APPLIED LEARNING
AT PACIFIC ACADEMY ENCINITAS KNOWLEDGE
TRANSLATES INTO HAPPINESS
STUDENT-ATHLETE PROGRAM
PAE supports student-athletes, specializing in students on track to join D1 colleges and/or pursue a professional athletic career. For those student-athletes who travel both nationally and internationally for their sport, PAE brings learning to them via Skype, modified lessons, and remote teaching. In order to assure the student-athlete meets the required hours of learning, PAE instructors work with the student individually to accumulate those hours while accommodating their athletic commitments. PAE has worked with all types of athletes, ranging from professional tennis athletes to soccer athletes to ice hockey players.
ENGLISH PROGRAM
Our English program brings literature and nonfiction to life. An example of AL English was when the class read Beowulf, researched the literary significance of the play, wrote their own lines that utilized the literary devices in Beowulf, created their costumes, and performed a rendition of the classic for the school. In addition, English courses encompass the writing of scientific articles.
SCIENCE PROGRAM
Weekly science labs bring learning to life and facilitate students observing scientific phenomena in the real world instead of only theoretically engaging with the material. AL science can range from dissections to creating solar-powered cars.
MATH PROGRAM
Our comprehensive math program ranges from pre-algebra through AP Calculus and AP Statistics. However, our program does not just teach to the test. An example of AL math was when the geometry class constructed bridges using various shaped triangles to see which shapes and architectural bridge designs could hold the most weight.
HISTORY PROGRAM
Through class-wide discussions and AL, students engage with history. For example, students studied trench warfare in World History and U.S. History, presented to the school, and then performed a mock trench war on the beach with water balloons. The day culminated with a beach cleanup, highlighting our service program.
LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Our comprehensive language program ranges from Beginner to Advanced Spanish, and in 2016/2017 PAE will be offering American Sign Language. Additional Language programs are available. AL also reaches the language classroom. For instance, we offer an immersion Physical Education class in which students learn Spanish as they engage in various sports so they can put the Spanish they learn into use on a daily basis.
ART PROGRAM
Our art program includes artistic ventures ranging from creating murals on the school walls to painting canvases of our outdoor trips to practicing various artistic techniques. Students will begin the year with Piet Mondrian Gestures and Cross Contour Drawings before progressing to painting, including oil painting.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
Our Physical Education program includes baseball, basketball, yoga, weightlifting, beach workouts, and Surf P.E. Through working out, our program instills a love of fitness and health, both mentally and physically. The program seeks to cultivate a lifestyle of healthy living through various physical activities. In addition, we offer a Spanish Immersion P.E. Program.
MUSIC THEORY PROGRAM
Our Music Theory Program ranges from beginners to advanced musicians. We offer a guitar and ukulele building course in which students build a guitar or ukulele from scratch. They then decorate the guitar and ultimately learn to play on the instrument they created. Our program also includes students learning to read music and play a variety of songs, culminating in students composing their own music from various genres and performing.
TRAVEL PROGRAM
To promote an appreciation for global culture, we encourage all students to participate in our travel program. The trips often include a community service component to help our students immerse themselves in the culture that they are visiting. For instance, in 2015 students visited Bocas del Toro, Panama, and volunteered with giving and Surf; PAE students helped build a school for the local children in Bocas del Toro and made books in both English and Spanish to give to the children as gifts. In addition, students surfed local breaks and learned about Panamanian culture. Past trips have included Italy, Japan and Peru.
SERVICE PROGRAM
Throughout the year, the entire student body volunteers in the community. Volunteering efforts vary from setting up for a tack sale at Helen Woodward Animal Shelter to gardening to remove nonnative plants at Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation to hosting food drives with Feed America San Diego to cleaning up local beaches.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
As kids grow up, there are three main areas in which they grow – physically, socially, and academically. While mainstream-schooling focuses on only academic growth, Pacific Academy Encinitas also prioritizes social and personal growth. Thus, time is spent around these areas – assisting the students in conflict resolution, learning to be part of a collaborative community, and living "well" together. But, it doesn't stop with primary school. As an integral part of our educational philosophy, we focus on the continued social development of our Middle and High Schoolers through volunteer work, as we believe it is an essential element in their academic experience.
CREATIVE LEARNING
At Pacific Academy Encinitas, we teach kids to think for themselves in a world where we can’t even imagine what kind of jobs there will be 10 years from now. “Traditional learning” is becoming less and less relevant in a world where almost all information is at your fingertips – it’s no longer about having the information in your head, it’s about knowing how to find it when you need it. The kinds of skills that will help our children through in this “brave new world” are creativity, self-confidence, flexibility, and a love of learning.
Your child's safety, health, happiness, and academics are essential elements in a successful academic program. Pacific Academy believes that these four elements are the cornerstones of our school.
When a child walks out of our school and enters the world it is essential to us that they are able to reflect on how Pacific Academy has helped them become much more than academically successful. The child must be able to look within and know that they are stronger, successful, mindful, and better equipped to take on the next chapter in their lives.
