By Amber Nustad
Mini-School and Focus (the Wayzata alternative program) exchanged students for a day in April. Focus sent three of their students to our program and three of our students went to their program for the day.
Jerie Meakins, Chris O’Dell and myself participated in the exchange program. The day started with getting familiar with the teachers and how the classes work. Their classes start at 7:30 and end at 11:30. Focus classes are 25 minutes long and a 5 minute break is given between classes. During class, if the students wish to leave, they must punch out on a time clock and write down where they went. They have the basic classroom activities like English, history, etc., then they have several different support groups which they call Families. Different students participate in different groups.
We might do another exchange for the day but I think it will be with teachers next time.