On September 6 a new Chicago International Charter School opened its doors to over 300 bustling middle schoolers in Chicago’s near north side neighborhood. The school is called CICS ChicagoQuest, and it’s the first adaptation of the unique game-like learning model, pioneered at the New York City public school, Quest to Learn. And so the community of students, teachers, parents and partners engaged in the quest to activate engaged twenty-first century citizens just got a whole lot bigger!
Quest to Learn and CICS ChicagoQuest teachers spent much of August working together, laying the groundwork to learn and grow together as a community. Eight veteran Quest to Learn teachers visited Chicago and shared their Q2L experience and expertise around curriculum design and classroom instruction.
Elisa Aragon, Co-Director and Principal of Quest to Learn, was on hand to observe the collaboration. “They say that mastery of a subject is demonstrated by complete ease in teaching that subject to others,” she said. “It was clear that our teachers have mastered their own domains and the Quest learning model.”
“We were really impressed by the CICS ChicagoQuest team,” commented Arana Shapiro, Co-Director of Quest to Learn and member of the Institute of Play staff. “They were really smart and really eager to absorb everything about the model to start off an awesome exciting new year.”
At the end of their week together, the CICS ChicagoQuest teachers created headlines to capture the spirit of the experience. The headlines ranged from bold—”Extra! Extra! CQ and Q2L Turn Traditional Learning on Its Head”—to boisterous—”Teachers Actually Work in August!” But all of them seemed to capture the vibrancy and supportiveness of this talented, dedicated, growing group of people.
Stay tuned for more world-changing news from these two schools.
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