Chrysalis School

Teacher’s Passion and Experience

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Research: Effective teachers are passionate about their subject area, but also other areas of their lives. A recent post from the Center for Teaching Quality, entitled “How Being Punk Rock Makes Me a Better Teacher,” demonstrates just that. Teachers who can share their passions and experiences with their students can have a tremendous impact on students both personally and academically, teaching valuable life lessons along the way.

Practice: Our teachers are encouraged to be who they are and share their passions with our community. Our teachers are mountaineers, artists, musicians, writers, actors, athletes, cross-fit trainers, animal lovers, and much much more! Their passions are a vital part of how we match students to teachers, with the hope of sparking productive learning partnerships.

How to Learn

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Research: Journalist Katrina Schwartz recently posed the question, “What would be a radically different vision of school?” She notes that with the growth of technology people will be expected to manage massive amounts of information since everything is at their fingertips. In such an age she suggests that the most important thing students should taught is how to learn as opposed to what to learn, “especially since the content or specific skills needed in the future are as yet unknown.”

Practice: Our teachers are skilled at discerning a student’s learning style to both teach to it and about it. Understanding one’s learning style is empowering–it informs how you take in information and expands the ways you can express what you know. These days it’s important to know where to access information, how to determine its validity, and be able to think critically and creatively about it.

Blended Learning

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Research: Much of the research on schools focuses on finding a solution that will solve the educational system’s woes. Among the most prominent ideas being promoted right now are “blended learning,” “flipped classrooms,” “STEM programs,” and other innovative solutions. Policymakers continue to hope that the implementation of one or more of these trends will serve as the magic bullet to improve educational outcomes for all students.

Practice: What’s missing is the personal nature of the learning process. We know we can’t prescribe the same solution for all kids. What works for one student could be detrimental to another. In reality, none of the solutions being discussed are a cure-all and shouldn’t be treated as such. That’s where an individualized program is so incredibly powerful. We can meet the needs of every student when we account for their individual strengths, needs, and interests to develop a personalized program that incorporates the models that a student would most benefit from.

Deep Learning

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Research: A new report highlights the need to promote “deep learning” in schools to respond to the needs of the global workplace where “creative, connected, and collaborative life-long problem solvers” are in demand. It argues that this cannot happen unless schools truly reflect what works, citing the following as best practices in education: establishing teachers and students as co-learners, long-term cross-curricular tasks, greater student control and choice, continuous feedback and formative assessment, and greater understanding of the learning process.

Practice: At Chrysalis these practices have been in place for more than thirty years. We base everything we do on our own set of best practices, which stem from continuous research into child development, psychology, education policy, and the brain, in addition to knowledge gleaned from our years of experience. Our dedication to research results in the ability to adapt and encourage innovation in the quest to achieve such deep learning.

My Happy Place

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In English 9, the students were asked to respond to a writing prompt, which was partially taken from a prompt found on the Common App for college applications The prompt was – Describe a time or place where you felt perfectly content.  Josh wrote this short, but poignant, piece about one special day, at one very special place. 

My Happy Place

The day of my happy place was June 18th, 2013. It was the last day of school and it was Beach Pie Day. Every year, at the very end, everyone at school brought all different kinds of pies – cherry pie, apple pie, blueberry pie . There were store bought pies, homemade pies, and pies baked at school. There were plenty of pies to go around for everyone!

Everyone also dressed like they were going to the beach to eat pie.I had woken up that morning feeling excited about it being the last day of school and I felt refreshed. I rushed to the bathroom, took a shower, and headed back to my room.  After my usual getting ready routine, I headed to school. When I got there my friends Jonah, Ben, and Dayian were there too. We all got our regular morning food of a chicken flavored Cup Of Noodles and sat down in the corner of the room and discussed what was it gonna be like without Dayian and Ben (this was their last day at Chrysalis). We had decided that the next year of school would not be as fun, and maybe a little lonely.

After about an hour of just talking, we headed outside and ran around having fun.  I don’t think I ever felt my smile come off my face. Everyone was so happy and having a great time. I had never been so happy to be at Chrysalis in that moment, with those people that I love so much, at the school that I treat like my home. After some contests and pie eating, we sat in front of all of our reflections of a dark window at the side of the school looking at our group and thinking, “wow, what a great year.” We talked about all our favorite times together. That day made me feel like my life was perfect.

After that we headed back inside and got ready to leave the South Campus for good. I said goodbye to all my favorite teachers, like Kent and Debbi.  In the end, we all said goodbye to one another and parted our ways in separate cars, but our friendship never left my heart.

 

Our Campuses

Chrysalis High School and Middle School
15900 Woodinville-Redmond Rd NE
Woodinville, WA p: (425) 481-2228

Chrysalis Elementary Campus
17005 140th Ave NE
Woodinville, WA p: (425) 481-2228

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