Middle School Library: "...curriculum that inspires and can inform life-making decisions"

So many resources available to help our kids get off to the best start ever!  (This is just an example--we'd have to research the quality and fit into what we're working on.) 

Middle School Library

Provide students access to curriculum that inspires and can inform life-making decisions

The Middle School Library offers middle schools unique elective and career courses for students to explore a variety of professions and receive the knowledge and preparation needed to make life-shaping decisions prior to high school. Digital courses can serve as a textbook replacement or to supplement the classroom curriculum.

The middle school library contains 40+ courses, including some of our most popular courses:

 Career Exploration
 Coding
 Game Design
 Journalism
 Digital Citizenship

At eDynamic Learning, all of our courses are developed in-house by teachers and subject matter experts offering one consistent and simplistic design and interface. This allows teachers, staff, and students to focus on what’s most important: teaching and learning.

Each course is designed and written with engaging curriculum narratives that employs backwards design methodology to support best practices on how today’s students learn. Each lesson is chunked into bite-sized pieces of text with the integration of visuals to keep students engaged.

Teachers can also customize course units and lessons allowing them the flexibility to personalize instruction.

What peace looks like, by a 13 y/o student

The HA'ALA model is designed to help students grow, in part, by looking at life through prisms they like.  These prisms often include Athletics, Arts and Leadership, the "A'AL" parts of the HA'ALA model.  The art with the note by this young student are a perfect representation, life milestone, of what we are trying to help our students achieve w/the HA'ALA model.

This drawing is by Anja Rozen, a 13 year old primary school student in Slovenia. She was chosen from 600,000 children around the world to create a piece of art to show what peace looks like. She is the winner of the international Plakat Miru competition.

“My drawing represents the land that binds us and unites us.” Humans are woven together. If someone gives up, others fall. We are all connected to our planet and to each other, but unfortunately we are little aware of it. We are woven together. Other people weave alongside me my own story; and I weave theirs," said the young designer

- Courtesy: Fatima Anfig, 2023.10.21

Fear. Accept it. Push through it. Grow with it.

Fear.  Accept it.  Push through it.  Grow with it.  Act in the face of fear.

Mike Tyson boxing coach Cus D'amato

"For me, fear is the greatest obstacle to learning. And unless one understands fear, he could never mine it as quickly as he should. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you can make it work for you. You let it get out of control, and it can destroy you and everything around you. It's like a snowball on a hill. A snowball on the hill, you can pick it up and do whatever you want with it. But let that snowball roll down the hill, it gets so large, if you try to stop it at that point, it'll crush you. So, fear is like that. We've learned to understand, see it.

Most people think of fear as something to be ashamed of, something to be really embarrassed about. But I teach these boys that fear is a normal, healthy thing. I often ask them, "Who is your best friend?" Well, they try to name individuals. I tell them, "No, your best friend is fear." Do you know the difference between being afraid and being yellow? Or the difference between a hero and a coward? And I tell them, there's no difference between a hero and a coward at all in how they feel, but what they do makes them different. That's what makes the difference between a hero and a coward.

Now, the people who watch you, judge you on what you do, not how you feel. If you go out there and you do what you do in a heroic manner, they think of you as a hero. And if you do things that a person does that's often referred to as cowardly or whatever, they think of you in that way. But the hero and the coward is exactly the same. You have to have the discipline to do what a hero does and to keep yourself from doing what a coward does or the so-called normal. Everybody's a coward more or less, for him.

Persistence in the face of frustration and failure is so, so, so important

Leadership by an example of persistence.

"Thanks for showing yourself genuinely sight reading and screwing up at times. Persistence in the face of frustration and failure is so, so, so important. Seeing a leader and teacher like you be vulnerable in front of thousands of students is a marvelous teaching tool. It's easier to takes chances, fall down, and get back up when we see our wise elders do it (though you look super young for a "wise elder" [I guess it's true what they say: black don't crack!].) It's also necessary. Thank you as always!" Comment to a youtube piano teacher. The teacher was showing a new way to practice site reading without being able to see the keyboard. Mistakes were made.

Students welcome from various viewpoints on life.

 If you are a person of faith and hope and charity, we respect that at this school.  Here is Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa talking about his faith. We are not a religious school but we respect people and students of faith and hope and charity.

Charter School Grants Announced!

 Charter School Grants Announced!

So far, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has notified education departments and reform groups in about 10 states that they are the 2023 winners of $147 million federal Charter School Program (CSP) grants. For example, ED is giving a Missouri education reform group called Opportunity Trust $35.6 million to create 5,000 new charter school seats - great news in a state where charter school enrollment has been stalled at about 12,500 students for several years.

In Idaho, Bluum, a nonprofit charter support organization, nailed a second federal CSP grant in the amount of $24.8 million. In 2018, Bluum used a $22 million CSP grant to kick off a rapid expansion of schools, funding 28 schools over five years. Charter schools now educate almost 10% of Idaho’s public school students, and the organization plans to continue rapid growth.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction yesterday also announced that ED has awarded it a $58 million CSP grant to support the Wisconsin Charter School Program. The five-year grant will help the WCSP implement a statewide strategy to strengthen authorizing, develop up to 42 new, expanded, or replicated high-quality charter schools, and promote statewide collaboration and sharing of best practices. The funding is Wisconsin’s seventh federal grant aimed at supporting public charter school development. Blythe Bernhard, St. Louis Charter Group Wins $35 Million Grant to Open New Schools Across Missouri, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 30, 2023; Darren Svan, School Choice Effort to Continue with $24 Million Federal Grant, IdahoEdnews.com, September 28, 2023; DPI, Wisconsin Awarded $58M Charter School Grant, October 2, 2023

NEW PODCAST AVAILABLE: 
Financing a Start Up Public Charter School in Sacramento
Join School Improvement Partnership (SIP) for a conversation with Robert Nickell, Executive Vice President of Education Finance at HJ Sims, along with Kevin Dobson, Founder & Executive Director, Capital College & Career Academy, on their journey to finance a start-up charter school in Sacramento.

This episode dives into the story of founding, financing and launching a start-up charter school, Capital College & Career Academy (CCCA) in Sacramento, CA. Our guests touch on the qualities of a successful charter school leader, how investors evaluate a start-up, how a school with no students could get 40-year financing, and much, much more!

The Charter School Investor Podcast is created by School Improvement Partnership and hosted by Alan Wohlstetter.
Listen on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your favorite podcast hosting platform. 

"CHOICE SEATS" FOR FOUR STATES
Massive Charter School Enrollment Growth is the Goal
A Denver foundation wants to help create tens of thousands of new seats in the state’s charter schools and other settings outside district-run public schools at a time when Colorado’s school-age population is shrinking.

The effort, launched by the conservative-leaning Daniels Fund last year, is part of a larger initiative foundation leaders are calling the Education Big Bet. The goal is to put 100,000 more students in what the Daniels Fund calls “choice seats” by 2030 in a four-state region that includes Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. 

The Daniels Fund, which was established with the fortune of the late billionaire cable executive Bill Daniels, is best known for its generous college scholarships. Foundation leaders say if the Big Education Bet is successful, the number of students learning outside district-run public schools will grow from 350,000 to 450,000 across the four states by the end of the decade — a nearly 30% increase. Anne Schimke, Colorado Foundation Bets on New Charter and Private School Seats, The Longmont Leader, September 29, 2023

Agenda for Public Community Meeting: Exploring Charter School Ideas for HA'ALA

This is a possible agenda for a public community meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to introduce the community to our group wanting to start a charter school in their community. We want to explain how we'd like to get the community's ideas about our Athletics and Arts Integration school concept. We'd like to learn what the community feels and thinks they need for a good middle school. This is a possible agenda with activities and prioritized and ordered, organized questions that could be asked of the community attendees. What do you think of this draft agenda and where might you suggest we could improve on it?

Agenda for Public Community Meeting: Exploring Charter School Ideas

I. Welcome and Introduction (5 minutes)

• Greet attendees and introduce the purpose of the meeting.
• Provide a brief overview of the charter school initiative and its potential benefits for the community.

II. Presentation by Charter School Representatives (15 minutes)

• Present the mission, vision, and goals of the proposed charter school.
• Explain the innovative educational approaches and unique features the charter school plans to offer.
• Share success stories or examples from other charter schools for context.

III. Community Engagement Activities (30 minutes)

• Group Brainstorming Session (15 minutes):

  • Break attendees into smaller groups.
  • Provide each group with flip charts or digital tools for brainstorming.
  • Prompt groups to discuss what they believe makes an ideal middle school. Encourage them to consider academics, extracurricular activities, teacher-student relationships, facilities, and community involvement.
  • Each group selects a representative to share their key points.

• Interactive Survey (10 minutes):

  • Distribute printed surveys or provide access to an online survey tool.
  • Ask attendees to answer specific questions about their preferences for a middle school. Include questions about class size, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and community engagement.
  • Collect surveys for later analysis.

• Open Floor Discussion (5 minutes):

  • Invite attendees to share their thoughts, concerns, or ideas regarding the proposed charter school.
  • Use a microphone to allow participants to speak clearly to the entire audience.

IV. Q&A Session (15 minutes)

• Moderated Questions:
  • Prioritize and organize questions collected from the community activities.
  • Address questions to the charter school representatives, allowing them to provide detailed and transparent answers.
  • Encourage follow-up questions from attendees for clarification.

V. Next Steps and Call to Action (5 minutes)

• Summarize key points discussed during the meeting, highlighting community feedback and suggestions.
• Outline the next steps in the charter school planning process, including future community meetings and ways for attendees to stay involved.
• Encourage attendees to sign up for newsletters, join social media groups, or participate in online forums related to the charter school initiative.

VI. Thank You and Closing (2 minutes)

• Express gratitude to attendees for their valuable input and participation.
• Provide contact information for further inquiries.
• Invite attendees to stay for informal discussions and refreshments.

By following this agenda, the community meeting ensures active participation, captures diverse perspectives, and fosters an open dialogue between the charter school organizers and the community members.