Different by Design

All subjects at Maricopa Christian Academy are taught under the idea of beginning instruction where a student's skills are, not where a school, teacher or curriculum says the student's skills are supposed to be. As a school, we do not think of a student as being at a grade level. Instead, our students are thought of as a very unique creation made in the image of God who has had individual learning experiences that none of the other students have had. Our job is to pull those learning experiences together and provide an education built on the student's present skills acquired from those previous learning experiences.

All classes are multiple grades. This year, grades 1-6 will be in one room taught by me. Having different grades together is an amazing experience for everyone. It is a little more mellow environment The older students enjoy watching the younger students learn. And the younger students look up to the older students.

And with our daily individualized instructional approach, the grade level does not matter. A third-grade student could be working on fifth-grade math while a sixth-grade student is working on second-grade goals. Both students are working at their skill level, not an artificial class or grade level expectation. Both students are allowed to move ahead of grade-level expectations.

Computers are a part of the curriculum but rarely a learning tool. The only instances of computers as a learning tool at Maricopa Christian Academy are when the students are being taught computer skills or the part of the science curriculum that involves robotics.

Computer skills begin with students around the age of ten. Most of their hands are big enough to begin keyboard skills. I do not want to encourage computer use before age ten because students will develop the poor habit of hunting and pecking to find the correct keys. Bad habits take a while to change.

Finally, the students at Maricopa Christian Academy learn the joy, confidence and accomplishment found in working hard. But when the school day is done, it is done. There is no homework.

Thank you for reading this blog.