Our program is Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., with drop-off beginning at 8:30 and pick-up ending at 3:30. For 2024-2025 the first day of school is Tuesday, August 13th, 2024, and the last day of school is Thursday, May 22nd, 2025.

2024-2025 Calendar

We offer Grades 5-12.

Yes! We are a, private micro-school. Explore What Makes Us Unique.

Yes! We accept all types of gifted students — both those that are not 2e and those that are 2e. If you are seeking high-quality, non-traditional education tailored to your gifted or 2e child within a nurturing community of like-minded peers, we encourage you to get to know us better by attending an Open House.

We keep you well informed of all of the ways your child is learning and growing!

Each student receives an individual progress report at the end of every 7-11-week learning block. These narrative evaluations share progress in core academic subjects, plus project-based learning, social, and emotional progress to support the whole child. Parents have access to reports of online learning platforms. In addition, students bring home projects and work demonstrating their learning.

We also send out a weekly summary that shares what the students delved into in each subject during the week. In addition, we send out student photos online so that you can see the learning and connection in action for yourself. We also provide frequent samples of student work for parents, as well as some subjects have online platforms for viewing so that you can stay well informed.

Students share their learning through Celebration of Learning presentations (in a way that is tailored to meet the needs of your child) at the end of each learning block. This gives students a chance to have an authentic, real-world application of their learning and strengthens our bond as a learning community as well by all of the families coming together to celebrate, share, and spend time together.

2e, also known as twice-exceptional, means someone who is intellectually gifted and also has a learning difference, challenge, or disability. All too commonly, twice-exceptional kids are either viewed as not needing accommodations because they are gifted (and the learning difference, challenge, or disability is not addressed), or they are treated solely for the disability/challenge without nurturing the tremendous intellectual potential of their giftedness. At Great Minds Learning Community we nurture the whole child — both the intellectual thirst and the challenges — while creating strong relationships and a welcoming community of peers. Some common twice-exceptionalities/challenges/learning differences we work with are dyslexia, ADHD/hypermobile, sensory processing challenges, vision challenges, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, chemical sensitivity and allergies, Asperger’s/High Functioning Autism, anxiety, or social difficulties.

It can also be very difficult to differentiate between “Dabrowski’s overexcitabilities” — characteristic of gifted individuals — and disabilities. As a result, many gifted children are misdiagnosed by professionals with limited or no experience in giftedness because the “symptoms” of giftedness and many diagnoses have a huge overlap. (To learn more about overexcitabilities, visit: http://sengifted.org/overexcitability-and-the-gifted/)

No.

Unfortunately, we are not equipped to serve children who need specialized attention because of severe learning or behavioral challenges.

We welcome twice-exceptional learners who need minor support for learning challenges – for example, dysgraphia or dyslexia (e.g. students with dysgraphia can show mastery through typed answers on the computer or through hands-on project portfolios instead of handwritten answers); sensory processing challenges (e.g. can wear headsets during online learning time; go to a quiet room if it gets too loud; natural light and LED lights in our school instead of fluorescent lighting); dyscalculia (improvement through dycalculia-specific games and strategies, not “drill and kill” worksheets); students with chemical sensitivities (we have filtered water, air, and no perfumes or air fresheners to minimize chemical sensitivity); hypermobile/ADHD (e.g. we have body breaks to move bodies; executive functioning development strategies); students with high-functioning autism (Asperger’s) or mild social challenges (e.g. small class sizes enhance peer interaction and support; improvisational theater strategies to develop social skills; actively use non-violent communications strategies to explore feelings and solve conflicting needs). Great Minds Learning Community celebrates neurodiversity and each individual’s uniqueness!

Please see Learning Differences: Our Approach

When our first child was born, we planned educate her in a traditional school setting. As we got to know our child with her amazing intellect, as well as her learning differences and challenges, we realized that she would have her own unique path, and we starting homeschooling. This enabled us to meet her specific needs.

All the while we continued to seek that “sweet spot,” a school that would provide a learner-centered educational experience with hands-on, engaging learning and discovery tailored to both the giftedness and the learning differences that allowed for life balance. During our journey we enrolled in two different part-time schools, and while we enjoyed the benefits of community and some other features, we found that there were not schools in the area equipped to meet the needs of her giftedness nor her learning challenges of being twice-exceptional in a hands-on way. Our son (7 years younger) is also twice-exceptional.

So as the saying goes: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” That’s what we have chosen to do with Great Minds: to co-create with the parents and students, a truly unique and transformational learning community for gifted and twice-exceptional students in our little neck of the woods. 🙂

We truly “get” what it’s like to be a parent of a gifted and/or twice-exceptional learner because we’ve been there. We know the family commitment you have made to do whatever it takes to find a good fit for your child so that s/he can truly thrive.

An award-winning educator, Deanne has twenty years of combined experience as an educator, teacher, and trainer in public schools, private schools, universities, and corporate settings, and in homeschooling her twice-exceptional children.

Click Here to Learn more about Deanne

Great Minds Learning Community balances lots of student voice and choice, student agency and discovery-based learning activities with teacher guidance with teacher-led mini-lessons, processes, and routines to foster success and executive functioning. The way that students present mastery of material is strengths-based with learner voice and choice, unless we are intentionally practicing a lagging skill, in which case we still focus on coming at that from a passions-based approach. We meet the child where they are with that skill and build incrementally from there.

Students vote on themes for their project-based learning and science units. Teachers create discovery-based lesson plans and engaging mini-lessons from these themes from eclectic resources to make the learning authentic, engaging, and meaningful to the students. Students contribute many ideas that are implemented through the twice-weekly class meetings and weekly student surveys.

Studies show that humans remember only 44% of what we learn an hour later. Learning activities that incorporate student voice and choice and student passions activate the senses and make learning come alive (and increases retention), as well as fosters our school’s goal of fostering lifelong learners.

We get to know students and their families through the application and the family interview process. We seek gifted and/or twice-exceptional learners who have the spark of the love of learning! To maintain a safe and productive learning community we accept students who have an overall positive or neutral impact on other students and the learning environment.

Unfortunately, we are not equipped to work with aides. We have a 7:1 student-teacher ratio (often much smaller) including interns and volunteers. While we provide 1:1 help and tailor learning to each student as much as possible, we are unable to provide 1:1 assistance for every learning activity.

We have specific social-emotional learning activities every week to learn and practice skills. In addition, we provide real-time social-emotional learning as an integral part of our daily learning activities to nurture the whole child. During class meetings, students integrate social-emotional learning. We also facilitate daily centering activities to increase self-awareness and coping strategies.

We use an eclectic blend of techniques, such as the Nurtured Heart Approach, Ross Greene’s Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, Positive Discipline, Non-Violent Communication, Michelle Garcia Winner’s social-emotional learning techniques, techniques from Sarah Ward and others to improve executive functioning, and techniques from the Bright and Quirky community of experts.

Yes! Our philosophy is that a low student-teacher ratio is particularly important for gifted and twice-exceptional kids. That is why we are committed to a low student-teacher ratio in order to maximize learning and build meaningful relationships with our students. This low ratio enables us to best tailor learning to students’ specific needs and passions.

Here at Great Minds we co-create the school together. The three components of the learning triad are the student, the parents, and the teacher. We value all feedback. Parents and students receive weekly surveys with their feedback and ideas on what worked well, what not so well, and how to make the learning experience even better. This process fosters student and family engagement and a sense of ownership of the learning experience because each student and each family’s voice is heard as a valuable part of the community. The feedback system helps us to effectively meet your child’s needs in real-time, and we get some really helpful ideas!

We are a private school and provide a high school diploma. We also can provide a transcript including letter grades for grades 6-12 if desired for a small fee.

In addition to providing transcripts and a diploma, attending a small school with a strong teacher-student relationship focus like ours facilitates providing teacher recommendations for college because we know your child’s strengths and accomplishments well. We have apprenticeships starting in eighth grade, which provide hands-on opportunities that can be valuable for college applications. We also assist students in creating a portfolio of work showcasing their unique strengths. Portfolios can help an applicant stand out in a college application process. The hands-on, project-based nature of our school naturally lends itself to this portfolio creation process.

We focus on fostering critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and innovation, which are important college and job skills in an era in which over half of employers say candidates are not well-prepared enough in these skills to meet basic job requirements.

Yes, we have a dual-enrollment partnership with Austin Community College option to get both high school and college credit simultaneously.

Absolutely! We have an optional full-day Monday program.

Yes! We do various field trips and meetups.

Yes, we’d love to have you join us for a shadow day. Please contact us for further information.

Yes, we’ve had four years of graduating seniors so far, with all attending college! We provide many benefits and guidance to help your child stand out for their college application. Schools like ours, with passion-led learning, projects to show mastery, internships, and teachers who know your child well and can provide very strong recommendation letters help your child stand in college applications. We provide standard transcripts, help with CommonApp college applications, dual enrollment with ACC, guidance counseling, and more. Please click here for more details for high schoolers.