Ivy Academy

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Ivy Academy
A Public Charter School
Key Concepts
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!!! Public School !!!

• Aligned with HCDE Strategic Plan
• Aligned with purpose of charter school law
• Serving at risk and other students

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Learning Environment

• Small Class Groups
• Themed learning
• Project-based learning
• Outdoor classrooms
• Longer class periods

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Integrated Thematic Learning

• A combination of subjects
• An emphasis on projects
• Sources that go beyond textbooks
• Relationships among concepts
• Thematic units as organizing principles
• Flexible schedules
• Flexible student groupings

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Integrated Learning

• takes place for the students within each
  discipline and expanding into the integration of
  all subjects.

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Benefits of Integrated Learning

• Mirrors the real world
• Motivates students learning is relevant to
  their personal lives
• Works with the natural ways in which the brain
  integrates and processes new information

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Benefits continued

• Adds coherence to vast amounts of information by
  making connections among disciplines
• Acknowledges reading, writing, speaking,
  listening, viewing, and the use of numbers as
  enabling skills within thinking processes.
• Fosters collaboration among students and
  teachers.

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Projects

• Year-level teacher teams will design
  interdisciplinary projects which can be
  personalized for each student
• Students work to design a solution for the
  problem by using critical thinking skills and
  applying the knowledge learned in each of the
  disciplines.

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Purpose of Projects

• Teachers can have a common aim for the knowledge
  conveyed in their individual classes
• Depth of subject matter is supported and
  increased
• Demands critical thinking from the students and
  the teachers in order to design a solution
• Student-learned knowledge is applied to a real
  world application.
• Graduation standards are fulfilled.

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Integrated Thematic Learning
Freshman Our Natural World Sophomore Anthropology Junior Sociology Senior Study of the Self
Science Biology/Botany local flora/fauna (basic Geology) Environmental 1 Chemistry Environmental 2 Physics Anatomy and Physiology
Social Studies History Geography US History World History (pre-20th century) Current US History/World History (20th 21st century) 1 Economics 2 American Gov.
Math Algebra 1 Geometry Algebra 1 Geometry Algebra 2 Statistics Algebra 2/Trig. Calculus
Literature/English ------------------------ Etymology Man v Nature ----------------------- Etymology Man v Self, Man v Man-Ancient Lit. Etymology Man v Society ----------------------- Etymology Man v Self ----------------------- Etymology
Foreign Language First year lang. Second year lang. Third year lang. Fourth year lang.
Fine Arts Visual Art Art History Folk Art 1 Health 2 Psychology
Life Skills Suggested Caring for living things Building, planning Sewing, woodworking Bookkeeping
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Why Outdoors?

• Return students to a healthy, natural learning
  environment
• Gardners 8th Intelligence Naturalist

• The ability to recognize and classify
• In a natural Setting rocks, plants, animals
• In an urban Setting automobile, clothing,
  electronic brands

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Todays Students

• Nature-deficit disorder describes the human
  costs of alienation from nature, among them
  diminished use of the senses, attention
  difficulties, and higher rates of physical and
  emotional illnesses.
• The rate at which doctors prescribe
  antidepressants to children has doubled in the
  last five years.
• By the 1990s the radius around the home where
  children were allowed roam on their own had
  shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970.
• Today, average eight-year-olds able to identify
  more cartoon characters than native species, such
  as beetles and oak trees, in their own community.
• Benjamin Franklin applied a scientists mind
  to the lessons of the senses, and used his direct
  experience with nature to solve a problem.
• (Last Child in the Woods)
• Physical education / wellness is in inseparable
  component and is daily.