The structure of a day at the Whole Life Charter School

The Whole Life Charter School weekly schedule (illustrated below) is an approximation of what each school day will entail. As we customize each student’s learning plan according to her/his need, a student may spend more or less time than indicated in any of the varying activities. As an example, an Upper School student will not likely be involved in an internship during a whole year in which case the student will be with his/her advisory working on reinforcing a weaker skill or tutoring another student in an area of the tutoring student’s strength. The main items in the weekly schedule are described below.

Before school informal gathering – As some parents may need to drop off their children earlier than the school’s official start time of 9:00am, we plan to allow students to enter the building at 7:30am to have breakfast, chat, read, study, or work on projects.

Daily advisor’s meeting – We believe that consistent communication amongst our advisors and administration will help all of us to better educate our students. The advisor’s meeting will also give our faculty a daily opportunity to brainstorm, share successful practices, inservice, team build and get needed support from other educators engaged with similar students and method.

Morning exercises – Research has shown that the development of good coordination between the left and right sides of the body also helps strengthen the brain’s language center. Students and teachers will engage in stretching, moving meditation, Yoga, Tai-Chi, Karate, Ballroom Dancing and other exercise to shake the cobwebs out and help students prepare for the work of the day.

Advisory – There are two different types of advisory; advisories during which daily and weekly goals are set and schedules are arranged to make achievement of those goals possible (scheduling), and theme-based (thematic) advisories during which our students will discuss world events, practice social / life and interviewing skills, work out differences, and sometimes, just have a bit of group fun. During either type of advisory, students also brainstorm together, critique each other’s work, and identify areas of mutual interest with which to develop joint projects.

Mathematics/Computer Based Learning (CBL) – Our students will need to have good mathematical and logic skills in order to succeed in the real world. Students will have a mathematics class virtually every day they are enrolled at the Whole Life Charter School. We designed our academic program with the awareness that each student learns at her/his own pace. It is precisely to accommodate our student’s varying skills acquisition speeds that we have divided the mathematics class into two parts where the second part is self-paced and aided by computer based practice modules. Students excelling in math may choose to work at an even faster pace and students having difficulty internalizing a concept can use their time re-investigating the difficult concept. The computer programs we are purchasing will also help our students practice for standardized tests and convey student progress to our advisors on a daily basis so they can intervene at the earliest signs of trouble.

Book Club – Students may join one of several book-centric study and discussion groups meeting around the school during this period of the day. Four to eight books will be studied each year by each student as new book groups will be be formed two times per quarter.

Elective Seminar – Whole Life Charter School faculty and advanced students will each plan a ten hour course of study in an area of their own personal interest. Electives may be offered in any area imaginable; from knitting a pair of socks to basic car repair. Students not offering a course will have the opportunity to take any course that interests them.

Openwork – Upper School students will work on hands-on research projects based on personal interest for a minimum of 2 1/2 hours each week (less for Lower and Middle School students). Under the guidance of their advisors, student will design projects that tap their unique areas of interest. Advisors will assist each learner in connecting the academics she/he is involved in to their project so as to demonstrate to that student the personal value of each abstract academic study, to show the student where the various academics intersect with their real interests and to make learning real and important.

MicroSociety / Service Learning / Internship –

• MicroSociety (Lower and Middle School) – MicroSociety will be a year round hands-on project for our Lower and Middle School students. In their micro society students build a complete working economy of their own design with a monetary system that includes a marketplace offering real products and services, a newsroom, a governing body that decides on and imposes taxes and provides services, a legal system and much, much, more. MicroSociety is very deep learning that makes academics come alive for kids. Students starting businesses in the MicroSociety are responsible for the design and execution of a real product or service. They need to learn how to price it, how to reproduce it at reasonable cost, how much to pay their workers, how to hire their employees and how to balance their accounts at the end of the month. Social Studies take on a whole new meaning as students argue law and amend their constitution. For more information about this amazing program download the MicroSociety Brochure.
• Internship (Upper School) – Students will engage in an internship for a minimum of six weeks outside the school with a mentor involved in an area of interest to the student. Internships offer learners the opportunity to obtain real-world experience so as to better understand the realities of working in it. In this way, students will be able to experiment in fields of interest and see if they are occupations that they might wish to pursue. Students will not merely take from their mentors. It is the student’s responsibility to create something of value as part their internship. A student might; design a brochure, fix a car, write a computer application, or prepare a report all from the research done as part of the mentorship and the student’s project.

Science Theatre – The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires our students to engage in the sciences, to develop skills of observation and experimentation in four areas of inquiry; physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sciences. Our learners will spend a minimum of 2 1/2hours each week in a laboratory environment doing hands-on investigations in each of these areas with additional study engaged in as part of their Openwork projects.

Town Hall – Coming at the tail-end of the week, town hall offers our community of learners an opportunity to build school culture, make project presentations for peer review, meet others in the community not in their own circles or involve themselves in events necessary to sustain the life of the school.

Afternoon Advisory – It has been shown that students who feel a strong connection with an adult at school have greater success and better attendance. Afternoon Advisory is designed to facilitate the process. Students will have a short meeting with their advisor to evaluate the day, discuss successes and failures, get a smile and a pat on the back from someone who genuinely cares and looks forward to seeing them on the morning of the next school day.