Checking out Rolling Terrace

Yikes, I missed a day of writing. I know it may not matter that much to you guys, but I owe myself an apology. I set out to provide daily updates and I am falling short of that goal… nevertheless, I am here and ready to type.

Last Friday, me and Mimi decided to check out the Spanish immersion open house at Rolling Terrace Elementary School. It was scheduled for 9:30a, so I took a half day off work and made great use of the morning by handling the morning preschool drop off. It was great for me because, since starting my new job in early January, I haven’t seen much of Andrew and Brian’s classrooms or teachers.

Brian, my youngest, was home sick with my husband, having come down with an awful cold that we later discovered was pneumonia. After dropping Andrew off, I ran to grab some sick supplies from Giant (juice, chicken soup, etc.) and delivered them back to the nest before heading over to Rolling Terrace. By the time I pulled up, it was just after 9:30a. I rushed through signing in at the front door and was directed to walk down the front corridor to the International room. As I started a quick pace down the hall, I looked up at the high vaulted ceiling and felt the weight of the big, open space on my shoulders. My steps slowed at the realization that Andrew would soon occupy a space like this. He would soon strike out from his warm, intimate setting and begin acclimating to a place for big kids, he would ultimately become a big kid too. I teared up a little.

This is a feeling that can only be felt by a parent. It is a sentiment that is a mixture of the awareness of fleeting time and the desperate love a parent has for a child.
As I approached the double doors to the International room, I was a little taken aback by the crowd. I don’t know why I was, but I was. I think it was just fear, the fear of knowing that my kid may be competing for spots with all the kids of the parents in the room.

It was pretty much standing room only, in fact a school staffer had gone to fetch additional chairs. I scanned the crowd for Mimi but she hadn’t arrived yet and I found myself anxious for her arrival so I would have a buddy among all the strangers. It was completely irrational, I realize. I made eye contact with so many friendly looking people, I could have opened my mouth and made a new friend, but I guess my nerves got the best of me.

There was a brief introduction and we broke into groups to tour the program. As we were walking out of the international room to begin our voyage through the school Mimi walked in and my anxiety faded a bit. I filled her in on what we’d done so far and we were off.

Rolling Terrace’s Spanish immersion program director Georgiana Jimemez says the school has 700 kids, roughly 1/3 or just fewer than 250 are in the immersion program. There are 3 kindergartens, each with 18-19 kids which is in line with Montgomery County School guidelines for class size. Our first stop on the tour was Senora Thompson’s kindergarten room, 19 students. We walked in to a colorful, spacious but cluttered room. The kids were orderly and quiet, sitting at various tables and desks working on writing their names. Senora Thompson was the lone instructor.. That doesn’t exactly thrill me, but all the kids were following instructions and quietly doing work. Sra. Thompson seemed to have a laid back teaching style. I asked our tour guide if Sra. Thompson has a teaching assistant and she told me that there are only “floating” para educators who move to classrooms as needed. Mimi and I both were not terribly fond of that, but again, the kids looked calm and were obviously doing what was asked of them.

Next we got to Sr. Rogers kindergarten, 19 kids—totally different energy. It seemed that Sra. Rogers bright purple sweater was a manifestation of her energy. She had her kids gathered in a circle on a rug in the front of the classroom and was going over the consonants (consonate) and vowels (vocales.) She had the children fully engaged, excitedly encouraging them, one by one, to retrieve a letter from the rug and ask their fellow classmates (in Spanish) if were a consonate or a vocales. When the magnetic letters were all selected, they placed them on a whiteboard and arranged them to spell a word, with Sra. Rogers joyfully praising their efforts. Then, for the icing on the cake, Sra. Rogers played a song that contained the word they just spelled and all the children were singing and dancing. Mimi and I exchanged a “hell yeah!” look and resolved that Andrew and Alicia WOULD have Sra. Rogers if we had to part the red sea to get them there.

All of the parents were riveted, but our tour guide scurried us along to a 1st grade immersion math and science room where Sra. Medina had kids learning about scientific observations. Each of the kids had regular plastic drinking straws to attempt to blow objects across the table. Each group of kids had a basket with things like string, cotton balls, cork, ping pong balls, plastic forks, etc. Ms. Medina told them the instructions in Spanish and handed out composition notebooks and the kids blew objects and then WROTE DOWN THEIR OBSERVATIONS IN SPANISH!!! We were blown away.

We worked our way to a 1st grade English class, where the immersion kids were doing their English work but I didn’t pay too much attention in there because I was busy asking questions of our tour guide in the hallway. Between that time and the q&a time back in the International room, I learned, in great detail, how the lottery works.

Rolling Terrace Spanish Immersion has roughly 57 kindergarten slots. Of those, the lottery computer first pulls the names of all kids who live in the Rolling Terrace boundary who have applied for the special program. Then the lottery computer automatically pulls the names of all kids who have a sibling at the school. Finally, the lottery computer would then randomly select as many names as are remaining slots. *sigh*

I looked around the room at the standing room crowd and felt hope slipping away. This seems like a pretty good school, it’s nestled in a quaint Takoma Park neighborhood. It would be a comfortable fit, but unless I move into the Rolling Terrace boundary before May, Andrew may not be able to go.

I’ve started the lottery registration process and of course there are some other irons in the fire. Plus, as I mentioned, me and Mimi wrote letters to the school system about CentroNia and the immersion curriculum and the possibility of changing admissions guidelines. I will update you on that tomorrow. But now, again, it is time for bed, G’nite!