Friday, April 2, 2010

Leupp School in N. Arizona

I had the opportunity this past Monday to spend the day at the Leupp School, right outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. Tammy Kelly, a fabulous teacher offered me this opportunity and I am so appreciative.

The Leupp School is a boarding school on one of the Navajo Reservations. There are 60 resident kids at the school during the week and return home for the weekends. The school is K-12 and totals around 220 students.


I spent the morning doing almost four hours of reading and book activities. My first class was 7th grade, followed by: 1 st, 4th and then 2nd graders. I have become better at assessing a classes interest level. I change my instruction and detail based on age and time.

Each grade had their own series of questions and comments that always make me smile.

The 7th grade class was very interesting. They took a while to warm up to me, but by the end, and after a few laughs, they came up with a ton of questions.


The 1st grade class had the winning question though. I usually remind K and 1st graders what constitutes a question, otherwise I get lots of stories about their bunnies, when their dog died, or where they last went on vacation. So, I got a lot of 'how' questions from this crew. One little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he froze. He said, "How, how, how (pause) are you doing?" It was the cutest question and left me and Tammy with huge smiles.


In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to work with the kids on dot-art projects. Wow, there is a lot of talent in that school.

Take a look
at some of these photos. The one with the spider is the little guy that asked me how I was.
I returned the question to him and he giggled! Spending time with kids really makes me feel blessed that I am published. I wouldn't have had this opportunity if it hadn't been for Through Endangered Eyes. I hope that the kids will remember me and that I'll be able to visit again next year.


Thank you Tammy!







2 comments:

Angela said...

Wow, that really sounds like a memorable experience, for you and for the students! And I had to laugh at your mention of reminding the younger kids what constitutes a question, I used to get all kinds of rambling stories at the end of my zoo tours during the question portion.

RAD - Dot Painter said...

I had the 7th graders on the floor laughing when I told them about the younger kids. It really connected me with them:)