Falls Lake Academy is an accredited school that opened its doors in 2013 as a public charter school in Southern Granville County in North Carolina. We currently serve over 1055 students in grades K-12. Optimal class size for each grade level is 21 students. Falls Lake Academy is a project based learning school.
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What is a Charter School?
Charter schools are independently-operated public schools that have the freedom to design classrooms that meet their students' needs. Charter schools were established in an effort to improve the academic chances and performance of students who were at-risk and those that were academically gifted, but all students are eligible to apply to a charter school free of charge. Charter schools are not required to provided transportation for students, they are also not required to provide breakfast or lunch for students. Charter schools serve students from other counties. Even through charter schools are exempt from many requirements, they are required to administer state standardized tests.
What is PBL?
In Project Based Learning (PBL), students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. While allowing for some degree of student "voice and choice," rigorous projects are carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help students learn key academic content, practice 21st century skills (such as collaboration, communication & critical thinking), and create high-quality, authentic products & presentations.
Rigorous, meaningful and effective Project Based Learning:
- Is intended to teach significant content. Goals for student learning are explicitly derived from content standards and key concepts at the heart of academic disciplines.
- Requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication.
- To answer a driving question and create high-quality work, students need to do much more than remember information. They need to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team. They must listen to others and make their own ideas clear when speaking, be able to read a variety of material, write or otherwise express themselves in various modes, and make effective presentations. These skills, competencies and habits of mind are often known as "21st century skills," because they are prerequisite for success in the 21st century workplace.
- Requires inquiry as part of the process of learning and creating something new. Students ask questions, search for answers, and arrive at conclusions, leading them to construct something new: an idea, an interpretation, or a product.
- Is organized around an open-ended driving question. This focuses students' work and deepens their learning by framing important issues, debates, challenges or problems.
- Creates a need to know essential content and skills. Project Based Learning reverses the order in which information and concepts are traditionally presented. A typical unit with a "project" add-on begins by presenting students with knowledge and concepts and then, once gained, giving students the opportunity to apply them. Project Based Learning begins with the vision of an end product or presentation. This creates a context and reason to learn and understand the information and concepts.
- Allows some degree of student voice and choice. Students learn to work independently and take responsibility when they are asked to make choices. The opportunity to make choices, and to express their learning in their own voice, also helps to increase students' educational engagement.
- Includes processes for revision and reflection. Students learn to give and receive feedback in order to improve the quality of the products they create, and are asked to think about what and how they are learning.
- Involves a public audience. Students present their work to other people, beyond their classmates and teacher – in person or on-line. This "ups the stakes," increasing students' motivation to do high-quality work, and adds to the authenticity of the project.
If we are serious about reaching 21st century educational goals, PBL must be at the center of 21st century instruction. The project contains and frames the curriculum, which differs from the short "project" or activity added onto traditional instruction. PBL is, "The Main Course, not Dessert."
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Quick Facts
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Name of School |
Falls Lake Academy |
| Doors Opened | August 22, 2013 |
| Mascot | Firebird |
| Colors | Orange, Black, and Gray |
| Grades Served | Kindergarten - 12th Grade |
| Type of School | North Carolina Public Charter School |
| Focus of Charter | Project Based Learning |
| Location | Creedmoor, NC / Granville County |
| Number of Students | 1000-1100 |
| Campuses | 1 |
| Buildings | 2 |
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Sub-schools |
Lower Elementary Upper Elementary Middle School High School |
| Leadership | Executive Director: Joey Johnson Board of Directors |
| Athletics offered | Yes |
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Multi-Tiered System of Support for Families
What is NC MTSS?
Family engagement within an MTSS is defined as the active and meaningful partnerships that educators build and maintain with students' families for the purpose of supporting student learning. It embodies the idea that all parties are equally invested in the value to the table to work together.
What is "support"?
NC schools that are implementing an MTSS may talk about support for students. To further defined that support NC organizes these supports around the instruction, the curriculum, and the environment.