Welcome reader! Are you interested in learning about a typical school day at Maple Lake Academy? I’ve had many parents ask about the school environment at Maple Lake, so this month’s blog post is about that student experience in English class.

In the morning, after a student wakes up, they have several responsibilities to complete before going to school. A student eats a balanced breakfast, completes their hygiene routine, and performs their daily chores. The student is expected to do all of those things in a timely manner according to the daily schedule. Procrastinating could mean being late to school which would result in losing points for participation unless the student has an excuse from our staff. In the middle of the school day, students get a snack break. At the conclusion of school for the day is lunch; usually announced by the welcoming aroma emanating from the kitchen.

When the student enters the English classroom the first thing they see is the, “I can” statement written on the board. This, “I can” statement refers to two things: the relevant state educational standard and the learning objective for that class. Also on the board is the daily schedule of what is happening in class. The schedule of the day’s class and the details of any assignments can also be found on the website Edmodo.com in the event that a student forgets to put their assignments in their planner or is absent.

The assignments are varied in order to assist students who may have different learning strengths. For example, spatial learners may receive graphic organizers and aural learners have access to the audio for books we are reading in class. For kinesthetic learners, we recently played a game in class where students had to organize pieces of paper that represented the parts of a paragraph in the correct order.

Every student has accommodations that are approved by the MLA Education Department in order to meet their individual needs and to make sure they are learning in a timely manner. A single class is an hour long and the last part of the class is reserved for working on assignments. This allows each student the opportunity to finish that day’s assignment in class without the need for the assignment to become homework. Just in case a student does not finish their classwork, there is also a dedicated study hall class for students to complete their assignments.

I hope this article gave many of you greater insight into how classes function at Maple Lake Academy! Depending on reader interest, we may post another article highlighting a different class! See you all soon!

This article was written by Seth Campbell the English teacher at Maple Lake Academy.