Student Leadership and School Spirit: Columbia Elementary students have been excited about the new role of peer leaders in the school. Cheryl Nesbitt has put significant effort into establishing a student council and working with them to establish incentive and recognition programs that are appropriate for our new K-4 population. Each grade level now has a class song and a class handshake. This week students will participate in a sports dress up day and sending “kindness grams”. The student council chose these events because they believe they are inclusive and will promote both school connection and kindness.
Student council members are recognizable by the personalized badges Nicole Galloway so graciously made for them. Their peers know they can share ideas with them and that they are examples of living the “Woodland Way” each day at school. There is much more to come, but these youth leaders are already making student voice an important component of our school culture.
Adaptive Physical Education: It has been a longstanding desire to initiate an adaptive physical education program at Columbia Elementary. This experience is differentiated to support children with specific physical and social/emotional needs that are not easily met in a traditional experience. Columbia teacher, Cheryl Nesbitt, has carefully researched adaptive physical education and partnered closely with our diversified support teacher, Amyra Black, to create an inaugural program that is inspiring. The obvious joy, engagement, and active participation of the children is evidence that this approach is meeting an important need for these young learners.
Mathematics: The new mathematics curriculum is certainly engaging Columbia students! It is exciting to hear children voice real disappointment when the lessons end. It is encouraging that students believe they can be successful and are becoming much more confident in engaging in academic discourse. The iReady mathematics data makes evident that there is much work to do for children to attain grade-level proficiency but having a program that excites the learner and supports the instructor should make this mountain much easier to climb!