Arcadia This Week 2/2/2020

Hello, Arcadia Families,

Here’s what’s up at Arcadia for the coming week!

Monday, Feb. 3: Day 2

  • Ace of Clubs, 2:45-4:30pm

Tuesday, Feb. 4: Day 3

  • Homework Help, 2:45-4:00pm

  • Arcadia Information Night, 6:30-8:00pm

The postcards have been sent; the building will be prepared; students, teachers, and parents will be standing by to give tours and answer questions...it’s Arcadia Information Night! Invite others to learn more about our truly excellent school, or come visit yourself for a refresher on what makes this place so special.

Wednesday, Feb. 5: Day 4 (late start)

Thursday, Feb. 6: Day 5

  • Homework Help, 2:45-4:00pm

Friday, Feb. 7: Day 6

Mission Spotlight: Arcadia Board Retreat

It is the mission of Arcadia Charter School to prepare our students to transition intellectually, emotionally, and ethically to higher education, future employment, and engaged citizenship.

Arcadia Charter School envisions a supportive learning community that, through collaboration and student-driven, project-based learning, encourages and assists students to:

  • Express themselves creatively through the visual, literary, and performing arts.

  • Use technology with innovation, imagination, and responsibility.

  • Develop critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.

  • Construct knowledge and meaning for themselves.

  • Value, advocate, and strive for the wellness of the whole person.

  • Be empowered to act as local citizens within a rapidly changing global community.

Yesterday, the Arcadia School Board met from 9:00am-2:00pm for their annual retreat. Each of the Board members read the following three articles before the retreat, and I want to share them with the whole community:

Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find (By Alfie Kohn)

https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/progressive-education/

Education Theory: Constructivism and Social Constructivism (from University College Dublin):

http://www.ucdoer.ie/index.php/Education_Theory/Constructivism_and_Social_Constructivism 

An Inquiry-Based Approach: Project-Based Learning (from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) :

https://www.nctm.org/Handlers/AttachmentHandler.ashx?attachmentID=NACMgDdynOc%3D

We then completed a close reading of the mission statement, followed by a discussion of each article and how it was connected to our mission. Here are a few of the thoughts that came to my mind as we engaged in this conversation:

Our mission is progressive. It can be difficult to explain to others why that matters, but perhaps one of the most important progressive ideas is focusing on the development of the whole child, not exclusively academic achievement. ASCD (formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) writes: “Promoting a whole child approach to education redefines a successful learner as one that is knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.” If you set this statement next to our mission statement, the parallels are striking. A successful student at Arcadia takes on challenges that are personally meaningful, develops metacognitive skills to be able to reflect on learning in multiple domains (not just the academic domain), cares about being a good citizen in the community, and also achieves academic proficiency.

Our mission is constructivist. The bullet point stating that students will “construct knowledge and meaning for themselves” is essentially the definition of constructivism. Further, our approach is grounded in social constructivism, meaning that we recognize learning as more than just a student gathering information. Students learn as they become integrated into our learning community--through the collaborative process of figuring things out.

Our mission names project-based learning, PBL, as a primary method for fulfilling our goals. We are continually working to integrate this powerful method into our classes, while also supporting students’ individual project work.

Our mission is exciting! Arcadia is doing important, excellent work in educating students to meet the demands of our 21st century world.

Announcements

The spring conference sign up will be coming out soon! The format will be appointments between 1:20-5:00pm, then a round robin from 5:30-6:30pm in the Great Room so that parents can touch base with all teachers.

Don’t forget to invite others to Arcadia’s Information Night!

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

6:30-8:00pm

Take care of your mental health this month! A message from Lisa and Change to Chill:

 

February

February is a month stuck between winter and spring and it can start to feel monotonous. Practicing mindfulness is a wonderful, easy way to bring awareness to the present moment and acknowledge the thoughts, feelings and sensations that arise. It helps to identify feelings, like monotony or boredom, allows acknowledgment and healing.  A fun way to practice mindfulness is through creativity. Check out Change to Chill's wide variety of Mindful Coloring pages and add a little color to the month of February!

https://www.changetochill.org/activities-tools/

Mindfulness and Creativity

 

Upcoming Events

Feb. 4, Arcadia Information Night, 6:30-8:00pm

Feb. 13, Early Release (12:42pm)

Feb. 13, Spring Conferences, appointments from 1:20-5:30pm, then 5:30-6:30pm with all teachers available

Feb. 13, Finance Committee Meeting, 4:00pm

Feb. 18, Early Release (12:42pm)

Feb. 18, Spring Conferences, appointments from 1:20-5:30pm, then 5:30-6:30pm with all teachers available

Feb. 24, VocalEssence: Witness Field Trip to Orchestra Hall, all middle school students and the high school history and dance classes

Sincerely,