Effective Practices: Namaste Charter School

In the fast-paced city of Chicago lies Namaste Charter School, an institution aimed to provide a well-rounded education seeped in the wealth of academic and holistic learning. This school progresses to create a balance between enhancing the mind and the body of each student. Their Namaste Way model outlines the guidelines formulated to create an enriching environment for the child: Namaste was created to offer a high quality, holistic education to students within the Chicago Public School system. Namaste’s innovative approach maximizes students’ learning experiences by implementing a modified year-round schedule to extend academic and wellness programming. The daily schedule includes a healthy breakfast and lunch, as well as a Family Breakfast each week, to ensure students are well-nourished. The school day is extended to 7 1/2 hours (with early release on Fridays, allowing for teachers to engage in weekly professional development) to allow ample time for regular physical activity alongside high-quality academic instruction. Every day, students engage in 60 minutes of Physical Education and at least 20 minutes of recess, and begin the day with “Morning Movement”. Namaste supports both students and their families by providing meaningful family programming and a Parent Center. As a critical part of the founders’ vision, Namaste’s teachers and staff work closely with parents and neighborhood leaders to provide an exceptional academic environment that makes Namaste Charter School a proud cornerstone of the community. Pillars Namaste Charter School’s six “pillars”, or core values, guide the school’s work and demonstrate its commitment to a holistic educational environment that serves to strengthen student’s health and provides rigorous academic instruction. Namaste staff is committed to implementing each of these guiding pillars both in and outside of the classroom. The nutrition, health, and wellness pillar aims to create a learning environment that cultivates exercise, eating right, and taking care of mind as components of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for students, teachers, staff, and parents. The movement pillar aims to create a learning environment that incorporates movement into academic instruction to stimulate an alert and active body and mind for students, teachers, staff, and parents. The peaceful school culture pillar aims to create a learning environment that promotes safety, respect, open dialogue, and nonviolent conflict resolution for students, teachers, staff, and parents. The language and culture pillar aims to create a learning environment that increases knowledge, respect, and appreciation for the languages and cultures of the world for students, teachers, staff, and parents. The collaborative practice aims to create a learning environment that maximizes partnership amongst students, teachers, staff, and parents. The balanced learning pillar aims to create a learning environment that values all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy across the curriculum for students, teachers, staff, and parents. Learning The Namaste Way Namaste Charter School also offers others the opportunity to learn from their innovative ways. You can Learn the Namaste Way this October 23- 25 and June 18 - 20 in 2014.