, we cultivate the 21st-century skill: evaluate reasoning.

Finally, our culture will enhance 21st-century skills by focusing on community care. Teamwork and taking the perspectives of others do not always come naturally to students. We will progress-monitor belonging by looking at students’ trusted adults to make sure everyone feels safe. We will celebrate identities and cultures with a yearly culture festival to learn more about our community. By targeting persistence, we cultivate the 21st-century skill: broader context.

In addition, creating a system of opportunity means that reading comprehension is an essential priority at our school.