Click here to download our class schedule.

 

Real-time Social-Emotional Learning and teacher guidance/scaffolding occur throughout the daily activities and social interactions.

Times are approximate and are often organically tweaked as per learner/activity needs.

Types of projects we’ve done:

Assembling and Flying Drones

Creating Your Own Business Product/Business fair

Writing Your Own Fan Fiction Story

Creating Your Own Minecraft World

Crime Studies

Harry Potter Science

New York City Group Budgeting Trip

Being a Virtual Tour Guide with Google Earth

Chemistry of Baking

Creating Your Own Exoplanet or Galaxy

Creating Your Own New Society

Coding Your Own Video Game

Extreme Weather Events Experiments

Creating and Marketing Your Own Card Game

Ancient Egypt Shark Tank

Passion projects, such as woodworking, Pokemon, Legos, constructing, physics, drawing, and more!

How We Differ From a Traditional School

1) Passion-based, project-based, thematic learning provides engagement for your gifted or twice-exceptional child!

As educational reformer John Dewey said: “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”

 

At Great Minds we follow the research that points to project-based, hands-on learning as a vital path to ‘giving’ kids tomorrow.

 

We are a hands-on, project-based, discovery-based school. We focus on seeing, doing, and making through intellectual deep dives! Passion and student-centered learning opens the door to digging deep intellectually and keeping the love of learning alive. This approach also provides a doorway to partnering with your child to leverage research-based ways to improve lagging skills in weaker areas.

 

Because students dig into hands-on, student-driven, project-based learning on topics about which they are passionate, this really enhances engagement.

 

At Great Minds students brainstorm and vote for the topics for project-based learning (PBL) and science/STEM each learning block based on their interests and passions. Then the teachers reverse engineer to create lesson plans from their chosen topics. We don’t work from set textbooks or ‘teach to the test’.

 

Learning is theme-based across subjects for authentic, real-world learning, meaning that what students decide for project-based learning carries over into language arts, math, and so on.

 

The same goes for science. Science topics are integrated with other subjects for a theme-based approach.

 

Throughout all of our learning, we focus on the process of honing the 4 C’s of 21st Century learning –– critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication –– to help students master skill sets that employers are seeking in today’s rapidly-changing technological world.

 

To give you an example of a learning block’s project-based learning topic, let’s imagine that the students vote to create a board game as their project-based learning (PBL) topic. (Learning blocks are 5-8 weeks long.) Students would work on this during PBL time and would also have work on learning activities related to the theme across other subjects.

 

During PBL time, they might divvy up roles for the artwork, game rules, marketing, game board design, user testing, and so on. They would work through the engineering design iterative process of revising their game to resolve issues and improve the game play.

 

For language arts, they might write a persuasive essay about what they think is the best board game on the market and why. For math, they might study probability as it relates to different board games. For social-emotional learning time, they might focus on the etiquette of playing board games fairly, or how to tell from body language if someone is lying during a bluffing game (knowledge of body language that carries over into other social situations).

 

Notice that in each of these subjects, the theme is still related to creating a board game.

 

For science, let’s say that students voted for the theme of recycling and conservation by doing various hands-on labs. Students could even pull that topic into the board game theme as well, using something recycled as game pieces for the game or showing the overall environmental impact of paperless vs. print marketing of their board game.

 

There are five learning blocks a year ranging from 5-8 weeks long. At the end of each learning block students have an authentic, real-world audience when they present their work to family and friends at the Celebration of Learning. At the Celebration of Learning students would describe their process and present the game. They might have one student act as the game master or maybe have created a video tutorial of how to play the game, followed by family and friends actually playing the game at the Celebration of Learning. If students wanted, they could even decide to try selling the game online.

 

This is authentic, real-world learning!

 

This board game example is just one example of how the project-based learning approach fosters the 4C’s of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. In a single project with an overarching theme, students used language arts, math, science, art, technology, presentation skills, teamwork, the engineering process, and more — all in one!

 

We at Great Minds aim to focus on ways of learning that will help your child thrive in today’s world. We aim to empower your child to bring his/her tremendous intellect, skills, and interests to the world and help your child be successful both personally and professionally.

2) Low Student-Teacher Ratios Allow for More Time Per Student, Personal Connection, and Scaffolding

Students benefit from small, multi-age classes with a maximum 7:1 student-teacher ratio. We value the personal connection with students. This personal connection enables us to really understand who they are and how to best help them grow.

 

We come from a strength-based, passion-based approach that we use to help your child improve lagging skills in areas of challenge. The small group size allows students to navigate social and emotional relationships, helps friendships to flourish, and fosters feelings of belonging.

 

We use best practices in executive functioning, twice-exceptional kids, gifted kids, and the various learning differences (dysgraphia, dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger’s/high-functioning autism, anxiety, etc.) to help your child have a ‘just right’ level of challenge to keep making progress forward on improving lagging skills in a way that feeds him/her intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

3) Our Teachers Are Highly Trained in Tailoring Instruction to Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Kids.

Gifted/twice exceptional kids are wired differently and we celebrate that! We have teachers that are highly trained in real-world and research-driven best practices for gifted/twice-exceptional kids. We specialize in kids like yours. We understand the joys and frustrations!

 

Our teachers love working with out-of-the box kids and are excited to begin partnering with your child! Teachers receive extensive continuing professional development in gifted and twice exceptional learning, best practices, and real-world strategies to enhance intellectual, social, and emotional learning for your child. At Great Minds we truly celebrate each child’s uniqueness and what he/she has to bring to the world!