A Day in the Life at Khan Lab School
Malaina, age 12
8:50 a.m.I quickly walked into school, pushed my lunch box into my cubby, and laid my backpack on the floor. “C'mon!” my friend called. “We're editing the newspaper!” I slid my Chromebook out of its slot and joined the rest of my classmates on the rug. Most people were learning a language on Duolingo, but two of my friends and I were working hard on putting together the first issue of “KLS Weekly,”the school newspaper. The time flew, and pretty soon we were all in a circle counting how many seconds it took for everyone to get to the meeting.
9:00 a.m.A blue grouper ran up to me and slid her hand into mine. She is one of my youngest friends at five years old, and one of my closest. The last students hurried to the circle as we finished counting. “Thirty! Thirty-one! Thirty-two!” Everyone was silent, and all eyes were glued to the leader of the meeting, Isabella, one of my friends who is just a little younger than me.
Every morning, the whole community gets together for a meeting to greet one another, get energized, and share announcements. Today our energizer and greeting were blended into one: snowball greeting. A basket came around the circle that was filled with papers. Each one had a name on itand was crumpled in the shape of a snowball. For one minute, the room was filled with laughter as “snowballs” flew around the room. Then, we all walked around the room to find and say good morning to the person whose name was written on the snowball in our hand.
9:15 a.m.After announcements, we all separated. We did not have Advisory, so we got straight to work.
I continued editing the newspaper with my friend for a little bit, and then started working on Khan Academy Javascript. I learnedsome more about strings, and my friend and I experimented a bit with a program, making the stroke thickness of the ellipses on the screen change based on the position of the mouse. During that time a teacher also helped me get set up on a website that would allow my classmates to sign up for tutoring sessions with me.
10:00 a.m.All fourteen members of the green group went into room five for an hour to do “Tales of the Human Genome” on Udacity together. We learned about the non-coding region of the gene, the gene responsible for lactose intolerance, and finished lesson four! We had just begun the lesson 4 problem set when it was time for Wellness.
12:00 p.m.During Wellness, we watched a video of musicians playing a medley of music from around the world. Then we all talked about the different elements of the piece that made it come together. Then we had recess and lunch.
1:00 p.m.After lunch, we got in our squares. Squares are groups made up of two older and two younger kids. We filled out a sheet that asked us about how we demonstrate self-awareness throughout the day.
1:15 p.m.I headed to room two with Orly, a KLS staff member, and she helped me brainstorm ideas for my independent project. I am thinking about creating a small-scale NGO in Mountain View. Since the Inquiry Arc is about food, I want to work toward solving our community's hunger problem. Afterward, Orly emailed me some articles about mission statements, intended impact, end game, and NGO management to get me started. I worked a little more on my project and then did Khan Academy math.
3:30 p.m.My parents have a meeting today, so I am staying for Extended Day. I think I am probably going to do some Duolingo, and perhaps read a book with a blue