Transforming Education for Our Students!
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We, the educators of Elysian Heights, believe our students are creative, loving, independent, intuitive, and gifted learners who deserve an education reflecting these traits. Student learning should be filled with inquiry, creativity, and exploration throughout the day to meet the needs and interest of all learners. Our students are curious children who are eager to learn and showcase their success using the arts!
Our goal is to continue expanding our own knowledge as educators to ensure that each and every year our students at Elysian Heights Arts Magnet experience learning through creativity and exploration. We want them to have the best possible education, keeping in mind their own interests and learn to use it to drive our classroom inquiries. Opal Charter School in Portland, Oregon hosts "Visitation Days" that showcase this learning environment. This 3-day visitation will help us bring to light a student-centered approach to learning at our school, provide us with opportunities to see how the arts are integrated into teaching and learning, and allow us to ask them all of the questions we have!
Our goal is to use the funds raised to send 8 staff members (one team in February and another in March) to Opal Charter School. Funds will be used for the "Visitation Days" registration ($600/pp), flights ($180-220/pp), ground transportation ($300-$450/total), housing ($800-$1000/total), some meals ($100-150/pp), materials ($100-200/pp). We invite YOU to be a part of our journey in developing as educators in our new arts magnet school. We are grateful for any support you can offer.
More about Opal Charter School:
Opal holds a powerful image of all children as intelligent, creative, and competent individuals that have abilities the world needs. They value the differences and respect all families as collaborators who contribute distinctive experiences and wisdom. They employ the arts as language to inspire creativity, imagination and communication. Over the years, Opal has served as a learning laboratory for the professional development of thousands of educators from around the globe.
Opal is the model, we, at Elysian Heights Arts Magnet, are using to reimagine how are children can learn. We are looking at the pedagogical moves used by the teachers to engage its community in learning and we want to use that to facilitate the reconceptualization of how we can continue to evolve our current learning structures.
You may be asking yourself, what does Opal do that is so different and warrants us flying up to Portland, Oregon? First, they are a public school that is beholden to similar standards and assessment as LAUSD. Second, because they believe all children have unique talents and abilities, they focus on asking students complex questions and allow them to explore these complex questions in ways that make sense for the child. The rooms are designed to allow children to explore their thinking. Third, they embrace all the emotions children exhibit without judgement. When a child becomes angry, they try to understand the genesis of the emotion through observation and then at a later time when everyone is calm, the teacher facilitates a group conversation. The children are presented the problem without specific classroom examples, they engage in a shared reading to stimulate student thinking, and then they allow the children to figure out possible strategies that can be used to overcome the problem. Finally, Opal provides a concrete example of how progressive instructional practices can look at the different grade levels.
Our goal is to continue expanding our own knowledge as educators to ensure that each and every year our students at Elysian Heights Arts Magnet experience learning through creativity and exploration. We want them to have the best possible education, keeping in mind their own interests and learn to use it to drive our classroom inquiries. Opal Charter School in Portland, Oregon hosts "Visitation Days" that showcase this learning environment. This 3-day visitation will help us bring to light a student-centered approach to learning at our school, provide us with opportunities to see how the arts are integrated into teaching and learning, and allow us to ask them all of the questions we have!
Our goal is to use the funds raised to send 8 staff members (one team in February and another in March) to Opal Charter School. Funds will be used for the "Visitation Days" registration ($600/pp), flights ($180-220/pp), ground transportation ($300-$450/total), housing ($800-$1000/total), some meals ($100-150/pp), materials ($100-200/pp). We invite YOU to be a part of our journey in developing as educators in our new arts magnet school. We are grateful for any support you can offer.
More about Opal Charter School:
Opal holds a powerful image of all children as intelligent, creative, and competent individuals that have abilities the world needs. They value the differences and respect all families as collaborators who contribute distinctive experiences and wisdom. They employ the arts as language to inspire creativity, imagination and communication. Over the years, Opal has served as a learning laboratory for the professional development of thousands of educators from around the globe.
Opal is the model, we, at Elysian Heights Arts Magnet, are using to reimagine how are children can learn. We are looking at the pedagogical moves used by the teachers to engage its community in learning and we want to use that to facilitate the reconceptualization of how we can continue to evolve our current learning structures.
You may be asking yourself, what does Opal do that is so different and warrants us flying up to Portland, Oregon? First, they are a public school that is beholden to similar standards and assessment as LAUSD. Second, because they believe all children have unique talents and abilities, they focus on asking students complex questions and allow them to explore these complex questions in ways that make sense for the child. The rooms are designed to allow children to explore their thinking. Third, they embrace all the emotions children exhibit without judgement. When a child becomes angry, they try to understand the genesis of the emotion through observation and then at a later time when everyone is calm, the teacher facilitates a group conversation. The children are presented the problem without specific classroom examples, they engage in a shared reading to stimulate student thinking, and then they allow the children to figure out possible strategies that can be used to overcome the problem. Finally, Opal provides a concrete example of how progressive instructional practices can look at the different grade levels.
Co-organizers (9)
Jaquelyn Bonilla
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Elysian Heights Elementary School
Beneficiary
Sheryl Gallo
Co-organizer
Vanity Amano
Co-organizer
Rey Munda
Co-organizer
Courtney Diedrich
Co-organizer