By Guest Blogger Christy Avent with Noble Academy
As the Director of Enrollment Management at Noble Academy for the last seven years, I have encountered many families that inquired about our school because they were literally “at the end of our rope.” When it came to their child’s educational situation, many families seemed to share some of the same concerns:
- Their child thinks they are not smart;
- Their child has lost their self-confidence;
- And their child feels defeated – just to name a few.
However, they all knew their children were capable of learning – they just needed to find the right place that would allow their children to flourish.
Here at Noble, we do just that. We Build Great Futures for students who are diagnosed with ADHD and/or learning differences through a supportive environment and a comprehensive program that develops the whole child – the Noble Academy Way. There are five steps that we center our efforts on that allow our highly-trained teachers and staff to place students in positions to succeed. These fives steps are Personalized Instruction, Individualized Growth, Structure and Organization, Guidance and Support, and Preparation and Readiness. Each step lays the groundwork to recognize a student’s individual strengths and provide support for challenge areas. Our students come to realize through our methods, classroom size, and unique teaching techniques, that learning can be fun with consistent effort and hard work. Students begin to see improvement and experience that moment when they say, “I get it!”
Personalized Instruction focuses on student-centered and strategic learning opportunities. Specialized programs like the Wilson Reading SystemⓇ help students with encoding and decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension. Differentiated instruction methods are at the heart of Noble classrooms, allowing teachers to meet the learning needs of all students in their classes. Focusing on the knowledge the students have gained in class through authentic assessment methods such as projects, presentations, and class discussions, rather than always assessing with tests and quizzes, allows our teachers to move their classes towards our end goal of knowledge and growth.
Individualized Growth focuses our faculty on helping our students build a variety of skills that pertain to social interaction, leadership, self-advocacy and taking steps out of their comfort zone by interacting in various different activities they may have shied away from in earlier years. All of this is provided through our comprehensive program that offers honor class opportunities, dual enrollment capabilities with GTCC and Landmark College, student-led clubs, leadership organizations, and performing arts.
Structure and Organization tackles the need for students with learning differences to have supports and processes in place to help ensure success with the parts of school requiring executive functioning skills. Noble utilizes repetition of daily habits, a detailed planner, online assignment trackers, scaffolded projects, a daily check-in with a teacher to ensure all homework and assignments are in their bookbag for the evenings, supports for students to complete homework, and systems for our students to develop good time management and ownership skills.
Guidance and Support creates a safe and caring environment for our students to thrive. Cultivating a positive community among teachers, staff, parents, and students through communication, social and emotional learning, mindfulness, and a robust guidance program, is a hallmark of Noble. Two full-time licensed counselors allow for a deep understanding of student and family needs, as well as the ability to authentically partner with family community supports. Our small class size also allows our teachers to be able to provide accommodations and modifications for each student to level the academic playing field while at Noble, while understanding the requirements and processes for these accommodations at the college level.
Preparation and Readiness targets preparing students for beyond Noble or graduation. Our goal is to provide students with life-long access to learning through sustainable strategies. Assistive technology allows our students to access higher level texts, while they continue to work on decoding words and sentences. Developing problem solving, reasoning, curiosity and perseverance skills through advisory, learning strategies, and life skills courses creates a foundation that sees our students successful in life. Building capacity and agency in our students from Lower School through senior year is our ultimate Noble goal.
Rashida Horton is a parent of an 11th grader here at Noble. I’ve met many parents before who were determined to find their child the right educational environment, but none with as many barriers to overcome as Rashida. Through our time working together to figure out how to make a private school education possible for her son, I was constantly amazed at her unwavering determination to find the resources to make Noble a reality for their family. She inspired me to walk beside her through the process and we found a way to make it work, right before the beginning of her son’s 10th grade year – and wow – it was worth it!
“I look at my child and I don’t know where he’d be right now if it wasn’t for Noble Academy. He told me out of his own mouth that he wasn’t going to make it. He doesn’t believe that anymore,” Rashida said. Her son will graduate in June of 2021.
I can honestly say that I am proud to work at Noble Academy. This school has allowed me an opportunity to work with so many talented faculty and staff and provided me the chance, whenever possible, to be a small start in changing a child and their family’s lives.
If you would like to learn more about how Noble Academy Builds Great Futures for students who learn differently, register for our Community Open House for Thursday, November 14th from 9-11 am at nobleknights.org. You may also call my office to schedule a private tour by calling 336-282-7044 ext. 4642.
Noble Academy
3310 Horse Pen Creek Rd
Greensboro NC, 27410
nobleknights.org
*Sponsored by Noble Academy
