First Charter School Encounter

I had my first visit to Beacon Academy on Monday. Though I wasn't feeling particularly nervous about the visit, I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing I really knew was that it was a charter school, which meant that the students were integrated instead of being separated by grade, and their school included project-based learning.

I pulled up to the school, which meets in a Jewish center, and a policeman pulled up just as I was walking up to the door. The door was locked, but a woman opened it from inside and said, "Who are you?" I told her my name and that I was looking for Kimberly. "That's me," she replied, "And this is my husband." She nodded to the policeman who walked up behind me. Kimberly showed me into her classroom and left me in there while she talked to her husband in the hallway.

The students weren't currently in the classroom, and I looked around at colorful beanbag chairs, a leather couch, several swivel chairs, and laptops strewn about the room. I tried to imagine what it would be like with the students there. It reminded me a bit of homeschooling, as the setting seemed much more casual than a public school classroom.

The door opened, and a few students started to walk in, acknowledging my presence but not really saying much. One girl eagerly introduced herself as Anna, shook my hand, and asked me who I was. I explained that I was from Purdue and quickly found that none of the students had been expecting me. The first things that stood out to me about each student were the amount of leather, metal, piercings, and multi-colored hair. Again, I hadn't known at all what to expect, so I wasn't exactly surprised, but I also wasn't sure what to think.

Kimberly came back in and told the students to sit down and properly introduce themselves. There were about eight students, and Kimberly said she had five missing. They all told me their names and ages and grade levels - ranging from an 8th grader to a couple of seniors. Two of the guys introduced themselves as "Bear" and "Wolf." Kimberly told them to stop being ridiculous and give me their real names. It was so interested to watch her interact with the students. There was a familiarity in their relationship. The students weren't disrespectful, but they were certainly very comfortable with her. And she, in her jeans and t-shirt, seemed completely comfortable with them.

The students got to work, in different parts of the room, while Kimberly explained to me some of the set up of their school. I was amazed to hear about the level of responsibility that the students have. They go to school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and they have a certain amount of school that they must accomplish each week, but they are responsible to complete it without being told every minute of the day which subject they are supposed to work on and for how long (which again reminds me of homeschooling). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they each go to different internships, based on their areas of interest. They are required to call the places at which they wish to be placed and do a certain amount of planning and arranging their visits. Kimberly follows up with all of that, along with the mentor that each students has. They are also responsible to come up with a proposal for a semester-long project that they would like to accomplish. Kimberly told me about a past student's project in rebuilding a car and giving it away to a single mom.

Another thing that amazed me was to hear Kimberly talk about how well she knew her students. She really invests her life in them by having them over to her house, interacting with their families, and taking them along on trips she takes. A lot of the students have pretty rough home lives, and it seems like Kimberly is involved in a lot of what goes on in their lives. That was what intriguied and excited me the most about the whole charter school idea. For a teacher to have the opportunity to share her life with students in that kind of way, without the "professional boundaries" enforced in many public schools, seems amazing to me.

Of course, I really still have very little idea how a charter school works, having only experienced it for a little over two hours. But I am really looking forward to learning more about it, talking with Kimberly and the other teachers about their experiences, and perhaps looking into it for my future teaching career.