Denver / Kansas City

Hi from Kansas City, Kansas. Some of you may be thinking that Kansas City is in Missouri. Well, it is, but part of the city is actually on the Kansas side of the border … something I did not know until this visit. We are currently staying with the Shook Family (Gary, Paula, their daughter Carson, and their three very cute dogs) and will later stay with the members of CC's family of relatives later in the week. Before we left the Denver area we had plans to visit two more schools, Kent Denver and Alexander Dawson Schools. Because of a tragedy in the Kent Denver School community, we had to cancel out visitation. However, we were able to visit another wonderful school in the Boulder area (actually in Lafayette, Co.) called Alexander Dawson (A.D.) School. A.D. School in located in a rural area within the farmlands of Colorado on about 95 acres of land. It is a K – 12 School that has 420 students with 166 in the middle school. Their class size is 15:1 (as with most schools that we've visited) and student teacher ratio of 7:1. For those of you who remember Greg Foster, Punahou's Academy principal for a few years (after the Win Healy years), he was the head of school at Alexander Dawson for a few years after leaving Punahou. Here are a few of my random observations from Alexander Dawson School:

1. They have a similar daily schedule as Punahou. They don’t use the modular schedule, but they do have a 7-day rotating schedule much like Punahou's 6-day 'A' through 'F' day schedule. This is so that they can rotate the time of day that each class meets. Each of their classes meets at different times of the day during the cycle. Their cycle days are M-U-S-T-A-N-G, spelling out the mascot of their school.
2. The middle school is a 5-8 middle school with 2 divisions. The 5th and 6th grades make up the lower middle school and the 7th and 8th grades make up their upper middle school.
3. A.D. has a very strong advisory program in the middle school that meets everyday, each with a different purpose. The purposes range from class meetings (about 40-45 kids in class/grade) twice a week, to teaching health, to community service, to a rotation of several topics discussion groups (with 14 kids in each advisory), each cycle. Some of the topics are much the same as the topics that are discussed on our teams at Punahou, like plagiarism and cheating, internet safety, team building, etc. In addition, they include library skills, leadership, public speaking, rocketry, and American sign language into their advisory program.
4. Their science curriculum sequence through middle school includes spiraling all major sciences (in a wheel) in both the 5th and 6th grades, the life sciences in the 7th grade and earth science in the 8th grade. I'm starting to see a trend with small independent middle schools teaching the life sciences in the 7th grade so that the student don’t experience successive years of life science in the 8th and 9th grade years.
5. They are a very environmentally minded school. The cafeteria has developed into a 'zero waste' dining hall. A very impressive feat helped by the fact that the county has included an unused food waste pickup as part of the garbage and recycling pickup each week. Even with that help, it is impressive to have everything recycled or reused.
6. They added a position to their faculty to help stimulate the integration of technology into their various curricula. I spent some time talking to Jeff Ellenbogen (their tech. specialist) about some of what they are working on to integrate technology. His role is much that same as Tedd Landgraf and Dee Ching in Case Middle School only on much smaller scale.
7. They do not have a one-to-one-laptop program and I saw only a few students that have their own laptops. They are 100% Apple Mac School with several computer labs set up in their libraries. They are starting to experiment with Smart boards, as their tech. specialist (Jeff) is the first in the school to have one.
8. Together, the middle and high school divisions at A.D. has a very strong program that they call 'Winterim.' This is a program that takes place the week before their spring break in March where teachers (usually in pairs) design some sort of a meaningful experience for small groups of students. Most the Winterim experiences include travel away from school to places as far as the Galapagos (to study evolution), Florida (marine science), a ski/snowboarding school at a ski resort, San Diego (diversity of species), etc. . They've also been known to go on service learning trips to Guatemala and Costa Rica. For students who can't afford extensive trips, there are scholarships or Winterim experiences on campus during that week. It is certainly a popular event for their kids and an impressive undertaking for the school!
Alexander Dawson School is a very impressive small school that has a lot to offer their students. They have wanted to increase their enrollment, but this desire to increase has been handcuffed by the local county government (long-story!).




Last Wednesday (10/7), CC and I drove from Denver towards Lawrence, Kansas over a two-day period. After the long 13 plus hour drive that we took from Yellowstone, Montana to Vail, Colorado, we vowed to break the long driving days up a bit. We stayed overnight in Hays, Kansas. I'll spare you any of the details of that stay as it was out in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas (my apologies to anyone from Kansas, but most would agree that there isn't much there). Between Hays, Kansas and our destination, Lawrence. Kansas, there is a small town called Abilene. For those that don't already know, Abilene is the hometown of Dwight Eisenhower. CC and I decided to visit Abilene and tour the Eisenhower boyhood home and museum. It was VERY impressive! Eisenhower was one of six boys in his family. How they ever fit a family of that size in that little house is amazing. The Eisenhower museum shows how truly impressive his military and political career was. The artifacts, especially the personal letters that he wrote and all the gifts that he received from other heads of states, were amazing! I highly recommend that if you ever find yourself in Kansas, you should visit the Abilene.

Yesterday we visited the World War 1 Memorial in Kansas City. I certainly learned more about that war that I ever knew from any history class that I didn't pay attention in. The artifacts, the letters from soldiers, the movies, and the audio tapes that played throughout the museum, certainly made it come alive for me.

I can certainly tell that winter is on its way, as it has gotten pretty cold (30's and 40's here in Kansas City … they say about 10-20 degrees cooler that usual at this time of the year). The leaves are turning colors and starting to fall off of the trees. It doesn't measure up to the coloration of the trees in the Northeast, but it is still very beautiful. I don’t see many cyclist out riding, so I won’t venture out on my bike for fear of becoming a frozen 'popcycle' (sorry for the bad humor), but I think I'll try going on a run today.
We are mainly in the Kansas to spend time with CC's wonderful relatives, but we've planned a visitation to Pembroke Hill Academy (on Tuesday) and are also hoping to visit Barstow School while we are here. Please keep the comments to my blog coming by clicking on 'comments' button on the bottom right of each entry or simply email me: <tuttle.dan7@gmail.com>. ALOHA.