IDEA Time Program at Cedar Park

Our Expeditionary Learning program, IDEA Time, is unique to Cedar Park. Every week throughout the school year, students get an opportunity to step outside their regular classroom learning rotations and explore their interests and passions. We believe that providing our students with access to new activities allows them to grow their creative and intellectual muscles and widen their understanding of who they are, what interests them and what they are capable of.

Expeditionary Learning means taking a deep dive into a subject, using academic skills learned in the everyday classroom to become the expert. IDEA stands for Investigate, Design, Engage and Ask Why and it is the framework we use to initiate that Expeditionary deep dive.

IDEA Time runs all year long offering enrichment-style classes under 5 different theme umbrellas. We start the year with a Community theme where our students explore friendships, kindness and mindfulness through a variety of modalities (art, sport, music, movement, science, etc.). Following themes will be Literacy, STEAM, Arts & Culture, and we will wind up the year with an entrepreneurial theme we call Cedar Park Night Market.

Before every theme students are surveyed about their interests and classes are designed with those interests in mind. Student voice and choice is an essential piece of IDEA Time. Students pick their own classes from the offered courses based on their own interests. In this way students will find themselves learning and collaborating with peers in grade levels and classrooms that they might not usually see and they will build relationships with a wide variety of staff members with whom they might not usually cross paths. In addition to the weekly enrichment classes, Cedar Park offers Field Work experiences to all students during each theme, which will enhance the in-class activities.

Example

Theme: Arts & Culture

Classes: Theatre, Song Writing, Karaoke, Mindful Mandala Arts, Recess Games from Around the World, Sign Language, Spanish, Chinese, Archeology, Family Tree Art, Global Dances, etc.

Field Work: Grade-band field trips to Seattle Children’s Theatre presentation of The Hula Hoopin’ Queen, the Burke Museum or the Wing Luke Museum.

Financial Support Acknowledgment

The Cedar Park Community believes that all students should be able to follow their interests and receive enrichment and field experiences regardless of a family’s financial status or access to transportation. The Cedar Park PTA supports IDEA Time by paying for all outside vendors, field experiences and supplies used in the program.