We’re proud of the schools we serve. Each one of these schools has a unique mission, and each serves a unique group of students. These schools are led by idealists, dreamers, compassionate optimists who not only believe in a better tomorrow, they believe in rolling up their sleeves and bringing that better tomorrow to their students. It is a privilege for us here at Charter School Capital to support these schools and help them thrive.
Here is a blog post from Almond Acres Academy, of San Miguel, California.
Bob Bourgault, Executive Director, at Almond Acres Charter Academy has invented a philosophical approach to raise the level of consciousness of self (and others) as we all journey on the quest to becoming the best version of ourselves. His model, used in all grades in AACA, is aimed at kids and for use in classroom and childhood environments, but also has specifics for teens and adults, and has been presented to businesses and organizations, too.
The model is represented visually as a kite — with four quadrants and four colors, each representing a different aspect of our intelligence, temperament, personality, and learning modalities. We are all a combination of learner and one who is learning.
Bob believes every one of us is smart, beautiful, spiritual and talented. And this kite model helps us understand our unique abilities, learning styles, and existence — even further.
What is a kite?
It is a simple system for children to categorize their innate disposition using colors, visuals, and words to help students recognize what kind of learner they are, and how they can use their unique set of intelligence to influence the world. While there are many personality tests for adults, such as Meyers Briggs or Enneagram, Bob’s system is unique because it is designed specifically for children, and adapted for teens and adults.
What are my strengths and struggles?
Every school year each K-8 student at Almond Acres creates their kite: a visual representation of their individual strengths and struggles in heart, mind, body, and soul. These four unique sets of intelligence are represented by four quadrants and with four colors on each individual’s kite — red, blue, green and yellow.
The question a child typically asks first is drawn from his/her personal temperament. There is a desire to seek answers that satisfy our inner curiosity. For example, a child with a strong blue kite has a dominant interpersonal intelligence and will likely be drawn to the ‘who’ question. A green kite thinks more intra-personally and asks why. The red thinker wants to know where and how because he/she is more hands-on and visually smart. The yellow kite considers the logistics of a question and asks what and when. If we follow the natural questioning path that a child travels, we are likely to lead him/her straight to the correct answers.
It’s the difference between being given a toy car and given a model to build a toy car. And with this visual model — students can realize how smart they are because they understand HOW they are smart. It’s a paradigm shift. Students also create a class kite — to represent their group dynamic — and every AACA teacher shares their individual kite with the class as well.
Asking questions like who, why, what and when or where and how helps to define an approach to thinking, creating and learning. Each of these questions represents two of the eight types of intelligence and the whole person:
- Body: kinesthetic and visual/spatial
- Mind: linguistic and logical
- Soul: musical and intrapersonal
- Heart: interpersonal and naturalist
“Our son has learned so much about his personal learning style and what makes him a unique learner and he can communicate that to EVERYONE at AACA because every year every student creates their kite: a visual representation of their individual strengths and weaknesses in heart, mind, body, and soul.”
At Almond Acres the kite is used in many ways including the school logo, uniform colors and on lunch tables. Kite cards, as they’re called, are round – to symbolize the whole person. AACA also believes we are all a whole person first. Once we affirm how everyone is strong — then every student and staffer can be stretched, and then celebrated as they grow, learn and fly!
About AACA
Almond Acres is moving to Paso Robles. Almond Acres Charter Academy is a public, tuition-free K-8 school that employs credentialed teachers and administers state-mandated testing to provide families in northern SLO County an additional choice in public education. Open to all students in all communities, the school is currently located in San Miguel and moving to Paso Robles for the 2021-22 school year. AACA’s mission is to help students succeed academically and socially by educating the whole child: heart, mind, body and soul. We grow great kids!
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