Schedule

Each student will receive one-on-one mentoring as needed.

We will start with a longer opening meeting. We will get to know each other, and I will walk the student through planning their semester and setting short and long-term goals. We will discuss roles, how the student prefers to be held accountable, what system they want to try to use for organization, and how to move forward. This session should take 1-2 hours

From there, the mentor meetings are whatever your student needs them to be. Some need to meet weekly to be receive positive feedback, review their week, remind themselves of their goals and make sure they are progressing. Other students need one on one coaching for a paper or assignment from another class. Some students do better with a monthly longer meeting where the focus is on making sure they have a system that works for them.

These meetings are about supporting the student with whatever they are currently doing. Whether that is college classes, Overture, co-op, project classes with me, straight homeschooling, or any other type of education. This is a place that we will discuss and integrate all of the different pieces together.

While, I will never require a student to attend, I highly recommend you take advantage of the time to gain support and help with your life.

This semester, we will be working on Biology, History of the Middle Ages and Leadership on Wednesdays from 9am-12:30pm. English will be on Mondays after January’s break from Mondays to allow for Homeschool Ski.

Jenifer Strope will be teaching a Middle Ages history that will help students understand next year’s class on the foundations of America. I will be teaching Biology through models, games and labs. And we will both be teaching English with different options of how to participate. We have a lot of options of how you want to learn the material at home and then we will be applying and having fun in class. No long lectures, just interesting discussions, ethical simulations, games, experiments, contests, models, historical simulations, multimedia projects, team building, leadership simulations, writing groups, and other projects relating to the four subjects we are focusing on.

Each individual student will choose a curriculum and schedule that will keep them on track with the subject we are focusing on in class that week. If you like the cut and dry of a textbook- great. If you prefer historical fiction and classics-perfect. There are as many ways to learn something as their are people and you should pick something that is challenging, interesting, and right in your sweet spot. During mentor meetings we will check to be sure they understand what they should be doing. The younger kids will need parental support.

On Mondays, starting February 10th, we will meet from 9am-12:30pm. The first 1.5 hours will be focused on English. We will read classic books, discuss them, write and share our opinions and then participate in writing challenges and projects including Mock Trial and Public speaking.

During the second half of the day, we will focus on student goals and dreams and attempt to make them a reality. This last semester the kids learned about, planned, created and ran a haunted house. They did several service projects and are in the midst of starting an Etsy store with creative, innovative products. Some other options we have discussed are: Creating a community celebration, researching and proposing a solution to a problem, building a prototype, writing and recording a song, creating a video series, or other fun and engaging projects that are better done in a group. The key is that these projects are completely run by the students with mentor support only as needed.

We always spend the first week or two dreaming and brainstorming. Then we research and reach out to local experts. We plan, look for problem areas and split up ownership. Difficulties are seen as learning experiences. Sometimes we have to pivot and think outside the box for solutions.

These projects have been for the whole group or for a smaller subset. They could be individual projects- we just haven’t had the kids choose that yet. Having a specific time, place and day pre-decided, along with the support of their peers and the adults around them builds momentum and follow-through.