Kyrene de las Manitas Elementary School, part of the Kyrene School District, is taking a tech-forward, child-led approach to learning.
Since the 2019-2020 school year, Manitas has operated a pilot program with Spark, which allows children to move through the academic year in pods at their own pace. Instead of a traditional classroom with one teacher and thirty students, multiple grades learn in ‘studios’ with multiple teachers to lead them through modules. If students are learning about energy and matter in science, for example, their English classes will allow them to read about notable inventors.
Dr. Julie Cleveland, teacher executive designer for Spark, has been a teacher with the Kyrene School District for 23 years and counting. She said project-based learning has been around for a while, but it’s new in practice.
