Tag Archives: ilead antelope valley

Culture and Curriculum, Studio

iLEAD Antelope Valley Culture: Whole-Child Development

Last week we introduced the importance of social-emotional learning at iLEAD Antelope Valley. Social-emotional learning is integral to our whole-child educational approach. 

A whole-child mind-set means that we are focused on far more than teaching to tests or holding up state standards as the be-all, end-all of education. We believe in focusing on the whole child and promoting social-emotional learning, because education is about more than test scores.

Whole-child development empowers kids to be creative, engaged citizens. With that in mind, we believe it’s our responsibility to nurture learners’ creative abilities to express themselves, understand others, and navigate complex information so they can confidently solve the problems of an ever-changing world.

So when we say we focus on “whole child” development, what do we mean? We’re talking about an approach to project-based learning that emphasizes the following deeper-learning approaches:

Mastery of Core Academic Content: Learners lay their academic foundation in subjects such as reading, writing, arts, math, and science, understanding essential principles and procedures, recalling facts, and drawing on their knowledge to complete tasks.

Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: Our learners understand how to construct effective arguments using their critical, analytical, and creative skills. They develop the know-how to come up with solutions to complex problems.

Collaboration: Learners embrace teamwork and consider multiple viewpoints to cooperate and achieve shared goals.

Effective Communication: Learners communicate effectively in writing and oral presentations. They structure information in meaningful ways, listen to and give feedback, and construct messages for particular audiences.

Self-Directed Learning: Learners develop the ability to set goals, monitor their own progress, and reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement. They learn to see setbacks as opportunities to grow and be more adaptive.

Growth Mind-set: Learners with a growth mind-set believe in themselves. They trust their abilities and believe their hard work will pay off; they persist to overcome obstacles. In the process, they also learn from and support each other and see the relevance of their schoolwork to the real world and their own future success.

Coupled with vibrant project-based education and social-emotional learning, all these elements work together to empower kids to overcome any challenge that comes their way academically; but more than that, they build the character to succeed in the 21st century.

Studio

Join Us for Lunch Bunch!

The Counseling Team is excited to host Lunch Bunch. Learners are invited to bring their lunch or snacks every week and meet with friends and socialize while developing positive and healthy relationships and building social skills. Please check ParentSquare for the Zoom info to join! The schedule is as follows:

Grades K-2: Wednesdays, 9:00-9:30 AM
Grades 3-5: Wednesdays, 9:30-10:00 AM
Grades 6-8: Wednesdays, 10:00-10:30 AM

Kristina Lobato heads up iLEAD AV’s Lunch Bunch. If you have any questions, please email her at kristina.lobato@ileadschools.org.

Lunch, Studio

School Lunch

Enrolled families must fill out a Meal Service Application for the school year.

Free and reduced-price meals are available to qualifying families.

While our site is closed, school meals will be grab-and-go with minimal contact and may not be consumed on-site. Breakfast and lunch will be picked up together at the front gate Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 AM. For your protection and ours, please wear a cloth face covering when picking up meals.

Please contact the school office with any questions.

Studio

iLEAD Antelope Valley: Partnering with Home and Community

At iLEAD Antelope Valley, we don’t believe that education happens solely within the four walls of a school. On the contrary, we believe education that produces well-rounded children is a result of synergy and collaboration between the school, the home, and the community. 

That is why it is so important to us to build strong partnerships between families and communities. Parents and community partners are key resources to supporting learners’ success, which is why iLEAD Agua Dulce actively and consistently involves parents, finding ways to support them and extend learners’ education at home. 

Through our relationships with various community partners, we are able to provide learning experiences that broaden kids’ perspectives, not to mention often give back to the community. Strong community partnerships are a win-win. 

There are several ways we promote parent involvement. We strongly encourage parents to volunteer at their learners’ school during the year, with opportunities including classroom volunteering, tutoring, attending board of directors meetings, participating in events, and more. We also encourage parents to take an active role in their children’s learning. 

Other community-related partnerships we encourage and facilitate include partnering with industry professionals, business leaders, government and civic leaders, community leaders, nonprofit leaders, higher-education partners, entrepreneurs, and more. Fostering these relationships provides learners with a wealth of knowledge, advice, and insight, in addition to access to real-world learning opportunities and experiences.

Collaboration is at the heart of iLEAD Antelope Valley’s project-based learning model. When synergy is found between learners, families, and communities, something really special happens — the foundation is set for authentic learning that produces inspired leaders with promising futures.

Culture and Curriculum, Studio

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.

Lunch, Studio

School Lunch

Enrolled families must fill out a Meal Service Application for the school year.

Free and reduced-price meals are available to qualifying families.

While our site is closed, school meals will be grab-and-go with minimal contact and may not be consumed on-site. Breakfast and lunch will be picked up together at the front gate Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 AM. For your protection and ours, please wear a cloth face covering when picking up meals.

Please contact the school office with any questions.

Culture and Curriculum, ILPs, Studio

iLEAD Antelope Valley Culture: Individualized Learning Plans

At the heart of the iLEAD Antelope Valley approach to learning is a firm belief that because every child is different, there is a great benefit in education that embraces a learner’s individuality.

Setting goals at the beginning of the school year is very important. The idea of “beginning with the end in mind” is a valuable principle from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. With that in mind, one of the core elements of every school year is the development of a learner’s Individualized Learning Plan, or ILP.

At the onset of each school year, learners create an ILP to help guide their instruction. Each learner, along with their family and facilitator, work together to monitor the ILP and make adjustments as needed. The primary goal of the ILP is to ensure that each child will be treated as an individual and, therefore, will work toward attainable goals appropriate to their individual development.

An ILP does much more than help learners navigate a successful path through the school year. It also provides a comprehensive, long-term approach to their education and, in turn, their future career planning. Done right, an ILP can help kids record both their academic and career plans and passions to assess their progress and chart the way forward.

What to Expect in the ILP Process

During the initial ILP meeting, the learner is asked to reflect on what they view as their strengths and challenges, in addition to sharing their interests and any other passions they may have. Parents/guardians are able to add input, and the facilitator shares their observations and data from the assessments.

Using what we know about strengths, challenges, interests, and data, the team develops an academic and social-emotional goal for each learner. It is vital that the learner takes ownership of the goal and the goals are not being enforced upon them. For each goal created, the team sets action plans for home and school to help support the progress toward each goal.

Throughout the year, facilitators put various structures in place that allow for reflection and discussion of ILP goals. In addition to learning the grade-level academic content standards, each learner works toward their individual goals.

Reflection, goal-setting, responsibility, and accountability — lifelong learning outcomes that will truly benefit each learner as they become part of a 21st-century economy. When these principles are at the forefront of a learner’s education year after year, learners become self-directed, successful adults.

Wrapping It Up

Additionally, an ILP is a tool that helps address factors that can sometimes lead learners to disengage, such as academic struggles, lack of supportive relationships with adults, and a sense that school is not relevant to “the real world.” The ILP helps learners take ownership of their education.

The ILP doesn’t work in a vacuum, of course. It’s just one of several effective tools in the iLEAD toolbox, which also includes Project-Based Learning, Social-Emotional Learning, whole-child development, Presentations of Learning, and other components we’ll unpack in future articles. Together, they serve to equip and empower kids for vibrant, promising futures.

Coming up next week, we’ll dive into Project-Based Learning, a foundational element of iLEAD Antelope Valley’s educational approach.