February News from Children's Community School

Veteran teacher says this is NOT a wasted year at CCS

After 41 years of teaching in a traditional setting, Mary Ellen Rourke retired and chose to be a part-time Title I tutor at CCS. She stopped an administrator in the hall recently and said, “Do you know how hard these kids are working?” Given an opportunity, she tells everyone she knows that CCS “is what education is supposed to be” and that she has found a renewed excitement about education.

To what does she attribute the magic? Rourke says that her classes in the past never had fewer than 25-30 students and to now have two adults in a class of 16 students is a dream. She also sees a tremendous value in using outside resources like Bravo! Waterbury, the Mattatuck Museum and ASAP! that use passionate, expert instructors to enliven arts instruction and promote interdisciplinary learning.

She clearly sees the value of students attending classes in person, and most do at CCS, but even distance learners have great attendance and participation, which is not always the case in other schools. One effect of the pandemic on CCS students that she’s noticed is that students are learning so much about themselves, like how they work best, how to pace themselves, and how to stay disciplined. They are learning, at a very young age, lessons that will serve them a lifetime.

How Distance Learning Works - Right and wrong

Because CCS is an independent school, it can make its own decisions about how to approach distance learning based on what is right for students and teachers. Our parents can choose to send their child to the classroom or to learn from home. Our teachers are delivering lessons to both groups, usually simultaneously.

These are the hardest circumstances ever faced by teachers and, according to Mary Ellen Rourke (mentioned above), ours are some of the hardest working teachers she’s ever come across.

How exactly does it work? You can ask them yourself when you join the next “Getting to Know You” Zoom session, including teachers and parents, on Thursday, March 25 at 4:00. Watch for the announcement in your email coming soon.

How You Can HELP?

Give Local is coming in April and we need major donations from individuals to use as matching gifts, and we need those who participate during the 72 hour online event to include CCS in your gift giving! We need to raise at least $40,000 to help our students stay on track.
Businesses can sponsor school programs through the Better Futures Society, which is being launched in March. Early results show that business partners are delighted to give more, knowing that their dollars are going directly to the students. Watch for this announcement and a new page on the CCS website.