The ALC in Everett WA is now inactive. I was invited out to Everett in September 2014 to help start an ALC homeschool cooperative with a few families. After 7 months the families decided that their intentions had changed and our little experiment came to an end. You can read the full debrief here Which includes …
Accomplishment in the 21st century world demands the creation of visible, shareable value as evidence of learning.
Without tests or grades it is the blog post that can best visualize learning. In ALC Everett we give students the responsibility to create this evidence of learning through reflective blog posts.
Within our daily cycle the Afternoon Meeting closes the day. It is where we reflect on the intentions set in the morning meeting.
The act of reflection is as important as setting intentions because it allows us to measure our success or failure to achieve what we set out to do so we can adjust our next cycle of intentions.
What follows is the Sterling parent’s reflections on the ALC program which they hosted fall 2014 to spring 2015. This post is part of the Everett ALC Debrief Jeff and I had the intention of creating a learning community while at the same time supporting the educational requirements for our boys. Prior to the creation …
Culture creation is a central focus of Agile Learning Centers. We want to create and hold space that is safe for children to explore their passions.
To create intentional culture we employ a weekly Change Up Meetings to build, update, and remix the culture inside the school by use of the Community Mastery Board.
The group kanban is heavily used by ALC Everett. It’s structure is similar to the personal Kanban but it’s focus is on group projects and tasks. It is functionally a lot like the offerings board in Agile NYC. It takes a central place in the school space and is where we hold our intention setting meetings.
Kanban is a Japanese (看板) word that translates to signboard. At it's core it is a to-do list that limits its user's work in progress (WIP).
The kanban comes in many shapes and sizes and is created by each student to help them track intentions, set goals, and focus on their passions.
Meetings can be a drag. To limit the "process overhead" and help make the implicit process of the meeting explicit we employed a tool called the Game Shifting Board (GSB).
The daily cycle of intention setting starts with the morning meeting. This meeting is one of the few required activities each student agreed to in the ALCE Student Agreement.
Our basic structure is Check-ins, Intention setting, Scrum, Set the day, Share intentions
The Agile Learning environment is based around cycles of setting intentions, play, and reflections. Set the Week is a meeting that determines what goals the group wishes to accomplish throughout the week. Typically these goals require more preparation than daily goals or are time specific, like a field trip.
