There are several types of Studios based on a student's needs or desires.  The typical Studio is a small group cohort-based program over a short time period that focuses on a specific set of skills.  For example, our Summer Skills Studio is a one-week program with focused instruction on the essential skills students will be confronting in their upcoming classes.  Students develop the skills through a personal project, similar to the experience they would have in an AP Course such as AP Seminar. 

Similarly, our School Year Skills Booster Four Week Studio provides a cohort-based program that targets high-leverage skills such as critical reading, analysis, and writing. Students will receive focused instruction, practice, get feedback, then apply the skills while learning about topics of interest to them. 

Personalized Skills Booster Sessions are customized one-on-one support for students who might need help developing their skills to be successful with their classes, assignments, and Advanced Placement courses. 

Beth Blankenship and Eliot Waxman are Fairfax County Public School teachers with 40+ combined experience teaching students across the educational spectrum.  They were the first two teachers to teach AP Capstone in FCPS.  Click here to learn more about them.

Click on the Register button in the Summer Skills Studio page or  click here. 

Click on the Register button in the School Year Skills Booster Studio page or  click here. 

Email Beth and Eliot directly at FutureNowEducation@gmail.com or call 202-814-7602

Currently, our Studio programs are conducted online to relieve students and parents of driving/carpooling responsibilities. We hope to start offering in-person sessions in 2026.

We're teachers who specialize in identifying and meeting students' learning needs.  Send us an email at futurenoweducation@gmail.com and we can set up a time to discuss what's best for your student.

Skills-based learning is a very personal journey that makes it hard to generalize into a "normal" framework.  We work to develop a pathway that works for your student's individual goals. In our experience, students should be more capable and confident with their skills after four sessions.

Skills development is hard to divide into finite time segments.  At a minimum, students are expected to be actively engaged while they are working with their cohort and/or individual teacher.  Our experience is that students expand the amount of time they expend when working on projects in which they have intrinsic interest. Students may be expected to complete some work between session based on their interest and projects.  For example, students may need to conduct some research or annotate an article about their chosen topic during the times between formal meeting times.

Summer Skills Studios are intensive one-week experiences (Monday - Thursday), four hours per day, plus a one hour student Presentation of Learning at the conclusion of the week (17 hours). 

School Year Skill Booster Studios are broken into four 1.5 hour sessions over the course of a month (6 hours).

Personalized Skill Booster Sessions can be coordinated for a time period and timeframe that are convenient for the student, i.e. 1 hour per week or two hours per week, etc. 

Our Studios will utilize Google Classroom as our learning platform and Zoom as our primary virtual meeting space. Students will need access to a computer, wifi, a personal Google account, and download Zoom. We will provide a Google Classroom course code to students prior to class. 

Other than completing a very short student survey in the registration form, none!  We will reach out to all students and parents who register with a confirmation and "Next Steps for Skill Success" email.

We welcome all middle and high school students. Our expertise is supporting high school students and rising high school students, however we both have experience supporting graduating seniors, college-age, and post-college-age individuals with career planning, career skill development, and personal skill development.

We require a 24-hour cancelation notice prior to canceling a Studio or Session. If a student misses a day of a Studio, we will provide materials and reach out to the student to check-in. We can credit or reschedule canceled sessions and will make every reasonable effort to support the student. Find our Terms and Conditions here.