The Kozmo Family: Passages

My Little Graduate

If you have ever talked to me about G1's school, it's no secret that I think it is an amazing place. We truly love it and love being very involved in whatever ways we can. At the school, they have combined classrooms, which honestly, concerned me at the beginning but which I have grown to love and see many benefits of throughout the two years we have been at the school. At the end of years 2,4,6 & 8, you go through a "Passages" process. This involves presenting a portfolio of your work from the past two years in front of three random adults. Basically, the kids are "defending" their work (just like you would defend a dissertation) and how it meets the standards for their grade level. For G1's first passage, she had to speak for 30 minutes to her panel. Parents are allowed to watch and I was so extremely proud of G1 and how AMAZING she did. For theses kids who will be passing into the next crew (they are crew, not classes) there is a special "Passages ceremony" that the kids take part in. It's like a formal graduation---they call the kids names, they walk across the stage, shake hands, get a certificate saying they have passed into the next crew. At the passages ceremony, we found out G1 had perfect attendance for the year as well. We had no clue she hadn't missed a day of school....opps! What a great suprise for all of us!

Rare pic of the Kozmo Girls

One of the great benefits of having a combined classroom is that you really get to know the teacher well. I found that it eased a lot of G1's nerves about going back to school last fall because she knew exactly what to expect. She also already knew about half of her crew because they too were staying with the same teacher. G1 has some amazing friends...being in the same class for two years forms some tight bonds. The teacher doesn't have to get to know many of the kids so we felt like we jumped right into school without trying to muddle through and figure out where G1 needed to be academically. We were lucky to have Mrs. B for G1's teacher. We really liked her a lot and I was a little teary eyed saying good-bye to her at the end of the year.

G1 & her 1/2 Crew teacher

G1 also had a student teacher for the 2nd semester this year. G1 LOVED her to pieces. I mean, how can you not love having a young, cute, super sweet, college cheerleader for your student teacher? Both Ms. Ahsley and Mrs. B came to one of G1's dance performances. They really love their kiddos and showed it by doing special stuff like this for all the students. The whole school is caring like that from what we've experienced.