Rockford — “Activate those noodles!” teacher Katrina Burger calls out to fourth-graders at Meadow Ridge Elementary. “Warm up that brain!”
With the class’s attention, Burger gets students in the math mindset by having them translate numbers from expanded form to standard form and watch an instructional “cheesy math song” refresher video.
One of the “obvious tricks” of her trade is “multiple means of engagement,” Burger whispers as the song plays.
Once warmed up, the class considers how to calculate the length of fence needed to keep rabbits out of an 8-foot by 5-foot garden.
“What’s the perimeter?” Burger asks.
“The outline outside of a shape,” responds Rosalie Halverson.
“And what’s the area?”
“The inside of the shape,” replies Jackson Sawyer.
Burger asks which term applies to the hypothetical fence.
“Perimeter!” students chant.
And they’re off to run the numbers. Coming up with the right answer is no trouble for Chelsea Gelock, who quickly adds up the lengths of the fence’s four sides.
“Five plus five equals 10, and eight plus eight equals 16, so it’s 26 feet,” Chelsea says.
All of this takes place in about 20 minutes. It’s fast-paced, but the students are engaged and enthusiastic.
‘We’re proud to be a school that’s had success with student achievement, inclusive of all the students who come to school here.’
— Meadow Ridge Elementary Principal Blake Bowman
It’s not hard to see why Meadow Ridge was selected as a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. The Rockford elementary was one of 12 schools in the state this year to receive the honor, which was announced in late September.
Keeping Students Invested
Throughout Meadow Ridge, educators pull tactics and strategies from their teacher toolkits to make sure kids stay focused and invested.
Third-grade teacher Sarah Nuechterlein, while overseeing a brief research activity about vertebrates and invertebrates, said she paraphrases what students say and repeats it back to them to reinforce the knowledge that their words have value.
“It helps validate that I’m hearing what they’re saying,” Nuechterlein said. “I think if kids feel heard, they feel a little bit more invested in their learning.
“They know someone’s watching and listening and they tend to hold themselves a bit more accountable, too.”
The research project was not a formal part of the lesson, but rather a “pausing point” to give students a break from everyday class and a chance to branch out with some different activities, said Nuechterlein.
“Today is a fun day for them because they get a little bit more leeway and creativity,” she said. “Some of these lessons can be a little redundant and overwhelming, and they’re long, so this is just a fun way for them to further show what they know and explore a topic in a different way.”
That meant researching, identifying and drawing different animals. Third-grader Peyton Fusee said her group was focusing on mammals specifically.
“We’re seeing what explains vertebrae and what mammals are, basically,” Peyton said, adding that it was challenging, but her teacher was a big help.
Blue Ribbon Status
Meadow Ridge Principal Blake Bowman, instructional coach Stacy Breadon and first-grade teacher Cristine Tendero-Scott, who each participated in the National Blue Ribbon School application, said a lot of work went into the process.
Tendero-Scott said Meadow Ridge was contacted by the U.S. Department of Education, which wanted to recognize the school for its academic growth and performance. Leadership groups throughout the school worked to provide information about supports for students who struggle with literacy, math, science and other subjects, as well as the culture of the school and what makes it unique.
“We also talked about community involvement and how we keep parents and community members a part of what’s happening here at Meadow Ridge,” noted Breadon.
As a Title I school, Bowman said, Meadow Ridge has “the highest percentage of socio-economically disadvantaged kids of the schools within the district.” Although the National Blue Ribbon award was for exemplary performance, Bowman thinks demographics “probably played a role.”
“We’re proud to be a school that’s had success with student achievement, inclusive of all the students who come to school here,” he said.
Receiving the award was a welcome sign that the school’s work is being noticed.
“We’ve tried to continue to lift these kids up and keep moving them forward, so having that recognition is humbling and quite an honor to receive at the national level,” Tendero-Scott said.
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