Another Way School: Private School in Park City, Utah
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the PRIMARY CURRICULUM is the core 
foundation for everything!

Nature is The True Home of Culture
                                                                                                             - Nils Faarlund

"Nature is the foundation for all the arts, sciences and technology; that is, all the gifts of civilization."  

"Nature’s first requirement for the child is love of activity coupled with the desire to accomplish things.

  The second fundamental requirement is independence. 
“Help me to do it by myself.” 
                                                                                                                                                                                                            - Montessori
 


Finland's educational model is based on direct interaction with Nature.  The Friluftsliv ("free-air-life") philosophy plays a vital role in Finland's educational system, which consistently ranks as one of the world's  top three countries in academic performance.


At Another Way, we emphasize the following principles:
  • Respect for the child
  • Movement is basic
  • Activity and Independence
  • Individual development
  • Freedom for self-development & self-realization

The primary elements at Another Way are:
  • A prepared learning environment
  • Individualized education
  • Self-education using self correcting teaching materials
  • Trained staff

The Prepared Environment:   
The prepared environment reflects order and is designed to meet the child's need for:
  • Independence, 
  • Spontaneous movement,
  • Maximum learning, and 
  • Success.
The environment must be orderly, peaceful and beautiful to foster the child's need for and to develop the sense of aesthetic.  All furniture is child-sized and arranged for freedom of movement. The self-educating materials are an integral part of the prepared environment.  The materials have a permanent place in the environment and are easily accessed so independence is possible.

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Individualized Education:  
A spiraling curriculum is used.  Children work from the "Big Picture" and then move toward increasing levels of detail and complexity.  This is the natural learning process.  It is the way the child sees the world.  

Materials are matched to each child's stage of development as all children go through the same stages though at different rates.  

Children move at their own pace so that skills can be easily absorbed and practiced to mastery.  Each child is perfect in the moment and is met exactly where they are developmentally.  Education at Another Way is totally individualized.


Self-education is self-motivating.  External rewards from praise to tokens are not required.  The motivation is intrinsic.

Self-Educating Materials:  
The purpose of the materials in the classroom is to give order to the impressions the child already has.  Skills and concepts move from concrete to abstract.  The Montessori self-educating materials at Another Way are matched to the child’s needs.  The materials are graded not the child.  Order within materials lead children to more abstract levels of understanding.

The children’s own activities lead them to spontaneously discover and internalize order through the influence of order in the environment.  All activities have a built-in relationship to other activities that follow at a later stage .  This is termed “indirect preparation” or transfer.
 

Task analysis is done on all materials to isolate the difficulty.  Order within materials lead to more abstract levels 
of understanding.
  • Learning is an active process leading to self-education.  
  • The teacher is the dynamic link between the child and the environment.
  • Self-education is self-motivating.  
  • External rewards from praise to tokens are not required.  
  • The motivation is intrinsic.

Trained Staff:  
Learning is an active process leading to self-education.  The dynamic link between the child and the environment is:  
  • The teacher prepares and maintains the environment in perfect order.  
  • The teacher observes the children carefully as they work within the environment.  
  • The teacher holds the entire curriculum in consciousness.
  • The teacher's goal is to meet each child where they are developmentally and help Awaken the Mind.
We teach based on the guiding principles of respect and appreciation.  Learning is joyful and activity based.

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Movement:
Movement is the foundation of all learning.  The human body is optimized by the quality of movement.  In other words, in activity-based learning, "the child first moves, learns from that movement, learns to move, and then, moves to learn."
                                                                                                                                                                                   - Kephart
 

 
 "Movement is the foundation for all learning. Life without movement is  
                                                  unthinkable."
  

                                                                                                                                                  - Moshe Feldenkrais                                                                                                                                                                            
Movement is fascinating to children.  They move to learn about whatever attracts their attention.  With a unique ability to absorb information from the environment until the age of six, they are capable of imaginably stepping into another life form to experience it.  

Children master an activity that engages their interest, and then, move on to the next material that attracts their undivided attention.  The environment must be designed to meet the biological imperative for movement.


Science  
Science is hands-on as it is not separated from the "big picture" of the formation of our world.  The materials the children use to understand scientific concepts are three dimensional and hands-on.  Children then move to two dimensional illustrations, films, books and computer software.  The children develop a life long interest in observing nature; discovering more about the planet, its life forms and recognizing our oneness with it.

Physical geography starts with understanding the earth as children learn:
  • Land and water forms
  • Continents
  • And using flat Maps

Children come to understand planet earth and her ecology on a practical level.  Physically working with the globe and world map help the children see where people of diverse cultures live, work and play. 


The Sciences in the Curriculum:
  • Anatomy
  • Biology
  • Botany
  • Zoology
  • Geology
  • Physics 
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Art 
Art is an integral component in the curriculum and woven into handwriting, anatomy, physiology and geometry in ever increasing complexities.

Anatomy and Art are woven together as the child explores how the human body works.  Children learn to see how form follows function.  Comparisons are made between a horse and a human skeleton.  The skeletal framework morphs to fit the function. 

Geometric shapes can be seen in all forms.  The shape of the horse's head is rectangular, the neck cylindrical, the shoulder an oval, the body a cylinder …  When the shapes are seen, drawing any form is simplified,  Can you made a dot, draw a straight line and a curved line?  Then, you can learn to draw anything in the physical universe.

Children learn the Domain Relevant Skills of a task: 
  • Lay out a design
  • Mix paint
  • Use a paint brush
  • Knowledge of paint application on varied surfaces
  • Clean and store brushes
Once Domain Relevant Skills are mastered, Creativity Relevant Skills can be fostered.  Creativity requires:  
  • Knowledge
  • Expertise
  • Technical skills
  • Intelligence, and
  • Talent in the domain
Characteristics of Creativity:
  • Independence
  • Risk taking
  • Taking on new perspectives in problems
  • Disciplined work style
  • Skills in generating new ideas
Creativity is high when children are:
  • Intrinsically motivated
  • Have high domain relevant skills
  • High in creative thinking, and
  • Working in an environment supporting creativity.
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Mathematics 

Mathematics is the universal language of the cosmos:  In our curriculum the entire purpose of the math curriculum is to make the abstract concrete.  The child can then close her eyes and visualize mathematical processes at work.  As the child progresses the materials become less concrete and more symbolic. (Seldon and Epstein)

Math actually begins with practical life and sensorial work.   Working with these activities develops essential movements along with visual and tactile discrimination. 

The wonder of the world of Mathematics occurs once the child connects the concept of number values with symbols from one to ten.  The key to exploring the decimal system is the knowledge of values to ten.  The child is then ready to explore the Golden Bead material and new  mathematical concepts.  

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Understanding the Golden Bead material is the foundation for comprehending any number system and numbers 
to infinity. 

Math is everywhere - in the seed pattern in an apple, in a flower, in the beat of a drum, in poetry, in art as seen in the golden mean, in a sun dial, in a compass, in a clock and 
in a melody.  

Mathematics has a beauty that quietly and subtly unfolds when one learns to truly see the wonder that we are and all that surrounds us.  


  Practical Life

Practical Life involves the children in their immediate world.  Mastery of these practical activities of daily life help the child build:

  • Coordination of movement
  • Spatial awareness
  • Manual dexterity
  • Motor Planning
  • Confidence
  • Independence, 
  • Self-sufficiency
  • Concentration
  • Follow through, and
  • Tenacity  
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Repetition and unlimited opportunity to practice skills is built into the materials and every part of the curriculum. 

Perfect practice makes perfect skill development.

Students learn to pour, dress, clean, mend, cook, care for the environment and much more.  

All the Practical Life works/activities develop skills that lead to personal independence. 

Integrated into Practical Life activities are Lessons of Grace and Courtesy (etiquette) leading to:
  • Mutual aid
  • Cooperation 
  • Collaboration,
  • Development of social skills, and 
  • Responsibility

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Grace and Courtesy foster the child's ability to build and maintain powerful, loving relationships.

Sensorial 

Sensorial materials are designed to:
  • help the child develop minute discrimination by sight, sound, touch, smell and taste
  • foster intellectual development based on the ability to differentiate, discriminate, compare  and  contrast
  • Refine abilities until the child is easily able to recognize subtle distinctions in the environment.  

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Sensorial materials give the child hands-on foundational experiences in:
  • Language
  • Reading
  • Mathematics
  • History
  • Geography 
  • Culture 
  • Geometry 
  • Writing
  • Directing and refining the senses

Working with these activities develops essential movements along with visual and tactical discrimination. 

Mathematics begins with the understandings and skills developed by the child in Practical Life and Sensorial works.  


Language
                "Language lies at the root of the transformation of the environment that we call civilization.”
                                                                                                                                                                      - Montessori

Under language and Intellectual Development are Science, Art, History, Mathematics, Geography and Culture.  A global perspective is fostered as the roots of humankind and gifts of civilization are explored.  

Another Way's environment is enriched with opportunities to:
  • Listen deeply 
  • Refine the ability to differentiate, discriminate and  make increasingly more subtle distinctions 
  • Move quietly and feel the environment 
  • Understand symbols and their meanings 
  • Write and to read
  • Communicate clearly, and effectively, and 
  • Above all, to do so, with respect  
Language development is encouraged through:
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Story Telling 
  • Phonemic Awareness 
  • Readiness Activities 
  • Phonic Instruction 
  • Handwriting/Art 
  • Written expression 
  • Reading, and 
  • Limitless opportunities to communicate verbally and          non verbally
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 Geography and Cultural Studies

Geography and Cultural Studies are integrated throughout the curriculum.  Using three dimensional, hands-on materials first, graduating to two dimensional materials; our students then use the M.E.C.S. computer program to compliment their 
hands-on work in these studies.

Children come to understand planet earth and her ecology on a practical level.  Physically working with the globe and world map help the children see where people of diverse cultures live, work and play.  This is integral to helping children understand:
  • Who they are
  • Where they are
  • Where they are going
  • What their purpose is

Cultural studies start with the Native Peoples of North America and then extend out to European cultures and beyond based on first contact. 
Children begin to see that no matter how different surface appearances may seem, all people share the same basic need for food, shelter, transportation, defense and spiritual expression.  

Every one has the sames fears and the same need for love and acceptance.  This is integral to helping children understand:
  • Who they are
  • Where they are
  • Where they are going
  • What their purpose is

These studies help awaken the child's mind to the inter-relatedness of all life and foster the biological imperative to co-create in peace, in beauty and in love.  The child comes to learn that the arts and sciences are really about appreciation, gratitude and transformation.

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"The first essential for the child's development is concentration. 
The child who concentrates is immensely happy." 
                                                                                                                                                                            - Montessori                                                  

Another Way's Primary Classroom is open-ended with self-correcting educational materials that cross disciplines and move inter-dimensionally.  As the dynamic link between the child and the environment, we are committed to the development of the whole child.  

Our Responsibility:       Modeling the very best of who we are and promoting Highest Good 
Our Focus:                      Carefully observing and following the Child  
Our Goal:                        Firing the child's passion and curiosity to foster the Awakening of the Mind 
 


                                
                             "Education is a natural process carried out by the child. 

 
         it is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment."  

                                                                                                                                                                                  -  montessori   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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