Mission/Vision
Quest Academy is a parent choice K-8 program of Citrus Springs Charter School providing a safe learning environment for all students. Utilizing a personalized learning model with challenging academic experiences, we provide an environment where students can choose to become life-long scholars, to display honorable character and to acts as agents of positive change within their community and our global society. We foster the innate curiosity of all learners and provide opportunities that empower students and their parents to make the best choices for success in life’s journey.
Personalized Learning
How do we personalize learning for each student?
By assessing each student’s academic needs and personal interests in combination with their learning style, teachers can provide both interesting and challenging coursework that promotes academic success. Students work with teachers to choose topics of interest in which they can apply the knowledge that they are gaining. Teachers use various teaching styles to motivate and engage students in the learning process. Rigorous curriculum, technology, and real world scenarios are tools used to assist students in gaining proficiency in the use of their acquired knowledge. Students enjoy learning and have opportunity to be full participants in the education process.
Why personalize learning
Learning is a process, and it is one that can be as dynamic as the children who arrive in each class. Helping parents and students to realize that learning is an activity that can happen anywhere and everywhere is a priority. The learning process should be something that’s truly alive and truly challenging for the learner. Learning becomes meaningful and dynamic when the learner is personally invested in the learning process. We believe that personalizing learning enables students to engage in a more meaningful way to their learning.
Goal Setting
Teachers and students work jointly to create learning goals that connect the learning objectives (standards) and students’ interests and learning style(s). Timelines and activities are created to give optimum learning experiences for the student’s educational success. Goals are reviewed regularly and adjusted to assist student in attaining their goals as well as the creation of new goals to move student along their personal learning path.
The Community is our Classroom
Students and teachers work together to create community based learning projects where the student works with various community members to bring solution(s) to community issues. Parents are invited to participate in the school at various levels becoming an integral part of the learning community at Quest. Events are also organized to bring awareness to the community about literacy and ways that they can participate in creating a better educational system for all children. Family events are scheduled monthly to bring families onto campus to participate in math and reading activities designed to increase family literacy.
Program Elements
Shared Inquiry
Shared Inquiry uses strategies to engage all readers in higher-order thinking and collaborative problem solving. In Shared Inquiry, students and teachers come together to help each other explore the meaning of a literary work, historical event, or scientific occurrence. Each participant brings a unique perspective that influences how he or she understands the work, event, or issue. Sharing their interpretations, participants gain new insights and deepen or change their initial understanding. Researchers make it clear that teachers can make a real difference when they engage in the ongoing cycle of planning, acting, reflecting, and changing, an approach characteristic of action research. They present inquiry-based learning as a hopeful approach to educational improvement.
Service Learning
Students will problem solve, create and design technology products or standards‐driven artifacts, prepare written documents and complete presentations for advocacy purposes. Discussion across the curriculum links multidisciplinary concepts to real-world outcomes and encourages the critical thinking skills that 21st‐century learners will need to adapt content knowledge for varying jobs and career paths. Teaching and learning approach integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach on civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. The focus is on real‐world problems that promote learning across the disciplines. Students have opportunity to exhibit leadership, ethical behavior, respect for others; accept responsibility for personal actions, considering the impact on others; take the initiative to plan and execute tasks and interact productively as a member of a group..
Shared Responsibility
The entire school community shares in the responsibility of shaping a positive learning environment within our school. There is no substitute for excellence. Excellence demands both individual commitment from students and co-operation between students, parents, teachers, board members, and the community. We believe that all stakeholders share responsibility and play an integral part in setting academic, social, and personal goals for the education of all students. This school-wide team-based approach assumes shared responsibility for the achievement of all students. It addresses student concerns and monitors student progress. This shared responsibility encompasses the belief that our success is dependent on the commitment and support of all stakeholders.
Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning strategies enable the teacher to use thought provoking prompts to gear conversations toward standards‐based content, promote better thinking and listening skills and honor students’ prior knowledge base, and can be combined with written reinforcements to promote phonemic awareness, vocabulary or English language acquisition. The active exchange of ideas increases intrigue and motivation about known content and stimulates new ideas that promote critical thinking. Research shows that “cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work independently.”
A Day at Quest Academy
A Day at Quest is filled with laughter, inquiry and the acquisition of knowledge. On a daily basis students are encouraged to be ready, be responsible, and be respectful.
- Being ready means that the student is ready to learn, put in their best effort, and participate in the activities of the day.
- Being responsible means that students will take responsibility for their own actions and their own learning experience.
- Being respectful means that the student shows respect to the school community as well as themselves.
Students are greeted each morning by their teacher to review their progress and to receive further assistance where needed to help them achieve their learning goals. Students work with the teacher, in small groups, and independently during the school day. Math, Language Arts, Science, History/Social Studies, Leadership and ELD are a part of the student’s daily learning experience. Project-based and community-based learning are incorporated throughout core instruction. Students also enjoy physical education and nutrition/health education on a daily basis.
