Education

Photos: Anchorage schools open their doors to visitors

Prospective parents, alumni and neighbors took advantage of the first day of the Anchorage School District's Visit Our Schools Month on Tuesday. During the inaugural event in 2014, the district's schools hosted over 1,600 visitors.

At Chugach Optional Elementary, an open optional lottery school, prospective parents were given a tour Tuesday morning. Starting with the school's chicken coop, the groups made their way through the school, peeking into the classrooms, each of which is open to the main hallway.

The school is unusual in that its classrooms have no doors, and each class is multi-age, with 1st and 2nd grade learning together, 3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th.

The school's philosophy is unconventional as well. The curriculum is responsive to the interests of the children and overarching themes are chosen which focus on separate core elements like math, language arts and social studies, making them less abstract.

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