Educator Of The Month: Travis Kyker

When Travis Kyker joined Acton Academy Annapolis last year, the 22-year-old was signing on to teach at an institution younger than his students.

Located on the Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church campus in Arnold, but unaffiliated with any religious organization, the program was in its first year, open to elementary level students, with plans to expand.

Kyker was a St. John's College graduate student, eager to teach but uninterested in the “mainstream” public school model. He had never heard of Acton. When he did, he was impressed.

Acton students work collaboratively on projects. Ages are mixed at each level — elementary, middle and high school — with outdoor activities being a large part of the curriculum.

“Children or students are naturally so curious, and (traditional classrooms) just left them feeling squashed and stifled, not enriched,” Kyker said. “We take that curiosity that exists and nourish it and encourage it.”

Kyker became an educator because he was inspired by the great teachers from his youth and because learning has been a central part of his life.

“I love this great conversation that is being had all the time, in all places, and meeting the great figures throughout history,” said Kyker, a fan of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. “It coheres well in an Acton context.”

As Kyker said, that philosophy pairs well with Acton, which seeks to foster a learner-driven environment that develops independent thinking, communication skills, and character.

Acton Academy Annapolis has a few guides, or teachers, who empower the kids to learn while granting them independence. Kids create their own contracts with rules to uphold and they design their own scripts at a “peace table” when they need to work out their differences.

“They’re building their own little society,” Kyker said. “We call ourselves guides because we’re not here to solve all their problems, but we provide them with the tools so they can solve problems for themselves.”

Students learn math, reading and grammar daily, but they also embark on weekly adventure trips.

“The adventure trips are everything from zoos and parks to, last year, we went to a robotics lab in Washington, D.C. and met some people who worked for NASA and did deep-sea exploration,” Kyker said.

Acton also has themes that cycle out every month to six weeks.

“It’s everything from coding and robotics to the history of inventions and marine science,” Kyker said.

This year will look different for the Arnold program. Kyker will serve as a guide for the new middle school studio. This is the next step of the vision formed by Roman and Jenny Hardgrave. The Hardgraves founded the Maryland Curiosity Lab in 2022 and adopted the Acton model because they liked how students became motivated when they owned their education.

With Kyker, they believe they have found a great role model for the students.

“He's spent the summer radically adapting our hands-on projects (what we call quests) to make them more engaging and beneficial to our learners,” Roman Hardgrave said. “He's so passionate about learning and helping children find their calling.”

Eventually, Acton Academy Annapolis will add a high school studio. For now, Kyker is excited about its progress. One of the most rewarding parts of being a guide, he said, is supporting the kids as they learn about themselves and the world.

“If they pick up a hobby or an interest, they are encouraged to follow that rabbit trail as far as it goes,” Kyker said. “When adults see the kids are passionate and excited, it inspires us too.”