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SNACS Mission

SNACS leads education innovation through personalized learning via PLAY, choice, and exploration within our small school community.

SNACS Vision

Mission

Vision Summary

The SNACS mission drives the organization’s focus, and the SNACS Vision shapes how we achieve the mission and implement the PLAY® school model. The SNACS Vision describes the core beliefs about children and families and the core values foundational to our daily work within the PLAY® model. Research on the science of hope, learning, and child development is key to the core values and PLAY® model.

PLAY® Model Summary

In a more traditional education model, we often see large blocks of time spent on whole-group instruction. Consider a typical third-grade classroom, where the teacher provides direct instruction in the front of the classroom. The students may range in ability from first to fifth grade, and the teacher teaches to the majority of ability. The students with lower abilities don’t understand the instructions, and students with higher abilities are bored.

The PLAY® model at SNACS has a different approach to instruction to maximize teacher instruction, student engagement, and achievement. All students have Personalized Learning Plans detailing their ability level across subjects and goals by quarter/trimester. Every classroom is designed like a discovery museum with multiple standards-based learning center experiences for students to learn in. Teachers design the PLAY® Interactive Choice Board (P-ICB) to display all available learning centers for students to work in. On the back end, teachers determine how many students can work within each learning center. Learning center activities are differentiated and individualized for learning. Students use the P-ICB to select which learning center they want to work in. Once students are working in centers, teachers pull small ability-based groups for direct instruction.

The model supports brain development and neuroplasty, executive functioning, metacognition, agency, self-regulation, etc.

SNACS Core Beliefs about Children and Families

All SNACS team members show up with integrity and commitment to the SNACS mission, PLAY model, students, and families.

All children have value and purpose.

All children contribute to a thriving school community.

All children can learn and succeed in school and life.

We don’t give up on children.

All families want the best for their children.

All families contribute to a thriving community

All students and families have a voice and a choice.

SNACS Core Values

SNACS core values are the fundamental principles that guide its behavior, culture, and identity. They also help to create a shared understanding of what’s most important to SNACS and can serve as a reference point for decision-making.

SNACS’s core values are deeply rooted in the charter school’s goal of providing innovative educational opportunities, the science of hope, the science of learning, and child development learning theories for all school community members. SNACS Core Values:

Belonging

Every member of the SNACS school community belongs. All humans have a primal need to belong, as a basic need. Belonging is the feeling that we’re part of a larger group that values, respects, and cares for us and to which we feel we have something to contribute.

Engagement

There are three types of engagement: relationship, behavioral, and cognitive. Relationship, behavioral, and cognitive engagement are a multifaceted construct. Behavior engagement is the easiest to observe. Cognitive engagement is intrinsic and leads to motivation to learn, whether assigned or not. Relationship engagement can move the levers of the other two types of engagement. There is an emotional response to school-based relationships and connectedness. Engagement directly increases achievement and attendance and decreases chronic absenteeism. Engagement is embedded in the PLAY model – students engage in meaningful and fun work.

Hope

At SNACS, the PLAY Model is grounded in the Science of Hope and requires strategy. Hope is intentional and requires strategic planning. Hope is a complex, multifaceted construct that calls for reflection and planning to affect change. The macrosystem influences the microsystem, which affects the human capacity for hope. Triangle – belonging, and engagement build hope. All three are required to learn. Learned Hopeless – apathy, response to trauma. At SNACS, we practice Learned Hopefulness. The experiences you create today are how you describe your past tomorrow.

The hopeful believe their future will be better than their present. The essence of hope is the ability to understand the way things are now and imagine how the future could be. Through the Science of Hope at SNÅCS, we support a mindset and instill intentional practices that empower everyone to have the power to make it so. How we envision our future directly impacts how we live in the present. Brain research shows how we recall the past directly affects our thoughts about the future.

Hope is active, not passive. The Science of Hope involves strategy. Planning involves seeking a new experience and planning forward. Neurons that fire together, wire together. Brain neuroplasty is when the brain changes its wiring after new experiences. The experience is how you build neurons; neural pathways are how you use them.

The process of building hope at SNACS:

Goals – PLPs – data-based small, incremental goals (builds metacognition)
Pathway – PLAY-based learning experiences = engagement and achievement (builds neuroplasticity)
Agency – choice (builds self-regulation, metacognition, executive functioning, neuroplasticity)
Celebrations – celebrate wins every day = increased belonging and engagement (builds neuroplasty)
Feedback loops – What worked? What didn’t? What will we do differently? Repeat.

Time

The SNACS mission and model are designed to leverage time for increased student engagement and achievement. We believe student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change (AJ Crabill). Teachers plan for and spend time efficiently doing what matters most, which increases efficacy. Time is the most valuable commodity. What we choose to do with it matters. If we waste it, we don’t get it back.

The key to increasing student learning is to maximize academic learning time and utilize education time to engage students actively in learning at appropriate difficulty levels.

The PLAY model leverages time to improve teacher efficacy and efficiency. The classroom environment is designed like a discovery museum to increase engagement. Students are taught appropriate procedures to make choices so they are engaged in standards-based learning centers. Teachers have more time for small ability-based groups, individual instruction and intervention, and for conducting authentic assessments and observations.

Weekly professional development and professional learning community time are designed to improve instruction and staff students for increased student outcomes.

Hard Work and Continuous Improvement

SNACS community members are ALL IN! Those who want to keep the status quo benefit from it. At SNACS, we RETHINK: time, focus, schedules, and leverage personnel to optimize student engagement and achievement. We believe in iterations, not failure. Iterate, iterate, iterate. Efficiency and precision in the process over practice are imperative to continuous improvement. Students are at the center of everything we do. When we place students at the center of our work and decisions, they succeed. Adults within the school community work hard and continually improve and support our students to do the same. We lead by example. Where focus goes, energy flows.

Family and Community

Family and Community Engagement are essential to the school community. Family engagement = increased student engagement, achievement, attendance, and decreased chronic attendance. Family engagement is based on 5 guiding principles:

Welcoming all Families
Communicating Effectively
Supporting Student Success
Speaking Up for Every Child
Sharing the Power as Partners
Collaborating with the Community

The SNACS Volunteer Program provides the foundation for a thriving school community. Family volunteers and local organizations are partners in implementing our mission, vision, and school model. Families volunteer a minimum of ten hours per month in some capacity for SNACS. Volunteerism is catered to parents’ interests, preferences, expertise, experience, and skills.

Community organizations support with resources for teachers, students, and families, present at EL days and other school events. These relationships are essential to a thriving school community.

Shared Success

Success is always available. When we celebrate wins, it yields more wins. Celebrate Wins = Success. At SNACS, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. It’s not what we do occasionally that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently. The path to success is to take massive, determined action. Where focus goes, energy flows. At SNACS, we focus on building positivity in students.

S- Show up for yourself, coworkers, students, and families

U – Understand why we are doing this work and who we work with/for

C – Commit to doing the work, hard work and continuous improvement

C – Connect with others; we all belong at SNACS

E – Engage in the school community – actively contribute – you get what you give

S – Share in gratitude and what you learn

S – Support others – pivot and level up to build your community

Learning Organization

SNACS is a learning organization. SNACS provides a culture of continuous learning and knowledge creation at all levels. This type of organization recognizes the importance of adapting to change, acquiring new knowledge, and using insights to improve performance and achieve strategic goals.

SNACS commitment to continuous learning and growth fosters a sense of purpose, belonging, engagement, and motivation among all school community members, leading to higher student engagement and achievement levels.

SNACS shared vision

SNACS shared vision drives what knowledge is needed and what activities are encouraged to acquire and share that knowledge for increased student engagement and achievement.

Personal mastery

Personal Mastery is the foundation of organizational learning and is defined as “the discipline of personal growth and learning”. It’s about creating a desired future and moving towards it. All members of the SNACS community are iterating towards personal mastery.

Team learning

SNACS Team Learning provides effective teamwork in Professional and Student Learning Communities to support engagement and achievement. Team learning supports all community members toward synergy—when great minds think alike.

Meaningful learning

The SNACS mission and model make learning meaningful by enabling and promoting individual choice and self-directed learning. This can help all members of the SNACS community achieve personal value, purpose, and growth.

Knowledge sharing

The SNACS mission and model provides for the flow of information and ideas between all members of the SNACS community, which can help create a culture of collaboration and teamwork. It can also improve communication and decision-making, enhance learning and development, and strengthen relationships and trust.

Continuous learning

Continuous learning ensures that SNACS is constantly adapting to the educational industry, technology changes, and federal/state requirements. This helps SNACS stay ahead of a constantly evolving education landscape.

Systems Thinking

The SNACS community is dynamic and full of energy and talent. Effective leaders anticipate how interconnected aspects of the school interact and affect each other. Systems thinking is a mindset that helps leaders and educators understand the complex education system more holistically.

The SNACS educational system is composed of many interdependent components that work together. Leadership continually analyzes how individual components operate and interact to strengthen systems and ensure the mission and model are implemented with fidelity to increase student engagement and achievement.

Systems thinking offers a valuable approach for teachers working to ensure dynamic classroom communities that drive student engagement and achievement.