Baker Demonstration

They were clearly trying to sell me on the school and not on the 2 year old class, since the class doesn’t currently exist. The teachers were good but didn't really stand out enough impress me; the projects they were working on seemed a little rudimentary and the kids didn’t seem all that engaged. However, I do buy into the philosophy; Cole could possibly benefit from the style. I was very impressed with the 1st grade class. So I would consider the school once a teacher has been hired, but overall wasn’t super impressed and certainly wouldn't line up to go there!

Director

Kelly (Lavery) is the Marketing person and admissions counselor; Stuart is the Director of Admissions and Principal.

Location

It is a 5-7 minute drive… not within walking distance. Just a block or so past Evanston Hospital.

Timing

Classes meet 2, 3 or 5 days a week for 2 hours. From 8:30-10:30.

Ages

They take children ages 2-3 for this class. However, they have never offered this class before. This will be new for them. As of right now, they have 4 students enrolled in the class… they are older 2s. They expect the class will be about 12-16 kids with one teacher and two assistants. The school goes up until 8th grade. The kids were fairly homogenous in race. By the way, before they accept you, they require that your child go to a playgroup session with other children to see how they interact. I like this, but dont like that they do it in the middle of the afternoon-- not very appropriate for young kids.

Structure

Doesn’t appear terribly structured. See type of education.

Activities

Because the class doesn’t exist now it was a little challenging to assess. When I probed about what the kids would be doing in class, they said—art, music, free play, snack time, outside time, etc with no other detail. I did observe the preschool class and wasn’t terribly impressed. The kids just seemed to be roaming around—and there was a big thing of muffins just sitting out—not my idea of nutritious. The projects on the wall were all similar to projects I am currently working on with Cole. I was hoping they would be doing something that would be more impressive. One thing that was pretty cool was that there were tons of animals in the class—a bunny, turtle, spiders, newts, etc.

Teachers

The teachers all have college degrees and the lead teacher has a masters. The two assistants must be working toward a masters.

Type of education

Demonstration. Demonstration means that they use demonstrated best practices in education. Essentially, they try and assess how each kid learns and then they modify their teaching style by child. They also try and teach life skills and thinking skills.

I observed the 1st grade class and really liked the teacher and what she was doing. They have a board with LONG AGO, VERY LONG AGO and NOW—and they drew pictures/painted pictures of transportation methods from each of these eras. They also had a process exercise where they were asked to draw as many buses as they could in 7 minutes….. some got it, some didn’t. While I was there, the kids had the 7th inning stretch where she took a small bear, made the kids do what the bear did. They totally got into it… very cute!

Food

Parents prepare the food and rotate who brings it. Don’t really like this bc there is no control over the food that is brought in. They do have a rule no pop or candy. Great!

Outing

They go outside for 20 minutes every day if it is above 15 degrees. She didn’t mention anything about outings beyond the school e.g. field trips.

Overall Feel

Very grammar school-ish, a little administrative and snotty. Several parents were there gossiping in the hallway.

Fundraising:

I think there is a ton.