Milwaukee Renaissance Academy’s day will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will finish at 5:00 p.m. for every student. In addition, we will provide a slightly longer school year, affording students additional days of academic instruction. This schedule was adopted because of the specific needs of the population we intend to serve. In order to rapidly move children to and beyond grade level performance expectations, we will need extra time to teach the skills of students’ current grades, but also the critical content skills of grade levels three to four levels prior. Therefore, embedded within our extended day and year we have also included more time into our schedule for the key foundational courses—120 minutes of daily instruction in language arts and 120 minutes of instruction in math. We will augment this strong focus in the core subjects by offering daily periods of science, history, foreign language, physical education, art, and various other enrichment activities.
Advisory & Learning Teams
Each day students will have an advisory period and learning team that will focus on (1) Skill Building and (2) Character Development. Skill Building learning teams will give students and teachers a time to focus on the skills that underlie academic success like note-taking, developing study habits, and test preparation. Character Development advisory sessions will allow students to reflect on personal issues and moral development. Advisors will use adages, stories, and histories to illustrate the importance of these topics and how they relate to the school’s culture and students’ individual lives.
There are strong structural advantages to morning advisory and learning team. First, students are able to interact with a teacher or an administrator in a very small setting. There are less then 10 students with each adult advisor. Advisors will be expected to develop relationships with the students and their families that extend beyond the classroom. Advisors will call parents at least twice a month to talk about the student’s progress. Also, because the skill building and character development curriculum will be uniform at each grade level and shared school wide, all teachers will be able to build on the lessons taught by reinforcing them in their classes. This will also create an ongoing shared dialogue and vocabulary within the school.
Community Meeting
We will hold community meetings on Wednesday afternoons to the lead of a drum circle. This will be an important time for the school community. The goal of these community meetings will include: community announcements, reiteration of the school mantras, teacher and student led acknowledgements, and special presentations. In addition, we will host a special celebration for students who exhibit our school’s core values.