IN SEARCH OF ANOTHER HOLY GRAIL: A VISIT TO ANASTASIS ACADEMY AND 5-SIGMA EDU CON

SEEKING TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE

Recently I hopped a plane to seek out another edu-adventure. After some 30 years of teaching, this is what I’ve become: an educator addicted to ideas that have promise to transform educational practice. As a public school elementary and middle school teacher, I have always been attracted by other models of learning that hold promise to elevate practice and serve children better. Along the way I have visited Montessori Schools, Waldorf and Reggio Emelia Schools, and University Fairs and conferences. This time I was traveling from my home in East Lansing, Michigan, to Centennial, Colorado, to see the Anastasis Academy and attend their 5-Sigma Education Conference.

IN SEARCH OF THE “WHOLE CHILD”

I first heard of Anastasis by way of Twitter where I bumped into a model of their Report Card. In contrast to the reductionist vehicle most teachers use to condense student image to a letter grade, their Report described an expansive view of the whole child, listing such capacities as intellect, habits of mind and attitudes, character development, and elements of a spiritual life. To say the least, I was intrigued.

The Anastasis Academy Report Card

Aside from the whole grading debate, I have often thought grades too narrow a currency to fit most children; seen too many children and parents reject grades… or, more often, be dominated by them over the learning experience itself. By comparison, this Anastasis Report acknowledged a whole view of the student and sought to describe progress along a continuum of development in fundamental capacities. This was certainly a paradigm shift- and one I wanted to understand better: it meant an entire community unified upon a view of human nature, looking for ways to actualize human potential.                                                                                               I wanted to know what that looked like on the ground. How could teachers apply such a broad instrument and what would students' experience be like with teachers who espoused such a world view? So I decided to take advantage of the Anastasis Academy tour and the two-day Conference they were holding February 20-21, 2015.

THE ANASTASIS ACADEMY

Located within the building of a Christian Church in Centennial, just a half block down from a large suburban Middle School, the Anastasis School is small and unassuming. Although it describes itself as faith based, it ascribes to a broader, “spiritual” view for its student and is open in its acceptance of all religious traditions. Its 80 students and half-dozen teachers rent facilities. The modest, brightly colored classrooms, small auditoriums, and several project rooms and learning labs seem to fit its needs nicely. Out their back door the School has a large parking lot and an expansive view of the Rockies ranging to the west.

    As I walked into the school lobby I was greeted by several upper level students and conducted to register for the two-day 5-Sigma Education Conference and school tour. I was one of some 70 attendees from Denver area and around the country that were coming to check out Anastasis. In between sips of coffee and bites of bagel, I met other visitors from Indiana to California, as well as Kelly Tenkely, the school’s principal (or “learning architect” as she prefers to be called) and Conference host.

Over the course of my two days there, I heard many stories of progressive practice, saw innovative student learning in progress, and found plenty evidence of an enlightened, groundbreaking school culture.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

As I first learned about Anastasis, I was struck by the smallness of scale. The teacher-to-student ratio is intentionally kept at 1 to 13. Although I was interested immediately in the economics, I decided to quiet my questions, and just allow myself to look at how the numbers affected learning.

When EF Schumacher first wrote Small is Beautiful in 1973, his manifesto was a clarion call to business and consumers of the perils of supersized burgers and large, unresponsive corporations. However, his message is equally true today in our educational settings. In schools where student populations can run from the hundreds to multiple thousands, many students report feeling alone, unable to connect meaningfully. Teachers perseverate over classroom management. Principals often find themselves running from fire to fire to restore peace and order.

By contrast, Anastasis classrooms looked and felt more like large families. There was a comfortable, familiar feel among the students and an abiding respect for the teacher. On my tour I watched a 7-8 classroom in session, sitting around a circle of couches and easy chairs. I listened to students discuss a literary piece with the aplomb of college students. From the rapid-fire discussion and unabashed, unique viewpoints being thrown out, it was obvious the students had read deeply and were able to debate their viewpoints using text evidence. It was clear that this class was on track and doing well by its students. When the teacher asked for a demonstration of public   speaking by an impromptu 60 sec TED-style talk on a random subject, a student rose off the couch, received her subject, prepped for 15 seconds, and launched into an extemporaneous speech that was complete, unfaltering, and convincing.

Further on tour, I saw early elementary learning environments that were open and inviting with much opportunity for student choice, interaction, collaborative learning, and many examples of student production. Classrooms showed evidence of happy, engaged learning, from students sitting around the teacher’s rocking chair to enjoy and discuss stories to making art collages hung on the walls depicting the human skeleton and showing, with various paper, foam and wood media, many of the internal organs. Students were obviously engaged, challenged, and producing work about which they were happy.

I learned that teachers have freedom to generate and structure their own classroom curriculum. That, although they do reference the Common Core Standards, their goal is program which meets the needs of their specific children and delivers an inquiry-oriented, discovery-based experience to children. Teachers are free as professionals to mediate the nexus between the wonderings and interests of their students and the content which the teacher determines is important. By everything I saw on tour, this program promotes students’ engagement and delivers high caliber learning.

I was also struck by students’ response to teachers. Far beyond compliance, students seemed to be in love with their teachers. Besides the normal deference and ready attitude shown in the classroom, this was more evident in the stories and references students made while conducting tours and speaking with each other in informal settings. “Our teacher says we should consider ____ whenever that happens.” “Mr. ____ has the best sense of humor.” “Mrs. ____ always chooses the best field trips for us.” Their remarks were always positive and constructive.

Remarkably, the teachers seemed to have the same attitude toward their students.

BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM

If one judges the success of a school by its students, I would declare Anastasis a runaway hit. In every location I saw children who wanted to be there, engaged with happy peers or with caring teacher, and producing work of worth and personal value. My tour guides were a couple upper elementary students who alternately asked what I was thinking about their school and happily chatted up their school experience. One of their favorite stories was about how they began their school day.

  "Ms. Tenkely takes us outside every morning no matter what the weather. The whole school goes together and we walk around and around the parking lot. It’s like a mile or more… And we’re like thinking or singing… and it’s really good for our brains. When we come in we’re refreshed and ready to learn."

I couldn’t help thinking about early MIT studies of homing pigeons in which researchers were seeking to understand the mechanism that allowed the birds to navigate so unerringly. They showed that the birds actually used magnetic particles in their brains to orient to their environment. Whenever the birds took off they would flock together and circle the area several times, orienting to the earth’s magnetic field, before determining in which direction to fly. 

An evening session with Anastasis graduates, now enrolled in area high schools, was a showcase of the powers of incisive wit and practical philosophy that these young alumni had accumulated at Anastasis. They spoke freely and fluidly as they reflected upon their Anastasis experience and evaluated its worth to them as they negotiated the new school cultures in which they found themselves presently. It was evident that each student placed a high value on their Anastasis schooling, the personal nature of the experience, and credited their alma mater, in large part, with their capacity to negotiate and thrive in their new school environments.

TEACHER EFFICACY
 I expected teachers at Anastasis to be somehow more happy, or more heady. But they actually seemed quite normal compared to the teachers I know. Throughout my time there, I heard stories of struggles and successes with students, the benefits of regular (almost weekly) community excursions, the joy of being able to decide content and pace for their classroom curriculum, and the edification realized as bonds cemented across grades throughout the school as students helped each other learn and conduct daily routines. It was obvious that these teachers had free reign to arrange the environment to best suit the needs of their students… and that power and responsibility also gave them immense satisfaction.

It was also evident that teachers were free to create and practice without threat of external evaluation. They professed to value the principal’s involvement in their collaborative work and individual planning. All of them said they loved the community of teachers they had become and valued their staff meeting times. While admitting the many individual differences represented, teachers seemed to prioritize the importance of their mission and the positive leadership of their principal as powerful unifying forces to overcome all. Of special team-building significance were the once-a-month outside-the-school “staff meetings” where the principal would arrange unexpected events such as white water rafting or micro-discussions at a local pub.

Two significant pieces seemed to me to be the key to the teacher efficacy I saw at Anastasis: The teacher’s ability to have a meaningful relationship with students and the freedom teachers had to determine their classroom’s course of study to best meet the needs of their students.

A MODEL OF CHANGE

The last few hours of the conference saw a blizzard descend upon the Denver area, stopping traffic and canceling my flight back home. As I faced the prospect of spending the night on an airport bench, I had ample time to reflect over my Anastasis experience.

I had to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. That Report Card was worth following down. I was satisfied that the four-year experiment that Anastasis Academy represents is certainly a groundbreaking example of transformative education in action. Without a bias for their private status or their small numbers, it simply is one of the best examples educational innovation I have seen. One which I would recommend to others interested in models that that hold promise to change the educational world.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

Complete Storify archive of Twitter remarks over the Anastasis Academy tour and 5-Sigma Education Conference: https://storify.com/robvoigt/anastasis-academy-and-5sigma-education-conference

Anastasis Academy seeks to create a new paradigm in education where children are challenged and encouraged as unique individuals to fall in love with the joy of learning: http://www.anastasisacademy.com/#!discover/c46c

More about the recent 5Sigma Education Conference and interview with “learning architect” Kelly Tenkely: http://www.5sigmaeducon.com/