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Context and Setting

Culture and Community Context 

          Polaris Expeditionary School is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Polaris is known for being a choice based school, this means that there are no boundaries that dictate student enrollment. They teach kindergarten to twelfth grade and the learning that takes place here is known as expeditionary learning. Expeditionary learning differs from traditional learning because instead of always learning in the classroom, expeditionary learning takes place outside the class in the form of learning expeditions. The idea behind these expeditions is the belief that students learn more by experiencing the world around them.

         

              Polaris operates under the idea that the staff and students function as a a crew. The saying they use, "We are crew, not passengers," this means that they work together as equals towards accomplishing common goals. The students also refer to their teachers by their first names and it is clear to anyone who enters the building that building relationships is the schools number one priority. The learning groups are small which means more one on one time for each student. The average student to teacher ratio here is 15:1. Classes are capped off at 18 students at the elementary level and 22-29 students at the secondary level. Older student's also mentor the younger students which strengthens the sense of a well knit community. 

Support Structure

Polaris is very fortunate to have the support structure that they do. Their support structure is made up of teachers, principles, councilors, paraprofessionals,  parents and volunteers. There are a total of 27 teachers, 2 councilors and 2 paraprofessionals within the school. The school also hosts csu pre service art teachers every Friday. The CSU students divide up among the classrooms with two student teachers in each classroom. Theses pre service teachers also function as an additional support system for the students at Polaris. 

Polaris is very fortunate to have the support structure that they do. Their support structure is made up of teachers, principles, councilors, paraprofessionals,  parents and volunteers. There are a total of 27 teachers, 2 councilors and 2 paraprofessionals within the school. The school also hosts csu pre service art teachers every Friday. The CSU students divide up among the classrooms with two student teachers in each classroom. Theses pre service teachers also function as an additional support system for the students at Polaris. 

Classroom Environment and Students

At Polaris, Laine and I were in Julie's 1st grade classroom. The room itself is extremely welcoming, when you walk in you are greeted by bright colors and a well organized room. Her room has four separate reading nooks and it also has a two story playhouse. Natural light filters in from the far wall which is comprised of only windows and students have multiple spaces to be creative.  

Demographic Characteristics

There are currently 386 students enrolled in Polaris with 45% being female and 55% male. 

The ethnicity breakdown is as follows:

White: 87.0%

Hispanic: 6.2% 

Two or more races: 3.9% 

  • 36% of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

School-wide Policies for Management, Safe Schools, Conflict Resolution and Student with Special Needs 

     In our classroom when dealing with student conflict we have found that the best way to deal with it is to separate the students that are in a conflict and to not place those students together. To get students attention in our classroom we used the nose tap technique. When we wanted our students attention we would walk around with our finger on the tip of our nose and look at students, eventually the entire class would quietly be waiting for instruction with their fingers on their nose. 

       The Safe School Program is in place throughout the Poudre School District. It is focused on crisis prevention and management. It is the responsibility of the Principal at each school to uphold the four plans associated with this program: 

1) A designated and trained crisis response team, come up with a plan on how to react. 

2) Lockdown, fire evacuation and severe weather procedures, come up with a plan that becomes their  routine action.  

3) Access and building check-in procedures, have a system in place to know who is in the building at all times.  

4) Staff training and plan for yearly drills and procedures, make sure that these drills are the routines so that everyone knows what to do, by practicing these drills it helps the students prepare and know what to do for an emergency. 

Students with Special Needs: Maureen Gates is the current paraprofessional who assists the students with special needs population. Although Polaris does not have a traditional Special education program, they exercise a nondiscrimination policy.

Polaris employs the SWAP program through the Poudre School District. SWAP or School to Work Alliance Program is a free transitional program that helps students with special needs find and keep a job.

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