Appleton Area School District

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• Appleton Area School District
• Established September 2005

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Fox River Academy

• The Fox River Academy is a multiage,
  environmental charter school, for grades 3-8,
  focused on the environmental, historical,
  cultural, and economic importance of the Fox
  River.

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What is the Purpose of Fox River Academy?

The purpose of the Fox River Academy is to
provide relevant instruction through hands-on,
real world experiences relating to the students
place in the community and environment, for the
betterment and understanding of their home, the
Fox River Valley.
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What is the Mission of Fox River Academy?

• Fox River Academy will foster in its students the
  passion and curiosity necessary for lifelong
  learning, and will, through an integrated,
  multiage curriculum, increase students
  proficiencies in the use of strategic learning
  processes and higher order thinking skills needed
  to be stewards of the environment and community.

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How Can Environmental Education Help Improve the
Overall Quality of Education?

• Reading scores improved, sometimes spectacularly.
• Math scores improved.
• Students performed better in science and social
  studies.
• Students developed the ability to make
  connections and transfer their knowledge from
  familiar to unfamiliar contexts.
• Students learned to "do science" rather than just
  "learn about science.
• Classroom discipline problems declined.
• Every child had the opportunity to learn at a
  high level.
• Glenn. (2000). The North American Association
  for
• Environmental Education.

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What is the Vision For Fox River Academy
Students?

•     "EE is a lifelong learning process that leads
  to an informed and involved citizenry having
  creative problem solving skills, scientific and
  social literacy, ethical awareness and
  sensitivity for the relationship between humans
  and the environment, and commitment to engage in
  responsible individual and cooperative actions. 
  By these actions, environmentally literate
  citizens will help ensure an ecologically and
  economically sustainable environment."    
  -Wisconsin EE Board

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Where is the Fox River Academy Located?

• The Fox River Academy opened its doors in 2005 at
  Jefferson Elementary to 42 students in third
  through sixth grade.
• We have expanded our program at Jefferson to 60
  students in grades three through six AND 14
  students in grades seven and eight.

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Why is There a Need for the Fox River Academy?

• Students need real-world experiences that are a
  part of their own world therefore, students need
  to be invested or connected to the context in
  which the real-world examples are set.
• Students need real-world experiences in which to
  apply knowledge and processes of these subjects
  within the school day.
• These subjects need to be taught as integrated
  and related topics.

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Who Benefits?

• Students who
• require hands-on, experiential learning
  opportunities.
• retrieve information through deliberate
  curricular connections.
• need to be challenged by inquiry learning.
• have a highly developed Naturalist Intelligence
  as defined by Howard Gardner.

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Fall Unit On The Move

• Essential Question
• How do organisms have their needs met in a
  changing environment?
• Overarching Understanding
• Organisms who adapt to changes in their
  environment survive.
• Unit Questions
• Why are there seasons?
• How do organisms respond to seasonal change?
• What are the indicator of these changes?

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Fall Unit On The Move

• Science/ Health
• Seasonal Change Migration, Adaptations, Earth
  and Moon Rotation and Orbit
• Social Studies Native People of Wisconsin

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Fall Unit On The Move

• Reading
• First half of class time direct instruction in
  reading skills and strategies using a theme based
  novel
• Second half of class time literature
  circles/guided reading groups using theme based
  independent level reading text
• Writing
• Informative writing
• Journal writing
• Focus strategies on descriptive and narrative
  writing

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Fall Unit On The Move

• Math
• Collect daily weather
• conditions, graph
• data, and analyze
• data throughout
• the school year.

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What Assessments Will Determine Success?

• standardized tests mandated by the State of
  Wisconsin
• district writing assessments
• student portfolios
• learning logs
• rubrics of student learning processes
• projects and presentations evaluated through
  rubrics
• students self-assessments
• teacher observations and anecdotal records

• teacher created tests and quizzes
• daily assignments
• university-based assessment tools
• student behavior data
• student attendance data
• parent, teacher, and student surveys
• end-of-year projects and presentations
• eighth grade capstone projects and presentations

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What PartnershipsHave Been Forged?

• National Wild Turkey Federation
• Bubolz Nature Preserve
• Mosquito Hill Nature Center
• Paper Discovery Center
• Kimberly-Clark
• Wisconsin DNR
• Lawrence University
• Appleton Parks and Recreation
• Jefferson Elementary

• CESA 6
• Wisconsin Historical Society
• Outagamie County Museum
• Wisconsin Waterfowl Federation
• DNR Green Schools
• Hearthstone Historical Museum
• University of Wisconsin-Extension
• Goodwill Industries

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Opportunities in 2005-2006

• Weekly Outdoor Field Experiences
• WAV Citizen Stream Monitoring
• Statewide Aldo Leopold Celebration
• Parent and Staff Book Study Last Child in the
  Woods
• Winter Family Retreat at Conserve School
• Environmental Club
• National Archery in the Schools Program

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Tips and Tricks

• Have a vision-If nothing could stop you, what
  would you do?

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Tips and Tricks

• Do your homework
• Research
• Visit other similar charter schools
• Be able to answer the questions in the Charter
  School Planning Grant
• Gather a board
• Ask for help

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Tips and Tricks

• Develop a standards-based curriculum
• Start with the essential understandings first
• Fit the standards in around these Big Ideas

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Tips and Tricks

• Start small
• Gather a board
• Develop a marketing plan
• Celebrate successes

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Tips and Tricks
Be Flexible