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Avalon School

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Avalon School is a project-based charter high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The website calls it a "small, democratic liberal arts high school."

1 Advisors
2 Math
3 Projects
4 Seminars
5 Avalon Middle School
6 External links

Advisors

At Avalon, teachers (also called 'advisors') are usually referred to by their first names:

Carrie Bakken (Social Studies)
Dean Walczak (Finance Manager, Science)
Geri Connelly (Art)
Gretchen Sage-Martinson (English)
Jackie Powell (Office Manager)
Jo Sullivan (Biology)
Kevin Ward (English)
Andy Richardson (Social Studies)
Regina Goldner (Middle school math)

Some of the advisors are leaders of a homeroom-like group of students, called advisories. Advisories are housed in room-sized cubicles. Advisories are where students work on projects, homework, and math, when they do not have a seminar.

Math

The Avalon math program utilizes software called Accelerated Math, created by Renaissance Learning. This software allows students to proceed at their own pace, instead of following a traditional class structure. When using Accelerated Math, a student receives assignments in the form of exercises, practices, or tests (both normal and diagnostic). The assignment is then completed, and a scan card is filled out with the form number or the assignment and the answers. This is similar to a standardized test. The scan card is then run through a small machine, and scored by a computer. The student then receives a paper with their results. Depending on whether they pass or fail, they can request a test (pass) or an exercise (fail). A new practice assignment is then printed.

Projects

Avalon is project-based, meaning the focus of the student's work is independent projects. If a student has an idea for a project, he or she must fill out a proposal form and rubric, get parent approval, and present their idea to their advisor. When the project has been completed, the student must do a reflection -- a process of answering questions about the development of your project, what you learned, and how this helps the world/community. It is then taken back to the advisor, who asks you questions you wish they had asked when you showed them your final product, and then it is signed off as 'done'. This however is an excuse for a lot of the students to sit around and do nothing, resulting in a later graduation as it usually does.

Seminars

Seminars are, simply put, classes. These classes are specifically tailored to Minnesota graduation standards. There is usually a small class size. Although some classes, such as Economics, can become quite large.