We've designed Prisma to be highly flexible and also provide the level of structure and support that matches each individual family and learner's needs. Some families have consistent daily learning routines that provide a consistent, stable learning environment and others are much more 'go with the flow' as they travel for family adventures and competitive tournaments, prioritize time together in nature when the weather's nice, etc. A wide range of approaches can work great! The key is to partner with your child's Prisma coach to create the level of consistency, flexibility, and structure that empowers your child to do their best work and feel supported.
How live time works at Prisma:
Every Prisma learner is part of a well-matched peer cohort that meets daily Monday through Thursday for interactive live workshops! The exact makeup and quantity of live time depends upon which program a learner participates in. (Lower School for grades 4-5 has more frequent, shorter live literacy-focused workshops, for example, whereas the High School has more independent learning that's highly personalized and feedback-driven.) Fridays are a customizable, flex day with lots of opportunities to meet live for optional activities like learner-led Clubs, coach office hours, and expert guest speaker series.
On average, learners spend about 2-2.5 hours daily in live, synchronous workshops (i.e. classes) led by Prisma coaches (i.e. teachers) over Zoom. Your child's cohort and math placements set the live workshop times each day, and we have several options that map to different time zones, academic rigor levels, grade levels, personality and interests, etc. Learners typically are part of the same cohort with the same coach and schedule all year long! Some learners even have the same mentor coach and continue to learn together with largely the same peer community for 2-3 years.
What Prisma doesn't offer:
While Prisma is highly flexible, we purposefully don't offer "ultimate flexibility." We've intentionally chosen to prioritize connection & collaboration with peers and inspiring mentorship & engaging live instruction from Prisma coaches, which means we need to show up with one another to create an engaging, vibrant learning community. With ultimate flexibility comes boring recorded lectures, never-ending multiple choice quizzes, and a lack of connection & support—a tradeoff we aren't willing to make!
That being said, if your child needs to miss a live workshop here and there, that's totally fine! They can access the workshop recording and partner with their coach to stay on track. Some families even take a week off here and there to travel! What wouldn't be ideal is if your child were to miss their Literacy Lab workshop every week, for example, because the live/synchronous aspects of Prisma work in tandem with the independent/asynchronous aspects of Prisma. If a learner consistently misses live time, they'd both begin to struggle and would also impact their small team within their cohort when it comes to team-based challenges and collaboration.
We also don't offer a fully structured school day where your child is live on Zoom for 5-6 hours jumping from one class to the next and expected to engage in their work amidst the distractions of being online with others. At Prisma, each learner spends 2-3 hours per day deeply engaged in independent, personalized learning that matches their unique growth needs and interests and offers them space to enter a flow state without outside distractions. The asynchronous, personalized learning time can happen whenever you'd like, so there's a lot of flexibility woven into each day!
Lastly, we don't offer à la carte, part-time, or summer school versions of Prisma. Prisma is accredited, comprehensive, and full time. Learning at Prisma is much more purposeful and efficient than a typical school day, and Prisma empowers each child to pursue their interests & passions, including beyond Prisma. Learners at Prisma often engage in outside enrichments, hobbies, tutoring or therapies, sports, etc. and are encouraged to get out in their local communities to foster local connections, make friends, volunteer, and prioritize daily physical movement!