August 18, 2005

Kristin Adkins, a new long-term substitute teacher at Mills Lawn School, getting her room ready for the first day of school, which is Wednesday, Aug. 24.

When they return to Mills Lawn School on Wednesday, Aug. 24, students will find several new teachers, a new science lab, a new classroom structure for fifth and sixth graders and a new reading program.

“It will be a really good year,” Mills Lawn Principal Christine Hatton said in an interview last Thursday.

Two weeks before the first day of school, the building was already abuzz with preparations for its 300 students, with maintenance workers washing windows in the kindergarten classroom and several teachers unpacking boxes and decorating their rooms.

By last week at least 10 teachers had already started preparing their classrooms, according to Hatton, who said that Mills Lawn teachers traditionally return to work far before their scheduled return, which this year is Monday, Aug. 22.

“There’s none of this only-two-days-before-school-starts stuff,” she said.

The newest additions to the Mills Lawn teaching staff include Angie Warner, who will teach a morning class of kindergarten to supplement the morning and afternoon classes taught by Becky Brunsman, and Kirstin Adkins, a long-term substitute who will teach the third-grade class formerly taught by Marcia Williamson, who is on medical leave. Both Warner and Adkins are in their first year of teaching. Linda Sikes, former special education teacher at Yellow Springs High School, will be the new guidance counselor at Mills Lawn, replacing Amy Huneck.

The school will also have a new band director, Dennis Farmer, to introduce music to students. Farmer, who takes the place of former band director Michael Ruddell, will also work in Yellow Springs High School and McKinney School.

Ben Trumbull, who teaches fifth and sixth grade, has been busy preparing the school’s new science lab, which is located in the former classroom of sixth-grade teacher Don Nowak, who retired last spring after 34 years at the school. A teacher was not hired to replace Nowak, Hatton said, because the school has an unusually low number of sixth graders.

Instead, the school will use Nowak’s room as its new science lab, and Trumbull will teach all science classes to fifth and sixth graders. Science materials from other classrooms are being moved into the lab, which also features a greenhouse. The new lab means that students will have more room and easier access to materials for their projects, and that they “will do more hands-on science rather than teacher demonstrations,” Hatton said.

Inspired by the new lab, the school plans to emphasize science this year, Hatton said, and will sponsor several scientists-in-residence throughout the year. “It’s a godsend,” Hatton said of the new lab. “It’s a big deal.”

Fifth and sixth graders will experience a new way of learning, moving each day to different classrooms with different teachers rather than staying in a single classroom with one teacher, as in the past. Along with Trumbull in science, fifth graders will study social studies with Jeananne Turner-Smith and sixth graders will study social studies with Pam Dapore. Fifth and sixth graders will also work with interest learning education teacher Becky O’Brien, and intervention specialist Brandon Zappin will provide support.

The new fifth- and sixth-grade structure was developed by teachers as a way to offer students an easier transition between Mills Lawn and McKinney Middle, where seventh graders travel to different classrooms for each subject, Hatton said.

Students in grades one through three will inaugurate a new reading program, which is centered on a collection of small fiction and nonfiction books produced by the Wright Group, a part of McGraw Hill. Along with the new materials, teachers will introduce a new “system of delivery” for reading, the 4Block program, Hatton said. The program allocates two and a half hours a day to reading, including guided reading and self-selected reading, and also includes writing and spelling segments.

Along with new programs, the school will continue several successful existing programs, including the anti-bullying initiative that Huneck started two years ago. As part of the program, Mills Lawn students monitor each others’ behavior, using the program’s slogan, “We don’t do that here,” when problems develop, Hatton said. The program seems to have heightened students’ awareness of bullying behaviors and to have also empowered them with methods to deal with those behaviors, she said.

“We don’t have all the answers,” she said of the program. “But it’s certainly worth keeping.”