La Tierra Montessori Charter School seventh grade teacher Sylvia Probasco took a democratic approach to decide what her students would cover for their science unit.
She gave them a choice between rockets, hibernation and shadow measurements. The seventh-graders overwhelmingly picked rockets. Probasco said she asked for the students’ input because she believes it could help them retain what they learn.
“It has been a fun unit,” she said. “I just usually ask kids, I say, ‘We got to do science. What would you like to learn about?’ I gave them two or three choices and sort of kind of followed their lead. It is their classroom and it is easier to teach what they want to know.”
However, she said the students will have to do a unit on shadow measurements, after they are done with the rocket unit.
One student, Isaiah Lopez, went home and conducted an Internet search, hoping to find a rocket he could build at home. That is when the future architect discovered he could construct a similar rocket and launch it with a rubber band.
“I was looking for a rocket and found it online,” he said. “It was fun to make and look at them launch.”
Lopez said it made him proud to share his Internet findings with his classmates. The students eventually made two types of rockets and launched them side-by-side, to see which type would go the farthest.
His classmate, Madeline Teague, enjoyed the exercise because it gave her a chance to learn stuff the class doesn’t cover every day. She wants to be a published author and is working on a novel. She enjoyed the project’s collaborative aspect.
“I feel like it was nice to learn about aerodynamics and teamwork,” she said. “It was also, definitely, about learning how to work with other people.”
Probasco said once La Tierra Montessori School Governing Council Vice President and Española YMCA Teen Center Director Ben Sandoval learned what the students were working on, he donated four model rocket kits to the class.
He hung out in the classroom while the students assembled them, to answer any questions, or help as needed. He also served as the safety officer and helped the students launch the model rockets on the softball field, behind the school.
Probasco’s teaching assistant Melisha Martinez said the students really got into the exercise.
“I like the hands-on learning,” she said. “They are getting work done and they don’t even know it.”
Last seventh grade class
This will be the last La Tierra seventh grade class that gets a chance to pick their science assignment.
School officials, citing staffing issues, are phasing out the seventh grade class, which would mean the 100 percent elimination of La Tierra’s middle school component.
The eighth grade class was phased out at the end of the 2016-17 School Year.
La Tierra Head Learner Christie Berg said state regulators authorized phasing out the seventh and eighth grade classes at her request. The idea was for school personnel to focus on the kindergarten through sixth grade students.
“Our charter was originally kinder through eighth grade,” she said. “Through the years, it has been extremely difficult to find qualified middle school teachers.”
Berg said finding qualified staff is difficult because, although the school served seventh and eighth grade students, it was technically an elementary school.
This means those interested in teaching sixth and seventh grade at the school had to have an elementary school license, as opposed to a secondary license.
She said the school’s official designation as an elementary school has led to her turning away many teachers who have taught in the traditional middle school setting.
Any prospective teacher had to have an elementary school license to illustrate that they were capable of teaching across disciplines in an all-day classroom setting.
“It is because we are an all-inclusive classroom,” Berg said. “We are an elementary school teaching a middle school population. Having to keep that curricula going all day is extremely difficult.”
She said she is working on establishing a Pre-K initiative that would mesh with the existing program, but that effort is highly dependent on available funds from the New Mexico Legislature.
“If the legislator funds it (the Pre-K), then I would be Pre-K up to grade sixth grade,” Berg said.