Adrienne+Testa

Oakley Elementary School Mrs. Grooms 4th Grade February 14th, 2007

On Valentine's Day I visited Mrs. Grooms' 4th grade classroom at Oakley Elementary School. Every child had a bag full of candy and valentines cards in front of them on their desk. It was sort of loud- all of the kids were very excited. Within ten minutes of me being there Mrs. Grooms had them quieted down (Turning off the lights and counting down from five) and they began SSR- which Mrs. Grooms calls Sustained Silent Reading. I think. This is when I got the oppurtunity to look around the classroom and talk to Mrs. Grooms a little bit. The classroom was big, I think there were about 21 students and the desks were set up in small groups of 4-5 people. There was one student in the classroom who had an adult helper. She sat quietly by his desk and kept him on task. There was also a parent volunteer who was helping Mrs. Grooms by grading papers. There were many many posters and decorations, most of them pertaining to topics they were learning about that week. They had a Question of the Week- How do weather patterns affect our lives? With vocab words that went along with the question: expected, forecasts, destruction, inland, shatter, surge. Mrs. Grooms told me about Connie Prevatte the "reading and writing guru". She told me about the writing tests and the SSR quizzes on the computers. This was all a helpful introduction to exploring the different schools in this area.

My favorite thing about this particular visit was how one little boy had decorated his valentine treat bag in money signs and wrote "money please?" on his bag. $$$$

Oakley Elementary School Mrs. Grooms 4th Grade February 19th, 2007

On this day, I walked into homework review at Mrs. Grooms class. We went over a math sheet that some of the kids had trouble with, and then they were given their homework assignments for the night. One of them was a writing prompt "Tell about a time you were a friend." The kids seemed pretty excited about the assignment. The kids were a little rowdy and Mrs. Grooms had to move about three kids down on the discipline chart. The discipline chart is a long ways rectangle divided up into squares that say different things on them. Every kid has a clothespin with their name on it and their name moves up and down the chart- up if they are good and down if they are bad. If a kid lands on the bottom-most square it means he has to have a conference with Mrs. Grooms. Apparently this is really common at Oakley Elementary.

Response: This discipline method seems like it could be effective. Do you feel that it was more of a nonchalant action, did the teacher do it so the student was aware of the movement of the closepin? Or did she speak to him aloud and then move it down for all to see? I feel it would be more effective if she moved it in silence and in a way that the rowdy student would see it. I think that would eliminate many other distractions that would derive from stopping the class, asking what his problem, and then getting four or five different commentaries on top of what he was saying. When you said apparently this is really common at Oakley were are you referring to conferences or the discipline charts?- Claire Winship

Oakley Elementary School Mrs. Grooms 4th Grade February 21st, 2007

When I visited they were going over math homework again. It was quite uneventful. After math homework they had Sustained Silent Reading. I walked around and checked out some of the books they were reading and talked to a few kids. The reading levels of the kids varied a lot. Some kids were reading really skinny picture books about animals and other were reading that thick dragon book called Eragon. It was good to see that they could progress at their own speed in at least reading. All the kids seemed really into the time they had to read.

Rainbow Mountain School Eddie 3rd Grade February 28th, 2007

So, on my first visit to Rainbow Mountain School with Emma, we had a bit of trouble finding the school. Eventually, about 45 minutes late, we got there. I met Eddie(I forget his last name), the third grade teacher outside on the playground. The kids were divided up in Spanish and Music so he some time to show me the classroom and some other things. He showed me that every student has a student-parent conference coming up. At these student-parent conferences the kids present to their parents what they've been doing for the past few months. This includes drawings, photographs of skits they've performed, things they've learned about the human body, a book they've authored and illustrated, and journal entries describing field trips. Eddie showed me a couple of the student's boxes and told me about a couple of other things that have been happening recently with his class. Then, we went to get the kids from their Spanish and Music classes which they seemed to enjoy a lot. The class "greeter" introduced me to the class and they all told me their names and what the best part of their day was (swimming lessons, card games, "slunch" a combination of snack and lunch). I think there were about 8 kids in the class. After introductions, one of the students showed me his box. All of the kids were practicing presenting their box to their parents because the conferences were the next night. His excellent presentation of what he had been learning lasted about 10 minutes. Then it was time to go. I really enjoyed the friendly, laid back feel of this school. All of the colors made the school feel friendly and welcoming and the smallness of the school made it feel safe. I'm really excited for my next visit.

~That is a very interesting approach Eddie has taken to the parent-teacher conferences. I like it a lot, it doesn't make the child feel left out or feel that they are being talked about they can't know about it at all. I like the very open and honest and upfront approach, and the fact that the students have a chance to be proud of their work and show it to their parents. How to handle and conduct parent-teacher conferences has always been an interesting subject to me. ~Megan

Rainbow Mountain School March 14th, 2007

On this visit to Rainbow Mountain School I didn't stay with one particular classroom because Eddie's class was somewhere else. I decided to wander around and talk to different teachers. I talked to the Pre-K class that was getting ready for a field trip to a stream down the road. I visited a 7th & 8th grade class that was drawing political cartoons about the French Revolution. I ended up with a 5th grade class that was reading poetry about spring and sitting in a circle. In every class I visited the kids were doing something hands on. The teachers seemed excited and engaged with their students. It was an educational experience for me. I was glad I was able to see the school a bit more rather than just one classroom. People were very easygoing about how I was floating around. It was very comfortable.

Rainbow Mountain School Danielle Kindergarten March 15th, 2007

On this visit to Rainbow Mountain School I went to a kindergarten class. The class was really nicely decorated with curtains and artwork and things. Using books, the teacher helped the kids make a list of things that lived underground. Then, they drew a picture of the underground. I was amazed at how organized the teacher was and how obedient the kids were. They obviously respected her a lot. I was only there for 30 minutes but they were so well behaved and the teacher kept order very effectively. The kids liked to help the teacher put things away after the activity. After everything was put away and the activity was finished we all sat down in a circle and held hands. The teacher said "namaste" to each student and then they were excused from the circle to get their stuff together to go home. It was obviously a special time at the end of the day that all of the kids enjoyed. I enjoyed it too!


 * Response:** We too had some trouble finding Rainbow Mountain. I noticed some similar things about Rainbow Mountain. It's cool that you have been able to talk with the teachers. I think that can give more inside information into the school and classes. -Elenore

Artspace Charter School 6th Grade April 2nd, 2007

At Artspace I was put in a class with 6th Graders. I had no opportunity to talk to the teacher at all. She sent me to the back corner of the room and I sat and watched the chaos ensue. The students were giving group presentations about light and sound and various other science subjects. They had all created power point projects to present their topic and the technology involved was not completely understood by the teacher. The classroom was somewhat chaotic and with the teacher's confusion with the powerpoint technology she was not controlling the class at all. We did get through two very short presentations in 45 minutes and they were really well done. It seemed like the students grasped the topics really well and it also seemed like they responded to the teacher well. However, this class was so chaotic and loud that I left a little early because I felt a headache coming on. Artspace itself was interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Artspace Charter School 6th Grade April 4th, 2007

During this Artspace visit a few of us stopped and watched some students practicing for a big presentation/play that they were performing the next night. It was really awesome. It was completely student run, there were students acting, students in the "backstage" area, students filming the students, and students editing the film. The students seemed really invested in what they were doing and it seemed like a really excellent way to learn. Eventually, I was able to walk through where the students were performing and get to the 6th grade class. The class was still presenting their science powerpoints and the teacher only seemed slightly more comfortable with the technology. The best part of my Artspace experience was seeing the play they were going to perform. I was kind of bummed both times I visited because I didn't get to talk to the Everybody seemed really friendly anyway.

LT 4/16

Isaac Dickson Elementary School 1st Grade Ms. Patty April 23rd, 2007

Upon entry to this school, everyone I met was very friendly. I've gotten this feeling at a few other schools that they're a little confused about why we were there but at this one, I felt as though everyone knew exactly why I was there, what I was doing, and where I was going. The first grade classroom I was observing was amazing. It was huge, with high ceilings and a ton of windows. The door was open to the outside and there was a nice breeze coming through. The classroom was extremely comfortable. It had many different sections, lots of decorations the atmosphere was perfect. One thing which was a bit strange was the number of animals the classroom had. They had a huge rabbit which was about to give birth for the second time, a guinea pig, a fish tank, an incubator with a bunch of eggs that were going to hatch into chicks (from warren wilson) a snake, a bird, and hermit crabs! At the time when I arrived, the students were choosing their own spelling words that they would study for the week. Then, they did various artistic projects. I talked to the teacher a lot about what they were doing, she was very nice and open and I could tell the students really loved her. I asked her about the school cafeteria because I'm doing a project about organic and local foods in Buncombe County Schools. She told me that ASAP brought a CSA every week and that local food was a large part of their students diets. She also told me that parents of the students have arranged for chefs to come and teach the kids how to make some food. Last week they made egg salad and a few weeks ago they were taught how to make guacamole. I was really impressed by this. I was sad to go at the end of the half hour, the kids were so polite and were doing so many different interesting projects.

That sounds like a really great visit. I think it is so cool that they had that many animals in thier classroom. I think pets are a great way to help kids develop responsibility and to have them care a little more for their surroundings. The elementary school connected with my high school recently adopted two pot-bellied pigs for the lower schoolers to learn about and care for. Each family has one weekend throughout the year. It's cool to see a similar practice taking place on a smaller scale. Nice observation.

Isaac Dickson Elementary School 1st Grade Ms. Patty April 30, 2007

On this visit to the classroom the students were once again doing spelling work. The students were quizzing each other on spelling words. I sat down with one girl who was helping a boy who seemed to have some difficulties paying attention. When I sat down next to him he started sniffing me. Then he poked me in the arm with his pencil and poked himself in the arm with a pencil. As he was doing this, the girl who was giving him the spelling test was trying to keep him on task and focused. I did my best to help her. Then, another girl came over and started rubbing the boy on his back and saying "calm down, calm down". The little boy obviously had some problems and the girls were very patient and understanding, they didn't seem fed up or annoyed with him at all. These are first graders and they were so understanding of the boy's troubles. I thought this reflected really well on the teacher. I don't believe that kids would act this way on their own, it must be an example set by the teacher. This was enlightening to me. By the time I left, the boy had finished his spelling test. It must feel really good for a teacher to have a group of students who really help each other out and use patience and nice words to do so.

Isaac Dickson Elementary School 1st Grade Ms. Patty May 2nd, 2007

When I came to the school on this day I found my class outside under a tree. It was gardening day and also a post earth day celebration. We read a story and then the kids broke into groups to do various activities. One group was planting sunflower seeds in little cups of dirt. Another group were getting their faces painted, another was digging in the garden, and another was writing letters to their congressmen. This was interesting to me, I went over and asked what topics they were writing about. One little boy was writing about nuclear radiation! Others were writing about climate change, pollution, animal rights, and human rights. It was amazing, these kids definitely knew what they were talking about and were passionate about these issues. I really liked hanging out at this school, I loved the teacher, and the kids were amazing. I hope I'll be able to go back soon.

I agree that Dickson is an amazing place. LT 5/15