- Classrooms
- Preschool
- Kindergarten
- Primary Circle
(Grades 1 & 2) - Middle Circle
(Grades 3 & 4) - Oldest Group
(Grades 5 & 6) - Art
- Library
- Music
- Science
- Woodshop
- Spanish
- Service Learning and Partnerships
- Mini Courses
- Sports
- Extended Day
Classrooms
Welcome to our classrooms. These sites represent a sample of the student activities in our classrooms over a few years. They have been created by teachers and students to give you a glimpse into their day at SRV. Some classrooms use their sites as teaching tools and the child-centered creative process is clearly visible. Each site has its own personality. The sites are evolving and content may vary depending on what is happening in each classroom. These sites represent a sample of the student activities in our classrooms over a few years. Enjoy!
» View the Sights and Sounds of SRV video
SRV's Schedule and the Use of Time
SRV has a rich and diverse educational program. The classroom curriculum covers Physical Development, Emotional and Social Development, Learning Disposition, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Technology & Information Literacy, all of which are valued and essential elements of the education of the whole child. In addition to the above, all SRV children attend or participate in our special subjects and programs: Shop, Music, Art, Science, Spanish, and Sports. All of our students are also involved in the Service and Partnership Learning and the Organic Gardening and Sustainability programs. Chorus is also offered as an optional class for second graders and up.
Add to the above list things like recess (since all children need regular opportunities for exercise and to simply play) and quiet time (a school-wide institution that provides even the oldest students with time to rest, relax and reflect, which are increasingly important skills in this high-speed world) and you begin to see how hard it is to plan our use of time!
In order to optimize the learning possibilities within the time allowed, we will continue to use "block scheduling" this year. This means that most of the specials teachers have been assigned to groups in large blocks of time. (The only exception will be Spanish, which will be scheduled in discrete half-hour slots.) For example, a classroom or Circle will have Dawn for a whole morning. This allows the specials and group teachers to decide together when and how to send students to the specials class. For most specials, most of the time, the children will go to the special in small groups for part of the morning, and have part of the morning in their classroom in small groups for reading, math and the like.
Block scheduling also allows the specialist and group teachers to work together in both classrooms, so they can support each other, and collaborate on integrated curriculum. They can even take the whole morning to work together on a special project or go on a field trip. Teachers and students will be able to go with the flow of learning, to switch gears when something is not working or an unexpected opportunity has arisen, and to keep going when something is working really well or just needs more time than originally planned.
In order to fit everything in while maintaining our focus on our priorities, this year we decided to cut back a little on two regularly scheduled activities. First, during the weeks when we do not have Mini Courses this year, we will no longer have All-School Choice. Instead, this will be more "open" time for classroom and specialist teachers to work together as appropriate, enriching and extending curriculum and projects. Second, Assemblies have been cut back to every other week. Each group from Kindergarten up will host three assemblies through the year, and special assemblies will be scheduled occasionally in alternate weeks. This will allow the children to continue to benefit from the experiences of hosting and learning to be a good assembly audience, while giving the classroom teachers a little additional time with the students to enrich and extend their programs.
