Our Programming

Heartwood Agile Learning center is an independent school for students age 5 to 18. Our students are enrolled full-time, Monday through Friday. The school day starts at 9:00 am and ends at 3:00 pm.

We believe that natural learning at any age requires a large amount of dedicated time to experience, explore, play, interact and converse. Our programming ensures that this “free time” (as many adults call it) for natural learning is protected. On top of this basic tenant of self-directed education, we build a variety of  practices that encourage:

  • intentional learning

  • social/emotional growth

  • social justice awareness

  • active engagement in the creation of the school's culture

  • development of reflective capacities

Self Directed Education for Teens

Around age 12 students become more deliberate in their learning. Adulthood moves closer to the forefront of their minds. Each week, we meet individually with students who have entered this phase to help them determine and pursue their learning goals. The basic questions that guide us are: How do you envision yourself as an adult? What do you want to be engaged in, at your current age, to prepare for that? What things do you want to explore to see if they are of long term interest to you? We serve as mentors and coaches and help students in these teen years to map out their goals as well as connect with community resources that match their interests.

Our Practices

SET the week/ SET the Day

Set the Week is a weekly meeting where we discuss community announcements, vote on items for the student budget, and schedule potential "offerings" for the week. Offerings can be hosted by students, parents, facilitators, and/or community members. The content of offerings can include activities such as a parent hosting a field trip to a history museum, a student hosting an animating class, or a group game of soccer in the back field. Set the day is where we quickly look at our offerings for each day and if needed, add or edit offerings. 

Morning and afternoon meetings

Morning and afternoon meetings are small group meetings that last about 15 minutes each. They are used for students to capture their individual intentions for the day as well as a time to connect in a smaller group format.

Community/Culture Meeting

Community/Culture meetings serve three purposes:

1) provide an opportunity to focus on issues that may need more time and attention than Change-Up is designed for

2) discuss social justice and what we need to do as a community to take better care of each other through that lens, and

3) collectively process current events in the wider world and how they connect to our community

Change-Up Meeting

The Change-Up Meeting is a time when we discuss issues (we call them “awarenesses") that are arising in the community. Maybe students are tracking mud in the building; maybe they are developing a negative habit of annoying each other. Maybe people are leaving their book bags in front of the door. Change-Up meeting is a place to bring up items that need to be addressed by the community. Items are brought to the Change-up Meeting weekly by both students and facilitators. The group present at Change-Up comes up with a solution to the issue and checks back in weekly to see if the solution needs to be edited, practiced longer, or if it has naturally become a community habit.

Gratitude Circles

Gratitude circles happen at least once a week and are an opportunity to collectively reflect and express gratitude for the (oftentimes shared) experiences of the past week.

Group Game Time

Group game time happens once per week and is an opportunity to play together as a large group. The intention of group gametime is to build community and develop connections among students who may not naturally default to engaging with each other.