Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched: 7/02/2006 12:00 AM
YUCAIPA - No tests, no grades, no textbooks, no desks.
Sounds like every child's ideal school - and it's coming to Yucaipa this fall.
Heather Martinson, a resident and mother of four, will be opening Celebration Education to 50 elementary students and teaching them, using the Integrated Thematic Instruction method, a teaching model based on the physiology of a child's brain that gives kids choices in their own education.
"This is great because they get to be an individual. I don't have standardized testing because I don't want standardized children," Martinson said. "They don't leave their education behind, but even more so, they have time to work on things that make them unique and that will propel them into a better future."
The ITI method was developed in 1984 by Susan Kovalik. It is based on the idea that children can learn more with thematic instruction than from the single-subject curriculum that is traditionally used in schools.
Students in Celebration Education this fall will learn while using the theme of Leonardo DaVinci, whom Martinson said she chose because he was a self-educated man who can easily tie into all subjects.
There are nine elements that guide teachers and schools using the ITI method:
- The absence of threat.
- Meaningful content.
- Choices.
- Adequate time to explore and understand the material.
- Movement to enhance learning.
- An enriched environment that reflects what is being taught.
- Collaboration of students working together.
- Immediate feedback to help coach children.
- Student application of what they have learned in real-life situations.
It is for those nine reasons that Martinson is structuring her private school differently.
There will be no school building or classrooms; classes will be in the Yucaipa Community Center. There will be no five-day-a-week schedule; students only attend for two hours, two days a week. Field trips will replace textbooks and tests.
"What is more important is how to learn, rather than what you learn," Martinson said. "We spend so much time pounding in the facts and figures and information that (kids) don't have time to explore what really interests them."
This will be the first school in San Bernardino County that will base curriculum solely on ITI. Some teachers might already be using the method in county classrooms, said Dan Evans spokesman for the county superintendent of schools.
Nobody keeps track of how many ITI schools there are in the nation, but Kovalik estimates it is used in more than 300 school districts. States that are more active with the ITI method are California, South Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas and Michigan.
Some parents might worry about their child falling behind if they are not learning out of textbooks or taking standardized tests. But college recruiters say home-schooled children or those taught by ITI actually have an upper hand because they can offer a portfolio that better shows who they are and what they have accomplished.
In the Fort Craig School of Dynamic Learning in Maryville, Tenn., students perform the highest in the area, said Principal Pete Clark.
The school opened in 1995 and is part of a four-school system that teaches ITI. It is a public school but acts somewhat as a charter school because parents choose to send their kids there.
"If you walked into one of our classrooms, you would think you were home," Clark said. "It's a very nurturing environment."
The rooms are filled with plants, music is playing most of the time, and students sit at tables rather than desks. This allows them to collaborate with one another during lessons.
Tuition for students at Celebration Education will cost parents about $3,400 annually.
More than a dozen interested parents and employers turned out at a community meeting last week.
Maria Egbert, a Riverside woman with four kids, said she has used the ITI method with her children and is excited to see an ITI-based school opening in the Inland Empire.
"Enthusiasm, that's the main thing," she said. "Kids are given choices so they don't feel forced. And everything they're choosing to learn will be pertinent to what they're going to do."
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