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| "Every child should experience 'serendipity'; the search for one thing but, you find another." Jack Prelutsky. |
| WHAT ARE THE STUDENTS SAYING |
"I like GLA because there is lots of fun things to do. Like Art and games in Math."
Why you should go to GLA (Green Learning Academy) is because:
| WHAT ARE THE PARENTS SAYING |
"I strongly believe that Green Learning Academy offers an exceptional educational program, one that is vastly superior to that offered by the public system."
| STAFF MEMBERS GIVE YOU THEIR VIEWPOINT |
"Teaching at Green Learning Academy has taught me so much about the importance of allowing students to learn in a way that is meaningful to them."
"What continually astonishes me about GLA is the look in the parents’ eyes when they come to pick their children up at the end of the day."
"Green Learning Academy empowers students to develop their own understanding of the curriculum."
"Green Learning Academy has answered a lot of questions for me. Before arriving here, just over a year ago, I knew that I had lost faith in the traditional classroom but I wasn’t sure what the solution was."
"There is a huge difference in the atmosphere here. There is a sense of safety and belonging. Students and teachers fell as if they are part of a group and are supported. This is not a place of competition but of camaraderie."
NH 2007
"In “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore recalls an instance from his grade school days where he and his classmates were introduced to the Earth’s continents."
"I moved to Calgary in September, hoping to find a teaching job in the public school system and finally get my foot in the door of the teaching profession in Canada. I had graduated two years ago and left immediately for Japan to teach English in public schools, which I loved. I was preparing to make the adjustment from “Assistant Language Teacher” – no planning, little preparation, and no classroom responsibilities – to either Substitute Teacher (yikes) or Classroom Teacher (yikes!). I had completed and thoroughly enjoyed all the required practica for my teaching degree but was still not feeling confident in my ability to guide the learning and shaping of 30 young minds.
By chance, I met a woman at a playground two days after I arrived in Calgary. We started talking and soon figured out that we were similar sorts of people. When she asked what I did for a living and I explained my situation, she told me about Green Learning Academy. I was intrigued, because I went to an alternative school in Toronto from the ages of 4 – 12 and my dream has always been to work at a similar school. G.L.A. sounded like just the place for me.
After a quick phone call to see if any volunteers were needed I was brought in for an interview and offered a job, and I haven’t looked back. The circumstances of my life had originally been such that I was only going to stay in Calgary for a year, but how can I leave? I love it here at Green Learning.
The philosophy of empowering students to take control of their own learning very much appeals to me, and is reinforced when I walk through the classrooms and see students engaged and on-task in their individual learning pursuits. I have found that classroom management at G.L.A. is kept to a minimum, because the community of learners enables the students to manage themselves and each other. I have also noticed a conspicuous lack of bullying at G.L.A., which I attribute to the fact that the students are too engaged in what they’re doing to bother with such things. The multi-age classrooms promote responsibility in the older students and respect in the younger ones, and it is nice for them to see that when they stand up and share, everyone – including the “big kids” – listens.
It has been wonderful to see so many students take control of their learning since September. No matter how a student demonstrates and seeks knowledge best – by using their body, singing a song, writing an equation or doing an experiment, they will find a place at Green Learning Academy."
Heather May 2008
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