Blogs

Each week the curriculum team at Q2L puts out The Relay, a email newsletter that shares with parents the goings on in school that week. Below are excerpts from The Relay for the first three amazing weeks of Q2L's launch.

WEEK 1
September 9, 2009, was a very special day for Quest to Learn (Q2L) and its founding partner the Institute of Play! We opened Q2L's doors and the students came streaming in. They carried backpacks, summer projects, supply bags and hopes for what the first day of school would hold. Although there were many new faces, there were familiar ones as well, as Q2L welcomed many alumnae from the Institute of Play's Gaming SMALLab and Mobile Quest projects.

Q2L opened with a special curriculum designed to welcome the students to their new school and learning community. "Circle Up," "Break it Down," and "The Settlers" were the themes used to welcome the students and introduce them to the goals and guiding principles of the day. During these first three days, games, learning activities, domain classes and advisories were targeted to help students explore team-work, respect and discover the quirks and characteristics of the individuals who make up their new community.

The self-named "q-dents" created a Q2L team charter, a "smartool" to help learn one another's names and developed a very personal understanding of how individuals are components of systems and that systems have many interesting, interdependent components. The first three days ended with a bang, with students eating cake, trying on their new Q2L t-shirts in a celebration of their new school and its first week.

WEEK 2
It has been an exciting first full week of school at Q2L! Students continued to meet with their Home Base advisors daily, and we had morning meeting on Monday and Friday. During Monday’s morning meeting one of our students introduced the idea of a Q2L YouTube channel, and there was an overwhelming response from students – so much so that we are putting together a lunchtime club on two different days so that we can accommodate the large number of students who are interested. During Friday’s morning meeting we began our practice of a weekly silent meeting, which is a time for our community to come together and engage in self-reflection.

Students also spent their first full week in their domain classes, where their teachers introduced them to their first trimester’s missions. To read a summary from each teacher of what students have been working on for weeks two and three, click here.

September 9, 2009
Quest to Learn Opens!
The Institute of Play is delighted to announce the opening of Quest to Learn, the new NYC public school that uses game-inspired methods to teach both traditional and critical 21st century skills and literacies. Q2L opens as a result of a truly collaborative effort on the part of its awesome School Design Team, the Institute of Play's very own super hero Katie Salen, Q2L's energetic founding faculty, staff and game designers, its supportive key partners—including New Visions for Public Schools, The New School and the Pearson Foundation—not to mention the students, parents, volunteers and thought-partners who have helped bring our burgeoning learning community to fruition. Welcome Q2L parents and students, we can't wait to work with you in Mission Lab and to grow our school together in the months and years ahead!

YouMedia @ CPL is an innovative, 21st Century learning space, housed inside the Harold Washington Library, the main branch in Chicago's Public Library system. YouMedia @ CPL was designed to inspire collaboration and creativity by connecting young adults, books, media and institutions from around the city in one dynamic space. Read More

To extend this collaborative spirit beyond the library walls, the Chicago Public Library has been collaborating with the Digital Youth Network, led by Nichole Pinkard and Akili Lee in Chicago, and the Institute of Play in designing the YouMedia social network, an online site where students can create, display, and exchange ideas about their work with peers and adult mentors.

Click here to see some photos of the opening night of YouMedia.

Q2L parents—we would love to get an idea of how you would like to lend support to the Quest to Learn community! Please take a few minutes to fill out our Parent Volunteer Form. We will get in touch with you thereafter about how you can help. Thank you in advance, we appreciate your interest and support!