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Community: Staff, Students, and Parents
- Yearly SWS Student-Staff Retreat
- Incoming Freshmen Picnic
- Monthly Bean-a-Fits
- Winter Dinner
- SWS Dances
- Monthly Kid’s Kitchen Community Service
- Feast or Famine
- Inclusion of Foreign Exchange Students
- Art Show Café (Student Showcase of Art, Music, and Other Talents)
- Parent Support (for Staff—Breakfasts and Luncheons) and Participation and Volunteering in SWS Community Activities Listed Above
- P.A.C. (Parent Advisory Committee)
- S.A.B. (Student Advisory Board)
- Blocked Classes
- Proximity of Teaching Staff to Each Other as Well Counselor and Security
- Proximity of Student Lockers and Commons to SWS Area
- SWS Advisories
- Monthly Town Meetings
- Staff Extra-curricular Involvement
- Informal Teacher to Student Relationships (Coaching, Science Club, GSA, et cetera)
- Visible Staff Cohesion and Collaboration
- Senior Reception
- Institutionalized Traditions and Rituals
- Junior-Freshmen Buddies (for Mentoring)*
- SWS Tutors (Senior Year)*
- The SWS Way
- Seminar
- Listening to the Minority Viewpoint
Student-to-Student Connections
- Blocked Classes
- SAB Communication to Advisories and Underclassmen
- Upperclassmen Socializing Lowerclassmen
- Conscious Effort to Establish Multilevel Cohesion/Groupings
- SWS Activities
- Junior-Freshmen Buddies
- Peer Tutoring
- SWS Student Proximity (Lockers, Classes, Commons)
- Shared Classes (Horizontally and Vertically)
- Established Student-Teacher Trust
- Teachers Foster Student Relationships (Everybody Knows Your Name)
- Collaborative Learning/Project Based Learning by Group and Individual
- Various Methodologies to Build Student Cohesion
- Conscious Use of Student Supporters for Socially Awkward Students
Staff Collegiality and (Staff Friendships)
- Weekly Staff Meetings
- Staff’s Proximity to Each Other
- Daily Collaboration between Staff about Learning, Students, and Activities
- Frequent Small Group Meetings
- Teacher Collaboration on Workload and Learning
- Constant Staff Support by Other Staff
- Counselor Knows and Understand Expectations of All the SWS Staff
- Strong, Supportive, and Trusting Relationship between SWS Staff and Principal
- Personal and Collaborative Relationship between Teachers, Counselor, and Principal
- Staff Cohesiveness Allows Maintenance of SWS Programs and Traditions
- Professional Development by Staff (Weekly Meetings, SWS Yearly Staff Retreat, and Assorted Classes)
- Proactive Collaboration between Staff
- Concentrated Staff Effort to Identify Issues and Create Workable Solutions
- Teachers Are Teammembers
SWS Service: School, Community, Global
- Students Contribute to the Maintenance of the Program
- S.A.B.
- Churchill Award for Community Service
- Kid’s Kitchen (Monthly Volunteering)
- Student Service and Advocacy
- Feast or Famine
- Bean-a-Fits
- Winter Dinner (Cake Auction Proceeds go to a Selected Charity)
- SWS Tutoring (Peer-to-Peer)
- Service Learning and Community Advocacy Is Embedded within the Classroom
- Students Who Have Served the Community Are Recognized and Celebrated
- Continued Family Involvement Via Lottery Preference
SWS Academics: Cultivating the Love of Learning
- Emphasizes Academic Rigor
- Students Must Identify Problems as the Arise
- Students Must Initiate a Need for Academic Assistance with Teacher
- Staff Directs Students to Take Responsibility for Learning and Advocacy
- Self-directed study classes from the past
- Differentiated Instruction with Teacher Guidance (Students Must Appropriately Select Among Options to Direct their Learning). Application for Student Directed Learning
- Clear Curriculum to Self Connections
- Clear Curriculum to World Connections
- Clear Curriculum to Service Connections
- SWS Classes Emphasize Learning for the Sake of Learning, Recognizing that Not All Assignments Must Have a Grade Value
- Seminar (Reading a Text Analytically and Discussing Said Text)
- Immediate Connection between Classroom Materials and Self
- Students Teach Classes (Workshop Week)
SWS Student Responsibility
- Students Must Initiate Conflict Resolution with Staff
- Students Must Initiate a Need for Academic Assistance with Teachers
- Students Must Take Responsibility for Learning
- Students Must Take Responsibility for Self-Advocacy
SWS and Fine Arts
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The philosophies of SWS and East High’s fine arts department are closely aligned. Many students who are self-directed learners are attracted to music, visual art and dance. Students in both programs often perform at various SWS activities including winter dinner, feast or famine and art show café. Students also volunteer their talents by performing community service throughout the Anchorage area. Members of the choir, band and orchestra annually play at API, Bean’s café, Mary Conrad Center, Pioneer home and many local elementary and middle schools. Students that participate in both programs tend to be the strongest performers. In 2009 all three students chosen to perform in the prestigious Northwest music festival in Spokane were SWS students.
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