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Hope’s Door is a local agency that provides emergency shelter for children and parents who are victims of family violence. As a non-profit organization, Hope’s Door relies totally on contributions to support their mission.

Our National Honor Society has supported the agency this spring by collecting items needed to provide for those who are being temporarily  housed in Hope’s Door home. Willow Bend Academy is a small school with a big heart.  Under the leadership of the National Honor Society members, our students contributed over 1,100 household items ranging from bedding to cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items to toys for the children.

Thank you National Honor Society for your leadership and to students and families who contributed generously to the project.

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The post Mass Produced or Custom Tailored? appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

No tickey tackey here!

Willow Bend Academy students do not “all look the same”.  Each student is a unique person who deserves a unique, personalized education.

Teachers at Willow Bend Academy do not stand before a class of students and lecture. Our teachers have a maximum of 8 students and spend individual time with each of them teaching, coaching and assessing progress on the students’ personal curriculum.  The model is “teach, practice, master”. We ensure that a student has mastered the current material before being given new material.

Students who master the material quickly move at a faster rate while students who need more teaching to master the concepts move at a slower rate. In a tickey tackey environment, all students in a class receive the same instruction at the same time and have the same assignments. Some students grasp concepts quickly and become bored waiting for the rest of the class to “get it”. Some students who still didn’t “get it” become frustrated and discouraged because the class moved on and left them behind.

It’s not an experiment. It’s a proven method.

Many schools across the nation are experimenting with personalized education, but Willow Bend Academy has been doing it for the past twenty years. We have made improvements each year and will continue to do so.

Willow Bend Academy is accredited by AdvancEd, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and TEPSAC (The private school division of Texas Education Agency).

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The post Open House appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

This is your opportunity to meet and speak with administrators, faculty and current families of this most culturally diverse school in the area. Our population includes students from eight (8) foreign countries, who have chosen Willow Bend Academy for its superb English Language program as well as its academic excellence.

When the school opened 20 years ago, the founders expected to be serving students who could not succeed in traditional schools. They were wrong! While some students have struggled in traditional schools, many more have chosen Willow Bend Academy for the Freedom to progress at their own pace rather than having to wait for the whole class to move on (or to be the cause of the class not moving on).

The high school is located at 2220 Coit Road, Suite 500 and the middle school is at 2300 Coit Road, Suite 250.

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The post What is “personalized education”? appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Many school districts are offering what they call personalized education without a clear definition of its meaning. An article in Education Week includes the following statements from a veteran teacher in the Jefferson County school system in Kentucky. “This whole thing is coming from the tech industry, which doesn’t understand that what kids need is someone to love them and get excited about them. I’m not aware of any research that says sticking a child in front of a computer for hours on end does them any good.”

We at Willow Bend Academy totally agree with the teacher from Kentucky. While we have a supply of computers for student use, the majority of teaching is “real person” to student by teachers who love and understand each of our students.

The photo on the left does NOT show personalized education.  While the tech companies market a variety of “individualized” curricula, without a teacher little learning takes place.

Willow Bend Academy has provided true personalized, individual education for 20 years and our graduates have enjoyed great success.  We love our students and the education we provide.

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The post Hunger Game at Willow Bend Academy appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Willow Bend Academy students recently held its annual Hunger Game. Hunger Game is an annual activity of collecting food items for the North Texas Food Bank. Students bring canned goods, pasta, dried beans, and peanut butter to school. Then North Texas Food Bank sends a truck to our school to pick up our donations.

Exceeded our goal

Our original goal was 250 items. Our actual collection was over 5,000 items.

What happens next?

North Texas Food Bank makes food available for chronically hungry children, families, and seniors in need. Our items amounted to 4,721 pounds, which will provide access to 3,934 meals.

Newsworthy

Willow Bend Academy is a school of less than 100 students. This amount of food is truly remarkable.  Because of this, Dallas TV Channel 33 featured our school on their newscast.

See the broadcast here.

History of Giving

Willow Bend Academy was established in 1998 and adopted a policy of contributing to worthy causes. Therefore we have ALWAYS given significant amounts of funds and goods to worthy causes. We have supported many charitable causes over the years.

We believe a part of a student’s education is learning to give to others. For some, this is a novel idea, but has been fully embraced when students understand the concept.

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The post Willow Bend Academy is “Unique”. appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Willow Bend Academy is truly a “unique” school. A video visit to Willow Bend Academy provides a brief overview of our unique method of teaching. We have been teaching this way for 20 years.  Our graduates have done well in college and the workforce.

This short video provides a brief overview of why we are “one of a kind”.  See video here.

Personalized Learning

The term “personalized learning” is a popular in many public schools.  In fact, the federal government spends billions of dollars to promote the concept.  Still, educators disagree on how to implement and what the term actually means.  Many schools rely on technology with instructional delivery via internet. Each student receives individualized instruction but this really takes away the personalization because teachers become facilitators of software rather than teachers.

Unique Students

At Willow Bend Academy we personalize by first administering diagnostic tests to determine a student’s strengths in the subjects and design a personal curriculum for that student. Some students, for example excel in reading and writing, but struggle with math – or vice versa. We are able to design a unique curriculum that addresses these matters. We fit the curriculum to the student rather than forcing all students into the same curriculum.

Our teachers have only 8 students. This allows teachers to have intimate knowledge of each student’s academic strengths and weaknesses. No two students are alike, so we teach them as individuals rather than just one of the larger group.

Students set learning goals (with teacher supervision) so they take ownership of their learning. Teachers instruct, guide and coach but do not dictate what must be learned and when. Student’s tests are administered when the teacher feels the student is “ready” rather than on a given calendar date.

So, yes Willow Bend Academy is a unique school for unique students.

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The post We did it again! appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Last October our NHS chapter organized and executed a service project to support Promise House. Promise House is a local Dallas facility that has been open since 1984 and is open daily to youth and their families, providing services such as: emergency shelter transitional living, pregnant and parenting teen services, and individual, group, and family counseling. Promise House provides hope to youth who are homeless, runaway, or at-risk. With contributions from the students, their families, and the WBA faculty and staff, donations totaled $570 in gift cards and cash, 275 items of food, 50 articles of clothing, and 389 toiletries. These items were donated to Promise House to benefit their residents and allow them to continue serving the community.

Given the small size of our school, it is amazing to see what big things we can do. While it is great to be a recipient of this award, it is even greater to know that our efforts make a difference in someone else’s life.

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The post Giving back to the community appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

The City of Plano provided volunteer vests, plastic bags, gloves, and grabbers. The students were enthusiastic about their participation and following the work, they enjoyed a pizza party and making use of the playground equipment.

Willow Bend Academy has, since its beginning, provided opportunities for students to give back to the community through service projects such as this one, annual provision of Christmas gifts to needy children, feeding homeless people, providing needed supplies to a shelter for runaway and homeless teens, and visiting elderly residents of a nearby nursing home.

We believe that good citizenship includes thinking of others on both a personal level and to the community at large.

A big “thank you” to the students from the school, the neighborhood and the City of Plano.

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The post Ruifeng Li, Grandmaster appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Ruifeng Li, Grand Master in chess and a sophomore at Willow Bend Academy needs flexible scheduling to allow him to participate in Chess tournaments worldwide.

Ruifeng holds the title of Grandmaster of chess, which is the highest rank one can achieve. The United States ranks second in the world for the number of Grandmasters with 83 as of 2014.  Russia ranks first place.

Willow Bend Academy is a good fit for Ruifeng. Besides offering flexible scheduling, we offer him a challenging academic program.

Willow Bend Academy is unique.

Willow Bend Academy is unique in its approach to education. Students are taught and coached individually rather than in groups so students can progress at a pace that suits them. Students who have struggled in traditional classroom often find great success at Willow Bend Academy because they are allowed to focus on individual strengths and areas in need of strengthening.

Students are not all the same, so why should they all be taught the same?  At Willow Bend Academy, each student pursues his or her own individual academic plan with daily guidance and instruction from highly qualified teachers who are also deeply committed to each of their students.  Ruifeng’s program of instruction is unique to him so he is not in competition with other students, but with himself – constantly working to improve.

Ruifeng has become a great competitor in chess through his dedication and self-discipline.  Those same characteristics will take him far in his academic pursuits as well.  We look forward to Ruifeng’s continued success as a student and as a world-class chess competitor.

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The post Willow Bend Academy offers NCAA courses appeared first on Willow Bend Academy.

Willow Bend Academy offers NCAA courses.

In order for NCAA to ensure that college athletes are prepared for rigorous courses in college, the high school must offer college preparatory courses that NCAA has examined and approved. Even though a school holds accreditation by a recognized accrediting agency such as AdvancEd, NCAA still requires that it approves sixteen (16) “core courses”.

While many high schools offer rigorous courses, if the courses fail to meet the NCAA conditions, the high school graduates from that school will not be eligible to receive athletic scholarships or even to participate in college athletics during their freshman year. Willow Bend Academy offers NCAA courses that are academically rigorous and are designed to prepare both athletes and others for success in college.

Willow Bend Academy does not have an athletic program.  We do, however have athletes who regularly participate in non-school select and league programs. Often these programs conduct practices and competitions that interfere with the typical school day.  Willow Bend Academy conducts a personalized, 4-hour school day with flexible scheduling to allow athletes time to practice and participate in competitions without sacrificing their academic progress.

We accomplish as much or more academic progress in our 4-hour school day as traditional schools do in a full day by permitting students to pursue athletics, fine arts and other interests outside our normal school day.

There are numerous select athletic teams that are not associated with high schools, but are closely observed by college scouts. By their participation in select athletic programs, graduates of Willow Bend Academy have been awarded athletic scholarships to Delaware State University (mens’ basketball), Florida International University (ladies’ volleyball), and University of Alaska (men’s hockey). Others have been accepted to colleges and universities on academic scholarships and who participated at the college level because of their “love of the sport”.

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