Agenda - 09-20-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 all four could be kindergarten rooms; there could be a K, 1, 2, and 3 such that students spend their first four years with the same team of teachers in the same cluster; or one cluster could be K-1 classes and another could be grades 2-3. This building may be used for the next 50 to 100 years. Educational philosophies and practices will change over that period in ways that we can't envision today. Flexibility is a critical component. b. Elementary teachers today don't teach the way our teachers taught. Our master teachers, especially at the primary level, organize their classrooms around learning centers or stations. Walk into a kindergarten or first grade room today and you will see six to eight centers, each designed to teach different concepts and to draw upon different dimensions of intelligence. All students are actively engaged in their learning for large portions of their day. To teach in this way, classrooms need to be larger and teachers need storage closets for their learning materials when they are not in use and for students' products. Classrooms also need to be larger because in today's classroom one is likely to encounter several adults -- a teacher, an assistant, a parent volunteer, an individual assistant for a student who may be in a wheelchair, and a student teacher. Classrooms also need to be larger to accommodate technology. In our better furnished classrooms, you will find six to eight computers, several printers, a television monitor, and a VCR. c. In the proposed school, teachers will have office or work area space. This is a recommendation of the state department; however, it is not followed by most school districts. We believe that our teachers should be treated as professionals which means that they have some place to go to make confidential telephone calls, secure their materials, confer with parents, students, and other staff members, and plan for the next day. Offices are particularly important if classrooms are used for after-school programs or other community use or if the school operates on a multi-track year-round calendar. All of our schools have waiting lists for after-school care because it is difficult to open up classrooms to students in the afternoon when the teacher is trying to plan or materials are set out for students. In order to meet the growing demand for after-school care, we have to expand into classrooms and teachers need an alternative place to work and store materials. The same applies to community use. It is unlikely that the community will use regular classrooms, but citizens will want to use the multi-purpose room, art and music rooms, as well as core facilities such as the media center. When schools operate on a multi-track year-round schedule, every so often (e.g. nine weeks) a teacher must pack up his or her belongings to make way for another teacher while he or she is on break. This makes storage essential. In addition, teachers frequently will come to school to plan when they are on break and they need a place to work. This is again when the offices would come into play.