a bright spot for bright kids...
Our Language for Success
Why Are We Using All This Aviation Language?
A big part of being a community member is buying in to the bigger concepts and goals we are all striving together to achieve. In order to unify that purpose, a shared language really helps us not just understand what we mean, but to develop a sense of shared identity and pride in our community. The name for our school was chosen with a great deal of thought – it embodies concepts of direction, power, transformation, guidance, counsel, and identity. These are the core beliefs we hold for what education can offer – for how middle and high school can feel differently for kids looking for a place that views success as a series of touch-and-go’s rather than a singular trajectory. Come fly with us!
Vector
- possessing both magnitude and direction, represented by a proportional arrow
- quantities transform in a particular way under change
- to guide direction or course by issuing appropriate headings
- an array of data within which individuals can be located by identity
- a learning community driven by the need to ask big questions
Flight Plans
A unique counseling approach for lifelong learning where students begin to map out their next steps after secondary education, including why their defined goals are meaningful to their futures. Flight Plans are drafted by a committee of the student’s choosing and help shape and provide a path for the next four years with us as a process that will be continually adapted to student growth. These Flight Plans provide a guide for semi-annual family conferences.
The Taxi
The process during the first three days of every unit when topics and issues are negotiated with students to determine the most authentic and meaningful direction for content engagement. The period during which students establish their intensive solo projects or crew projects across the school community that will be completed for Clearances.
Clearances
At the end of every three-week unit, students will have worked daily in their Intensives (small group or individual passion projects synthesizing that integrated theme and following their Flight Plan if in Fusion) to create their Clearance for that particular unit. The full school community will participate in Clearances with one another over 1-3 days to engage in new perspectives, discoveries, or techniques. Clearances will not include any testing.
Holding Pattern
Following every unit, the full school has either a 4-day weekend break or one of the three full breaks (fall, winter, spring) to reboot and change gears as we wait refreshed for the next unit.
Wheels Up and Final Approach
Shorter school-wide units at the start and finish of the school year that help us develop community, provide clear beginnings and endings, and serve as celebrations to mark the academic year.
Touch and Go
A shared understanding we hold school-wide that units, issues, and relationships shift regularly and are part of a transformative process that will require regular adjustments and flexing into learning as a process, rather than a once in a lifetime solo flight with only one destination.