Michael Strong describes a day at ExpanseOnline.co, where students debate current events, write arguments, do hands-on science with kits that exceed grade level, meet weekly with mentors, and pursue projects like building websites, launching software companies, or writing novels.
Hello, this is Michael Strong, founder of expanseonline.co, and I want to walk you through a typical day. So our classes are roughly from 10 AM to 4 PM, depends on the time zone, but we start every day with community intentions, appreciations, improv theater games, discussions of current events, uh, ways in which we're working together, not working well together as a community. We then go into, after a break, a Socratic discussion where we read, think, discuss sophisticated ideas from sophisticated texts. We do it in such a way that it's accessible to everyone, and there are different layers of meaning, layers of sophistication with respect to understanding the text. After the students have thought, talked, argued about the issues and texts we are focused on, then we go into a writing session after they've been arguing for a while, writing becomes much more spontaneous, especially essay writing. Many children love to write fiction. It's natural. We're narrative creatures. Relatively few love essay writing. But if we just have an argument where you believe regular school is okay and you say it's okay because of A, B, and C, and I say, no, it's not okay, it damages children, doesn't teach creativity and innovation, and it develops passivity and dependence, then we've each outlined our essays. We go back and write. So after community, then Socratic, after Socratic, then based on the conversation, the argument, the discussion, the dialogue we just have, we go into writing. We take an hour for lunch break, get off the computers, go do things, then we have a period where we are using Quantum Camp's math and science curriculum. Math and science curriculum are wonderfully designed so that on the one hand they have some hands-on project elements. You get a science kit each week in the mail to help do the science experiments that week. On the other hand, they're very conceptually sophisticated. So they're accessible enough for the average student, but the most advanced student can be challenged by the conceptual sophistication contained within this program. As a consequence, middle school students are often learning high school level concepts more deeply than do the vast majority of high school level students. In addition to the community Socratic writing and math science, we also have one-on-one mentoring. We believe that young people at this age going through in many ways the most challenging period of their entire lives urgently needs an external mentor. Families are wonderful, and it also helps to have someone who's focused on each week half an hour of what is their academic program doing, how is their academic program fitting for them, how is it helping them achieve their longer-term goals, what's working, what's not working. Then we move into kind of a life design phase in the mentoring. Well, who are you and what do you want to become? And they don't have to know, but we want to keep working with them thinking, what, what do they value? Are they creative? Are they an engineer? Are they technical? Are they mathematical? Are they a visual person? Are they interpersonal? What is the unique combination? And then how How do you take who you are and become most effective at being that person? How do you balance time management? How do you get enough sleep? How do you eat well? What's your physical activity? Many of these things are covered in a conventional school in health class, but we want it to be driven by the student's own aspirations to be an amazing performer. If a young person wants to be an amazing performer and they're not getting enough sleep every night, hey dude, you you gotta get some sleep, otherwise you'll never achieve your ambitions. In addition, in the half an hour of each mentoring each week to the academic performance and the designing your life component, we also address social-emotional issues. Sometimes people do have ups and downs. Adolescence, puberty is a really tough time. And so we can work with students, hey, you know, if you're having a rough week this week, let's kind of put these things off, let's gather your energy and be ready to rock and roll next week, whatever it is. They've got a touchpoint each week. Finally, in addition to those components, we encourage every student to have a personal project and support them in coaching them on their personal projects so they can be amazing. They can change, they try different things over time, but bit by bit they develop the ability to take initiative and with support, including expert mentors, actually achieve great things. I'll give you a couple of examples. I've had students create a website for an American Idol finalist that he actually used for about a year. I had a student create a 3-day music festival, $80,000 budget, bands from around the world flew in. I've had a student who created marketing videos, training videos for professional corporations, Fortune 500 corporations while still in school. I've had Students create software companies, write novels, and so forth. So this project thing, when they're, say, in 6th or 7th grade, may be tiny, but bit by bit, it becomes bigger and more substantial. And finally, finally, I want to add, we also have access to Nobel Explorers, where students are involved in international STEAM boot camps with— on topics like project management, data analysis, website design. So in a structured environment, developing key project skills so that as they get their project, their passion project, to an amazing place, they've actually been trained as a mini entrepreneur to get things done as kind of a leader of a startup. We believe that this package is the ideal package for the young startup person of the 21st century. And if you want your child to have an incredible set of opportunities when they're in their 20s, contact expanseonline.co. Now, thank you. Michael Strong.
