Prince Street Elementary bringing in new creative classroom ideas
SALISBURY, Md. – Prince Street Elementary is mixing it up a little this upcoming year in hopes of getting students excited about learning.
From various flexible seating to a new philosophy on how to teach their students, Prince Street is hoping to empower their students to not just succeed in the classroom but outside as well.
“We’re going to try some new things in our classroom which comes into play with stages, in-flex seating, lots of moving around for the kids. They can stand on their seats, they can stand on the stage, it’s way more engaging then the way we used to teach the curriculum before,” explains Paige Baker, a third grade ELA teacher at Prince Street.
They’ve launched a series of new initiatives to get their kids excited to go to school. To a place that’s all inclusive for every student because Prince Street is very unique and diverse.
Jason Miller, Prince Street Principal, explains, “We represent 15 countries and speak 12 different languages here. We have about 100 students who speak English as a second language within our 800 student body here, and all of our students here receive free breakfast. They all receive free lunch and they get a free snack three days out of the week.”
Kim Bearden, co-founder of Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, led the start to this new way of learning Monday with keynote address to the staff. She tells 47 ABC, “Whether it be issues of race or other kinds of diversities, it’s very important even for the staff here which is very diverse to have those difficult conversations but those meaningful ones about how we can seek to understand each other what we’d like to know about each other so we can better serve the students.”
Prince Street is changing things up in hopes of creating a new culture and climate, one that engages their students in learning and get them excited about going to school by doing things a little non-conventional.
“When they are on the stage, they are publishing their work, they are sharing the writings that they’ve done and it gives them such an accomplishment and they know how important it is to be up here. It also gives them an opportunity to be the role of the teacher,” explains Baker.
Miller adds, “If kids enjoy coming to school and they have that mindset of I what to come to school then they are going to do academically better as well.”
Now Prince Street is planning on implementing even more new creative and fun initiatives throughout the school year, so this is just the beginning.
