Footprints in the Snow

The other day I looked out across my front yard at the crisp white snow.  Much to my surprise, many varieties of animal had made footprints in my yard.  There were rabbit, deer, cat and dog prints all intertwined in the snow.  The prints made me think about the way we follow in the footsteps of others as they lead the way into the future. 

At Columbia, our teachers work together to plan the optimum pathway for our students.  They carefully mark the way to achievement by giving our students a virtual view of the footprints of those who have successfully gone before.  During their planning sessions, our teachers work to disaggregate data from student assessments and observations to ensure all of our students follow the pathway to successful accomplishment of their learning objectives. 

As I visited with some of our teachers recently, one of our teachers noted that she regularly searches through lesson ideas to choose hands-on learning activities for her students.  On this particular day her students were working on a journal entry, before collecting snow for a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) experiment.  The students, mostly five-years-old, built small snowmen and measured them.  The class worked together to investigate the rate that the snow melted into water. 

In another classroom the students were learning how to report their experience investigating by singing an adventure song.  Other students, also five-years-old, were writing in their journals and sharing their snow day experiences with other students.  All of these students were excited to be learning by following the plan and the path their teacher had laid out for them. 

After leaving the elementary, I had the opportunity to speak with a student at Columbia Middle School about his robotics class.  It was amazing to hear about the STEM fundamentals he was learning.  Later, I spoke with students at Central High School about the activities they were participating in through the Robotics Team.  All of these activities, assignments, experiments and investigations had one thing in common: a Columbia School District teacher had carefully planned each step to guide their students to a successful future.  Just like I was able to track the footprints in the snow, the students are able to follow their teachers’ leadership on the effective pathway of learning.

If you are interested in learning more about Columbia School District or any of our programs, please email me at pamela.campbell@myeagles.org or call 5175926641.