16 Replies to "West Seattle schools: K-5 STEM at Boren principal's visit"

• Oliver March 13, 2012 (9:13 pm)

  We were delighted to meet Dr. McKinney! You can tell she will be an excellent leader and truly has the kids’ best interests in mind. She seems like an extremely good fit for West Seattle and this program. Even my sometimes-shy 6 year old chatted with her easily and when we left he shouted out a happy “bye, new Principal!”

• evergreen March 13, 2012 (9:13 pm)

  I LOVE Dr.McKinney. When she described her teaching philosophy and vision for this school, I almost cried. So did my husband. This is exactly what we have been seeking for our child….And just fyi, so far about 125 kids have applied for the school at last count, with only 50% of the choice applications entered thus far (for the entire SPS); thus, the number will be higher. They envision 3 K’s and up to 2 classes for every other grade (5th grade had only a few applicants, while 4th grade was unexpectedly high)…

• Oliver March 13, 2012 (9:18 pm)

  Exactly! When she talked about project based curriculum, I leaned over to my husband and said “I love her!”

• wsmama3 March 13, 2012 (9:41 pm)

  I am really excited about her vision – she gave the “right” answers but did it in a way that made me know she is both invested and real. She herself said she demands excellence but I also found her witty, articulate, warm, and open.

  Really excited to be on the design team (I’ve been taking notes about WSB readers thoughts so keep ’em coming!).

  Happy we made the call to take the risk. It’s gonna be worth it.

• Wsgeek March 14, 2012 (7:20 am)

  She was so authentic. I know words are cheap but when I hear that a school with integrated approach, project based and student driven develops confidence and tenacity and self respect I knew in my gut this was the right decision for my son. I really do believe her value in relationships will make this school successful. Also the building setup sounds fantastic with a science lab for K,1,2 and another for 3,4,5. Have a great meeting design team!

   

• steve March 14, 2012 (9:28 am)

  We are excited about the new principal and school too. However, I’m totally irritated that the graffiti on Boren is still there after 3 weeks. Shouldn’t facilities be on site at the school preparing it for the new year???

• evergreen March 14, 2012 (10:18 am)

  wsmama3 — Thank you for serving on the design team! Since you are open to community ideas, I am wondering if there could be a way for us to communicate our suggestions and/or concerns to the team without using WSB? This would be with the understanding that the design team is the final authority on all decisions, of course…First wanted to say that it is no surprise to me that the 4th grade applicants are so large. I think this must be due to EDM, since parents typically don’t discover the deficiencies of “fuzzy math” until kids are in the 3rd grade (per criticism all over the net). I imagine the design team is aware that a substantial portion of the applicant families are applying to STEM because they do not feel that EDM adequately prepares their children for middle and high school math…Finally, I am hoping that the STEM school does not incorporate Spectrum or “walk to math”, but rather as Dr. McKinney described, kids receive some individualized instruction within the mixed-ability classroom. The STEM school should consider all of its children “gifted” and have high expectations, and determine to reach each and every child, including all of the ELL. The human brain is intelligent, and all of the students are capable to learning complex math and science. They should not be categorized at such an early age into “gifted” and “not gifted”, for kids soak up these labels and form their self-concepts around them. In a mixed ability classroom, a project-based curriculum with lots of peer interaction benefits the faster and more slow learners for any given subject, for it provides the opportunity for kids to teach each other — this will deepen the learning of those kids who instruct, and it will challenge the other kids to think more deeply — not only would kids learn more content and higher critical thinking skills, but they would also learn how to collaborate with others and work with a diverse team (just like the real world). All kids are so much more than what kids show, and if they are not performing well, the instructional style should be adjusted. Bored kids may be highly intelligent but not perform or test well. I hope that this program nurtures the creativity and intelligence innate to all children. Thanks.

  • WSB March 14, 2012 (11:08 am)

    Re: information and communication concerns – If you haven’t already, I’d suggest bringing those concerns to your school board rep Marty McLaren – since ultimately district officials are accountable to the superintendent, who is accountable to the board, she would be a channel to work through. – TR

• evergreen March 14, 2012 (10:41 am)

  (Sorry, meant “all kids are so much more than what tests show”…. also, slower and faster learners per any given moment in time for any given subject, not as an overall student categorization.) Ok, I’ll stop commenting now so that this does not become a monologue…

• Oliver March 14, 2012 (11:19 am)

  I hope the design team looks at what math curriculums other K-5 stem schools in this country are successfully using. I think there is somewhat of a misperception about singapore math because in West Seattle public schools it is all we have to compare to EDM. But there are other options out there, perhaps some that are better for project based curriculum.

  Most importantly, I hope teachers have lattitute to use the methods that work best for the individuals in their classrooms. Basically, I hope that there isn’t so much pressure to adopt singapore based on assumptions that all options aren’t considered. I’m not defending EDM or maligning singapore math, I’m just saying that I hope the design team is fully informed about what works best in a project based, integrated curriculum.

• wsmama3 March 14, 2012 (1:45 pm)

  Oliver – I agree with you. My plan (and from what it sounds like “the plan”) is to set the curriculum based on an investigation into other STEM programs best practices.
  What I do hear (from the comments and the 2 meetings) is that parents are not satisfied with the EDM program (my kid-o in in K so we’ve not seen the “fuzzy math” stuff yet).

  Evergreen – I think your best bet is to send information via Kim (the design manager) and Marty (school bd rep). It’s not that I am unwilling to have you have my e-mail, I am just a little guarded about sending it out to everyone. Is there some way to PM it to you?

• wsmama3 March 14, 2012 (1:58 pm)

  Also – evergreen – I really love your comments above. I agree and am happy that Dr. McKinney will work with us towards this.

• On Graham March 14, 2012 (2:58 pm)

  WSMama3 – Would it be useful to set up a facebook, or other, group that STEM parents could join and submit feedback to/get updates from the design committee? Could eventually transition to PTA membership recruiting tool. Thanks again for volunteering to the design team! I wasn’t able to make the meeting last night, but glad to see the enthusiasm for Dr. McKinney. Very exciting!

• WSMama3 March 14, 2012 (9:56 pm)

  Yes On Graham – some lines of communication are getting set up. I am 100% sure WSB will send out all that info. I’ll also post here once we are set up.

• steve March 15, 2012 (6:02 pm)

  I just drove by Boren and it looks like some activity is happening there. It looked like with the sign maybe?

  • WSB March 15, 2012 (6:20 pm)

    Steve – We saw that too, and had made a note to circle back and see what the results were. They have been doing some exterior work; we reported on some graffiti removal recently. But the bulk of the work is still out to bid, as we mentioned toward the end of our report about last night’s Design Team meeting … TR

Sorry, comment time is over.