Magnet Schools Provide Richness of Instruction
December 2, 2010 - Wake County magnet schools have been consistently honored among the best magnet schools in the nation. For nearly 30 years, families have enrolled in magnet schools to take advantage of the theme-related instruction that these schools offer.Magnet Schools |
Click here for the video Magnet Schools to meet staff and students at Conn Elementary, an Active Learning and Technology magnet. |
 Students work on a vehicle with Principal Diann Kearney to determine how far it will travel. |
Audio Podcasts Listen to first-grade teacher Wendy Seagondollar talk about Conn Magnet Elementary's active learning and technology theme. 5.5 minute mp3 file Listen to Magnet Coordinator Christy Story and Community Coordinator Carol Stough talk about Conn Magnet Elementary's active learning and technology theme. 9.5 minute mp3 file Listen to parents Anthony Caison, Sr. and Lisa Vanderberry talk about Conn Magnet Elementary's active learning and technology theme. 7 minute mp3 file |
Every magnet school is offering some kind of enhancement to the NC Standard Course of Study,” said David Ansbacher, WCPSS Magnet Program director. “Every parent knows that their child is unique, is different, is special, and they are looking for a program in a school that matches their child’s unique strengths, interests, needs, whatever it would be.”
Conn, an active learning and technology magnet
One of the 14 Wake schools honored as a School of Excellence or School of Distinction by the Magnet Schools of America is Conn Magnet Elementary, an active learning and technology magnet.
“There are four components to our magnet theme: technology as an instructional tool; community outreach; communication; and hands-on active learning,” said Diann Kearney, Conn’s principal. “Throughout the instructional day our teachers are working to integrate those four components into the Standard Course of Study and what they are teaching in the classroom.”
Magnet coordinators and instructional resource teachers play an important role in helping teachers instill the magnet theme into instruction.
“When they need ideas for how can we make this module or help in the classroom to build centers, computer time centers, research type stuff, I’m just like a support person basically,” said Michael Murphy, Technology Teacher.
“What they need, I try to find, learn and then implement. It could be a smart board touch activity to a web 2.0 tool. Video conferencing is the big thing we’re working on right now.”
“We make real world connections for students and we do that by identifying an expert speaker who comes in from the community who can talk about what it is that the students are learning,” said Christy Story, Magnet Coordinator. “The next thing that we do is we identify a location in the community called an excursion. And we send students out on short trips into the community. For example, our first graders who are studying about soils and pebbles and rocks, we sent them to the rock quarry.”
Engaged Students, Pleased Parents
Magnet schools find ways of appealing to student interests and delivering instruction that is challenging and fun. At Conn, students have been recognized for achieving academic High Growth on the state's ABC accountability standards in 2009-10.
“I go to a lot of different classes throughout the day, but all of them make learning fun through hands on learning,” said Robbie, a fifth-grader. “It’s not just textbook work. It’s like we’re doing something instead of just reading out of the book, we’re doing something like making a graph on Microsoft excel. I do that every Friday in science.”
“Glockster is an online poster board,” said Anthony, a fourth-grader. “We got lots of information on pirates from different external links that Mr. Murphy put up on the website. And once we got all that together, we started adding pictures with captions on it, and also we used audacity, drawings and video.”
Magnet parents choose a school they feel meets their child’s interest and learning styles and then support the child and school.
“With that technology and active learning focus, they’re exposed to modules and focus areas where they may learn about technology or computer related areas,” said parent Anthony Caison, Sr. “It could be something related to animals, or on one particular day, something done with geography, GPS tracking, things like that.”
“They’re not just learning about something from a book,” said parent Lisa Vanderberry. “They are getting in down and dirty and learning how to do it. They bring so much more out of those experiences. It almost tricks them into learning. They are having so much fun they don’t realize until afterwards and then it’s like ohhh. I am learning.”
Wake County offers a variety of magnet schools for children in kindergarten through high school. Just like Conn, they offer high quality instruction designed to meet students’ interests.
“I think parents come into magnet schools with a hope and a confidence that my kid is going to be engaged because this program meets what they need,” said David Ansbacher, WCPSS Magnet Program. “We would hope and think that what parents see in their dinner table conversations about school with their kids shows that to be true. That the kids were excited because it fits. The kid fits the school and the school fits the kid.”
Magnet schools serve our community in a number of ways. One way is through the richness of instruction these schools provide helping families to nurture the skills and interests of students.
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