As students went back to school on Monday in Maricopa Unified, some students walked into a brand new school with a different approach to learning.
The Alma Farrell Innovation Academy welcomed students for the first time on Monday, and the way the students will be taught is a little different than a typical traditional school.
Elizabeth Allison, the principal, says they are the first K-8 work-based learning school in the state.
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“Work-based learning is focused around those six cluster groupings but also the four futures: preparing students for enrollment, enlistment, entrepreneurship or employment depending on what their pathway is,” Allison said.
“It’s about integrating those into their core contents so that we are giving these students the opportunity to inquire about different fields that maybe they’re not aware of.”
The school will still teach the required standards but with a twist. The lessons don’t come straight from curriculum books, and subjects are not taught separately either.
The goal is to expose students, even as young as kindergarten, to all the different careers and to help them learn their required subjects while incorporating different careers they may be interested in.
“We’re going off what standards we’re going to teach and then pulling what we do have in our reading curriculum that has to do with construction. What do we have in our math that will go with construction or what skill are we working on in math that we have to incorporate construction,” kindergarten teacher Shamra Holmgren explained.
In kindergarten through second grade, Allison said it’s more about bringing awareness to the different industries and introducing vocabulary regarding the different careers. For the older students, it’ll be more about them taking elective courses that are industry-aligned.
The school will be doing more hands-on, project-based learning as well.
“We have the setups in the discovery zones like veterinarian setup, a doctor, agriculture, that we have it all set up,” said kindergarten teacher Genevieve Benitez. “We’re going to do it at different times where we focus on one profession at a time or two professions.”
As a brand-new school, there’s room to grow, and they’re ready to help kids see their potential as the school year is now underway.
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