We have some big news: the Open Future Institute is expanding to California! In July we completed a very moving training with ten teachers from Alliance Marine – Innovation & Technology, a public charter school in the largest Charter Network in Los Angeles (27 schools and growing).

It was a privilege to work with educators who have dedicated their lives to create opportunities for students and help them succeed in life. They embraced the curriculum with enthusiasm and courage during the training, putting themselves on the line with each other as they formulated and practiced their own approach to big questions, using the curriculum as a launching point.

We want to thank the current QUESTion Class teachers, Administrators, and Guidance Counselors who provided tremendous feedback and support to make this the best QUESTion Academy training yet! Everyone connected with the potential this curriculum has to bring out the best in the students and to allow them to think deeply for themselves about fundamental life questions. They also appreciated the structure and fullness of the curriculum and commented on how helpful it is to have the training rather than just being handed a set of lesson plans.

Alliance MIT’s school environment is of care….the best place for our program to have impact as it allows us to find the best ways to bring it to students and adapt for their needs and the teachers’ training needs. On this trip we also met with the principal and the founders of another school in the same network. We’ve heard back from the principal already asking us what he needs to do to plan this for next year!

Alliance MIT’s first week of school promises a remarkable year with the QUESTion Project.  So far, the students love the QUESTion Class. On one of the first days of class, students participated in an activity to help them get to know each other and recognize their Interconnectedness. Each student had to share her or his name and one characteristic that she or he can contribute to the culture of the class.  Each wrote this information on a single puzzle piece and then they worked together to create a class puzzle. One teacher, Ms. Diana Olmedo, came up with the idea to have her class’ puzzle create a “Q” for QUESTion. These puzzles provide a small, but exciting preview into the depth within each student. We cannot wait to discover what happens next!