Key Elements of Education at Eastside

Eastside has distinctive practices that produce a learning community in which every child – beginning in first grade – is challenged, stimulated, and instilled with a love of learning.

Continuous Progress Model
Eastside does not group children using traditional grades. Rather, children are placed into one of seven Language Arts and one of seven Math classes, irrespective of their age or number of years in school; almost every class consists of mixed-age groups that span more than one traditional grade. We offer a range of options for in-depth Projects classes (which last about one month) and one-day Wednesday Workshops, and these options span several grade levels. Consequently, the learning needs of children with different ability levels in various classes are accommodated without the social disruption of grade-skipping, being held back, or being pulled out.

Student Choice
Eastside students are provided extensive choice in their own education. Throughout the year, students choose month-long Projects and one-day Wednesday Workshops from a palate of changing options (with parent approval). Within academic classes, the curriculum also emphasizes choice: teachers provide many learning activities and opportunities from which students may choose what is best suited to their style and interests. For example, a child may select either a manipulative or a paper-and-pencil exercise for Math, may elect to work alone instead of in a group, and may choose to write a piece of historical fiction rather than a report after studying an historical period. The result is a school where students are deeply engaged in their education. Eastside children develop a lifelong love of learning, a sense of intellectual self-sufficiency, and a responsibility for their own education.

Self-awareness and Goal-Setting
Eastside students set annual goals and establish plans to achieve them in Language Arts, Math, and social/emotional development. Throughout the year, students are asked to evaluate themselves, their progress, their effort, and their teachers. This process of goal setting and self-evaluation develops each child’s self-awareness and sense of self-sufficiency. It is also a crucial part of creating an education plan that is suited to each child’s interests, abilities, and learning styles.

Process over Subject
Eastside students master key concepts in Math and Language Arts and learn fundamental material in science and social studies, but they do so as part of a curriculum focused on the development of their minds and spirits. We emphasize tangible, real-life learning opportunities that develop several or all of these processes. For example, our well-known organic Garden Project gives students the opportunity to learn about biology, agriculture, economics, and environmental science – and use skills in Math and Language Arts -through hands-on work as a team. In other classes, students publish books, use scientific inquiry, create and edit iMovies, write and produce websites, research collaboratively, etc. Goal setting and self-evaluation by students, along with strong attention to social development and group decision-making, are also crucial to Eastside’s process-based education.

Advisee – A Feeling of Family at School
Feeling safe, secure, and welcomed is crucial to the grade-schoolchild’s ability to learn. Teaching the whole child means that we pay special attention to helping develop the child’s ability to engage in respectful, cooperative human relationships and to understand the dignity, rights, and responsibilities of every human being. The family group at Eastside is called Advisee; these small groups, which comprise students of all ages in the school, meet daily for half an hour. Children learn to make decisions together as a small community, to help and support each other, and to understand and accept their differences. Children solve problems together, ranging from troubling social interactions on the playground to messy hallways, and celebrate the personal side of each child.

Advisee activities help all children develop a sense of security and responsibility, of being protected and being leaders within the school community. The family feeling at Eastside is greatly enhanced by our structure. By the end of the first year, all Eastside students have worked with all Eastside teachers, and all students have been in a class or activity with every other child in the school. The sense of family is solidified with seasonal all-school festivals, and monthly sing-alongs with students and teachers coming together socially and creatively.

A Community and Family School
Another element of the Eastside program is to incorporate the knowledge and passion of Eastside families and the larger community. Because each Eastside student’s educational program is different, parents have many opportunities (and responsibilities) to participate in decisions about their child’s education. Parents play a major role in the school community, as well. They teach Wednesday Workshops – and in some cases Projects – to share their expertise and passions with students. A large number of parent volunteers assist teachers in Language Arts and Math classes. Invited guests from the larger community also lead Wednesday Workshops and further enrich the diversity of our experience and offerings.

Students engage with the local and global community throughout the curriculum, especially in in-depth cultural Projects and our annual Peace Festival. An important aspect of our Garden Project is donating a large portion of the harvest to Food for Lane County. In our Helping Hearts program, students raise money to help homeless families get into housing and acquire essential supplies- students donate items from home to be sold at the rummage sale, make crafts through parent-run Wednesday Workshops, and sell them at the Holiday Market. Students often meet the families they are helping, assist in shopping for the supplies needed by the family, and develop an understanding of social and ethical issues through discussions in Advisee (see above).

A Typical Day at Eastside
8:25 - 9:25 : Math
9:25 - 10:15: Language Arts
10:15 - 10:30 – Recess
10:30 - 12:00– Language Arts
12:00 - 12;40– Lunch
12:40 - 1:10– Advisee
1:10 - 2:30– Projects
Note that the schedule is slightly different on Wednesdays, when classes are dismissed at 1:30.