A Fly on the Wall

I recently had the chance to be a fly on the wall at Vita Nova. Well, not really...all the students saw me (I know this because they waved their hands vigorously!), but I did get to observe what was going on in the middle of the day, and it was amazing.

I watched Miss Sandra teach a phonics lesson, and it was wonderful to behold. Not only did the children enthusiastically sing along with the opening song, but they were eager to shoot their hands in the air to answer Miss Sandra's question, which that day was, "What words begin with T?" One student was inspired to say "tree" because she looked up and saw a woodland painting on the wall.

Next I went into the adjoining room and watched as Miss Melissa worked with the older students. The environment was completely different, as it should have been. These were a first grader and third grader, one of whom was working on a handwriting assignment, the other taking a math test. Quiet. Focused. At work.

As an educator, I could not help but analyze and evaluate what I observed. I saw neat shelves, and materials stored in an orderly way to help facilitate concepts of academic order and personal behavior. It was impressive to see how the teachers had taken the larger space of the Latvian Community Center and carefully divided it into small spaces, each well defined with objects and furniture appropriate to the students using it.

How do you measure success at a school like Vita Nova? Already we have seen increased enrollment, continuous positive comments from parents, and discernible growth in the maturity and academics of the students. If my child did not already attend VNCA, I would want to enroll him immediately.