Our programs are research based, with ongoing collaboration in the Progressive Learning communities.
We believe that all children are curious learners
- All children have unique learning profiles.
- All children have unique talents that should be nurtured.
- All children should feel that they are listened to.
- Teaching opportunities should build on and reinforce children’s intrinsic desires to learn.
- All children learn best when they are comfortable: physically and emotionally.
- Children need to feel challenged; thus, some learning opportunities should pull them forward.
- Children need to feel successful; thus, some learning opportunities should be designed to be within their grasp.
- Deep, meaningful, and lasting learning often follows multiple and varied exposures to topics.
- Each child learns differently and needs care and consideration put into their academic lessons.
- A social context for learning is of paramount importance. Children learn from each other.
- All children want to be loved and believed in.
- All children can and should contribute to their community.
- All children should experience the best of what life has to offer and be given opportunities to enter in.
- All children should be celebrated!
Our Beliefs in Action:
We individualize student learning plans and alter or update them through continual observation.
We set challenging academic goals for our students to reach and provide the supports, multiple exposures, materials, and time for the goals to be reached.
We pay attention to what motivates students and use those topics or strategies to build academic success.
We take many field trips to reinforce our academic learning and bring it to life for our students.
We spend some learning time in community, such as in our science class, music, and morning meeting.
We spend some learning time one-on-one through the week such as in our reading blocks.
We welcome visitors from the community to join us regularly to tell us about their jobs. We prepare our students to engage with them ahead of time so the visits are successful.
We make weekly trips to the library to search for and check out our own library books.
We welcome our siblings to join us for our concerts and for projects and field trips.
We discuss and foreshadow upcoming events so students are prepared and confident when the event takes place.
We keep journals for our students of positive progress they are making and send them home in backpacks daily.
We celebrate victories large and small.
As a community, we recognize and appreciate that we have individual victories because we have different challenges.
We partner with other schools so that we might develop ongoing friendships with all kinds of children outside of our school.