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The Road To Bank Street

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By JOYCE McKENZIE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2008

TEMPLE TERRACE - Sense of community, social responsibility and collaborative teamwork are terms most kindergartners have never heard, and few would understand.

That's not the case with students that age at Temple Terrace Elementary School's Bank Street Academy.

Modeled after a successful curriculum at the Bank Street School on Bank Street in New York City, the academy has youngsters in kindergarten and first grade work in small group settings, feeding off one another's knowledge and experiences. Students are clustered with others in the same grade. Throughout the day, they move to their designated "centers" - literacy, computer, writing, exploration, listening, reading/library and art - each with a different cluster of children. They have no assigned desks, nor does their teacher.

Principal Mary Frances Ledo said the objective is to go beyond reading, writing and arithmetic and encourage students to share and learn from each other's unique abilities and needs. By doing so, they become social individuals who care for, respect and contribute to the well-being of others.

"The children we saw at the Bank Street School in Manhattan this summer are so independent," said Ryan Moody, lead Temple Terrace Elementary kindergarten teacher. "The entire curriculum is designed to prepare the children for the world around them."
Ledo said Bank Street founder Lucy Sprague Mitchell developed the program based on a philosophy that learning is just as often a social process as a solitary one.

"If they don't know something, they ask one another, and they use their teachers as their guides," she said. "We used to always baby, baby, baby our children, but this philosophy helps them think for themselves and develop a social responsibility toward one another. For instance, the kids learn to ask for things like scissors, where before they'd just grab."

Parents are required to donate 50 hours of service each year to the program.

"That's because the philosophy dictates that you have to have a good relationship between students and parents both in the classroom and at home," Ledo said.

Bernestine Glymph volunteers five days a week in her grandson Joshua McKinnon's kindergarten class.

"I love the new Bank Street program because it gives the children responsibility," said the retired pre-school teacher's aide.

Temple Terrace resident Julie Nipp, whose six-year-old son, Brooks Nipp, is a first-grader at the school's Bank Street Academy, has thoroughly embraced the new program.

"I like the freedom the kids have ... and I like that the kids can help each other," she said. "I also like the family participation. It just encourages the parent to get involved with their child's education."

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849 or jmckenzie@tampatrib.com.

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