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Janice Ford |
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The Cornerstone schools in Greenwood are pleased to say, "If you could see us now." Threadgill and Williams are both older schools that appeared from the inside to be quite institutionalized. Some of the challenging appearances included windows with bars, long colorless halls, and an overall lack of friendliness for young children. The endless halls have now been broken with themes and children's literacy pieces. Many classes once lined in rows of desks have now been replaced by tables with chairs and cooperative learning centers. We would like to share our changes with you from the eyes of a Greenwood "Cornerstone" child. I can't wait for my mom to come and see my school now. The halls look really pretty, everybody says so, and my work is on the walls. All of the students are excited to see their work outside in the halls.
Here comes Mom now, she's looking at all the children's work. I wish she'd hurry and get to mine. But I like reading the walls too now that they're so nice-looking. I even see visitors stopping by to read the work of the students in my school. And you should have heard "Miss Lu" when she came the last time. I heard her say to our principal, that our school had really changed. Then I saw her reading some work by the kindergarteners. She was trying really hard to make out all the words. I know if she'd asked the kindergarten students that wrote it they could have told her. It seems that now no one just walks down the halls anymore, everyone stops and reads them.
Our school now has a place to just drop and read. I really like that; it is cozy and has books all around and pictures on the wall. I like having a special place that's been made just for us to read. Sometimes our teacher will take us there for a story or even the principal might stop by and read a book.
The coaches (I like that name, it sounds better than teachers to me) have made really nice reading centers in our classrooms. They have also helped the other teachers in their room make the same kind of center for kids to read books. We have a bunch of new books that have just arrived at our school. So soon our reading centers will be busting with new titles and we'll get to have another book frenzy. I can't wait to see the new titles. I heard my teacher say some of the books were for schema. I know what that word means; it's when you connect something to something else. I know because I've made this connection with books I have read. I really like to say the word schema. It sounds really neat.
You can tell that our school loves to read when you pass the nurse's office. Sometimes she gets a book from the Cornerstone room and reads it to a student. She's a good reader and is really pretty, too. I hope she reads to me again real soon. Also our principal reads to us. I did not think that he would have time to read to us, but he does. Not only does he read to us, but he plays the guitar too and even put a story on something called Power Point from his computer so we can follow while he reads. I really like this because I feel like I'm on "Reading Rainbow," one of my favorite shows on ETV.
We now get to work in separate centers of the room. Centers are like little corners where you can go to read, write, listen, and look up things. Sometimes we'll have a science center and even have a frog or fish there. And books are all around, I keep some at my desk to just read when there's time. If you want to tell the teacher about the books you're reading then you sign up for something called a conference. (I thought parents only had those to talk to teachers about the things kids do. Now I know that kids can have a conference too.) I like having a conference because I get the teacher all to myself for that time. She always says something nice to me about my reading and then asks me what I need to do to improve. If I don't know then she'll tell me. She then writes something about what I've read and how well I read it.
I always liked our school, but now I love it because it reminds me of home where we sit at tables to work and talk. I hope you'll get to visit our school sometimes. I think you'll like it too, especially the way it is now!
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