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Academic Overview

At Great Minds Virtual, we empower our students to build knowledge, community, and fearless curiosity about the world around them.

Our academic program challenges students with content that is rigorous yet also sparks joy and wonder. We use only the highest quality knowledge-rich curriculum materials, and only those that are nationally recognized.

We keep our classes small (15–20 students) to foster engagement and discourse, and our teachers are both subject-matter and online teaching and learning experts. Our dedicated teachers challenge and support our students by offering guidance one-on-one and in small-groups outside the larger classroom setting.

Knowledge

Our curriculum materials focus on enduring ideas, integrating skills in a meaningful context, and progressing coherently from lesson to lesson and year to year. Students build knowledge that lasts a lifetime, rather than memorizing disconnected facts.

Community

Students’ academic experiences reinforce social-emotional learning, connect to their diverse backgrounds, and take place in small classes with live, face-to-face interactions where all students are valued as individuals.

Curiosity

Students figure out big ideas through inquiry, collaborative discourse, and carefully selected virtual engagement tools. Their curiosity and confidence drive them to see opportunities for exploration, learning, and growth everywhere they go.

Our Approach

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

At Great Minds Virtual, our teaching and learning philosophy blends best practices from in-person learning with best practices from the virtual sphere. Students are at the center of everything we do. All our classes engage students in productive, stimulating dialogue with each other and their teachers. These interactions help students expand their knowledge and ensure that they build their social-emotional skills. Students learn from their teachers, learn from each other, and learn together. We use technology as a tool to supplement teaching and learning; a variety of software and hardware supports students as they find knowledge, demonstrate their understanding, and connect with the Great Minds Virtual community.

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

At Great Minds Virtual, we are committed to student growth in all areas, not just academics; we also nurture students’ social-emotional well-being. In each class, teachers support students’ growth of effective communication skills, time-management practices, successful peer collaboration, and problem solving through inquiry and exploration. These skills are woven throughout our academic program and are the focus of GMV’s advisory periods. Students meet in small groups with their advisor twice a day (before classes begin and after they end) and practice team building, problem solving with real-time challenges, and celebrating student successes inside and outside the classroom. These advisory periods are essential for building confidence, establishing lasting relationships, and learning to navigate the world.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND ACCESSIBILITY (DEIA)

The goal of our work in DEIA is to advance understanding among people of all backgrounds, cultures, religions, and races. We endeavor to create brave spaces for dialogue; highlight the benefits of diversity for our students, faculty members, staff, and administrators; and build bridges of respect among the different members of the GMV community.

Our understanding of diversity is not limited to race and ethnicity, but rather recognizes that individuals’ multiple dimensions—age, nationality, gender, mental/physical abilities and characteristics, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and more—affect their experience of the world. Such dimensions can also include communication style, education, family status, first language, geographic location, income, military experience, organizational role and level, work experience, expertise, and work style. We work to support and increase our community’s awareness, understanding, inclusion, cooperation, and celebration of all its members.

We proudly believe that every individual has the right to live in dignity and to enjoy respect, regardless of race, gender, sex, religious belief, ethnicity, national origin, age, ability, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility work is about community, and at Great Minds Virtual, we believe that our community is of utmost importance in a child’s education.

Curriculum Materials

At Great Minds Virtual, all classes use high-quality curriculum materials, giving every student access to the best resources. These materials received top ratings from independent, respected curriculum reviewers like the nonprofit organization EdReports.

Learn more about the curriculum materials and resources we have selected.

APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES

The Digital Citizenship component will start us off for the first 2 weeks and will be interspersed throughout the year as different topics arise.  We will be using BeInternetAwesome from Google which incorporates gamified learning with traditional instruction to help students think clearly about how to be a good digital citizen.

Then, we will be learning about diagnosing diseases and disorders using Project Lead the Way’s Medical Detectives. In this course, students play the role of real-life medical detectives as they collect and analyze medical data to diagnose disease. They solve medical mysteries through hands-on projects and labs, measure and interpret vital signs, examine nervous system structure and function, and investigate disease outbreaks.

While students will use art to express their new learning throughout the year, in the third trimester we will focus on digital photography, digital media and design.  Students will learn photographic techniques such as perspective, shading, balance, line and color as well as digital editing to create unique images that allow them to communicate new knowledge, ideas and feelings in their own unique voice.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA)

Wit and Wisdom is our comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum that promotes inquiry-based learning through the five content stages: Wonder, Organize, Reveal, Distill, and Know. This flexible yet predictable process for deep reading of complex texts enables students to access, understand, and analyze texts. Students will be exposed to complex texts that will challenge them appropriately and will be complemented with rich guided questions to engage students in class discussions as well as structured writing opportunities.  Each module is anchored by an essential question that guides student learning as they interact with a variety of instructional routines that incorporate choice and differentiation for optimal learning to transpire.

To adapt Wit and Wisdom to fit the needs of our virtual learning environment, we will dedicate a large portion of synchronous time to student discourse.  Wit and Wisdom is grounded in developing rich layers of knowledge, which requires students to play an active role in their learning.  Opening the floor to student discussion generates deep and diverse thinking that will support students as they grow as readers and writers.  To prepare students for our live, synchronous instructional time, a large majority of students’ asynchronous work will consist of reading assignments and writing assessments that will be intentionally planned to benefit the progression of our ELA curriculum.

HISTORY

Our course uses two curricula: Core Knowledge History and the DBQ Project. Core Knowledge History is a high-quality, knowledge-building curriculum that, in its 6th grade year, explores revolutions. From the advent of democracy in Ancient Greece to the French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Latin American independence movements, the curriculum features moments of great change that continue to impact us today. The DBQ Project will then allow us to build strong historical thinking skills by posing important questions (like “What was the most remarkable achievement of the Maya?”) that require us to search for answers using primary source documents.

Woven throughout these units are opportunities to share our thinking aloud, write about what we’ve learned, and listen closely to the ideas of others. Socratic Seminars will be consistent stopping places for you to reflect on your knowledge and learn from your classmates. We will also be writing essays and participating in a classical practice called declamation, where students pick a primary source to memorize and recite to their peers.

MATHEMATICS

Eureka Math² is a revolutionary math program designed to ensure that students move beyond rote memorization to build enduring math knowledge. Students will quickly recognize consistent math models, rigor to support productive struggle, and coherence across lessons as a strength of our curriculum.  Eureka Math² adds a new level of flexibility, accessibility, and visibility into student understanding to make math instruction exponentially more teachable and engaging.

Our math classroom may look and sound different from other math classes your student has experienced. Every lesson includes opportunities for student discourse, because peer-to-peer discussion helps students solidify their understanding of math concepts. Also included in our curriculum are digital experiences that provide all students an opportunity to access the learning and share their mathematical thinking with their classmates.  Our math classroom will be a course your students look forward to joining each day!

SCIENCE

OpenSciEd is a cutting-edge storyline approach to learning in which each lesson’s new learning inspires students to ask questions that lead into the next lesson. This curriculum complements scientific inquiry by blending cross-curricular content with tangible, real-world phenomena. Students learn problem solving techniques while mastering a wide range of scientific concepts. We will begin the year investigating Physical Sciences, then transition into exploring Earth Sciences, and conclude the year immersed in Life Sciences. Our student-led, hands-on approach to education is designed to foster the love of learning within every student!

SPANISH

Nuestra historia is a web-based curriculum series by Voces Digital that builds students’ language proficiency and intercultural competency using the Comprehensible-Input approach to language acquisition, in which carefully planned experiences allow students and teachers to spend most of their time communicating in Spanish. This approach includes oral, written, and visual storytelling as students enjoy fiction and nonfiction resources that explore Spanish-speaking cultures and delve into unique characters’ lives.

These resources also focus on and contextualize high-frequency vocabulary and grammar. The goal is for students to genuinely acquire the language and gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the culture. The stories and articles within each unit explore themes related to school and student-life and comparisons of daily life across cultures.

Daily Schedule

Our instructional approach offers both structure and flexibility. Students start each day with a community-building advisory, followed by scheduled live academic classes via Zoom. Engaging live lessons allow students to interact with each other just as in a traditional school, asking questions and discussing the answers among themselves. They also participate in writing exercises and engage in deep problem solving.

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

History

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Advisory

Period 3

10:20 – 11:10 CT

Math

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 – 12:55 CT

Advisory

1–2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Spanish

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Applied Science and Art

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Applied Science and Art

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

Math

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers Available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

History

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Science

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Science

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

Math

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Applied Science and Art

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

History

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Spanish

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Spanish

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Clubs

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Science

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

History

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Advisory

Period 3

10:20 – 11:10 CT

Math

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 – 12:55 CT

Advisory

1–2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Spanish

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Applied Science and Art

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Applied Science and Art

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

Math

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers Available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

History

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Science

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Science

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

Math

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Applied Science and Art

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

History

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Spanish

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Period 1

8:30 - 9:20 CT

Spanish

9:20 - 9:30 CT

Break

Period 2

9:30 - 10:20 CT

Clubs

Period 3

10:20 - 11:10 CT

Science

11:10 - 11:40 CT

Optional Lunch Bunch

Period 4

11:40 - 12:30 CT

English Language Arts

12:30 - 12:55 CT

Advisory

1-2 Hours

Asynchronous Work - Teachers available during office hours

Co-curricular Activities

Student schedules include time for co-curricular activities and clubs, giving students more opportunities to explore their interests, work together with peers, and contribute to the school community and wider communities.

Student Materials

Great Minds Virtual supplies every student with the materials they need for hands-on learning. These include:

• MATERIALS FOR SAFE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

• ART SUPPLIES

• NOVELS AND FULL-COLOR NONFICTION BOOKS

• STUDENT WORKBOOKS FOR NOTES AND SKETCHES

• ACCESS TO DIGITAL TOOLS FOR INTERACTIVE LEARNING

• NEEDS-BASED GRANTS FOR TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE

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Our commitment to you

Great Minds Virtual is committed to our community and to learning and growth for all.

We promise to bring care, compassion, and curiosity to everything we do.