The roots from which to grow: schedules
Early in my school leadership development someone shared with me that “you can look at any schools schedule and, regardless of what their mission, vision or words say, you can tell what they value and believe”. This has always stayed with me and as we dug into the what we believe and value at Embark we continually circled back to providing opportunities for students to deeply engage with their learning through meaningful, real world experiences. With this at the root, it provides opportunity for our students to grow, explore and learn without the constraints of traditional school bells.
We also recognize the learning is so much more than the core academic classes. Embark is a place for students to thrive, be authentic and embark on their journey to being adults. With that in mind we set out to research critical elements that both are prevalent in the day to day, and week to week learning experience but are not captured by looking at a more “traditional” schedule.
Elements that influence our daily schedule:
“First Light” – a regular daily morning meeting to frame out projects, update each other on essential aspects of the day and week and connect on a personal level.
“15%” – Google originally pioneered this idea with their employees, which essentially dedicates a percentage of their employees time to work on passion projects that make the company better. In this projects and initiatives related to the exploration and reflection on the global experience of cultures, peoples, races, privilege and dignity.
“Life Design” – Intentional, thoughtful conversations around social, emotional & relational awareness, growth and development.
“Deep Dives” – Guided explorations of the layered depths of disciplines that go beyond the directly practical applications from the experiences in the shops. Includes lectures, research, presentations and socractic dialogues.
“Hangout” – We believe that play and playfulness is an essential element of both academic learning but also social, emotional and relational growth. We build in time for kids to be kids, without pressure or predetermined structure. Learn more about some of our thinking around this from Dr. Peter Gray.
“Experiential” – A combination of training, lessons and research related directly to choices and operations of the coffee shop and bike shop.
“Movement” – Growing bodies of research are rediscovering the value of movement in a student’s day and education experience. This will look different on different days and range from a Yoga practice to a morning mountain bike ride.