Beattie Elementary School is an "open classroom building" The idea of the open classroom design was that students would be in a “larger” classroom with several teachers working with them. Classrooms were not separated by walls and closed off by doors. As a result, movement occurred across class areas by both students and teachers, with everyone working collaboratively. The schools mascot is a ram which promotes their philosophy of R.A.M.S. or "Respect All, Act Responsibly, Motivated to Learn, and Safety". Their motto is "RAMS climb higher" putting emphasis on efforts and positive behavior and rewarding these efforts. The entire staff and administration work as a team to best support the students and their individual needs in the school. Here is a link to the Beattie Elementary School website for more information;
While teaching at Beattie I was able to observe their RAMS methods put into action. There was a sense of strong community between staff, administration and parents. Student with additional needs were given special care to make sure they were still a part of the learning environment and able to grow alongside their peers. Teachers here care about their students deeply and educate themselves on how to best accommodate the students circumstances. They want to see their students achieve their goals! Kimberly was an amazing resource for me who provided useful and thoughtful feedback on how I approach students with certain needs as well as great classroom management techniques. We had a particularly challenging group of kindergarten students this semester but we worked alongside Kimberly to find the methods that best worked with the body of students.
Demographic Characteristics
All information is current as of August 2019 and was found on Schooldigger.com
Student/teacher ratio:15.7 Number of students:349 Racial breakdown: White: 65.6% Hispanic: 24.1% Two or more races: 5.4% Free/discounted lunch recipients:54.7% Statewide Ranking:191st of 965 Colorado Elementary Schools
Classroom Environment
During my semester at Beattie I saw my kindergarten and third grade students once a week. The classes rotate from A Day to B Day, so there were two weeks between each group I was teaching. Our program was called WonderLab. WonderLab is designed for students to explore and play with different mediums in a group setting. This allows for group and individual creative thinking. We focus with our students on the process rather then the product and the artistic behaviors learned. This allows students to go on to create art without much instruction, learning more towards adult artistic tendencies.In WonderLab we provided choice-based projects as well allowing our students the opportunity to create freely and go on their own creative learning journey. We used 2D as well as 3D materials and techniques in order to provide students with a many means of creating while exposing them to a myriad of mediums, tools and techniques. Documenting our students learning was vital in WonderLab as it allowed us as teachers to see that our lesson was successful, that our students are learning as well as getting our students to talk about their work like artists through careful questioning. This questioning also lend itself to a type of soft assessment that is both beneficial to the teachers and students alike.
Safe School and Students with Special Needs
The Poudre School District believes in an inclusive and safe climate for all students. The campus security officers are the eyes and ears of the district. They promote positive relationships between students, staff and law enforcement officials. They also provide and often update crisis plans and implement prevention programs for the safety of all Poudre District Schools.
PSD's approach to emergency response and crisis management focuses on five phases of crisis management: 1. Prevention School prevention include visitor screening, suicide assessment and intervention, implementing prevention programs, and conducting threat assessments. 2. Protection Some school protection programs include evacuation, sheltering for hazard, lockdown, lockout and "run-hide-fight" protocols. 3. Mitigation Examples of mitigation include installation of backup generators for power outages; early warning systems for severe weather events, fencing hazardous areas, safe construction and defensible space for wild land fires, and the presence of School Resource Officers. Any of these measures could mitigate the impact of an event. 4. Response Taking action to effectively contain and resolve the crisis or emergency, including all aspects associated with notifying and protecting the students, staff, public and property. 5. Recovery Assisting students and staff in the healing process and restoring educational operations in schools. The two main priorities of this phase are the emotional recovery of the students and staff and the physical recovery of school.
Students with Special Needs: At Beattie Elementary there are 7 student support specialists. Their goal is to keep their students striving to always do their best, provide them with a nurturing environment where learning is enjoyable, and to help them make measurable, significant gains with each year. To take a deeper look into their programs follow this link: