The A-B-C's of Back-2-School
It's a new school year in more ways than one
By Emily McFarlan, Staff Writer
CARPENTERSVILLE - There were more than just new faces at schools across Carpentersville-based Community Unit School District 300 as students went back to class Monday morning.
There were new additions on both Golfview and Parkview elementary schools in Carpentersville to accommodate 250 students. There was a new technology curriculum, the school district's first ever; and new media - Superintendent Kenneth Arndt announced its embrace of social media phenomenon Twitter at twitter.com/CUSD300 on his Webcast.
And Arndt could think of a number of new things planned for D300 this school year, such as the preparations for the return of the H1N1 ("swine") flu along with the seasonal flu this fall.
The school district also reduced costs by cutting bus aides for preschoolers en route to the deLacey Family Learning Center in Carpentersville, and continued its commitment to the environment by exploring the feasibility of an off-site wind farm.
But, Arndt said, "Compared to other years' firsts, this should be a relatively quiet opening."
Here are just a few of the new things students, parents, teachers and other D300 residents can expect in the 2009-10 school year.
A. Teachers hired back
"I've got to tell you guys a secret: I'm a little nervous," said Karen Conzelman, a teacher at Liberty Elementary School in Carpentersville. "Anybody else nervous?"
Every hand in her kindergarten classroom shot into the air.
"You know what the cool thing is?" Conzelman continued. "We're all here together."
If Conzelman was nervous Monday on her first day teaching kindergarten at Liberty, she didn't show it. As her morning class lined up outside before the school day began, she high-fived a little girl with dark, braided pigtails and assured another in a pink windbreaker she would love to help her learn to read.
"I'm excited," she said during the morning session. "I was one of the teachers released because I was a first-year teacher. I was excited to get the call from" John Light, D300 human resources director, about returning to the classroom this fall.
Conzelman is one of the 32 first-year teachers, both full- and part-time, laid off from D300 at the end of last school year because of financial concerns. This year, because of higher-than-expected enrollment, all but four to six of those teachers were hired back,
according to the district's HR director.
"Some of them took jobs elsewhere," Light said. "One moved out of state with her fiance. But the vast majority were called back."
Conzelman said she got the call to come back from Light only a few weeks ago and has spent every day since then readying her classroom and making "zillions" of name tags for her morning and afternoon classes. She'd come in early in the morning, leave to make dinner for her family, then head back to Liberty until the custodians left for the night.
The Carpentersville resident was a second-grade teacher at Gilberts Elementary School last school year, a career change after returning to school to earn her master's degree.
She had worked for years with children with special needs. But when her husband, Chip, was deployed with the military in 1999, she wanted to be home with her own three children. During his three deployments, she began substituting for teachers in D300.
She "got the bug once I started working with the students and their exuberance and love," she said. "They want to learn. Every day is a new day - just the smiles on their faces. To me, it's exciting."
B. All-day kindergarten
The scene was similar at Hampshire Elementary School: The same "Night Before Kindergarten" book on the shelf; a classroom of boys and girls sitting "criss-cross
applesauce" on the floor around their teacher; a few tears when it came time to visit the computer lab.
The difference was that Deb Skog's students wouldn't be leaving when other kindergarten classes were dismissed at 10:45 a.m.
Skog is teaching the first all-day kindergarten program in the school district, Hampshire's Kindergarten Academy. The two-year pilot program will determine whether D300 offers the 8 a.m.-to-2:15 p.m. option to other elementary schools in the future.
But Monday morning was "pretty typical," the fifth-year kindergarten teacher said.
"It's a typical day. Every year, we have excitement and tears, sometimes at the same time - nothing a few days can't cure."
Mornings - when regular, half-day kindergarten classes also are in session - will be the core of learning at Kindergarten Academy, Skog said. The afternoon hours will be spent developing the things they've learned, as well as on science and social science activities and lessons.
The benefits of that full day include more time for both individual and group instruction, and to get to know the students. Children are less stressed by time constraints when you can return to a subject in the afternoon, she said.
On Monday, though, some were just missing their morning snacks.
"This is new for them. This is a long day," Skog said. "Some of them are already saying they're hungry."
C. Expanded AVID program
The college visits stand out most to Tom Hay, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
"Some of these kids have never left their hometown," Hay said. "The little ninth-grader was on Northern Illinois University's campus, and he said, 'Are you allowed to leave campus?' "
The visits were part of D300's Advancement Via Individual Determination program, which is being expanded now after its first-year success.
AVID targets students in the academic middle who have the desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard.
Students are chosen through an interview and essay-writing process, not unlike college admissions. They make regular college visits. They meet in study groups, take notes, are placed in advanced classes and learn to read critically - skills they will need in college.
"Many of the students' parents have never gone to college, and they don't know how to get in the game - when to take PSATs or what classes to take," Hay said.
Last year, about 350 students in grades seven through nine took part at middle and high schools across the school district, he said. This year, the program is being expanded to sixth- and 10th-graders - about 600 students total, according to Hay.
Eventually, it will be offered through 12th grade, Hay said, and he plans to incorporate elements from AVID into classrooms across the district to add rigor to the curriculum.