The Other Side of the Desk

My Schools and Society students have started their field placements at the two schools in the Williston School District, Williston Central and AllenBrook schools. Central is a 3 - 8th grade school and AllenBrook a preK - 2nd grade. They are both incredible schools with dedicated teachers and administrators; great role models for the SMC students who are getting their first experience of what it's like to be the "other side of the desk".

It was neat to hear the students in class after their first visit; I could barely stop them talking about their teachers and the students they are working with. This is so different from the first week of class when they would hardly say anything. It will be like this for the rest of the semester as we weave their school experiences into the educational theories they have been, and will continue to be, learning.

Since this is an introductory level course I try to give the students wide exposure to many different educational theories so that when they study them in more depth in more specialized courses later in their program they will already be familiar with the names and main ideas. This is a little bit like the "spiral curriculum" used in public schools where concepts are introduced at successively more complex levels as the students develop their cognitive skills. It's also a bit like developmentally appropriate practice which is a theory often applied to early childhood development. The students don't yet have enough practical experience to apply the theories in depth, but they soon will.

Then they will be ready to take their places as teachers in public school classrooms just like many of the teachers at the Williston schools who were also students at St. Mike's.

The picture is of the recently installed wind turbine that generates electricity for the Allen Brook school. The school is in one of the windiest locations I know of in Vermont and the turbine is the brainchild of John Terko, the school principal.

Public Schools

Over the years I have probably worked in over 100 schools and over 1000 classrooms as I have supervised students in their classroom field placements. I have very vivid memories of many of those schools I no longer work with and of course, continuing experiences with many of the schools I currently work with. There's one school system, however, that I have a really close relationship with; the Willison Schools , Central School and Allen Brook School.

In 1999, after 17 years teaching at Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont, I as invited by Bob Mitchell, the assistant principal at Williston Central School, to take a one-year position at the schools as Science Education Professional Development specialist. I jumped at the chance because I needed to recharge by batteries, so to speak. The writing was also on the wall for Trinity College which closed two years later. I ended up working at the Williston schools for the next 2 years on a Freeman Foundation grant. Both schools were structured using the British House system (ala Harry Potter Hogwarts school e.g. Gryffindor house). The house system (1-4th grade and 5 - 8th grade) brought students and teachers together from different grade levels for planning, instruction and social events. Designed by Marion Stroud, it was magical place to work where students learned how to be independent learners and love to learn, and respect each other.

To my dismay, the house system was dismantled last year and I thought we would be losing one of the finest educational institutions in new England if not the US. I shouldn't have worried. Things have changed a little but the house system still exists and the same focus on independent learning is still in place. The teachers are as enthusiastic as ever and you feel the same school spirit as you walk the hallways.

My reason for being at the school today was to ask John and Jackie, the two principals if I could place my Schools and Society students there this coming semester. To my delight they agreed which means my SMC students will have the same wonderful experiences working in the Williston school that I had ten years ago. A great start to their career in Education.