Philosophy
Best Occurs
How Learning
Best Occurs
Mission
To champion an education for all that embraces the power of possibility through holistic learning, authentic experiences, and the agency to effect social change.
Creative Learning
At CalCreative, we inquire, we wonder, we self-express, and we listen to understand multiple perspectives, to feel, construct and assimilate our understanding of the world. By learning and acquiring knowledge through creative processes, we become creative beings mindfully engaging with others in a shared experience where solving problems is our way of being.
Creative learning is a powerful way to learn. It allows us to construct our own understanding of our sense of self, each other, and the world by feeling emotionally connected to our learning experience. We remain curious over the choices of others, as we reflect and self-express our unique self to consider and construct what works to solve a problem or develop our authentic sense of self in a shared experience.
A creative learner values their own uniqueness, the uniqueness of others, their relationships and their creative power as a creative being. They feel empowered to question and explore as part of a whole and feel connected to the feelings of others as they become more of who they are.
Core Values
About Our Program
Constructivism
Our creative learning environment is built on constructivist principles. Students construct their own understanding through inquiry, investigation, self-reflection, and the skill of listening to multiple perspectives and narratives to understand and feel emotionally connected to the world they are exploring. It is through inquiry and investigation, students begin to understand and connect to others to construct their own meaning making and learning. This allows students to meaningfully engage in the present, by honoring our past, to understand what works to mindfully create the future they want to live in empowered as curious and empathetic creative beings.
Project-based Learning
In our creative learning environment, project-based curriculum allows students the opportunity to be self-directed while at the same time requiring them to collaborate with others on a shared objective. All classroom project-based learning is organized in meaningful, purposeful ways though engaging cross-disciplinary subject matter that corresponds to state standards.
Arts integrated learning
For over fifteen years of being an arts-integrated model school, we have learned through experience that learning through the arts develops your voice and sense of self by providing evidence for your own thinking and the opportunity to self-express your unique self.
Through the experience of dance, music, drama and visual arts, we explore what it means to be human as a creative process and connect our experiences to deepen the understanding of other areas of learning, such as math and language arts. Exploring through art and learning through creative processes, we feel emotionally connected to how we experience our understanding of ourselves and the world, through self-expression and constructing our own understanding.
Arts-Integrated learning creates a truly aware mindset that develops seeing the world through other perspectives, but has the voice and courage to meaningfully share their own unique perspective and self.
Academic Rigor
Our creative learning environment reflects our values as leaders in creative learning in how we approach academic instruction by learning through creative processes. At CalCreative, we value investigating, being curious, using self-expression, and actively listening to understand other perspectives, to feel, construct and assimilate our connections to the world.
As stewards to the creative process, we look at our shared experience both collectively and individually. The past becomes a place of questioning our choices to understand our motivations, the present becomes a place of who we are now, and the future becomes a place of envisioning who we want to become.
We select academic programs like our Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) math because we value building on children’s natural problem-solving strategies. As a way of being, students bring their authentic self to the learning environment to build on who they are as unique and purposeful beings.
Social & Emotional Learning
At CalCreative, social and emotional learning is about becoming aware of your inner world to successfully navigate your outer world. When we become aware of how we feel and have the skills to communicate our feelings and listen to understand others, we become connected to others in the most empowered way.
Strong social-emotional skills are an integral part of an empowered mindset that can mindfully create what they imagine through how they relate to others. Working through social and emotional challenges benefits creative learners as a learned skill and is highly valued in our school community.
From effective problem-solving to successful self-organization of one’s own perspectives and feelings, creative learners are actively supported in their ability to navigate the complexities of their experiences.
Interconnected Learning
Learning through creative processes grows a deep sense of belonging in the world and creates a mindset that values inclusivity and diversity in our shared experience. By cultivating creativity, curiosity, empathy and connection, creative learners feel and understand different stories and narratives other than their own, in an empowered state of becoming who they want to be as their unique self.
CalCreative understands when we feel emotionally connected to our world and our communities, because they are us and we are them, we feel connected and empowered in our relationships. And when we feel whole in our connection to the world, we feel interconnected to everyone and everything, as a world full of possibility.
Focus on the Whole Person
We believe that differences in the way children learn and the paces at which they learn are natural. Acknowledging that students learn and demonstrate what they know in a variety of ways, our instruction allows children to see, hear, and express according to their own unique learning styles. Teachers respect these differences by providing opportunities for students to become active participants in the growth of their own learning.
CalCreative is a holistic way of being as a philosophy of learning. Creative learning creates a deep sense of belonging as our students mindfully acquire the skills of creativity, curiosity, empathy and connection to access the power of possibility through creative processes. We are the change missing in education.