by Head of Community Engagement Gordon Mathis
On Friday, November 17, Early Learning will host Grandparents and Special Friends Day where visitors will have a chance to meet our incredible EL specialists. In addition to their classroom and grade-specific teachers, all EL students meet with these eight specialists. On a daily rotation, students receive instruction in music, Kinetic Wellness, library skills, and Spanish. Every four weeks students meet with teachers in the following fields for a full week: maker studio, creative movement, art, and social and emotional learning.
EL Maker and Design Thinking Specialist Amelia Hobson introduces all EL students to the engineering design process, following a template of Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test and Improve, and Share. Her goal is to integrate an interdisciplinary approach into the curriculum, from helping Kindergarten students to move like an animal and create animal masks or costumes to introducing fourth grade students to robotics and screen-free coding. Her motto is “hands-on, minds-on.” EL students learn the application of STEAM initiatives in the maker studio.
EL Creative Movement teacher Juana Farfán collaborates with lead teachers to develop lesson plans that incorporate authentic movement to enhance the students’ learning. For the youngest students, the creative movement classroom provides a space to develop structured, loco-motor skills. Older students create and improvise movements that coordinate with classroom learning topics. At the beginning of the year, all 216 EL students created an “effervescent mural” to encapsulate the spontaneous joy of movement.
EL Art Teacher Kyra Sampson welcomes all EL students into the arts studio space as they are, bringing the skills they have. For the youngest artists, Mrs. Sampson recognizes that the children have ideas in their heads that they cannot express – they create images on the page or in 3D. The class experience helps these youngsters think about the ideas in their heads by manipulating shapes, colors, and lines. OIder students are more able to explain their ideas; they develop their own perspectives and learn to recognize other, new perspectives. Fourth graders learn to offer and receive critiques of their artwork, developing critical thinking skills along the way. Mrs. Sampson also teaches the biographies of individual practicing artists, introducing students to diverse artists from a range of backgrounds.
EL Counselor Dana Eisenman supervises the social and emotional learning curriculum. The backbone of the social and emotional learning program is to help students develop empathy and express their feelings in healthy ways. She teaches students to understand others’ perspectives and to work toward conflict resolution when tensions arise among children. Youngest children progress from statements about basic emotions such as “I feel happy” or “I feel sad;” older children express more nuanced feelings. Fourth graders model how to resolve conflicts by considering several choices of action as the next step in developing healthy peer relations.
The grande dame of EL, Linda Floyd has taught music at Galloway for more than thirty years. She fosters a love and appreciation for music in all of her students to revel in the excitement and enthusiasm for learning about music. The youngest students develop a musical foundation, both rhythmically and melodically, through singing and the introduction to the recorder. As students get older, they progress to using hand percussion and barred percussion instruments like xylophones, then to the ukulele and some drums. Mrs. Floyd also supports classroom lessons; for example, third graders learn folk songs sung on the American frontier as part of lessons in the western expansion of the United States. Under Mrs. Floyd’s direction, her music students perform the Spring Fling as a celebration of the end of the school year.
EL Kinetic Wellness teacher Byron Taylor helps our youngest athletes develop spatial awareness, learning to control their arms, legs, and bodies to keep themselves and others safe during games. Older students, whose bodies are a little larger, build on body awareness, honing skills in hand-foot-eye coordination through throwing, catching, and kicking a ball. Students in second and third grades work on accuracy in throwing, catching, and kicking, working on eye-foot coordination including where to place the ball. Fourth graders are ready to aspire to the accomplishments of older students; they are introduced to sportsmanship and emotional intelligence through handling things like wins and losses.
EL librarian Steve Bartl helps students learn and hone their reading skills. At the youngest level, he goes into the Pre-K classrooms, introducing the youngest children to the joy of reading through story time. He chooses books that make children laugh and smile so they associate good feelings with reading as they begin their “book lives.” His goal is for students to become passionate readers, built on the foundation of adults reading to them at home. Beginning in first grade, he teaches children to use the card catalog and online resources, eventually helping them find “just the right book” and encouraging young readers to switch genres as well. Beginning in second grade, EL students have 1:1 access to computers at school. For these older students, Mr. Bartl introduces the Galloway Research Wheel, helping students find a variety of resources and learn to paraphrase their findings in their own words. “Mirrors and Windows” informs Mr. Bartl’s approach to his work as a librarian; “windows” help students understand and celebrate different cultures and the world around them through the books they read and “mirrors” allow students to see themselves reflected in the texts they choose.
EL Spanish teacher Sra. Gissella Diaz-Williamson's goal for the curriculum is to build a foundation for future language learning, introducing the language with joy and fun so students will choose to continue learning Spanish in the future. Sra. Diaz-Williamson understands teaching Spanish as the creation of a window for another culture, another way for students to see the world. After this introduction, EL students will possess at least two perspectives about their world, English and Spanish. She introduces Pre-K students to students using short messages, focusing on communication, not memorizing. Older students progress to hands-on, real-world activities. For example, Kindergarten students learn about reptiles in their classroom curriculum; in Spanish they study iguanas and learn vocabulary like scales, other animals with scales, body parts, characteristics of reptiles, and their movement. In second grade students learn about Latina and Latino artists. Their paintings are windows to the artists’ worlds; the children write short sentences describing these artists’ creations.
We look forward to showing our grandparents and special friends how our Early Learning students benefit from a wealth of learning and growing experiences that extend beyond the traditional classroom!