Culture and Community: Polaris Expeditionary School resides in Fort Collins, CO. The physical neighborhood is quiet and friendly, though Polaris is 100% choice and not all students live close. Some students do live close enough to see people coming to school in the morning. The school is community supported and has a comfortable feel. Polaris parents are very involved in the school and success of their students. Polaris is a K-12 school with a standards-based grading system. Their focus is on transferable skills, with fieldwork so that the students have opportunities to apply the knowledge they gain in school. The student population is rather small with a student to teacher ratio of about 16:1 up to 20:1.
-Support Structure
Although Polaris does not have an extensive staff, they do have separate k-8 and high school counselors, full time library technician, a health technician, a resource room and para professionals on duty. Polaris has an extremely active Parent Action Crew, supporting the many field trips and various other in school activities.
-Demographic Characteristics -
According to 2014 demographic polls Polaris school had an enrollment of 284 students (they were 6-12 at the time), with a higher male enrollment than female. The total minority enrollment was 13% and total economically disadvantaged was 32%. The student to teacher ratio has remained consistent at 16:1. In subject proficiency the students scored higher in language arts than math and have a 78% rate of graduation.
-Classroom Environment and Students -
The room seems squirreled away in relation to the rest of the school. When you walk into the room you are met with the coat room. Each student has their own coat closet and storage cubicle. Turning slightly to the right you enter the room proper, beside the door is a sink for rinsing hands, lunch and snack items. There is a bathroom that is shared with the kindergartners right next to the sink. There are several different areas of the room: the gathering spot, the fort, the imagination station, student centers and expedition zone. Students sit in groups at round tables, every student has a designated spot to sit. There is a centrally located SMART board where students can see it from wherever they are in the room. There is also a computer station right in front of the SMART board. Each of the students have their ways about them, and they range in cognitive skill levels. Within that range of skills there are a few that are at one end or the other of the range. Most of the students in the class are amicable and generally social people. Student 1 is shy, and is detail oriented in her work. Student 2 is boisterous and likes to find loopholes in instruction.
-School-wide Policies for Management, Safe Schools, Conflict Resolution and Student with Special Needs -
In Poudre Valley school district they take safety very seriously. The district has pushed safety into an everyday, everywhere practice integrated with instruction and daily activities. I believe the idea is to prevent conflict as much as possible through carefully planned and maintained operational elements. However, should a conflict between students or between student and teacher arise there is set in place a very specific set of actions. Students are issued a code of conduct that they and their parents or guardians are expected to be familiar with. Beyond this there are management techniques and support in place to remind students when necessary about appropriate conduct. Misconduct can be handled in a variety of ways; redirection, removal from situation, counseling, peer mediation, and expulsion. Though this district has a expulsion prevention committee in place to support students and avoid expulsion. Poudre valley entrusts a fair amount of student responsibility for conduct and safety management.
First grade class management. First grade teacher at Polaris runs a tight ship. She does not let her crew get out of hand or forget what their 'jobs' are. Her techniques are to the point and well considered. When a student is off task she usually directly engages that student and reminds them of their responsibility through a series of simple questions. Most of the students stay on task and are respectful of each other and the time given for work, this demonstrates a thoughtful environment carefully designed by the teacher and built in place by the class as a whole.
I have had very little experience with special needs students at Polaris, but through other Poudre valley schools special needs students are generally supported and range from no integration to full integration of student population. Those who need support for integration usually have para-professionals that shadow them through their classes. Not all classes and not all students are supported in this fashion, usually only the more severe cases. In the first grade class, we do not have any obvious special needs students. A few may have learning disabilities, but may not have IEP's in place.
-Support Structure
Although Polaris does not have an extensive staff, they do have separate k-8 and high school counselors, full time library technician, a health technician, a resource room and para professionals on duty. Polaris has an extremely active Parent Action Crew, supporting the many field trips and various other in school activities.
-Demographic Characteristics -
According to 2014 demographic polls Polaris school had an enrollment of 284 students (they were 6-12 at the time), with a higher male enrollment than female. The total minority enrollment was 13% and total economically disadvantaged was 32%. The student to teacher ratio has remained consistent at 16:1. In subject proficiency the students scored higher in language arts than math and have a 78% rate of graduation.
-Classroom Environment and Students -
The room seems squirreled away in relation to the rest of the school. When you walk into the room you are met with the coat room. Each student has their own coat closet and storage cubicle. Turning slightly to the right you enter the room proper, beside the door is a sink for rinsing hands, lunch and snack items. There is a bathroom that is shared with the kindergartners right next to the sink. There are several different areas of the room: the gathering spot, the fort, the imagination station, student centers and expedition zone. Students sit in groups at round tables, every student has a designated spot to sit. There is a centrally located SMART board where students can see it from wherever they are in the room. There is also a computer station right in front of the SMART board. Each of the students have their ways about them, and they range in cognitive skill levels. Within that range of skills there are a few that are at one end or the other of the range. Most of the students in the class are amicable and generally social people. Student 1 is shy, and is detail oriented in her work. Student 2 is boisterous and likes to find loopholes in instruction.
-School-wide Policies for Management, Safe Schools, Conflict Resolution and Student with Special Needs -
In Poudre Valley school district they take safety very seriously. The district has pushed safety into an everyday, everywhere practice integrated with instruction and daily activities. I believe the idea is to prevent conflict as much as possible through carefully planned and maintained operational elements. However, should a conflict between students or between student and teacher arise there is set in place a very specific set of actions. Students are issued a code of conduct that they and their parents or guardians are expected to be familiar with. Beyond this there are management techniques and support in place to remind students when necessary about appropriate conduct. Misconduct can be handled in a variety of ways; redirection, removal from situation, counseling, peer mediation, and expulsion. Though this district has a expulsion prevention committee in place to support students and avoid expulsion. Poudre valley entrusts a fair amount of student responsibility for conduct and safety management.
First grade class management. First grade teacher at Polaris runs a tight ship. She does not let her crew get out of hand or forget what their 'jobs' are. Her techniques are to the point and well considered. When a student is off task she usually directly engages that student and reminds them of their responsibility through a series of simple questions. Most of the students stay on task and are respectful of each other and the time given for work, this demonstrates a thoughtful environment carefully designed by the teacher and built in place by the class as a whole.
I have had very little experience with special needs students at Polaris, but through other Poudre valley schools special needs students are generally supported and range from no integration to full integration of student population. Those who need support for integration usually have para-professionals that shadow them through their classes. Not all classes and not all students are supported in this fashion, usually only the more severe cases. In the first grade class, we do not have any obvious special needs students. A few may have learning disabilities, but may not have IEP's in place.
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