Speaker Name: Hosted by Travis Franklin
Speaker Info: Chief Executive Officer of Spokane International School
Event Date: September 27 and 29, 2021 and September 26, 2022
Brief Description of Event: Whitworth pre-service teachers visited Spokane International Academy to learn about their program offerings and to gain awareness of an innovative approach to education.
On Sept. 27th and 29th AIER facilitated a conversation between Spokane International Academy (SIA) and Whitworth University’s school of education students. The 22 and 23 participants were enrolled in the “Introduction to Teaching” by Dr. Hoxie and Dr. Blue. This class at Whitworth introduces aspiring teachers to the vast opportunities in education. AIER introduces both the students and the Whitworth faculty to alternative education resources in the Spokane region.
Attendee Feedback:
"This experience impacted me as a future teacher by showing me the versatility of education. It inspired me to further consider alternative schools as places of student teaching or career seeking."
"This was a great experience! I especially loved watching the modern-day history middle school class talk about current events. This visit showed me a different perspective to how some charter schools operate, as I have only been exposed to public and Christian private schools."
"The idea of teaching about different cultures and recent events challenged my thinking because I never had thought about the importance of teaching that to the students at such a young age. I have only ever thought about that being taught at a higher level."
SIA has grown rapidly over the past 8 years. After starting with 3 classes K, 1, 6, Travis Franklin and his team of teachers and advisors have executed an amazing vision. One of the first Charter Schools in Washington State that has successfully scaled to serve over 600 students in a non-traditional public K-8 school, offering an International Baccalaureate (IB), which rivals all schools in the region.