I can do it.

Children should benefit from the latest in neuroscience research. We make that happen.

 

The Smart Moves Academy approach to education is informed and inspired by the latest scientific research into the brain, cognitive development, and human learning. This new science forms the pillars of the Academy’s instructional philosophy that make the Academy’s mission attainable.

Our Guiding Tenets: Teaching and Learning

  • The use of deeper learning strategies like project based learning fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed.

  • Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. We encourage both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.

  • Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Our learners are encouraged to compete not against each other but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence.

  • Learning happens best with emotion, challenge and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. We design projects in which students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. Our teacher’s primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.

  • Direct respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. We help our children learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.

  • Our young people need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. It is also important for students to learn from failure as well, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn challenges into opportunities.

  • Adults and children need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need time to exchange their reflections with others. Our school schedule is designed to provide this important time for the brain and the body to make connections that lead to increasingly sophisticated thought and action.

Our Guiding Tenets: Movement

  • Academic mastery is advanced by strategic physical movement.

    Academic learning requires the development, strengthening, and maintenance of biological systems. Movement has a direct impact on a learner’s ability to make connections, organize thoughts, plan, and think critically.

  • Social and emotional health benefit from physical activity.

    Our learners build a strong foundation for leading emotionally healthy lives in adolescence and adulthood.

  • A foundation of movement in childhood is critical to healthy development and long-term wellness.

    Moving with competence and confidence in a variety of environments benefits the healthy development of the whole person.

  • Character development mediated by healthy activity is essential.

    We teach character values that guide learners to be/become: kind, courageous, creative, resilient, and empathetic. Our approach teaches young people to be strengthened by acts of consequential service to others.

These pillars are embodied in the Foundations of Learning for every learner at Smart Moves Academy.

The most basic biological systems provide the necessary structure and stability for the higher systems to function well. Smart Moves Academy activates all of a child’s systems, for greater development.

Learn how the instructional philosophy and Foundations of Learning are designed into the curriculum at Smart Moves Academy.