My Experience at Phantom Knight Charter School

Heading Over to Phantom Knight Charter School

            St. Norbert College is partnered up and good friends with the City of De Pere’s Phantom Knight Charter School. So for my Instructional Methodologies for Adolescents class, each college student in my class goes over to the school to tutor and help out a student with their homework or the project that they are working on.

I go to the school to help out every Thursday and Friday for an hour. So far it has been an interesting experience and I have learned a lot. I would say the biggest eye opening experience for me would be the difference between the public school that I went to (Sheboygan Falls High School) compared to the structure of a charter school. It is a completely different set up and is organized in a completely different way, in a good way. Phantom Knight Charter School seems to be less formal and has a more informal structure, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s just different from what I’m used to and what I grew up around.

            Usually when I go over to Phantom Knight Charter School I help two students with their online work. Oh yeah, that’s another difference. Most of the student’s schoolwork is online and the structure is very project based.

What do I mean by projected based learning? According to Phantom Knight, project based learning is a dynamic approach to learning where students explore real problems and challenges that they are interested in. With this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired to gain a deeper knowledge of the subjects that they are studying. Research indicates that students are more likely to retain the knowledge gained through this approach. In addition, students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work. In the process of completing their projects, students also improve their organizational and research skills, develop better communication with their peers and adults, and often work within their community while seeing the positive effect of their work. All projects are aligned to the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and Common Core State Standards. These are the beliefs that Phantom Knight Charter School is based on and it seems to be working pretty well for them.

When I go over there, I usually help my two students that I work with either in the subjects of science or history. The most exciting and interesting experience that I’ve had so far with this whole experience was going to one of Phantom Knight’s Presentation Nights. I got to walk around, look at student’s projects, talk to the students, and ask the student’s questions about their projects. Each student’s project was unique and interesting and was presented differently from the last. I can truly say that each one of those students worked hard on their projects and each student that goes to this school holds great potential. I really enjoyed the presentation night and it really inspired me with how passionate some of these students were with their projects.

To learn more about the Phantom Knight Charter school check out their website: https://sites.google.com/a/wdpsd.com/phantomknight/