Guest Speaker Del Lago Academy

Guest Speaker Reflection Del Lago Academy

I was extremely impressed with this school and would absolutely love to work here in the future. This is a new school located about eight minutes away from my apartment in Escondido. Del Lago Academy is a brand new public high school. They are required to keep the same demographics as the city of Escondido which keeps this amazing school very diverse in terms of demographics. The school features new state of the art buildings and equipment. They have a particular focus on STEM.

At Del Lago Academy students are not referred to as students they are scholars. I love that terminology. It helps to build their culture of scholarly learners. The school appears to be very student focused. They have something called X block in which students decide what elective subject they wish to learn more about. They could choose Karate, cake baking, game design, etc the options are student chosen. They have no bells and instead students are expected to be responsible with their time and are expected to be in class at the scheduled time without the loud annoying bells as reminders. I believe this encourages and supports their scholarly focus and models a more college like atmosphere.

I was also very impressed with their use of villages. Students in a village share the same teachers. This allows for many collaborative opportunities for both students and teachers. Collaboration between content areas as well as within content areas is a huge focus for me. I really would like to work at a school that values such collaboration.

I felt the layout of the campus and the furniture presents a very positive college like atmosphere. Big open windows in every class feels very welcoming. They have many lounge and study areas to encourage student interaction. They have chalkboard walls by every classroom to encourage creativity.

I love how this school is a one to one ipad school and that every student is provided with their own personal ipad device. This allows for more innovative lessons and activities utilizing this provided technology.  

Overall this is a beautiful school with innovative ideas and a wonderfully positive scholarly culture. I plan to keep a close eye on this school for an opportunity to teach here.