House Mountain Learning Cooperative

I fell off the blogging wagon last spring and am slowly re-emerging. So what did you miss? I dropped the ball on blogging about some of...

As our historical figures unit wrapped up we noticed that our learners were engrossed by building and creating. Whether it was recreating...

Since we don’t have grades at HMLC, we wanted to find a way to honor our learners’ hard work. We learned about how other nontraditional...

One of the drawbacks of a small micro-school with multiple grades in one classroom is that it is impossible to cover an entire history...

As a brand new micro-school that wasn’t even an idea at this time last year, we intentionally labeled this year a pilot year. We had...

Throughout the process of starting up a learning community we continue to wonder “is this the right thing for our learners?” “What if...

We wanted to kick off our winter break with a celebration, and as we always do at HMLC, we asked our learners to plan it. Our planning...

One of the aspects I love about our micro-school is that we can dive into special projects and stretch them out to sneak learning into...

Over Thanksgiving I did something unheard of at HMLC - I sent the learners home with a project. Since we have been studying stories - who...

Anytime I think about our school I find myself with mixed emotions. On one hand, I have seen so much growth in our learners since the...

As we come up on the end of our first trimester, we are left with the large question of “how do we convey student progress so far this...

Ironically, on Thursday last week, I was presenting at the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) on using...

The other day during school I found myself with a moment to breathe. I’d just finished up a math group and left the two learners in the...

I often find myself repeating “Don’t just do something - stand there!” to myself throughout the school day. As adults working with kids,...

In the first week of HMLC, we asked the learners to join committees to set up our school procedures and rules. They came up with their...

In our first two and a half weeks of our new school, there is a lot to reflect on. There are moments when it seems like an amazing place...

Most of us have had many first days. Whatever it is - starting something new is usually daunting. Even when we are returning to a school...

The planning aspect of our micro-school that we’ve spent the most time on this summer has been trying to determine the best location. We...

Being the mom of two daughters I’ve come to see very quickly how different children can be - and how different their educational needs...

For many years I was a staunch supporter of public education in every form. I was opposed to private and charter schools and felt that if...