BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs — The first semester is over, but a lot of work is still ahead for the four Bonner Springs-Edwardsville District schools' implementation of a new curricular model.

Last spring the district's three elementary schools - Bonner Springs Elementary, Edwardsville Elementary and Delaware Ridge Elementary - plus Clark Middle School were each awarded a five-year, $125,000 grant by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to implement and train teachers in the projects-based learning system developed by the nonprofit organization Outward Bound USA.

Expeditionary Learning stresses active learning methods and the incorporation of character development in curriculum. According to the Outward Bound Web site it takes two to three years for schools fully implement to basic practices of Expeditionary Learning.

District teachers began training last summer in the Expeditionary Learning model, with the same active, team-based methods they're bringing to their own classes. They've also been working with school designers from Outward Bound in incorporating the EL model into their curricula.

Last semester in their first Expeditionary Learning excursions, district students tagged Monarch butterflies, visited old bridges in Jackson County, Mo., to study their structures and studied the tracks of wild animals at Wyandotte County Lake Park. This semester, class projects will include the creation of a Web page on the Bonner Springs city Web site for children to virtually explore the city, a garden and a coffee-table book comparing farming methods of today and a century ago.

All four of the schools have new principals, and Cindy Lockyear is principal of the brand-new Delaware Ridge Elementary. Lockyear previously served as the principal of Bonner Springs Elementary.

Lockyear, like the other principals, said the EL model has brought changes that are visible on a daily basis in her school.

For example, each classroom's LCD projector show throughout the day the learning target for students that day, expressed in "I can" terms from a student's perspective.

"I walk through the classrooms and it's amazing how something that small affects student engagement," Lockyear said. That's because, Lockyear said, "they live in a world that is graphic, colorful and interactive. If something was handwritten on the board they might not notice it but this gets their attention and holds it."

As an example Lockyear mentioned a student in first-grade teacher Cinthia Fletcher's class who, before going outside for a break, asked her teacher, "What's our learning target for recess?"

Another change visible each day are the morning meetings each class begins its day with, Lockyear said. The meetings can focus on team-building, she said, or they can be used to talk about issues in the classroom that a student wants to discuss.

Or, Lockyear said, they can be just sitting in a circle and "sharing something they experience since they left preschool the day before."

The EL model emphasizes five character traits - collaboration, integrity, trust, quality and passion - and Lockyear said her teachers do "a good job weaving (them) into everything we do : So when you walk though our building, you hear teachers ask, 'Is this quality work?' And you hear students say that too: 'Ms. Durbin, I'm turning in quality work.'"

Or, just as important, when the student's work falls short, "they'll recognize that they're not," Lockyear said.

The new school's staff includes four first-year teachers, who Lockyear said "have really embraced the idea of EL."

Lockyear didn't know if the fact the teachers were brand-new made their adopting EL methods any easier, she said, but the fact "they hadn't developed their own personal teaching style" may have made a difference.

Lockyear said young people today, including teachers, are more likely to be risk-takers, but that her veteran teachers were also enthusiastic about Expeditionary Learning.

"Our veteran teachers have learned from our new teachers as much as the brand-new teachers have learned from them," Lockyear said.

The students have taken to the EL model as well, she said.

"It hasn't taken long at all for them," Lockyear said, "especially students at the intermediate grade levels. They know that they're EL - they hear teachers using that title and term with them and they make connection with things in the classroom: 'Oh, this will be part of the investigation,' then go into why it's connected."

Investigations are the EL term for a type of project. Several investigations go into an actual expedition, which typically is a semester- or year-long project in which an entire class takes part, and which includes material from all the core subjects.

Because teachers are still in the process of learning how to put into practice the EL model, full-scale expeditions at Bonner and Edwardsville schools probably won't be undertaken until at least next school year.

Last semester second-graders at Delaware Ridge studied native plants at the Grant Bradbury Park in Topeka, kindergartners studied the life cycle of a butterfly and tagged Monarchs in Lawrence, and third-graders studied the tracks of wild animals at Wyandotte County Lake Park.

In one example of the different culture that is part of the EL model, the trips are termed fieldwork, and the use of the term "field trip" is discouraged.

"We call it field work because it's not just for fun," Lockyear said. "It's for the experience of learning."

Put another way, Superintendent Robert Van Maren said the new term was also meant to reflect that students are not going on class trips as passive observers, but as "little researchers."

The fifth-graders at Delaware Ridge are putting together a history of the young school, and in a related project, for their investigation the fourth=graders are researching the cultures of the American Indian tribes - the Delaware and Wyandot specifically - that had lived near the school's location.

Already, Lockyear said, teachers have begun integrating different subjects throughout the school day, with social studies and math the only two segregated subjects.

"We're becoming more effective at integrating the different core subject areas," Lockyear said. "I think one of our ideas as we became better at integrating, was that time is a big issue. With anyone in education it always seems there's never enough time to teach all the state standards so there's a constant pressure."

As teachers get better at integrating the core subjects, Lockyear said, it should become easier to teach what's required in the allotted time.

At the end of the semester, all the school met for a slide show to review the classes' accomplishments. It was an emotional meeting, Lockyear said, because "I think the first year you're working away, and you don't realize what you've accomplished."

The parents Lockyear has heard from have gotten behind the EL program "100 percent," Lockyear said, which has yielded tangible benefits for teachers.

"We've had more parents than any school I've been involved with volunteer to help in field experiences," Lockyear said, "and more dads than I've ever seen."

Principals at the other three schools that have begun to implement Expeditionary Learning model also report good experiences.

"I think it's going very well," said Clark Middle School Principal Steve Cook. "I think the teachers are even more enthusiastic" about Expeditionary Learning than they were in the beginning, he said.

"They want it to happen even faster," Cook said. "It's a challenge," and important to remember that it's a five-year process for putting into place the EL model.

Still the results at Clark are already evident, he said.

"I see a lot of good changes," Cook said. The way we approach kids, the way they do their work - we're changing attitudes."

One change is the creation of advisory groups, to get students' input on issues such as lunches and scheduling, Cook said.

"It's just a new way of doing things," Cook said. "It's demanding but very rewarding."

Because he's new to the school, having formerly served as an assistant principal at Bonner Springs high School, "I don't have much context to compare it to last year. But it has been an absolute pleasure to work in that environment, because everyone is focusesd on the same goal: to improve student learning in a way that is new and refreshing. We've only done this a semester but it would seem difficult to go back to a traditional model."

Last semester at Clark eighth-graders studied older bridges in Jackson County to see how they were built and maintained, sixth-graders will incorporate their studies of Greek and Roman history into a PE unit.

Kim Mitchell, principal at Bonner Springs Elementary, said her school's first semester with Expeditionary Learning has gone well.

"It's gone great," Mitchell said. "I couldn't have asked for a better semester."

Mitchell said the biggest difference visible at her school was the use of learning targets.

"It's just a nice, natural progression kids have picked up on," she said.

"The other thing is the way our professional development looks," Mitchell said of the school's teacher training. "Teachers when they come back (from EL seminars) are so excited they make you learners."

At the seminars, which are conducted at EL schools around the country, teachers learn by doing projects called slices, which are similar to the projects they'll be designing for their classes.

"They put you in a learner role," Mitchell said. "It's so valuable to see, so they see this is what we do."

Professional development isn't always seen as a positive esperience for teachers, Mitchell said, but the EL seminars have her teachers "bubbling with enthiusiasm and bursting with ideas : Our goal is to have every staff member attend EL professional development."

The upcoming projects for Mitchell's students include a Web site linked to the city of Bonner Springs site, which will be created by third-graders and made especially for kids.

"They're going to take people on a virtual field trip of Bonner Springs," Mitchell said, and it will include recreational activities, festivals and businesses.

The fifth grade will study global warming by looking at the plight of polar bears, kindergartners will plant gardens in front of and behind the school, and second-graders will study the changes in Kansas agriculture in the last 100 years to produce a coffee-table book.

Overall, Mitchell said she thought the culture of Expeditionary Learning "adds to life of the building, so I think it's just more cohesive - the curriculum and the staff, we're all on same page."

Amy Riebel, the new principal at Edwardsville Elementary, said the school's adoption of the Expeditionary Learning model was part of the school's appeal for her in applying for the position.

That's because, she said, "the professional development opportunities that EL provides and the way that EL structures learning for kids, and takes what we know about best practices as educators into daily practice."

Although it's been just a semester, Riebel says she's far from disappointed.

"At this point it's exceeded my expectation," Riebel said of the Expeditionary Learning school design for Edwardsville.

"I think EL provides some common language and design principle," Riebel said. "It gives something to focus on, and building culture and character. That's something we've really focused on, introducing those design principles."

Those principles are self discovery, having wonderful ideas, students' own responsibility for learning, empathy and caring, success and failure, collaboration and competition, diversity and inclusion, thee natural world, solitude and reflection, and service and compassion.

Other changes Riebel said are noticeable in the school are the morning meetings that begin every class and the community meetings for the whole school.

Students have noticed some of the changes, she said, but "the real change for them will come when we begin the investigations" this semester.

Riebel said she wanted to keep what those investigations will be as a surprise for the students, but did say they would be focused on science or social studies, including pieces of Kansas history, weather, the life cycles of living things, economics and other compelling topics chosen by teachers.

Count Superintendent Robert Van Maren as a fan of EL.

"Honestly there are lot of negative things I deal with," he said, but since teachers at the four schools have been attending EL training, "I enjoy getting these notes : They're all positive. I can even say beyond positive."

That's because instead of just sitting and listening, teachers observe EL model schools in action.

"I don't think any of our principals got into education because they wanted to do things the way it was when they were in school," Van MAren said. "That's why these people got into education."