Superintendent's Office Dr. Matthew Wendt

The mission of the Ankeny learning community is to empower individuals, groups, and organizations to continually learn by enhancing their own and other’s capacities for self-renewal and self-modification.

1. All Individuals are Valued and Accepted

All members of the learning community are treated equally as learners capable of self-assessment as well as open to critical feedback.

2. All Individuals Can Learn

We, the Ankeny learning community, acknowledge that we all can learn, but not always in the same way, at the same time, or at the same place. We recognize, accept, and strive to meet the diverse needs of the constantly changing Ankeny Community. We will focus on the needs of every learner, making accommodations and modifications as needed. All individuals belong to the learning community where everyone teaches and everyone learns by using and integrating significant learning processes. The significant learning processes that the Ankeny learning community works with are:

thinking: how we get better at problem solving, decision making, and thinking about our thinking
collaborating: how we get better at working together
communicating: how we get better at listening and expressing ourselves to one another

3. Learners are Provided With Safe, Nurturing Environments in Which They are Encouraged to Take Risks

The Ankeny learning community will provide a full continuum of quality services in the most supportive environment. A supportive environment might include consideration of class size, time, support staff, supplies, and space. We recognize that a supportive environment may vary according to learners’ needs at a given time.

4. A Partnership Among Parents, Students, Educators, and the Community Fosters Open Communication and Collaboration that Promotes Learning

Collaboration is the foundation of a partnership, and open communication facilitates this collaboration. All members are aware of, are committed to, and place their trust in the process of decision making. The decision making processes should be examined and made visible to anyone who will be impacted by the decisions in an environment that encourages trust, openness, and team work. This partnership requires that all partners, as members of the Ankeny learning community, make commitments to each other. These commitments are:

a commitment to team work, interdependence, collaboration, and a sense of community;
a commitment to personal mastery, continually striving for artistry and craftsmanship by the individual within the group;
a commitment to continually clarifying the shared vision and striving for integrity and congruence between the visions and the operating set of beliefs and values that guide the work of the community;
a commitment to examining mental models, an open willingness to challenge assumptions and to shift, alter, and expand our paradigms; and
a commitment to system thinking, a recognition of the relationship and inter-dependence of parts to the whole.

5. Instruction Relates to Real Life Situations, Promotes Lifelong Learning, Incorporates a Variety of Teaching Strategies and Assessments, and Meets Individual Learning Styles and Needs

The Ankeny learning community encourages developmentally appropriate curriculum and strategies to support lifelong learning for all. All members search for congruence and alignment of practices across the parts of the community. For example, assessment practices based on performance for students would imply assessment practices based on performance for teachers, administrators, classified staff, and the Board of Education.

6. Parents, Students, Educators, and the Community Hold High Expectations, Challenging Each Other to Reach Their Highest Level of Individual Success

The District and building mission statements will challenge the Ankeny learning community to grow and achieve the shared vision.

7. Developing and Nurturing Each Person’s Healthy Lifestyle and Positive Self-Concept Increases the Likelihood of Success

A healthy lifestyle and a positive self-concept can be nurtured through support systems, stress management programs, counseling, and celebration(s) of achievement.

8. Technology Provides Significant Tools for Learners to Develop Thinking Skills, Organize and Process Information, Communicate Ideas, Reinforce Prior Learning, Learn New Information, and Solve Problems More Efficiently, Effectively, and Creatively

Students will use technology to:

develop the skills to access and apply technology in the learning process;
retrieve, process, and utilize information using a variety of current and future technology;
think critically and work both cooperatively and independently to solve problems; and
apply knowledge to solve authentic problems.