Why Optimus

Fostering Critical Thinkers and Independent Learners

promoting independent study habits
At Optimus, one of our main goals is to encourage every student to work independently. Instead of spoon feeding answers to our students, we encourage them to come to their own answers and then deliver assistance from that point. Furthermore, we instill in each student the idea that academics are worthwhile, and stress to them the importance of being self-driven. Ultimately, this gives all of our students an invaluable chance to develop strong and lasting habits toward studying.

encouraging critical thinking strategies
While we at Optimus definitely strive to help our students achieve the highest marks in school, we also try to take it one step further. We do this by helping our students become effective critical thinkers. By guiding students to an answer with questions rather than quickly supplying the answer, we build the framework for critical thought. In doing this, we provide our students with the necessary tools to come to answers independently through careful thought.

Providing opportunities for communication
We know that, even when kids are at play, there are more and less constructive ways that they could be spending their time. For this reason, we encourage our students to play card and board games with each other during break time here at Optimus. While cell phones and tablets are amazing tools to aid education, overuse for recreational purposes can stifle important opportunities for interaction. By instead playing the games that we supply, students have a chance to think, communicate, and spend time together.

Dedicated Staff Members

graduates, not college students
Other after school programs tend to hire college students, but at Optimus, we do things differently. All employees are required to have a bachelor’s degree as a condition of employment. This helps to ensure that all of our employees are driven and capable of achieving long term goals, and, in turn, they pass these high moral standards onto our students.

experienced staff with significant time invested in optimus
A number of our teachers are employed with Optimus full time. This is typically not the case with after school programs, where jobs are almost exclusively given on a part time basis. By offering full time employment, we can better ensure that our employees have not only Optimus’ best interests at heart, but also your student’s.

Cutting Edge Online Services

school records database
For your own convenience as well as our convenience here at Optimus, we keep thorough and detailed online records. When available, we collect student’s standards test and report card scores, and document them online. If a parent needs access to any of the information we keep on record, they can simply arrange a meeting with the director. This is another step we take to keep better track of how all of our students are doing at school.

view optimus enrichment courses
All of the information for the Optimus enrichment courses we offer can be viewed online through your son or daughters student portal. Here you can see what your student did in class for the day and view any grades that were given for an assignment or test that day. In addition, our teachers take the time to leave helpful comments for your student. These could be comments explaining a low score, behavior issues, or anything else the teacher of the class feels you might need to know. Your student can also access their homework through this portal, and this is really one of our online platform’s most convenient capabilities. Students no longer have to worry about their homework, because it will always be just a few mouse clicks away for them to download and view as often as necessary.

view student's monthly schedule
To keep track of your student’s course load here at Optimus, we provide a digital calendar to every student with their enrichment classes listed. Scheduling can become confusing at many other after school programs. When is my student’s class? Who is teaching it? These questions are easily answered through our online digital calendar. Should a class be added, removed, or edited, all you or your son or daughter need to do is look online.

Warm, Welcoming, and Clean Accommodations

cleaned regularly and often
While cleanliness is often overlooked at other after school programs, we here at Optimus take the cleanliness of our facilities very seriously. We want to provide as much peace of mind as we can in every way, and the sense that your son or daughter is coming to a clean and fresh smelling environment every day is part of that. Vacuuming and restroom cleaning are daily tasks here, and we clean more extensively on a weekly basis.

a comfortable learning environment for students of every grade level
It seems typical fare of other after school programs to have noisy and overcrowded facilities. This is severely detrimental to the learning process, and we avoid that at all costs here at Optimus. We make sure to separate our students based on grade. This eases the minds of our younger students that can sometimes be extremely shy around other students that are so much older than they are. Furthermore, we limit each class size to 10 students. First, the amount of study space each student has to work in rises greatly since having less students per classroom means we essentially have a bigger amount of space for each student. Second, we can control and maintain a quiet environment for your son or daughter to study in when there aren’t as many students in one place.

behavioral issues
We believe the atmosphere of an after school program is one based not only on personal achievement but also on personal discipline. We set the standard here at Optimus that all students are welcome, so long as they have a great attitude toward learning. With that in mind, in the event that unfortunate behavior issues become a consistent problem in any one particular student, we may ask them to leave. We’ve made this a priority at Optimus since our ultimate goal is to ensure that every student grows in the environment we have created for them. Eliminating this element from our program means that our teachers need not spend their time settling behavior issues, but rather they are able to focus on our students that are most eager to learn.