Start a Class in Your Area
Expanding Educational Opportunities
The Independent Education Program seeks to provide the best educational experiences for secondary home school students. There is a severe lack of educational resources available for teenagers, and we see to fill that void.
The good news is, we've had the best success meeting with small groups of home school junior high and high school aged students in homes. This is a comfortable environment for students to learn in, and it makes finding a learning location simple.
Most of our classes were started because an interested parent reached out and wanted to create an opportunity for their student. And since our first class, we've created a system that makes starting a class straightforward and simple.
Successfully Starting
a Class in Your Area
Plan Early
The key to starting a class in any area is starting early. We recommend starting in January or February to gather a group and gauge interest. If your family is connected to other homeschool families, that's the best place to start. Discuss with them working together to better help your students in their education. Having classes together has the following benefits in a students' educational experience:
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It fosters a feeling of belonging. Students who take classes with other teens their age have a community to rely on and learn from.
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It challenges the students in new and unique ways. Through discussions, activities, and projects, students are challenged alongside their peers in ways they otherwise wouldn't be.
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Provides students with an enriching environment of new ideas. As students are introduced to concepts and interact with their peers, they're better able to contextualize information in useful ways.
If you find that you have other families in your area that are interested in starting a class in your area, you're ready to move onto the next step.
Schedule a Cottage Meeting
Once you have at least a small group interested in a class in your area, reach out to us and we will schedule a cottage meeting with you. These meetings are typically done weekday nights at a reasonable time and last about an hour and a half. During these meetings we cover the following:
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What classes we have available in your area
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The curriculum of each of the classes
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Our vision for education and the purpose of our organization
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How we can best partner with your commonwealth
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Questions and answers
We find that these cottage meetings are very beneficial. We even run sample classes as they're beneficial for the group. We want parents, students, and leaders to become very familiar and comfortable with our program to see if it's something they want in their education programs. Our interest is to find the best way that we can help students have a great education.
We know that it can be hard to find reliable, high quality content for secondary age students, and we believe that we can offer that to families looking for it.
Finding a Teacher
We have found the most success in finding a teacher that's local to the students. Our teachers can be leaders in the co-op or just someone who is invested in the success of the students. Ultimately, the quality of teaching is the most important factor.
Our classes have a pre-set curriculum, including lesson plans, reducing the friction and effort required from the teachers. This means that the teachers can focus exclusively on engaging with the students and facilitating the best educational experience possible. It also means that if there is a teacher that the students already know and trust, they can teach the classes that we offer.
All of our teachers go through training to ensure that they reflect our educational values and have the skills necessary for managing and effectively running a classroom. We've built an incredible team of teachers, and we get better with every new teacher we onboard.
Finding a teacher is a crucial step in the success of building out and expanding a scholar program for secondary students. We work with groups to find and prepare the best teachers available so students can have an incredible education.
If you're interested in finding out if the Independent Education Program would be a good fit for your student and their education, reach out through our contact form and we'll be in touch with you as soon as we can.