03/10/2025
We still have spots for 2nd Half or Winter Term 2025!
High School, Junior High, & Young Adult Opening
Hi all. I’m Professor Maria Andrusiak.
I specialize in supporting and educating kids who don’t fit the system but are “average” to highly intelligent underneath.
I adhere to Ross Greene’s methods from “Explosive Child/Lost at School/Raising Human Beings,” along with the teachings of Gabor&Mate, Books like “How to Talk so Kids Will Listen,” and Gentle Discipline.”
I use only positive, consent-based, boundary-laden and ND+, Q+ supportive language here.
Learning difficulties, personality differences, and all weird and wonderful identities are all more than welcome.
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Up to 4 Days a week
choice of no Fridays or no Weds by community vote each term, subject to change based on my teaching load
9 am "office start"
for parents or kids that want to sit and work with me if early birds
10 am start for Young Adults (Tues/Thurs)
10-12 ish "ConnectCall" Video Call
This session will be some custom activities, topics, or projects that extend what the pod is doing or jumps off to other interests I've connected them with.
10am start for Juniors (Friday Only)
"Lunch and Learn"
time for special interests or chat
1 pm start for Teens
1 pm "HomeRoom HS" Video Call
This session will be some custom activities, topics, or projects that extend what the pod is doing or jumps off to other interests I've connected them with.
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Notjustanotherhighschool.ca
The story behind how we got here
Not Just Another High School.....Fills the Gap Others Don't
After 20 years of using EVERY kind of schooling known to the system...
I decided to build my own school pod for kids with academic credit earning delays.
I have personally and professionally witnessed the delays that the pandemic, learning differences, neurodiversity, chronic illness, and all the other gaps that even intelligent children, and loving families can fall into.
I work with the ND+ brain, and know that it is genetically aligned with chronic disorders. I myself have Ehlers Danlos, and my four children have a combination of all the concerns that comes with that, so I decided that I would take up the space and begin to education them myself with the support of online high school credit courses.
But I realized that that wasn't enough!...
The navigation and support, tutoring, and mental health support fell completely on the shoulders of the parent, and now I was home-schooling, and online schooling AND being a full time navigator, while being a full time teaching professor.
There was a huge divide between being "in" and "out" of school, and we weren't in ANY category.
I was filling the gap...
And the first gap was LANGUAGE.
My loving supportive language wasn't being echoed in the systems we were using. My children didn't have a "centre" at school that kept them calm and confident. We had some incredible experienced with private alternate schools, but the expense was too much to bare.
We needed something subscription based, online, lower cost, and flexible enough to work with the frustrations of our life.
But where I knew my kids would always have a caring, positive, intentional language of Universal Design for Learning, and Gentle Guidance for Growth.
I am so glad for the teachers we found along the way... •... Now it's my turn to offer that space to YOUR child. •
I treat each child as "doing well when they can" and take care of their learning in an open, accepting way each and every day.
Your Learner is a smart, engaging, beautiful person. Find School that fits THEM
