Administrators, students, and families of the independent InWonder Academy were able celebrate the accomplishments realized over the course of the school’s first year at a recent open house event.
The Learning Exhibition and Open House on May 30 offered current and prospective families the opportunity to see what InWonder was all about, including individual projects and assessments completed for each student, posters about parent forums and a display of the final school project of the year, called “Bunnyvale.”
“Our students designed a whole community for this little puppet (rabbit) named Whiskers, and they designed it out of recycled materials,” said Marissa Goldenstein, director of community for InWonder.
“There were things like a hotel and a Cirque de Soleil show and an airport, and all these creative elements that our students had designed, all made with essentially recycled materials like cardboard, containers and toilet paper rolls,” Goldenstein continued.
The project stemmed from the students’ own experiences venturing around San Clemente, and seeing community fixtures such as fire stations, bakeries and libraries.
Dr. Meera Kharbanda, director of operations, said the word “awe” best described open house attendees’ feedback.
“Everybody was really taken aback by the thoroughness of just how deep we went into our documentation,” she said.
Kharbanda added that parents said they felt as though they were a part of the classroom after reading the teachers’ descriptive accounts of how the projects and other activities progressed.
Focusing on teaching transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students in the 2022-2023 academic year, InWonder prioritizes hands-on learning, socioemotional development in addition to academic development, and real-world applications.
Goldenstein said their small number of students allowed for administrators to get to know both students and their families in their first year. She added that she enjoyed watching the students develop confidence in themselves and their abilities, whether during the daily their “Exploration Time,” or with the culmination of projects in which the 4- and 5-year-olds made puppet shows, built structures and created art.
The teachers and administrators have grown in their own ways as well, according to Kharbanda, embracing the philosophy of being open-minded and working on themselves, as they want their students to do.
“It’s been incredible to be able to do the self-growth and the work, and grow with the kids,” said Kharbanda. “We’ve really grown as a community together. I think that’s something that we really value, and we’re excited to continue that exploration.”
Regarding the lessons they learned that they can apply to the following school years, Kharbanda spoke about their “Mindful Morning” sessions, which are intended to allow parents and their children time to ease into the day together before school starts.
“That’s something that we’re learning and growing with, of how we can meet our families where they are and (best utilize) the time they have in the mornings,” she said. “We’ve really taken that feedback of how it could be incorporated into the classroom more fluidly.”
The leadership also received an understanding of how school days would flow over the course of the year, which will help them move around certain aspects of the day to maximize the value for all involved.
Goldenstein described the school as an “education laboratory” in the sense that they are open to taking ideas from varying parties and seeing how those ideas may potentially solve problems. Teachers can also be “their most creative selves.”
“Being part of the InWonder community is really about feeling empowered to have ideas and explore them and enact change,” she said. “We are really excited to be part of the larger education conversation and really helping to redefine what education should look and feel like.”
Developments heading into the next year include the addition of curriculum for at least second graders, a change from their original plan to expand by just one grade each year until sixth grade. The school is also taking applications through fourth grade.
InWonder will see two new teachers, as well, with one specializing in early childhood education and another in upper grade learning and will transition from a for-profit institution to a nonprofit, according to Kharbanda.
“I think it’s just so mission-aligned,” Kharbanda said. “It aligns with what we’re trying to do, and being a community member, this allows us to do that. It allows for scholarships to (bring in families) of different socioeconomic status. We’re excited to be a school that can help service all students.”
Goldenstein added that they are hoping to build a “robust” financial aid program to help increase education opportunities.
More about the independent school can be found at inwonderacademy.com.