School Mission
"Developing 21st century learners through rigorous academic course work, high quality adventure experiences, character development, and leadership opportunities."
-Culture and Community Context –
Polaris Expeditionary Learning School is located in the heart of Fort Collins, Colorado. The K-12 school is a school of “choice” giving its students a unique and well-rounded alternative learning experience. Polaris is located at 1905 Orchard Place, involving it in the Poudre School District. Polaris prides themselves as an “expeditionary” learning school, utilizing real-life, hands on experiences. The school has an “Adventure Program” which allows their students to participate in week long “intensives” to gain school credits.
Polaris does not believe in grades, allowing students to fully experience and learn through true hands on inquiry, ideation, planning, and execution. The teachers, students, and administration have pledged to continue their learning and growth together. Everyone involved with the school including administration go by their first names. This adds a truly unique element to the school, allowing students to learn and grow as individuals. The teachers are viewed as peers, fostering and facilitating in learning. There is a true level or respect and care between teachers and students at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School.
The school utilizes the Colorado Standards to design in-depth studies of compelling topics over a period of time. These studies are the “expeditions”. They pride themselves on creating life long learners, who use critical thinking skills and require creative problem solving. Polaris pushes their students to take ownership for their learning, which allows students to break free from the traditional “textbook” learning of traditional schooling.
-Support Structure–
Polaris has a very broad support structure for student, parents, and teachers. Parents of Polaris students are very actively involved in the schooling of their children. Parents help with “intensives”, fieldwork, and course studies. There are around 25 elementary and secondary teachers at Polaris including elementary and high school counselors and 2 building paraprofessional. Polaris is fortunate enough to have an experienced full-time Heath Technician on staff, as well as a district registered nurse who visits weekly.
-Demographic Characteristics –
Polaris EL is made up of 295 students and around 17 full-time teachers, revealing a student-teacher ratio of around 17:1. Polaris’ elementary classes tops out at 18 students per class, with secondary hovering between 22-29 students. Polaris is made up of about 56% male and 44% female.
Current Ethnic Distribution of Polaris EL
White – 85.1%
Hispanic – 7.5%
Asian – 2.4%
Black – 0.3%
Two Races – 4.1%
American Indian – 0.7%
Socioeconomic Details
28.5% of students are eligible for Free Lunch
7.1% of students are eligible for Reduced Lunch
64.4% are ineligible for Free/Reduced Lunch
Polaris Academic Testing
As of 2016, the percent of students at Polaris who passed the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) was 36.4% (Colorado Average was 20.6%).
Polaris excels in English/Language Arts with a passing rate of 57.1%.
-Classroom Environment and Students –
I am currently teaching in Tom’s 4/5th grade classroom. The classroom is made up of 18 students, comprised of 12 boys and 6 girls. Tom has built and open and honest classroom. There is a warm and friendly atmosphere where the students feel safe to express themselves. They begin every of class checking in with the student’s 2 E’s, energy and enthusiasm. I think these routines are very beneficial to the students and add to the overall classroom culture. The room is made up of 6 small table groups where the students have open seating. The students usually separate into boys and girls in their table groups. Tom truly believes in mistakes, as “great moments” and the more times students work through a difficult problem the more natural it will be.
"Developing 21st century learners through rigorous academic course work, high quality adventure experiences, character development, and leadership opportunities."
-Culture and Community Context –
Polaris Expeditionary Learning School is located in the heart of Fort Collins, Colorado. The K-12 school is a school of “choice” giving its students a unique and well-rounded alternative learning experience. Polaris is located at 1905 Orchard Place, involving it in the Poudre School District. Polaris prides themselves as an “expeditionary” learning school, utilizing real-life, hands on experiences. The school has an “Adventure Program” which allows their students to participate in week long “intensives” to gain school credits.
Polaris does not believe in grades, allowing students to fully experience and learn through true hands on inquiry, ideation, planning, and execution. The teachers, students, and administration have pledged to continue their learning and growth together. Everyone involved with the school including administration go by their first names. This adds a truly unique element to the school, allowing students to learn and grow as individuals. The teachers are viewed as peers, fostering and facilitating in learning. There is a true level or respect and care between teachers and students at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School.
The school utilizes the Colorado Standards to design in-depth studies of compelling topics over a period of time. These studies are the “expeditions”. They pride themselves on creating life long learners, who use critical thinking skills and require creative problem solving. Polaris pushes their students to take ownership for their learning, which allows students to break free from the traditional “textbook” learning of traditional schooling.
-Support Structure–
Polaris has a very broad support structure for student, parents, and teachers. Parents of Polaris students are very actively involved in the schooling of their children. Parents help with “intensives”, fieldwork, and course studies. There are around 25 elementary and secondary teachers at Polaris including elementary and high school counselors and 2 building paraprofessional. Polaris is fortunate enough to have an experienced full-time Heath Technician on staff, as well as a district registered nurse who visits weekly.
-Demographic Characteristics –
Polaris EL is made up of 295 students and around 17 full-time teachers, revealing a student-teacher ratio of around 17:1. Polaris’ elementary classes tops out at 18 students per class, with secondary hovering between 22-29 students. Polaris is made up of about 56% male and 44% female.
Current Ethnic Distribution of Polaris EL
White – 85.1%
Hispanic – 7.5%
Asian – 2.4%
Black – 0.3%
Two Races – 4.1%
American Indian – 0.7%
Socioeconomic Details
28.5% of students are eligible for Free Lunch
7.1% of students are eligible for Reduced Lunch
64.4% are ineligible for Free/Reduced Lunch
Polaris Academic Testing
As of 2016, the percent of students at Polaris who passed the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) was 36.4% (Colorado Average was 20.6%).
Polaris excels in English/Language Arts with a passing rate of 57.1%.
-Classroom Environment and Students –
I am currently teaching in Tom’s 4/5th grade classroom. The classroom is made up of 18 students, comprised of 12 boys and 6 girls. Tom has built and open and honest classroom. There is a warm and friendly atmosphere where the students feel safe to express themselves. They begin every of class checking in with the student’s 2 E’s, energy and enthusiasm. I think these routines are very beneficial to the students and add to the overall classroom culture. The room is made up of 6 small table groups where the students have open seating. The students usually separate into boys and girls in their table groups. Tom truly believes in mistakes, as “great moments” and the more times students work through a difficult problem the more natural it will be.
-School-wide Policies for Management, Safe Schools, Conflict Resolution and Student with Special Needs –
Management
There is a true level of respect between student and teacher in Tom’s class. Everyone is treated as individuals and there are not necessarily adults and students, they are all “crew members”. Getting the classes attention is a simple as counting down from three. When the teacher reaches zero the student have given their attention to the speaker. There is a school wide disciplinary modeled point system.
Safe Schools Program is aligned throughout the Poudre School District. There is an anonymous tip line where students, teachers, parents, or community members can report any issues that concern threats to yourself, friends, family, or community. You can access this resource by visiting https://safe2tell.org/, or calling Call 1-877-542-SAFE (7233). There are Campus Security Officers and School Resource Officers to provide students and staff with a safe leaning environment.
Conflict Resolution in the Poudre Valley School district requires that evidence of harassment/discrimination, bullying, physical harm, and behavioral management are addressed by a meeting with all parties involved, their parent(s) or guardian(s), and the principal of the school where it is taking place. The antagonizing party would receive some form of punishment and make sure the affected party was safe. In my classroom Tom relies on student working out problems. In some extreme cases students are required to speak in private to seek what is causing the behavior and possibly involve administration and parents.
All Students with special needs receive support from the school and be given proper accommodations for success. The Individual Education Program or (IEP) is an extremely important document for students with disabilities receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A team of specialized individuals including staff and parents manages each student who is in need of an IEP. Differentiation is used in the classroom to assist different learning styles as well as assistance from paraprofessionals.
Management
There is a true level of respect between student and teacher in Tom’s class. Everyone is treated as individuals and there are not necessarily adults and students, they are all “crew members”. Getting the classes attention is a simple as counting down from three. When the teacher reaches zero the student have given their attention to the speaker. There is a school wide disciplinary modeled point system.
- 1st redirect: politely remind the student to get back on track.
- 2nd redirect: politely ask them to change their behavior and tell them what type of behavior is expected. Also, remind them that the next time they will have a discussion in the hall.
- 3rd redirect: talk with the student in the hall about their behavior. If there is another redirect the student may be removed from the room.
- 4th redirect: create a problem-solving contract, where the student and teacher talk about what they can do to adjust these behaviors.
- 5th redirect: Administrative support in office.
Safe Schools Program is aligned throughout the Poudre School District. There is an anonymous tip line where students, teachers, parents, or community members can report any issues that concern threats to yourself, friends, family, or community. You can access this resource by visiting https://safe2tell.org/, or calling Call 1-877-542-SAFE (7233). There are Campus Security Officers and School Resource Officers to provide students and staff with a safe leaning environment.
Conflict Resolution in the Poudre Valley School district requires that evidence of harassment/discrimination, bullying, physical harm, and behavioral management are addressed by a meeting with all parties involved, their parent(s) or guardian(s), and the principal of the school where it is taking place. The antagonizing party would receive some form of punishment and make sure the affected party was safe. In my classroom Tom relies on student working out problems. In some extreme cases students are required to speak in private to seek what is causing the behavior and possibly involve administration and parents.
All Students with special needs receive support from the school and be given proper accommodations for success. The Individual Education Program or (IEP) is an extremely important document for students with disabilities receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A team of specialized individuals including staff and parents manages each student who is in need of an IEP. Differentiation is used in the classroom to assist different learning styles as well as assistance from paraprofessionals.