A first visit to the Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center will reveal:
- The lack of rows of desks in classrooms
- The transparent nature of the classroom; what is being worked on is reported and recorded for all to see.
- The sharing of experiences through display and demonstration
- Classrooms are called “Discoveries”
- Students work collaboratively
- More than one thing goes on at a time in any Discovery
- The Art/Library/Experiment areas are called Studios and Labs
- Fluid traffic through hallways as students move from one experience to the next
- Teachers working in pairs and teams
A second visit will reveal:
- A high level of parent involvement in projects within the classroom as well as for the school in general
- Multiple languages are spoken and used in daily school life
- Stable and long term teachers who are committed to the school
- An emerging and creative structure of the business of “school” that allows and encourages the Discoveries to function with autonomy and equality
- A variety of tools to encourage shared information
- Evidence of a CDC culture
Further visits reveal:
- Happy kids
- Invested teachers and administrators
- Mary Witte