Setting and Context

Culture and Community Context

Polaris Expeditionary Learning School (PELS) in Fort Collins, Colorado is

unusual among other schools in the Poudre School District (PSD) for a number
of reasons. For instance, Polaris is not a neighborhood school, but instead
enrollment is entirely choice based. As the name implies, PELS adheres to the
ten expeditionary design principles and the five core practices. The students
spend more time learning about specific topics in depth and spend significantly
more time than average discovering how that learning relates to the people and
economy of their community. Classroom practices and school culture
emphasizes self-direction and personal responsibility. This direction extends to
applicable skills such as various forms of communication, critical thinking,
problem solving and cooperative learning. The practical application of this type
of knowledge and skill to real world scenarios and situations informs the
curriculum. As a school of choice and an alternative model of education, Polaris
seems to attract a subset of families and students that seemingly trend toward
college educated and liberal members of the Fort Collins community.

Demographic Characteristics

This culturally specific appeal apparently contributes to a slightly

skewed demographic among the schools students. Polaris has a considerably
higher percentage of students that identify as non-Latino Caucasian, at just over
85% compared to the district average of 73%. Consequently, the percentage of
students of other ethnicities is lower than average. This is perhaps most evident
in the disparity between the number of students identified as Hispanic, 7.5% at
Polaris as compared to 18.2% for the Poudre School District in general. The
percentage of student participation in NSLP is slightly higher at Polaris than
average for PSD at 35.6% to 31.6%. The teacher to student ratio is a little higher
 than average compared to other combination schools in Colorado at 17:1 as
opposed to 14.8:1.

Most of my own experience at PELS has taken place in the kindergarten

classroom. There are eighteen students in the class. The kindergarten teacher
usually has the assistance of a paraprofessional during school hours. The
students generally sit in groups of three to four students around individual
tables in the classroom. The classroom culture is unusually geared toward
student responsibility; especially for students of this age group. The students
are expected to address their own needs and responsibilities with a high degree
of autonomy. The students are also held to an unusually high degree of
accountability based on my somewhat limited experience working with students
in the kindergarten classroom. The students spend time working and reading
independently as time and activity afford, and earn and lose personal time in
accordance with their actions and behavior.

Classroom Environment and Students

The classroom itself is relatively typical of kindergarten classrooms.

Their teacher, Julie, sits at a station in the far corner of the room. Her desk is
surrounded by a quarter circle of student computer stations. The students have
a rug area at the front of the room where they participate in discussions and
activities with their instructor. This area of the classroom is located next to a
large whiteboard and smartboard. Several similar staging areas around the
room are used for specific activities. Another rug area is located adjacent to a
small classroom library where students can find books to read independently.
Two other areas are seemingly used for activities related to math, science, and
general classroom discussion. The students share a restroom, drinking fountain,
and one of the two sinks with the neighboring first grade students.

There are ten male students and eight female students in the Polaris
kindergarten classroom. This ratio of students is reflective of the higher
percentage of male students in the student body of PELS. These are some of my
observations based on the time that we have spent working together. These
descriptions are not comprehensive in nature; these students are complex and
ever changing. These notations are for the most part, personal characteristics
that have been formative in how I interact and provide instruction to these
students as individuals.

1. Male student: This student is a proficient reader who is

confident in his abilities across a range of academic criteria. In
spite of this high degree of development, he struggles with
some concepts and activities. This manifests itself in some
minor issues with classroom behavior.
2. Male student: This student exhibits some inconsistent issues
with attention and comprehension. When he is actively
engaged, he is able to perform most tasks well.
3. Male student: This young man is curious and inquisitive. He is
eager to achieve and to learn, but seemingly lacks some
confidence, prevents him from testing his own limits.
4. Male student: This male student exhibits some characteristics
that I associate with TAG students. He is uncomfortable making
mistakes and seems to have some minor challenges with social
interaction and physical agitation. In spite of this, he is eager to
learn and show what he has accomplished.
5. Male student: This young man is an excellent communicator
and seems to demonstrate an abnormal capacity for abstract
thought. He excels in art and communicates about his work
eagerly and effectively.
6. Male student: This male student is an excellent reader. His
mental development is observable in different ways. He does
have some difficulty with impulse control and organization of
his own thoughts.
7. Male student: This male student is relatively quiet and reserved
in his actions. He seems to have some difficulty remaining on
task and receives regular correction related to this tendency.
8. Male student: This student is gregarious in his interactions with
his peers and instructor. His social nature and communication
style is the subject of regular corrective action.
9. Male student: This student is a good reader. He exhibits a
considerable maturity in some ways, but has trouble containing
his thoughts and sharing them at appropriate times.
10. Male student: This young man is very social. He exhibits an
unusually developed sense of humor. He is eager to learn and to
demonstrate his thinking to others.
11. Female student: This young person seems to have a high degree
of mental maturity for her age. She is able to articulate her
ideas verbally and to translate abstract thinking and reasoning
to her schoolwork.
12. Female student: This student is reserved and quiet, making it
difficult to describe her effectively. She is able to describe her
own thoughts and ideas clearly when approached individually.
She follows instruction well and seems to be able to understand
abstract concepts more readily than do her peers.
13. Female student: I have reason to believe that this young person
is exceptionally intelligent. Unfortunately, this characteristic
seems to cause her to become bored with some classroom
practices and to act out in unproductive ways.
14. Female student: This student is an excellent communicator. She
follows instructions well and is able to have social interactions
with her peers and teachers without being disruptive.
15. Female student: This student is very reserved. She exhibits a
proficiency in art that is beyond most students in her class. Her
quiet and orderly demeanor causes her to be interacted with
less frequently in the classroom. When she is engaged, she is
able to articulate her reasoning with great clarity.
16. Female student: This kindergarten student is extraordinary in
that she never seems to require correction for activity or
 behavior. She listens well and performs well academically. She is
a good communicator when she is engaged and is able to reflect
on her own work thoughtfully.
17. Female student: This student is confident in her interactions
and work. She diverges from the instruction at regular intervals,
but accepts direction well.
18. Female student: This student is very social and comfortable
communicating with adults. She has considerable difficulty
following instruction, though I suspect this is the product of her
own self-direction rather than an attention deficiency.

Support Structure/

School-wide Policies for Management

My own knowledge of much of the culture, resources, and practices is limited. Nearly all
of my time has been spent working in the kindergarten classroom. I have had virtually no
interaction with members of the faculty or student body outside this context. The school
employs at least two counselors that address the needs of the students according to general age
groups. Parent and community volunteer participation is an important aspect of the school
culture. However, I have not had the opportunity to experience this firsthand while working at
the school. I am aware that the school has a standardized system of correction that is used
almost universally. Again, this is not something that I have been able to observe for myself in the
kindergarten classroom. Polaris has a full-time health technician as well as a registered nurse
who works at the school weekly. The school utilizes campus security officers and school
resources officers in accordance with the policies of PSD for middle and comprehensive high
schools.

Polaris seems to be a great school with a faculty dedicated to helping students achieve
and to become prepared to thrive beyond the PSD educational system. The academic
performance of students at Polaris is higher than average by some measures and lower in other
areas. Outstanding academic performance does not seem to be the primary emphasis of the
curriculum. Students at Polaris seem to be learning how to learn for themselves and why they
are learning in the first place. In a rapidly evolving economy and global community, these skills
may ultimately prove to be assets that are more valuable.