The Solution

Autonomy & Flexibility

Learners will have a voice in designing their learning. They will work with their Learning Coach to customize their education around their giftedness, passion and interest. The Learning Coach will encourage, support, guide and monitor the Learners progress. Flexibility applies to the pace of learning, what is learned, where learning happens and when learning happens, learning pathways, learning experiences outside of the normal curriculum, and use of technology.

The learning culture of AHK is centered around our learners, not the instructor (Learning Coach). Learners will attend their core classes two or three days a week, go online, or a combination of both. On their off days, learners will work in teams on projects as well as pursue community internships around their career paths, monitored by their Learning Coaches. Learning Coaches will have great flexibility in customizing and personalizing learner lessons by accessing our Units of Inquiry.

3R Education

ALL His Kids is shifting from traditional learning environments to become more Rigorous, Relevant and Relational. The 3R Core will be integrated into all lessons and activities.

Learners will be challenged by our Rigorous curriculum to take risks, learn to fail, and figure out how to solve their problems. This sense of progress is central to developing a growth mind-set.

Relevance helps learners realize how useful all knowledge can be in their daily lives. Learners want to be connected to their learning and in control of it. The old drill and skill method of teaching is neurologically useless. We are designing Relevant, meaningful activities that engage learners emotionally and help them connect the curriculum with what they already know.

The core of our instruction will be Relational. We are intentionally designing a learning environment where learners are valued, seen, understood and feel safe. Our Learning Coaches will serve as mentors, assisting learners in both their personal and academic growth. We believe that by creating a genuine relationship with our learners, we will have a basis from which to encourage them to open their minds, engage, explore and be challenged.

Units of Inquiry

The AHK model is distinguished from others in its unique learning architecture that is based on research and encapsulates each of the seven key differentiators identified above. Our model engages learners and parents through carefully designed, robust Units of Inquiry which contain a wide variety of content across all subject areas that can be integrated into a learning plan that is tailored for each learner. The content entered into the Units of Inquiry, contained in a database, will represent a vast array of resources ranging from Learning Coach and learner-developed curriculum, videos, virtual programs, apps, live communications, open-source material, Biblical entrepreneurship, and more. All resources housed in the database will be flagged by local and/or state standards, subject matter, age, ethnicity, learning styles, readability, languages, careers, interests and more. The Units of Inquiry will be housed on our proprietary Ed U Tech platform for our content management system and our learning management system. The Units of Inquiry will be easily accessible to our Learning Coaches who will be able to customize their instruction and learning experience around each learners’ assessed needs, interests, giftedness, and passions.

Brain Research

Recent research in cognitive science and neuroscience has given educators new
insights into how students learn. Typical school curricula are too wide and shallow. The bottom line is that learning connections take time and maintenance. Therefore, when it comes to determining content, less is more! When teachers try to teach too much, too fast, learning does not last.

The goal is to structure lessons that rely less on rote memory because repetition in different contexts means better retention. Helping students access and use more effective types of memory storage and retrieval will literally change student brains. Effective learners organize knowledge not simply as a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to the domain; instead, their knowledge is organized around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking about the domain.

“The recent research into the brain is helping us better understand curriculum, discipline policies, assessment challenge, cafeteria food, the role of the arts, retention policies, and countless other aspects of the teaching profession. This is an exciting time for education!” (Eric Jenson, Teaching
With the Brain in Mind.”

Technology Ed U Tech

Without question, technology is an integral part of life for today’s learners. They have grown up in a world where mobile computers, cell phones with browsers, and other personal digital devises are common tools, and instant messages and blogs are common modes of self-expression. Learners desire to learn in an environment that mirrors their lives and their futures – one that seamlessly integrates today’s digital tools, accommodates a mobile lifestyle, and encourages collaboration and teamwork in physical and virtual spaces. For this reason, AHK schools will leverage technology to enhance their learning goals.

AHK is developing a propriety platform called Ed U Tech which is designed to accommodate a multi-tenant and multi-layer infrastructure for scaling that will allow institutions to grow their resources and subsections, while feeding into our main system so that we may gather practices and data for global sharing. Ed U Tech will use the best agile development practices, allowing for more collaboration to occur from vetted partners.

The AHK 1X Ed U Tech Learning Environment will have at least four major components each architected to work seamlessly together.

a. PreAssessment Tools will include custom designed learning outcomes based on each learners’ needs, passions, giftedness, and aptitudes. These tools do not pigeon-hole learners into labels, but rather function as an organic, flexible, and adjustable starting point.

b. The Ed U Tech Learning Eco-system will have a classic Learning Management System (LMS) with approved rubrics, standards and credentialing options if needed. This system will have learning modules and units of inquiries living on digital canvases or instances guided by Learning Coaches and Mentors.

c. Meaningful Assessments of Learners will be conducted pre-engagement, throughout progression, and finally upon desired learning outcomes goals to effectively track learner engagement and progress, patterns of meaningful engagement and inquiry impact affirmed by vetted and trained Learning Coaches.

d. Expert Knowledge Database – We will provide a vetted and constantly growing database and expert knowledge data bank. There will be vetted tiers and collaboration efforts made up of various queues.

Family Engagement

The family, designed by God is the perpetuating building block for the church, communities, and society. Too often, the parents have been considered superfluous in the education of their children. Many schools, including public, charter, and even Christian schools have subjugated the parents to a lesser role in the education and spiritual formation of their children. And too often, parents have expected schools – and the church – to carry the primary responsibility for the education and spiritual growth of their children.

A distinctive of ALL His Kids will be rekindling parental and familial involvement and responsibility by creating a lifestyle of learning, growth, and maturity in partnership with parents and families. The ALL His Kids model is intentional about engaging parents, as well as grandparents and other family members who are playing important roles in the education of children.