The Silver Lining

This unique school year no doubt has brought a number of opportunities and challenges. We find ourselves longing for a sense of normalcy, eager to return to the rhythm of daily in-person learning. We’d happily throw our computers in a dumpster and not use them for months! At the same time, we are optimistically looking for the silver lining in our current situation. The first four weeks of school have shed some light on the benefits of living through the hybrid and virtual learning that is our current reality.

Above all else, kids and teachers agree that this year is a good exercise in communication….

GeneralLisa ZapalacSeptember 28, 2020virtual learning

Let’s Go! It’s Time To Get Back To Learning

School is back in session, and here at Long-View we have more than happily settled back into our learning routines. After a summer filled with research on health guidelines, the innovations schools across the world are implementing, and the complexities of both remote learning and in-person learning, we are relieved to have found a sense of normalcy even in just the two weeks we’ve been back together….

Guest Post: Cosmo Tells Us About Being Long-View's First Student

I was the first student at Long-View Micro School. Now that I am finishing 8th grade and going off to high school, I have been looking back on my time at Long-View and what these 5 years have meant to me. I have grown so much academically and just as a person. I have learned how to be a problem-solver, and how to push myself to solve a challenge even if I don't have prior experience on that topic. For example, I might push myself in math to solve a problem the teacher didn’t tell me how to solve. I also learned how to manage time and multitask better. As a person, I have learned to be myself, and not care about what other people say….

Guest Post: Updates From The Long-View Gazette

You may have read about The Long-View Gazette on our blog in February after this student run-organization published its second edition. During this unprecedented time, like many great organizations, this newspaper has adapted its work and story coverage. Read their guest blog post below to learn more about their current projects.

The Long-View Gazette is the main student-initiated, student-run newspaper for Long-View Micro School. We provide news about Long-View Micro School itself, the coronavirus, and whatever big global event that is happening at the current moment. The Gazette writers’ ages range from nine to eleven.

GeneralLisa ZapalacMay 11, 2020Long-View SchoolLong-View Gazette, Guest Post, Podcasts

In Response to Quarantine, Long-View@Home Launches

The banner photo on this page was taken on what we now realize was the last day of school for the 2019-20 school year. It was an idyllic spring day in which we enjoyed time outside, skyped with an archaeologist, celebrated the writing of a group of our young poets, worked on mathematics in groups at whiteboards, presented biomimicry design challenges to a panel of scientists, ate lunch by the creek, had a discussion about what we learned about magical realism during a field trip to UT’s Harry Ransom Center, and ended the day all together talking about some of the things we really appreciate about our community at Long-View.

Like so many schools in the world, Long-View had to pivot to ensure that our students continued to learn during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our virtual learning launched on March 23 and is called Long-View@Home….

Student-Initiated, Student-Run Newspaper Publishes Second Edition

As printed newspapers throughout the country struggle and even die out, one newspaper at Long-View Micro School is thriving. Founded and entirely run by a group of learners, The Long-View Gazette published its first edition in early January of 2020. Many of us were excited, eagerly diving into the paper and reading it in one sitting; we were not only impressed with the excellent writing, but we also got caught up in the flurry of something new. But would it last? Indeed, it would. Last week, on February 17, 2020, The Long-View Gazette published its second edition, which was as popular as its first….

GeneralLisa ZapalacFebruary 24, 2020Long-View Schoolwriting, journalism, Long-View Gazette, student-run newspaper

Help the Long-View Team Be in the SXSW EDU Lineup

In addition to our work with students at our micro school, we work with educators from around the nation to catalyze innovation in education. Help us spread that reach by ensuring the Long-VIew Teaching Team is part of the SXSW EDU 2020 lineup. Public voting contributes to the selection of sessions, so we ask you to help us out by casting your vote by Friday, August 23. Voting is easy….

GeneralLisa ZapalacAugust 5, 2019Long-View Micro Schoolmathematics, computer science, SEL, SXSW

Learning Within A Larger Ecosystem

If you’ve visited Long-View, you know we are situated in a retro-style building that has floor to ceiling windows on all external walls. Every academic space thus has a big view of the world outside our school; depending on which room you are in, your view may encompass the leafy branches of a tree, cars on a busy street, or cyclists headed home. The school feels open and connected to the world beyond our walls, and truly is connected. In every way we can, we think of Long-View as a porous organization, and work to use and be part of the wider ecosystem of learning that exists around us….

Why We Don’t Give Grades (How Assessment Works at Long-View)

“Oh, we don’t give grades.”

It’s a remark that continues to raise eyebrows among parents and even educators. And understandably so: letter-grades are so entrenched in American schools as the measure of achievement that a school without them can seem lax or even negligent, as though it has no interest in assessing its learners’ progress.

But at Long-View, nothing could be further from the truth….

The Micro School Advantage: Opening Remarks at the Innovation Panel at The Texas Education Summit

My colleagues and I started Long-View Micro School because we wanted school to be the most interesting part of a child’s life. We believed that to be possible. Long-View serves as the school home for 64 2nd – 8th graders who experience school as a place where they learn to think, a place where they can take initiative, a place where they have extended challenge, a place that opens them up to the fascinating parts of the world.

Micro schools – if you aren’t familiar with that genre of schooling – are gaining attention nationally as a model that…

GeneralLisa ZapalacNovember 29, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolmicro schools, school model, inspiration