ACADEMY OF LEARNING
** This is what I would like to create, if you know of anyone who would be interested in helping me fund this or get this off the ground, please contact me: Dr. Lynne Gregorio : Lynne@zen5.me
Mission Statement: To create a school that offers students opportunities that are unique and allow students to take advantage of their own individual gifts and maximize their educational potential. We are a school that is “out of the box” and does not believe “one size fits all.” There are two main components that drive the concept to the school.
First: Core courses will be taught in a manner that is much different than traditional school. Our curriculum will be more child-focused, it will pull out the information that a child is most likely to retain after learning and focus on teaching those concepts (especially in areas like social studies and history), this frees up time to paint a broader picture of the world they live in, students will be allowed to progress at their individual rate and teaching methods will be used that better link concepts and provide optimal instruction that are often ignored in regular education.
Second: Elective courses will include areas not traditional offered in other schools. Students will also be able to apply to take advantage of outside school activities and count these as their school electives. (Elective Choice)
Highlights of School Offerings:
Core Classes
• Mathematics
o Taught with curriculum that focuses on patterns and links concepts that allow students to move more quickly through mathematics with greater understanding than traditional mathematics curricula
o Individualized based on individual student achievement – one size does not fit all
• Language Arts
o Topics such as spelling and writing strong sentences will not be skipped over.
o Phonetic patterns will be taught; reading, spelling, and vocabulary will be integrated.
o Language arts will be integrated into other subjects as well.
o Strong writing will be a priority.
• History/Social Studies
o Age appropriate history and social studies will be taught. Students will paint big pictures of history to get a strong sense of the history and current events. Details will be left for future studies when the child is older and shows an interest in learning to this degree.
• Science
o Science will be hands on and fun. Students will study scientific concepts and learn about science by doing, seeing, and interacting.
• Research
o All students will take a course in learning how to do research. They will choose topics of interest to them, they will utilize the computer and be taught (what so many of our students are never taught how to do) how to research and then report their findings. The course will change and grow as the student matures.
Electives: One the unique aspects of the school is the opportunity to take innovative elective courses. Additional electives will be added based on the school talent but important electives relating to the school model include: language, computers / technology, alternative sports, entrepreneurship, and elective choice.
Our courses include:
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Spanish
Chinese
Introduction to Computers
Algebra for kids
Basic keyboarding / Computer Academic Enrichment
Computer Programming
Gymnastics 1
Gymnastics 2
Tae Kwon Do 1
Tae Kwon Do 2
Elective Choice – this course allows the student to explore his or her own passion outside the classroom and research, report, and document outside activities to count for this elective
Student Day:
9:00 – 9:15 Morning Welcome
9:15 – 10:00 Core 1
10:00 – 10:45 Elective 1
10:45 – 11:30 Core 2
11:30 – 12:15 Lunch
12:15 – 12:45 Core 3
12:45 – 1:30 Core 4
1:30 – 2:00 Break
2:00 – 2:45 Core 5
2:45 – 3:30 Elective 2 / Elective Choice Runs: 2:45 – 3:00 (Student dismissed early for elective on days they have an afterschool elective that meets the criteria for this course after written recordings are completed)
3:30 Dismissal
Classroom Plans & Expenses
We will start with Grade 2 – Grade 5 (initially and hope to expand to grade 8).
Testing will be given initially to determine placement of student. Multi-age classes will be utilized to some extent – advanced students may be placed in higher math/language art classes to meet their ability with approval of parents, although regardless of placement, we will work to meet the individual needs of the student. Some mixing of 2 grades may be used to allow children the opportunity to mentor and have mentors.
Teachers: Number of teachers will be dependent on enrollment. We anticipate having teachers who are stronger in math teaching math and those stronger in other areas focus on those core courses. Students will have multiple teachers.
Curriculum: Content of overall curriculum will be designed with the mission of the school in mind. Teachers will be provided inservice training on how to provide lessons in a way that meet this mission. Dr. Gregorio will regularly sit in on classes and work with teachers to make sure they are providing optimal instruction to the students and meeting the mission of the school.
Equipment:
Computers / Printers – to create at least 2 computer labs enough for each student in a class to have a computer to themselves when in the lab.
Equipment for electives: Mats and minimal inexpensive gymnastics equipment (those designed for in home use (beam: $99, etc.) to provide for Gymnastics class and Tae Kwon Do class (plus targets for Tae Kwon Do)
Books: Most books will be for teachers to reference. Students will purchase any books needed themselves.
Space: One of the two biggest expenses is rental of a building to house the school.
Salaries: The second big expense is for salaries for teachers until we can reach a balance where tuition covers our expenses, however, we would like to continue to receive funding upon proving the excellence of this school – to keep tuition reasonable for parents. I also want to be able to pay our teachers well to attract quality teachers to the school.
Office Supplies/ Cleaning / Utilities / Phone / Internet: All these items will need to be covered.
Location: Cary / Apex / Morrisville / Raleigh, NC
Tuition: $12,000 per student per year; second + student: $10,500 per year
Estimated Class size: 20 students per class