Our Teacher and Classified Employees of the Year!

Teacher of the Year – Sonja D’Souza: Mrs. D’Souza teaches third grade at Kimmel Farm and is a member of the inaugural staff. She graduated from UNC-Greensboro with a B.A. in Education and later received a Masters in Education with an emphasis in language and literacy at Salem College.

Mrs. D’Souza was born in a small town in Austria near the Swiss and German border adorned by beautiful lake "Lake Constance" or "Bodensee" in German. She met her husband here in North Carolina and is the mother of two sons, Kevin and Sean. Mrs. D’Souza loves to cook along with her husband, Vincent, who is originally from India, and she enjoys reading and tending to “my little Monarch Butterfly garden.”

Classified Employee of the Year – Beth Krivsky: Mrs. Krivsky is in her second year at Kimmel Farm but is serving in her first year as our school’s science specialist. Mrs. Krivsky has a B.S. in Biology from Virginia Tech and worked in the Environmental Science fields following her undergraduate work, and at Broward College in Florida. She is married to Pastor John Krivsky, and the couple has three children, ages, 11, 14, and 16.

She works very hard to enhance science education in addition to what students learn in their regular classrooms. Her philosophy is to make science fun and fascinating. She uses many hands-on activities to bring to life science concepts that can only be learned well through problem-based learning methodology.

Canned Food Drive Surpasses Expectations!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving Mrs. Brodeur's first grade and Mrs. Mabe's fifth grade hosted a school-wide canned food drive that far surpassed expectations. The problem was introduced in the form of a PBL lesson where students were given the real life scenario that the Second Harvest Food Bank was running short of food during a time of great demand for area families. Students were asked to analyze the problem, and come up with realistic solutions which translated into a school-wide canned food drive. From there, ideas to make it a success evolved in student groups all working on a community service project that incorporated reading, writing, math, and social studies, technology and information skills, and health.
Students developed a video commercial which was posted on Mrs. Brodeur's website, a post was placed on her class blog, and a competition between classes was designed to help increase participation with the promise of a popcorn party awarded to the class that collected the most items. Ideas to share the news on morning announcements and via posters, and in our school's Tuesday bulletin were all generated by the students.
For two weeks students brought in canned goods and non-perishable foods. Between 1,000 and 1,500 cans and items were collected. Items continued to come in well past the deadline and more large donation boxes were placed in the front lobby to accommodate the overflow. By the end of the drive seven boxes were filled with food to help those in need. Fore more information on The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina go to http://hungernwnc.org/. Although Kimmel Farm Elementary is no longer working on a formal project you can still help individually! Thanks to all who contributed and Happy Thanksgiving to all from the Kimmel Farm family!

You Make the Rules!

Every year classrooms all over the world establish their class rules. There are many ways to do go about this, but if you really want your students to follow the rules they have to have ownership of them, be accountable for themselves, and for the process. Using PBL methodology Mrs. Ellington's second grade class was given the autonomy to create a set of class rules.
The students were challenged with this:

You are a teacher, and the new teacher across the hall is having difficulty teaching and maintaining order in her classroom. The children are noisy and frequently getting hurt. She comes to you for advice. How can you help her?
Working in groups students came to consensus on three simple rules.
1- Listen and Follow Directions
2- Respect People and Their Property
3- Be a Responsible Student

This covered pretty much any scenario students might face in a typical day and it was a great way to use PBL to let the students have control and think through the same process a teacher does each year. This seems like a simple thing, but it's really not. Students are constructing knowledge, discussing collaboratively, coming to agreement or arguing their points constructively, and bringing back possible rules for students to follow. Thinking at that level is hard, but it develops problem solvers and begins to get students to think about applying these skills in other areas. Check out Mrs. Ellington's post on her class blog and leave a comment!

Year Three Begins at Kimmel Farm!

Yesterday marked the beginning of year three at Kimmel Farm and approximately 800 students filled our classrooms, excited to start a new adventure. Our school first welcomed students at open house on Tuesday, August 23. We ran a split open house schedule where parents and students could choose to attend open house from 12:00 to 2:30 or in the evening from 5:30 to 7:30. The split schedule allowed the many parents and students to flow through the building freely to meet teachers, get a little more quality time meeting teachers, and looking around the school to see what may be in store for the 2011-2012 school year!

One parent commented that the split schedule allowed them to attend their child's open house for the first time because they worked second shift and they were never available during the standard evening open house. There is a survey on our school's website under the quick links for parents to give us feedback on how they felt about the split schedule. Please take the time to answer three questions so we know how we're doing! There were many positive comments expressed verbally to faculty and staff. Teachers and staff all are excited about being a progressive school preparing students through our theme of problem-based learning!

Kimmel Farm/CERTL PBL Pre-K a Shining Success!

Kimmel Farm Elementary, in collaboration with its education partner The Center of Excellence for Research Teaching and Learning (CERTL - part of the Wake Forest School of Medicine) hosted a week-long PBL-Pre-K camp fohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr rising kindergartners August 8 through 12. The PBL Pre-K had a culminating celebration on its final day with students sharing with parents/guardians what they learned through PBL and a short musical performances.
The camp mirrored a typical school day, and was designed to give kindergarten students who will be attending Kimmel Farm Elementary a chance to become familiar with the school, its problem-based learning theme, and nurture a level of comfort before all students report back for the 2011-2012 school year. During the week students participated in hands-on learning experiences that aligned with real-world phenomenon. The class was facilitated by Barbara Kibler, one of Kimmel Farm’s kindergarten teachers and its 2010-2011 Teacher of the Year.
PBL methodology is most associated and used in with medical schools and the education of doctors. Kimmel Farm Elementary’s theme is problem-based learning. Kimmel Farm teachers have been trained through CERTL and implement the methodology with children in all curricular areas and at all grade levels. The wekk-long camp was featured in the Winston-Salem Journal Thursday, August 11th. Click the link to read the story.
Here's a slideshow featuring the culminating celebration held Friday, August 12th.