My View
IT'S ELEMENTARY…
By Dr. Carlos Colley
With new administration in a school, everyone wonders, "Where are we going now?" In elementary school some things remain constant: • the teaching of reading, writing, math • allowing students to explore the past • developing their understanding of the world around them through science concepts.

We also want them to develop other skills and explore other areas as well, namely: the arts, physical education and, importantly, how to live most of their day in a learning community surrounded by social relationships that they need to learn to negotiate.

Within these stated basic areas, the details are also important. What is our approach? New staff brings new ideas which afford us a chance to reflect on the way we do things. Last year we focused on developing a logical sequence of the presentation of science concepts to our students. As we move through the year, teachers at each grade level will develop and write the units needed to teach these concepts, so that in years to come science teaching will be constant and sequential in our elementary school curriculum.

This year we will be undergoing the same process in reading. Reflecting on our practice early this year we discovered that although many of us are doing our best in reading, we need to implement assessment and monitoring of student progress. We have also put in place common staff development to arrive at a coherent set of teaching techniques that students can see as a constant from year to year, class to class. Teachers will have the flexibility to pick reading topics and books to match the interests of students and their developmental stages. We believe the focus on these basic elementary skills will help our school move forward.

Schools are not only about academics. At the Nantucket Elementary School we intend to work on our students' ability to interact socially with peers and the larger school society. In June, about half the staff were trained in using the responsive classroom model, which is a set of student management techniques that assists teachers in building a classroom community and helps the school develop a culture of cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self control. These elementary social skills are taught purposefully, and with the support of parents, so that we can create a school community that we can be proud of for years to come.

Finally, I would like to answer the question: "How big is the school?" At almost 625 students and more than 100 staff, we have outgrown our building. Looking at the original layout of the building, it made sense to have cluster areas for classrooms, with large open project areas for collaboration and projects; offices for specialists and additional rooms for small classroom instruction made for an excellent design indeed. Over time, however, we have had to reconfigure the open project areas into small cubicle spaces for specialists. We have taken small offices or classrooms and divided them further to accommodate multiple staff into spaces originally designed to fit one or two. The need to develop new programs to serve our population has exacerbated our issues by requiring us to provide additional areas for staff to work with some of our students. The ongoing division of classrooms ultimately results in inadequate space to do our best.

Our students, like plants and other creatures, need space to grow. Over the next few years we will be asking the community to support our efforts to allow the building to grow along with our students and our programs. Come and see for yourself. We invite you to volunteer to help out in our school: in the classroom, in the lunch room, or at recess. All we will ask for is your commitment and dedication to our students. After all, they do need some constants. It's elementary…

- Dr.Carlos Colley, assistant superintendent for curriculum and

instruction, is interim principal at

Nantucket Elementary School.