Seaside Academy
  • Home

Spring Break for RPA March 19 to April 6

3/27/2018

1 Comment

 

WOW! Time has flown by...

Picture
We had the open house in February (with enrollments for next year arising from that event!). Yes, it was a cloudy somewhat rainy day. But, people came out. We had folks from when we opened at 10 am until ... well, really, until we finished cleaning up and were on our way out! It was wonderful to see some of the current students present to visit with the visiting parents. It was also great because we had a couple of folks interested in working at RPA there also. I think a great time was had by all. This Early February event was followed by having a booth at the Women in Business Expo in Myrtle Beach towards the end of February.

Picture
Jennifer Delaney, our headmaster, was there from initial set up through tear down. I stopped by for a bit but really Headmaster Delaney and Ms. Bellamy, another teacher, were there getting word out about the school. If you are interested in our presenting about the school, its philosophy, and its results,
Picture
feel free to contact, Ms. Delaney at the school, 854-925-0401!
          I also was able to make an academic presentation about the school start up process at my conference, Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. It was held in Albuquerque, NM during March 6-10.

My full time job of teaching at CCU began with my teaching all of my class in the shortened term of Spring 2! I have been very busy teaching and grading since then. I also chatted a bit with a staff member there at CCU about research on happiness. She had a little quip on her office door about what makes for happiness and I decided to look into that a bit more. I found out that the longest research on adult happiness was done by Harvard. That study of over 75 years and 700+ people, found that close relationships are key to a long, healthy and happy life! A quick summary of his talk and 4 key lessons from it is available online (click here). It found that neither money

A  happy childhood has very, very long-lasting effects.

nor success lead to a long happy healthy life... but rather having warm close relationships with others led to such a life. Those who had such warm loving relationships as children continued to have such relationships with others over the 3/4 of a century since! Yet again, support for our philosophy and design of our school.
Picture
Our small tutorial-like classes where students spend multiple years with the same loving enthusiastic teachers allows for the creation of close warm relationships. The family-sized classes allow for children to experience close sibling-like relationships. We wholeheartedly believe that this type of  culture and our honor code which helps us establish and maintain this close supportive culture is one element which makes RPA unique and different from other educational options available in the area today. Since your child will spend most of their waking hours at school, isn't it the type of environment that you want for them too?!
         Check out some more of what Robert Waldinger says on this Ted Talk! Heads up… its about 12 minutes long. FYI, relationship quality matters! Spoiler alert… Loneliness kills. Good friends at work and after work (those you can count on to help in tough times) make for a longer happier healthier lives.

We invite you to choose to become a part of our family at Renaissance Preparatory Academy!

Contact us today for an appointment.

1 Comment

School Choice Week Coming to an End

1/26/2018

1 Comment

 
School Choice Week celebrating the right of parents to choose where to educate their children is drawing to a close. I wanted to share a couple of research results on that process and again point out the new choice available here in the Grand Strand, The Renaissance Preparatory Academy.
Picture
Picture
Research has shown that parents consider a variety of topics as they choose a school for their children. Over sixteen articles since 1992 have shown that parents’ main concern centers on academic quality[1]. Altenhofen et al. (2016) noted that quality has been measured in a variety of ways ranging from test scores to methods of instruction.  One fairly local study up in the Charlotte area found that parents weight test results higher when they are known about several alternative school choices[2] (Hastings & Weinstein, 2008). Families that are less financially stressed tend to differentiate more between schools on important dimensions than those families which are financially stressed are aware of[3]. One difference is actually visiting the schools under consideration. That personal exploration of the available school choice didn’t seem to garner as much consideration as out of school activities like sports and art experiences which was a shame since according to Lareau (page 198) choosing a school is “one of the most economically and socially consequential decision of their lives.”
So as we come to the end of this week, have you gone or made arrangements to go and visit school to see how children are being treated? To see the resources being provided? To see the range of work that children are encourage and required to complete? Doing online searches of schools is important. Determining the “results” of the educational experience (i.e. test scores or other outcome measures) is also important but just as it is important to personally check out day cares, so, too, is it important to personally check out the schools under consideration.

At the Renaissance Preparatory Academy we value your visits. While it is important to not disrupt the children’s work days (i.e. we are a small school by design and are just beginning our growth), we regularly hold open houses and this February we are opening an open house where some of our children will come in on a Saturday morning and engage in a condensed version of our school day via some “mock” lessons while parents and others interested can tour the facility and do a “silent” walk through the various classrooms!

    This Curriculum Interactive Open House is
                on Saturday, February 10
                   beginning at 10am
                     at our school site
      which is at 3301 33rd Avenue No., MB
                (in the square building behind the Greek Orthodox Church).
        Call Ms. Delaney at 854-528-0401
    for more information about the school


Picture

[1] Altenhofen, S., Berends, M., & White, T. G. 2016. School Choice Decision Making Among Suburban, High-Income Parents, AERA Open, Accessed January 15, 2018 at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332858415624098.
[2] Hastings, J. S., Weinstein, J. M. 2008. Information, school choice, and academic achievement: Evidence from two experiments. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123, 1373-1414.
[3] Lareau, A. 2014. Schools housing, and the reproduction of inequality. In Lareau A., Goyette K. (Eds.), Choosing homes, choosing schools (pp169-205) New York, NY Russell Sage Foundation

1 Comment

January 19th, 2018

1/19/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Many private schools have enrollment for the next school year beginning in February or March preceding that start. This up-coming week is National School Choice Week. I recently came across an article by the President of the organization that sponsors that event, Andrew Campanella. His article, Time to focus on school choice, was in the South Strand News on January 11, 2018.


Are you ready to make your school choice for your children?


Read More
1 Comment

The School Year 2017-2018 Midpoint Review!

12/18/2017

2 Comments

 
Whew! The end of the term along with Thanksgiving and preparations for the winter break, which, in my case, means, preparations for Christmas; all conspired to keep me from blogging. I had thought about discussing the topics of our theme projects and showing how they align with common core, and, even more useful, practical life.  I thought about reemphasizing how many of our boys and young men are slipping through the educational processes and ultimately not continuing their education at the same rate as our young women are. I thought about addressing the let down and disappointment that comes when our children are in a ill-fitting educational environment.  But ultimately, I decided to share some of the highlights from these first two terms of the Renaissance Preparatory Academy!

Who knows? This time of year often causes a rethinking of where to have your child at school and this may encourage you to send your child to the Renaissance Preparatory Academy!

Is My Child at the Right School?

Picture

Read More
2 Comments

November 13th, 2017

11/13/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Parents often are conflicted. They want family time or at least time to run the kids to soccer, gymnastics, swim team, etc. and they want their children to benefit from homework. So, just how much time should be spent in academics during a day? The amount of schooling and homework combined varies by type of instruction, and even then, by school district and sometimes by school within a district. If you turn to the homeschooling crowd, the amount of time per subject per child decreases dramatically as a total but the amount of individual time increases.  So, let’s examine each one.

Read More
1 Comment

Small Class Sizes, Mastery Learning, A Longer School Day, and Homework

10/31/2017

5 Comments

 
Picture
Funny enough, homework is a contentious topic when it comes to scholarly research.  Some argue for it and others argue against it with the majority view cycling between these two view points over the years (Marzano and Pickering, 2007). A decade ago, Marzano and Pickering concluded that homework should have four qualities: 1) it should be purposeful for learning; 2) Students should be able to accomplish it independently with a relatively high success rate; 3) Parents can be a sounding board but not teachers of the content; 4) The amount of homework should be age appropriate and not infringe too much on home life. Let’s look at each of this in our school’s context. Remember, we are a school that has small class sizes (the smallest being like a family) that requires Mastery learning done within a longer than average school day.


Read More
5 Comments

Don’t Build on a Foundation with Gaps! That just sets kids up for failure!

10/21/2017

8 Comments

 
Picture
It is a sad statistic but 40% of students in college who start as engineering students change majors and 70% of those who start a 2-year engineering program don’t finish (Silvarole & Mitchell, 2017). WHY? For many, it is because they cannot test into Calculus 1 as a college freshman. The math education that they receive is not sufficient for them to enter into the correct class to be successful in a common STEM major such as engineering.  A coalition of colleges in SC are studying why and not that the problem starts very early in our educational system. Anecdotal evidence links poor later performance to the "pushing' on of kids to next levels in spiral math (and other subjects without insisting that they master earlier concepts. The net result is a poor education for that individual.

Picture
The Renaissance Preparatory Academy takes a mastery or competence approach. Concepts are taught academically and then applied to show that learning has occurred. Once consistency in its use is demonstrated then the student can move on. Furthermore our theme-units use the math concepts being learned to enable children to see that math is eminently practical and valuable to them now and in the future. As L. Renard commented back in March

Because of this (mastery learning), students can finally master the concepts while building a growth mindset, grit, perseverance and taking agency over their learning.

Picture
Can you say the same for your child’s current environment?
Our parents can and do!


Today’s public school’s educational environment in South Carolina has been judged to be the next to last nationwide for teachers… The biggest reason why? The percent of teachers who have reported being threatened by students (Wilson, 2017)! If teachers feel threatened, what does that mean for your child in that same environment? Teachers leave the public school due to a wide range of issues which include lack of time to actually prepare and grade the large sized classes and high levels of disrespect both inside and outside of the classroom. This does not mean that South Carolina teachers are not striving and fighting to maintain some minimal standards. South Carolina had average SAT scores slightly above the national average (Bowers, 2017). Teachers, though, are failing to return to that environment and many leave education. Again, how do you think this impacts your child? Don't wait to make a difference in your child's education, take action now!


Picture
The Renaissance Preparatory Academy is a non-profit school that deliberately creates an environment where teachers and teaching are valued and respected. This respect then spills over into the environment in which the children learn. Children are challenged to strive for high level goals and to meet and exceed those goals. They learn about respecting themselves and others as they grow and learn.  Our small family-sized classes allow teachers to assess where children have gaps and to take steps to help the children fill those gaps. After a child catches up on the needed concepts, that child can then move more rapidly along and actually continue learning. The net result is stronger individual learning than is possible when teaching a rote curriculum throughout a district to ensure that every child has seen the same curriculum.
Full disclosure, the Renaissance Preparatory Academy is a start-up school and is in a growth phase. Students lucky enough to enroll this year will reap the rewards of intimate family-sized classes. We expect that almost tutorial-size class experience to dissipate as more families discover the great learning environment and culture found at the school! We commit, though, to limiting the maximum class size to 15 students. These smaller maximum classes, longer school year, 8-hour school day create a strong supportive environment.  Most days, our current faculty and students say that the school day seems to whiz by!

Call 843-800-0590 or use our contact us box to set up an appointment today!
Janice Black, Founder & Director School Board

8 Comments

Second & Third Week of Fall 2017

10/18/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Those of you who have been following the school know that theme units are an integral part of all our classes from the PrePrimary to the Grammar class. The first major unit in our fall term has been a study of PETS. The PrePrimary has a great picture book about a pet goldfish whose “stuff” overflowed his bowl. The Primary and Elementary classes read about choosing a pet and considered the costs associated with that. The Grammar school focuses on the pet industry and the impact that has for good and bad in our communities. Amidst all of this, the faculty and staff decided that it would be a good idea to get a school pet. They defaulted to fish and our new friend, Orange Juice, is the result. The aquarium was set up on Friday and Orange Juice entered his (or her) new home on Monday. Students are now researching a pet of their choice. Their big expo on pets is on this upcoming Friday afternoon. Can't wait to see what they come up with!

Janice Black, Founder & Director of School Board


1 Comment

Time and Timing: Reflections on the School Year Calendar and Length of Day

10/13/2017

2 Comments

 
Many of you know that we are a year-round school. For those who are new to us, our “initial” term of a school year is our summer term. This first year that summer term was a short one that ended the last week of September.  Check out a short slide show of our experiences below.

We did an extended field experience at Myrtle Beach State Park!

Picture
Our short summer term was because we began our normal year-round calendar at the same time that Horry County Schools began its traditional calendar. Some may wonder why we chose to start a private school with a year-round calendar. Certainly, year-round programs have been introduced before and have not been very popular.

So, why do a relatively unpopular school calendar?
...Because it makes a difference in children's learning!

Picture
So having longer school days (8 to 4 with drop off from 7:30 to 4:30) and having 40 weeks of school per year versus 36 weeks are both things that help students learn more and retain more of what they have learned. Remember, we came into being to demonstrate that preparation for higher education begins with Kindergarten and that the whole child needs to be taken into account in designing the learning experience. We stand by that need. A nice by-product is that parents can find shorter activities for their children in each season (which includes time for summer camps, ski camps, family vacations and so forth).

At the Renaissance Preparatory Academy, we are structured to help your child succeed and learn challenging curriculum well!

Call for an appointment today... 843-800-0590! Schedule an appointment via email using Renaissance.Headmaster@gmail.com.
2 Comments

Renaissance Preparatory Academy IS an ABC School = Advancement By Competence Not By Year Cohort

9/24/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Thus, as a child demonstrates competence in the topics required for a certain grade level, they can be promoted to the next grade level. Competence means earn at least an 85% in the cumulative test AND demonstrate use during our theme units.

No holding kids back to keep them on track for a grade based on an age cohort!


New Term Starts Oct. 2... May Mean Grade Promotions For Some. Definitely means welcoming a new Kindergarten cohort (PreK who turn 5 by October 16 are welcome to enroll).

Picture
So as your child demonstrates knowledge of kindergarten, they are promoted at the next term to the next grade, 1st grade. An actively learning and hard-working child could conceivably be promoted 4 grades in a year (not likely but possible).

Alternatively this means, if your child has gaps in their learning, we will help them fill those gaps until they can demonstrate competence. For example, let’s say your child received a C, a 75% in last year’s cumulative math final. And that this was broken down as shown on the graph below.
Picture
We work on a mastery framework but we allow progress based on competence which we define as at least 85% correct in a topic area. An average of 75% does not demonstrate sufficient competence in all required math areas in this example. This means that the results of the previous year show weaknesses or gaps as indicated below. These gaps will be addressed before the child is allowed to promote to the next grade.
Picture

Children don't have to be perfect to promote but they do have to meet our higher standards (remember we are a classic college prep and have high standards for mastery... that's that 85%).


Read More
1 Comment
<<Previous

    Founder's Blog by
    Janice Black, Ed. Specialist,
    Ph. D.

    Dr. Black is an active college professor in Entrepreneurship with a background in Education. Her scholarly publications have received over 1700 citations when the average professor rarely reaches 50 citations.

    She is passionate about school reform that results in students prepared for college and entrepreneurial/ professional life.. She is initiating this school as a non-profit with no return on her investing funds and no payment for any services provided. She just wants to support the starting of a school that directly and indirectly supports the acquisition by our children beginning at kindergarten of knowledge skills and abilities needed for future entrepreneurs, future college students and future professionals.

    Archives

    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Picture
Apply
Give
Contact
Call 854-529-
0401
We are an independent non-profit private school in the Myrtle Beach area that operates with rigorous academic standards, a commitment to developing all aspects of a child, an orientation that is respectful of religious organizations, and has a strong honor code.

A Project of the Social Good Fund | www.socialgoodfund.org
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home