Cache La Poudre Middle School
The School Community:
"Cache La Poudre Middle School is an amazing little school located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Our small size of 320 students and staff has allowed us to become a community of learners where every student is known and valued as an individual. Our dedicated staff has committed themselves to an innovative teaching style and spirit which embraces the future but still respects our past traditions.Cache La Poudre Middle School is a school where respect, rigor,relevance, responsibility and relationships drive learning.
Cache La Poudre Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School. Cache La Poudre Middle School is a safe, high performing school where students learn, work and grow with an experienced and dedicated staff."
-http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/
Our Mission...
"Cache La Poudre Middle School is a school where respect, rigor, relevance, responsibility and relationships drive learning."
Our Belief...
"Every student has the right and the responsibility to learn, every teacher has the right and the responsibility to teach."
Our Motto...
"Tradition plus Pride equals Excellence"
-http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/aboutus/mission.html
"Cache La Poudre Middle School is an amazing little school located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Our small size of 320 students and staff has allowed us to become a community of learners where every student is known and valued as an individual. Our dedicated staff has committed themselves to an innovative teaching style and spirit which embraces the future but still respects our past traditions.Cache La Poudre Middle School is a school where respect, rigor,relevance, responsibility and relationships drive learning.
Cache La Poudre Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School. Cache La Poudre Middle School is a safe, high performing school where students learn, work and grow with an experienced and dedicated staff."
-http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/
Our Mission...
"Cache La Poudre Middle School is a school where respect, rigor, relevance, responsibility and relationships drive learning."
Our Belief...
"Every student has the right and the responsibility to learn, every teacher has the right and the responsibility to teach."
Our Motto...
"Tradition plus Pride equals Excellence"
-http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/aboutus/mission.html
Enrollment Ethnicity
White: 89% Hispanic: 7% Asian/Pacific Islander: 2% Am. Indian/Alaska Native: 1% African American: 1% |
Enrollment: 320
Full Time Teachers: 22 Full Time Total Staff: 31 Average Years Teaching of Staff: 13 Education Level of Teachers: 14 of 22 teachers hold master's degrees or above Student to Teacher Ratio: 14:1 Student Average Daily Attendance: 95.1% |
History
In an expanded and modernized building that was first occupied in 1949, Cache La Poudre Middle School (CLPMS) has a proud and long tradition. The school is located on the Cache La Poudre River and surrounded by the natural environment of the Foothills. This location provides boundless opportunities for students to explore the natural environment through their content areas.
Learning Culture
CLP Middle School is a small school of 320 students. It is a school where experienced teachers know and have a relationship with every student. We provide a safe, positive, productive, and mutually respectful environment where students and staff have the right, and responsibility, to learn and teach. We believe in academic rigor, content relevance, school safety, respect, and personal responsibility. We believe parents, students, staff, and community working toward these goals creates a learning environment in which students are successful and excellence is rewarded.
Academic Environment - International BaccalaureateCLP Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School. The curricular requirements of an IB school are that every student take English, Math, Science, Humanities, Arts, Technology, a 2nd Language, and PE every year. Through the process of becoming an IB school, the teachers at CLPMS are passionately working to create inquiry based units of study with the student at the center of learning, and to align the operations of the school to the IB mission of creating globally minded life-long learners.
Instructional & Enrichment Programs
In addition to English, Social Studies and Science honors courses for 7th and 8th graders, we also accelerate students in Math at the most appropriate level. This year Spanish is a required class for 6th and 7th graders and will be a required course for all grade levels in the 2015/2016 school year. Students also have access to exemplary Arts, Music, and Technology courses. Outside of school students have the opportunity to travel to Europe or Central America on trips led by CLP Teachers. Athletics plays an important role in many of our student’s lives. While our smaller size allows all student athletes ample playing time, CLP sports teams are always competitive at the district level. Finally our Academic Challenge program rewards students throughout the year for their success in the classroom. These courses and opportunities fulfill our goal of providing a holistic and engaging education.
Opportunity for Parents
Parents serve on the School Accountability Committee and volunteer in a variety of ways to help students and the school. The School Accountability Committee provides input about goals, curriculum, and accountability and helps develop the annual report to the community.
The above information was pulled from the CLPMS website: http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/aboutus/faq.htm
In an expanded and modernized building that was first occupied in 1949, Cache La Poudre Middle School (CLPMS) has a proud and long tradition. The school is located on the Cache La Poudre River and surrounded by the natural environment of the Foothills. This location provides boundless opportunities for students to explore the natural environment through their content areas.
Learning Culture
CLP Middle School is a small school of 320 students. It is a school where experienced teachers know and have a relationship with every student. We provide a safe, positive, productive, and mutually respectful environment where students and staff have the right, and responsibility, to learn and teach. We believe in academic rigor, content relevance, school safety, respect, and personal responsibility. We believe parents, students, staff, and community working toward these goals creates a learning environment in which students are successful and excellence is rewarded.
Academic Environment - International BaccalaureateCLP Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School. The curricular requirements of an IB school are that every student take English, Math, Science, Humanities, Arts, Technology, a 2nd Language, and PE every year. Through the process of becoming an IB school, the teachers at CLPMS are passionately working to create inquiry based units of study with the student at the center of learning, and to align the operations of the school to the IB mission of creating globally minded life-long learners.
Instructional & Enrichment Programs
In addition to English, Social Studies and Science honors courses for 7th and 8th graders, we also accelerate students in Math at the most appropriate level. This year Spanish is a required class for 6th and 7th graders and will be a required course for all grade levels in the 2015/2016 school year. Students also have access to exemplary Arts, Music, and Technology courses. Outside of school students have the opportunity to travel to Europe or Central America on trips led by CLP Teachers. Athletics plays an important role in many of our student’s lives. While our smaller size allows all student athletes ample playing time, CLP sports teams are always competitive at the district level. Finally our Academic Challenge program rewards students throughout the year for their success in the classroom. These courses and opportunities fulfill our goal of providing a holistic and engaging education.
Opportunity for Parents
Parents serve on the School Accountability Committee and volunteer in a variety of ways to help students and the school. The School Accountability Committee provides input about goals, curriculum, and accountability and helps develop the annual report to the community.
The above information was pulled from the CLPMS website: http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/clpms/aboutus/faq.htm
Students and the Classroom:
The classes I had an honor of teaching were two sections of 6th grade art, then co-teaching two sections of sculpture, along with an art 1 and art 2 class.
The 6th grade class is focused on introducing the students to materials, techniques, and the elements and principles of design that apply to the all art mediums. My main project is in the form of a flag that represents the most important aspects of life of each individual student. The big idea is to not only understand each element of art, but to apply those elements and create a composition in a flag format that represents each student in a unique way.
The classroom has three work tables with eight stools around them. There are also cabinets along the east and north walls to allow for more work space for the students. Each student is assigned a seat at the beginning of each project to help manage the classroom, keeping the students perspectives fresh, learning names and taking attendance. There are multiple boards on the walls for display and example purposes. In the back, north west corner of the classroom you pass the teacher’s office and enter the sink, glazing and more storage areas. It is a pretty small room for art purposes, but the students manage really well, allowing for a respectful environment to naturally occur since there is a lot of shared space.
The 6th grade classes started with a short warm up each day to help the students focus and get into the art zone. The main focus was creating an individualized flag: we started by exploring what flags were all about, why they were used and their importance. Students researched different symbols used on flags and incorporated them or changed them to use on their very own flag.
In the two sections I had a pleasure of teaching I saw many different styles of learners, abilities, and diverse students overall. I worked with a few illiterate students in a way that they could create a message through visual images rather than words. Other students with low attendance, and showing them the importance of art and school overall. And finally a wide range of management tools used for different students that allowed them to take behavioral responsibilities into their own hands; to see the importance of behavior and how it would affect their schoolwork along with a shared workspace and their peers.
The classes I had an honor of teaching were two sections of 6th grade art, then co-teaching two sections of sculpture, along with an art 1 and art 2 class.
The 6th grade class is focused on introducing the students to materials, techniques, and the elements and principles of design that apply to the all art mediums. My main project is in the form of a flag that represents the most important aspects of life of each individual student. The big idea is to not only understand each element of art, but to apply those elements and create a composition in a flag format that represents each student in a unique way.
The classroom has three work tables with eight stools around them. There are also cabinets along the east and north walls to allow for more work space for the students. Each student is assigned a seat at the beginning of each project to help manage the classroom, keeping the students perspectives fresh, learning names and taking attendance. There are multiple boards on the walls for display and example purposes. In the back, north west corner of the classroom you pass the teacher’s office and enter the sink, glazing and more storage areas. It is a pretty small room for art purposes, but the students manage really well, allowing for a respectful environment to naturally occur since there is a lot of shared space.
The 6th grade classes started with a short warm up each day to help the students focus and get into the art zone. The main focus was creating an individualized flag: we started by exploring what flags were all about, why they were used and their importance. Students researched different symbols used on flags and incorporated them or changed them to use on their very own flag.
In the two sections I had a pleasure of teaching I saw many different styles of learners, abilities, and diverse students overall. I worked with a few illiterate students in a way that they could create a message through visual images rather than words. Other students with low attendance, and showing them the importance of art and school overall. And finally a wide range of management tools used for different students that allowed them to take behavioral responsibilities into their own hands; to see the importance of behavior and how it would affect their schoolwork along with a shared workspace and their peers.
Topic and Rationale
Topic Taught:
The 6th grade art appreciation class focuses on basic art skill, vocabulary and technique. We started by exploring the elements of art, or the "ingredients," to better understand what an artwork is composed of. The students used their basic knowledge of these ingredients to create their final project- Our Custom Colors. Using personal inspirations, students created a flag that truly represented them. Techniques for this project focused on the design cycle. Educating students on planning, practicing and executing their plan was shown through their strengths in the project. We started by looking at flags; the purpose of flags, the symbols used on them and why they were important to a variety of people. Students would discuss with each other and the class about why they though some flags were more popular than others; but with a different point of view the significance of each flag could hold a similar sense of worthiness based on the individual. Using favorite colors, creating symbols for activities and landscape,s and adding their own flare to the project proved to be a successful outcome.
The 6th grade art appreciation class focuses on basic art skill, vocabulary and technique. We started by exploring the elements of art, or the "ingredients," to better understand what an artwork is composed of. The students used their basic knowledge of these ingredients to create their final project- Our Custom Colors. Using personal inspirations, students created a flag that truly represented them. Techniques for this project focused on the design cycle. Educating students on planning, practicing and executing their plan was shown through their strengths in the project. We started by looking at flags; the purpose of flags, the symbols used on them and why they were important to a variety of people. Students would discuss with each other and the class about why they though some flags were more popular than others; but with a different point of view the significance of each flag could hold a similar sense of worthiness based on the individual. Using favorite colors, creating symbols for activities and landscape,s and adding their own flare to the project proved to be a successful outcome.
relevence.pdf | |
File Size: | 47 kb |
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Significance of Topic:
Global: This topic allowed for students to practice problem-solving for a hypothetical situation with many possible solutions. They developed the skill of generating a variety of solutions and choosing which would be best. Additionally, students created their own personal meaning by applying their interests and values to making decisions about what to include in their portraits-both in drawing and ceramics. They gained a solid universal understanding that artists gravitate towards making art about what they like, as well as about the things that they know well or have experience with.
Personal:Joining the classroom at the beginning allowed for the students to see me as their teacher, and it allowed for the comfortability of the culture of the room. This project was particularly interesting because I pronounce “flag” in a midwest accent- a way many students had not heard before. This added an element of fun to our project and magnified how each student is an individual and can be represented in a unique manner. I enjoy conceptual natured art, with personal meaning behind every detail- something you may not even notice as a viewer, but it’s important to the artist. I took this idea of the conceptual self (a more abstract idea of self expression) and decided to challenge these students to this task. Allowing myself to share with the students helped them dig deeper and understand the concepts I wanted them to explore.
For this population: My co-teacher allowed me to take charge of the classroom. I created my own project in a way that would allow for the students to get to know me just as I would like to get to know them. Exploring the topic of self expression through conceptual means is different than flat out stating what their interests are. However, the relevance extends far beyond my own interest and experience, so we decided it would be a successful and effective vehicle for addressing the required standards.
Global: This topic allowed for students to practice problem-solving for a hypothetical situation with many possible solutions. They developed the skill of generating a variety of solutions and choosing which would be best. Additionally, students created their own personal meaning by applying their interests and values to making decisions about what to include in their portraits-both in drawing and ceramics. They gained a solid universal understanding that artists gravitate towards making art about what they like, as well as about the things that they know well or have experience with.
Personal:Joining the classroom at the beginning allowed for the students to see me as their teacher, and it allowed for the comfortability of the culture of the room. This project was particularly interesting because I pronounce “flag” in a midwest accent- a way many students had not heard before. This added an element of fun to our project and magnified how each student is an individual and can be represented in a unique manner. I enjoy conceptual natured art, with personal meaning behind every detail- something you may not even notice as a viewer, but it’s important to the artist. I took this idea of the conceptual self (a more abstract idea of self expression) and decided to challenge these students to this task. Allowing myself to share with the students helped them dig deeper and understand the concepts I wanted them to explore.
For this population: My co-teacher allowed me to take charge of the classroom. I created my own project in a way that would allow for the students to get to know me just as I would like to get to know them. Exploring the topic of self expression through conceptual means is different than flat out stating what their interests are. However, the relevance extends far beyond my own interest and experience, so we decided it would be a successful and effective vehicle for addressing the required standards.