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RBS Philosophy

Empowering Educators

At Red Barn Schoolhouse, empowering educators is at the heart of everything we do. We cultivate a collaborative environment where teachers are trusted as leaders, innovators, and mentors who guide meaningful learning experiences. Through shared ideas, nature-based exploration, and project-driven instruction, educators are supported in bringing creativity, curiosity, and purpose into the classroom. The Red Barn Schoolhouse community believes that when teachers are inspired and empowered, students thrive.

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Innovating Individualized Instruction
Meeting children at their own pace and level. Encouraging children to discover purposeful engagement. Tracking in-depth exploration and expression
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Collaboration and Co-teaching
Collaborating with visiting experts for integrated instruction. Co-teaching with colleagues. Revealing multiple perspectives through co-creation. Culminating knowledge artifacts and presentations/exhibitions.
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Documentation and Reflection
Ongoing documentation of students and by students. Reflective revisiting with colleagues and students. Fridays devoted to professional development, documentation review, planning, and building student portfolios.
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Interdisciplinary Education

Introducing curriculum that naturally extends into learning environments of Nature, Art, and Community that promote academic and interpersonal excellence and prepare students for a life of learning.

Mission

We braid nature, art and community within a robust educational framework and ground our model in collaborative instruction, project and inquiry-based learning, nature-based learning and integrated curricular practices.

Method

Our educators, community artists, and naturalists co-design curriculum, conduct reflective, qualitative evaluations of student learning, and assess students’ proficiency in relation to the Iowa Academic Standards.