Tag Archives: Antelope Valley Charter School

Upcoming Events

Click here for the academic calendar.

April 23: “Among Us” Game Night, 4:00-4:30 PM. Check ParentSquare for link to join.

April 29: Zoom Mother’s Day Craft Day, 3:30 PM. Check ParentSquare for link to join.

May 6: Staff Appreciation Parade, iLEAD AV front parking lot, 12:30 PM

May 31: Memorial Day – No School

June 4: Cohort A attends classes 9:00 AM-12:30 PM

Prospective families, would you like to learn more about iLEAD AV? Sign up for a virtual info session!     iLEAD Antelope Valley info session flyer

See what our families are saying about iLEAD Antelope Valley!

Support iLEAD Antelope Valley with Box Tops & Amazon Smile!

Did you know you can help iLEAD Antelope Valley and provide additional resources by just doing the things you’re already doing every day?

We call this “passive fundraising.” You can support us through Box Tops for Education and Amazon Smille! See below for details to make sure your purchases make a difference!

Box Tops

Amazon Smile

  • Shop on smile.amazon.com
  • Under the search bar on Amazon Smile’s site, it will say “Supporting.” This is where you’ll choose “Ilead California Charters 1”
  • Start shopping on smile.amazon.com so that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to iLEAD AV
  • If you purchase under the regular amazon.com, those purchases will not be donated to the school. It has to be through smile.amazon.com

Together Tuesdays: Share Your Photos and Stories!

Greetings, iLEAD community,

Every other week, a new Together Tuesday video features photos of families, learners, and staff throughout the iLEAD nation. We’d love to see your contributions.

To ensure your submissions are included, please click here to submit your photos. Photos received by the Friday before each Together Tuesday are eligible to be included.

We’re all in this together, and we can’t wait to see your photos!

If you have any questions, simply reply to stories@ileadschools.org.

Sincerely,
The iLEAD Team

*If you send us a photo or video, we will consider this approval for use on our school websites and social media accounts. Please do not include images of video conference screens showing learners. 

iLEAD Antelope Valley Culture: Social-Emotional Learning

In our approach to education at iLEAD Antelope Valley, we emphasize methods that foster learners’ social-emotional learning. Social-emotional learning is the process through which learners understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, and establish and maintain positive relationships to make responsible decisions.

We believe it’s vital to help learners develop skills such as social awareness, self-management, regulation of emotions, and self-awareness so they can weave these abilities through every facet of their lives. When emotional intelligence is nurtured and developed, it can inspire creativity and increased engagement.

Over the coming weeks, we will explore nine pillars of social-emotional learning (SEL) at iLEAD Antelope Valley:

  • Social intelligence
  • Optimism
  • Gratitude
  • Purpose
  • Growth mind-set
  • Self-control
  • Curiosity
  • Zest
  • Grit

But why is SEL so important? 

To adapt to an increasingly globalized economy, education must emphasize more than rote knowledge. We believe learners should be empathetic, critical thinkers who thoughtfully engage with the world around them. Modern employers prize these skills in the workplace, and research suggests employees with more highly developed social-emotional strengths earn more and are more productive. 

Additionally, focusing on non-cognitive skills may further improve reading, writing, and mathematics performance in kids, according to the nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute.

We measure and report SEL progress as part of every project, individualized learning plan goal, and Report of Progress. We have also developed SEL and academic rigor rubrics that add a well-balanced approach to academics and reflective practice for facilitators, learners, families, and administrators. Other elements of our SEL implementation, practice, and assessment include our Learner-Led Conferences (LLCs), Presentations of Learning (POLs), Passion Projects, Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs), Advisory Program, Morning Meetings, learner-led ambassador groups, and restorative approaches to discipline.

PBL expert and iLEAD partner Thom Markham summed up why social-emotional learning is so vital. “Navigating a changing world demands a communicative, creative, and collaborative person with a flexible, empathetic, resilient, and persistent temperament,” he said. “It’s time to make a change to our mind-set and be far more intentional about teaching the dispositions and personality attributes that lead to better work ethic, more engagement, improved relationships, a greater sense of well-being — and better projects.”

At iLEAD Antelope Valley, our goal is nothing less.

Support iLEAD Antelope Valley with Box Tops & Amazon Smile!

Did you know you can help iLEAD Antelope Valley and provide additional resources by just doing the things you’re already doing every day?

We call this “passive fundraising.” You can support us through Box Tops for Education and Amazon Smille! See below for details to make sure your purchases make a difference!

Box Tops

Amazon Smile

  • Shop on smile.amazon.com
  • Under the search bar on Amazon Smile’s site, it will say “Supporting.” This is where you’ll choose “Ilead California Charters 1”
  • Start shopping on smile.amazon.com so that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to iLEAD AV
  • If you purchase under the regular amazon.com, those purchases will not be donated to the school. It has to be through smile.amazon.com

Together Tuesdays: Share Your Photos and Stories!

Greetings, iLEAD community,

Every other week, a new Together Tuesday video features photos of families, learners, and staff throughout the iLEAD nation. We’d love to see your contributions.

To ensure your submissions are included, please click here to submit your photos. Photos received by the Friday before each Together Tuesday are eligible to be included.

We’re all in this together, and we can’t wait to see your photos!

If you have any questions, simply reply to stories@ileadschools.org.

Sincerely,
The iLEAD Team

*If you send us a photo or video, we will consider this approval for use on our school websites and social media accounts. Please do not include images of video conference screens showing learners. 

iLEAD Antelope Valley Culture: Real-World Experiences

iLEAD Antelope Valley emphasizes 21st-century skills and preparing learners for the work world, and tangible experiences help elevate the learning process.

Examples include our DreamUp to Space challenges, where teams of learners come up with scientific research projects that launch to the International Space Station for testing; or living history programs, where learners re-create scenes from history.

Real-world experience is at the heart of what can make project-based learning (PBL) truly exciting, challenging, and rewarding for learners. When PBL is infused with real-world experiences, learners develop crucial skills while they’re still in school. Additionally, these experiences can provide learners with deeper insights into career areas they may want to pursue. Furthermore, kids find that their success isn’t defined merely by a grade but by the experience they gain through the process.

Finally, learning that incorporates real-world experience helps learners become familiar with professional environments. Besides learning the subject content, learners develop skills crucial in the work world, including clear and timely communication, thinking critically, problem-solving, and time management. 

As part of a well-rounded PBL curriculum, real-world experiences are essential to iLEAD Antelope Valley’s mission to help kids be free to think and inspired to lead.

iLEAD Antelope Valley Culture: Project-Based Learning

Spend even just a few moments inquiring about iLEAD Antelope Valley’s approach to education, and one of the first things you’ll hear about is project-based learning, or PBL. It’s at the core of our approach to school and a proven asset to education.

So what is project-based learning? In PBL, learners actively explore real-world challenges to acquire deeper knowledge of the subject at hand. Research shows that learners increasingly retain and enjoy what they’re learning when PBL is done well.

This educational model helps students learn the valuable collaboration, academic, and problem-solving skills our global economy will demand from them. Through the PBL method, learners tackle engaging projects about real-world issues that require critical thought, inquiry, and synthesis, and culminate in regular Presentations of Learning (or POLs) to their peers, facilitators, community members, and parents.

The PBL model requires learners to research, collaborate, and carefully weigh information and evidence in a nuanced problem-solving environment. It teaches learners to accept feedback, create solutions, and present their findings in a high-performance context — preparing them for the rigors of the 21st-century economy and the challenges of a global world. 

PBL provides the following benefits:

  • PBL makes school more engaging: In PBL, students are active, not passive. Projects engage their hearts and minds and provide real-world relevance for learning.
  • PBL improves learning: At the completion of a project, learners understand content more deeply, remember what they learn, and retain it longer than is often the case with traditional instruction. Because of this, students who gain content knowledge with PBL are better able to apply to new situations what they know and can do.
  • PBL builds skills for college, career, and life: Learners are preparing for life in a world where success requires more than basic knowledge and skills. In a project, students learn how to take initiative and responsibility, build confidence, solve problems, work in teams, communicate ideas, and manage themselves more effectively.
  • PBL helps address standards: Common Core and other current education standards emphasize real-world application of knowledge and skills, as well as the development of success skills like critical thinking/problem-solving, collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking and presentation skills. PBL helps learners effectively meet these goals.
  • PBL embraces technology: Kids enjoy using a variety of tech tools that are a perfect fit for PBL. With technology, facilitators and learners not only find resources and information they need; they also collaborate more effectively and connect with experts, partners, and audiences.
  • PBL makes teaching more enjoyable and rewarding: Projects allow facilitators to work closely with active, engaged learners doing high-quality, meaningful work. In many cases, facilitators rediscover the joy of learning alongside kids.
  • PBL connects kids and schools with communities and the real world: Through PBL, learners have opportunities to solve real problems and address actual issues, and as such they learn more about interacting with adults and organizations, are exposed to workplaces, and can identify and develop career interests.

In short, project-based learning is at the core of the iLEAD Antelope Valley model because we believe it is at the heart of how kids learn best. Time and again, we’ve seen how PBL helps learners develop academic skills, build leadership skills and character, and lay the foundation for promising careers.

Upcoming Events

Click here for the academic calendar.

  • March 30: Zoom Fun Craft Day, 4 PM. Check ParentSquare for the link to join.
  • April 1: iSUPPORT Meeting, 5:30 PM
  • April 5-12: Spring Break – No School

Remaining Fridays when Cohort A attends classes 9:00 AM-12:30 PM:

  • April 16
  • June 4

Prospective families, would you like to learn more about iLEAD AV? Sign up for a virtual info session!     iLEAD Antelope Valley info session flyer

See what our families are saying about iLEAD Antelope Valley!