Friday at V-Prep

This morning, we finished up the DRA testing with the kids (they only do it a few times a year) and went to Unity Circle. I mentioned Unity Circle in a post two weeks ago, but in case people (aka Senora Botella, probably the only person reading this blog) don’t/doesn’t remember, it is a time where the kids get to yell at scream and dance and cheer for their classroom. The kids also get “Humanitarian awards” and are very proud of those. Most of the chants are about getting to College, because there is an incredibly large emphasis on college at V-Prep. Elissa and I laugh at some of the cheers, because they’re ALL about how if the children act and perform well in kindergarten, they’ll go to college. Of course, we understand that the teachers are just engraining education in the children’s minds, but it’s still funny to listen to 5 year-olds chant about how excited they are for college. They’ve got a long ways to go. After that, I finished up some reading with the kids and was very impressed with this one girl. She was in 1st grade and had passed a level 40 in reading, which is a 3rd grade level. I also had a kindergarten the other day who was reading at a 2nd grade level. It is really impressive. A lot of the kids were much better readers than the Hawken kids. The day progressed and we did some busy work making name-tags for the kid’s field trip to the zoo next Tuesday. I also made an observation this week. I have literally never been in a louder lunch room in my whole life. I realized it’s because it’s really the only time the kids get to hang out and laugh with their friends during the day. While I’m really impressed with Village Prep, I do get upset that the kids have literally NO free time. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the school that I’ll definitely be writing about in my final report.