[Music] you've probably seen my videos about how our kids are crushing academics by learning twice as much in only 2 hours a day so the obvious question I get is what do they do with the rest of the day we do what every parent thinks school should really be about enabling kids to succeed in the real world by teaching valuable life skills let's do this by exploring Alpha the flagship School implementing 2hour learning at Alpha we make three commitments to our students one they will love school two they will learn twice as much in Just 2 hours and three they will develop life skills that will last a lifetime I'm going to explain our students Journey from kindergarten all the way through 8th grade and you will see how we are truly Reinventing education and what you should expect from a private school it's important starting in kindergarten to instill the belief and understanding that the sky is the limit in what kids can achieve in Traditional School you learn to sit still raise your hand ask permission before doing anything color inside the lines at Alpha we Foster a mindset of growth and engagement enabling students to launch starting in kindergarten and then first grade our young students be Again by learning that they are Limitless whether they dream of being the next president launching into Mars or becoming a juliard train ballerina we help every student understand that they can dream big as students start on their Limitless Journey they are surrounded by guides who wrap them in love think the sweetest kindergarten teacher you have ever met children who are wrapped in love and support feel safe to dream big getting kids on track academic Al is a great way to show them that they are Limitless competence leads to confidence and it starts young for 2 hours in the morning Learners spend time learning twice as fast as others their age whether it's preparing for their presentation about their favorite dinosaur or mastering 600 sight wordss or gaining math fluency no matter where our students start with us academically we ensure all students are in the top 1% in the country by the time they leave for first grade then we move to life skills students spend active afternoons taking on big challenges at this age kids need to see that they can tie their own shoes learn to swim do a 100 piece puzzle or participate in a fem bike race getting kids to achieve these things helps them realize that there are no limits to what they can do and it's not just what they can do alone they start to learn respect for their community in the workshop Better Together they learn how to play games fairly not cry when they lose or quit in the middle and encourage and cheer their classmates on these students are learning how to face their fears and build a foundation for self-confidence and self-directed learning that sets them up for Success when students hit second grade they are equipped with a limitless mindset that prepares them to achieve the impossible they're ready to not only dream big but also turn those dreams into reality academically our students become the fastest Learners in the world mastering Concepts twice as fast in Just 2 hours a day by second grade they realize they prefer this efficient learning model over spending 6 hours in a traditional classroom they become eager to learn skills that accelerate their learning what does it mean to do the impossible our students unlock their Limitless workshops and spend their afternoons developing life skills starting on the very first day of school students sign up for the Jingle Bells 5K run they often react with disbelief they're exclaiming that's going to be impossible but this is a pivotal moment drawing inspiration from James clear's Atomic habits as many of you may be familiar with we teach kids to achieve the impossible one step at a time we start by having them walk the track gradually building up to running this incremental approach helps them realize that they can indeed complete the 5K or learn to do 50 push-ups by starting with one by breaking down the task into manageable steps students learn a foundational life skill how to approach and accomplish seemingly impossible goals that's a life skill everyone can learn the journey doesn't stop after the 5K our second graders also compete in a spelling be against their parents tackling the 50 most commonly misspelled words and guess what they win they learn that mastering one word a day leads to impressive results they learn how to focus intently for short 10 to 15 minute periods and do each lesson correctly and that helps them become successful to our Learners one of the most exciting and seemingly impossible projects we undertake with our second graders is teaching public speaking at this age many kids are terrified of public speaking so we you make it Fun by teaching them in a way that makes them love it like creating the schoolwide alpha weekly newscast additionally our second graders become entrepreneurs working on teamwork and financial literacy building on the foundation they established in kindergarten in first grade where they started a lemonade stand to raise money for clean water these second graders work together to start a business using the teamwork skills they've developed they earn five $1,000 for a cause they researched and voted to support by the end of second grade our students are athletes broadcasters master spellers and entrepreneurs they don't just think they are Limitless they have begun developing the skills to make the impossible [Music] happen let's talk about our third and fourth graders at this level it's all about independence we Empower kids to learn that they can accomplish things on their own without all always needing adult assistance it may sound daunting but don't worry parents stick with me here 100% of our students are loving school at this level we recognize that kids want to be in the driver's seat by now and we show them how to take proactive responsibility unlike traditional schools which trains kids to be passive with rot memorization we teach our alpha kids to be self-driven Learners third and fourth grade are absolutely critical times in kids academic growth this is also when many kids encounter what teachers call stuck points like mathematical fluency fractions and making the big switch from learning to read to reading to learn at Alpha our 2-hour learning model teaches kids to blow through these stuck points this is important because in a standard School setting if a student gets labeled as a c student they are likely to stay a c student for the rest of their academic career Instead at our school we teach them to take ownership of their learning and realize that they have the power to achieve Stellar academic results at Alpha our students are setting their own goals rather than being told what to do by teachers following their team business Pursuits in second grade our third and fourth graders now level up and dive deeper into financial literacy which is a critical life skill to becoming independent they learn to earn save spend invest and donate through our Alpha Financial system as kids grow into their independence the key is to get out of their way and allow them to explore during their afternoons they get time to code self-driving cars and drones and demonstrate practice and grit through Rubik's Cube juggling and running triathlons our readers are crushing book series The entrepreneurs start their own businesses and our communicators become Alpha ambassadors and at this stage with Independence comes the need to recognize that your behaviors impact the community our student Run town halls give them practice at creating their own rules and holding themselves and each other accountable new parents to Alpha are often skeptical that kids this age can have a fully student run culture but the word unbelievable is the most common comment after they observe their first town hall now that our younger students have tackled Independence we move on to our fifth and sixth graders where teamwork truly takes center stage at this age we find find that Independence can sometimes lead to arrogance making teamwork the most important life skill to develop typically teamwork is taught through team sports right but at Alpha we make it central to everything our students do one of our most fun and engaging workshops at this level is called hype Squad every student has a classmate who is their hype man ready to extol the long Litany of greatness and the student at moment's notice during their daily morning and closing meetings student shout out the great things that their classmates have accomplished throughout the day hype Squad teaches kids that instead of labeling and forming clicks they can find the uniqueness and value in everyone it also lays the foundation for icebreaking and friendship building because there's no better way to engage with new people than by learning about them and then hypen them up we find that when students and parents are in a community where everyone is being taught these skills it leads to an uplifting and positive culture that reinforces kids self-confidence nothing teaches teamwork and improves Financial Acumen better than starting a business together Austin Texas is known for its food truck scene so this year our Austin Alpha fifth and sixth graders are launching the alpha food truck they will plan the entire operation from menu design and raising funding to the overall launch and running of what they hope will become one of Austin's most successful restaurants on wheels as kids grow in their teamwork they learn not just that they are part of a global team and Community but that the key to their happiness is contributing to that Community last year for example our fifth through e8th graders ran a student-led fundraising Gaya to earn money to travel to Poland to train 500 Ukrainian refugees who had no access to schools into our learning on the academic side the biggest addition to 2-hour learning is a comprehensive writing program in most traditional schools AI is used to cheat and avoid writing by having AI generate papers at Alpha R AI tutor writing program creates writers who will be writing at a high enough level to publish books by the seventh and eth grades let's talk about Middle School what is the point of it well it's to get kids ready for high school and not just get ready but get ready to thrive in high school so what does that mean the first thing you need need is to excel in academics everyone knows High School is harder we have to make sure that our academics get students ready so that it won't be a struggle like it is for most kids especially with overwhelming amounts of homework we measure this by getting every student in Middle School into the top 5% of the ISE and SSAT test and for those who want to go to the most selective high schools the top 1% when you talk to middle schoolers the thing they are most scared of about high school is is the Social Scene this is where the magic of 2-hour learning comes in because we have plenty of time in the afternoon to run exercises and workshops that get kids ready and comfortable to navigate friendships handle social pressure and build strong and positive relationships remember the movie Mean Girls Where walking in the school cafeteria was like walking into a den of wild animals so in one Workshop students learn how to crush the social scene in healthy and positive Ways by recreating the cafeteria stage one is practicing these exercises with their middle school classmates stage two is heading over to the friendly Alpha High School lunch table and stage three is another school's High School cafeteria by the end of alpha middle school kids are as confident in their social capabilities as they are in their academics the other aspect of crushing the social scene is to become interesting we spend Middle School helping kids find their passions and values and give them the time to explore what they love the jaese eeky guy Workshop that kicks off the year is always a highly rated Workshop it's followed closely by the you are what you do Workshop where they track how they spend the 168 hours in a week in a time of rampant video gaming and social media scrolling kids walk out realizing they don't want to be mindless drone consumers instead they want to become creators because every middle schooler realizes that creators are interesting drone consumers are not the students that come out of alpha Middle School are seen as the best most interesting kids in their Freshman Class AI has enabled the transformation of how we educate kids by compressing the time required to learn core academics to Just 2 hours a day this allows us to use the other 4 hours to unlock your child's unlimited potential Alpha redefines what parents expect from their kids private school the next decade is going to be the most exciting time in history to be in K through 8 we're excited to have you join us