There's nothing like seeing little primary age children early in the morning to make you feel great. All is right with the world when you see their smiling faces.
This is how we were greeted today at Cunningham Elementary in South Austin. We were met outside by first graders from Ms. Harkless's class. The students were jumping up and down and carrying Big Books from their reading series. In the inside hallway, we then were serenaded by lively kindergartners, students of Ms. Lively, who sang an apple (manazanita) song in both English and Spanish. They were cute, cute cute! They gave me the props - I had a gusano en la mano (we named him Wormy; check out the photo). They also performed the school song which they sing at morning assembly every day.
Principal Amy Lloyd was our host for our tour. We peeked into the cafeteria where the End-of-Year Awards assembly was being conducted, led by Assistant Principal Gilma Sanchez. Our walk began through the hallways which were full of students' art work. Along the way, we observed Ms. Angie Field's bilingual fourth grade class with their little 1st grade buddy class of Ms. Taylor Alexander.
The revitalized Cunningham Courtyard was a community-based project that is xeriscaped with native plants. Ninety parents turned out for beautification day! Wow. The district provided the stone and gravel, and the Natural Gardener provided soil for the project. We saw Lauren Maples, affiliated with Legacy of Giving, and a Cunningham mom, leading students in a lesson on how soil settles and an investigation of bluebonnet seeds from the school's plants.
We were able to run into the art studio to be live models for 5th grade subtractive mono prints (that's where you use printer ink rolled with a brayer onto glass, and then remove the ink with a variety of tools — Q-tips, erasers, pencils — to then be able to press paper on the finished design to the get the image). Through this activity, students learned proportion, line, space, shape, and size. These are the basic principles of art AND geometry. We received our mono prints to take home with us. Darla Caughey, new to the school, transformed art for the school. Her room is full of art rubrics to allow for clear expectations and accountable talk. These criteria charts help students achieve a high level of quality in their work.
Next we visited Emily Smith's fourth graders who shared their writing. Do you know what "ratiocination" is? It's the process of reasoning, or deducing conclusions from premises; deductive reasoning. It's a term created by author Edgar Allen Poe. This class is using it as an explicit writing technique. In Ms. Smith's class the students are perfecting the technique in their writing. It will soon be described by her in a book being written by Dr. Carol Armstrong who is the Director of the New Jersey Writing Project.
We met the 5th grade science class of Cunningham Teacher of the Year Julie Saucedo. The students had done an impressive ocean mural project. FYI, my head is NOT that big in real life (see photo).
Our next stop was a Vietnamese bilingual class taught by teachers Ketty Nguyen and Melissa Keedy. Cunningham is the South campus for our Vietnamese program. (Up north, Summitt Elementary serves that community.)
Back to the office to meet Cunningham's wonderful unsung heroes, Lois Stillwell, secretary/bookeeper, Jessica Frances, attendance clerk, Susan Coleman, clerk, and incredible custodians Annie Hinojosa, Florencio Garcia, Isabel Homann, and Imelda Chaparro.
I received a beaded necklace that third graders "upcycled" from magazine pages. It is a project of Cunningham's green arts initiative, and absolutely gorgeous! (I'm not sure that "upcycled" is a real word, but I like it anyway.)
The school, which was established in 1962, is named for Mary Ellen Douglas Cunningham who taught at Fulmore Middle School for 47 years. Before moving to Austin, she taught for 13 years in rural schools in outlying areas of Caldwell and Travis counties. Let's see ... that's 60 years of teaching! Amazing.
Cunningham's mascot is the cobra — Curious Cobras, says Principal Lloyd. The school community is proud of its strong diverse community with generations returning to the school. It even has an alumni Facebook group and reunion. The 5th grade TAKS science scores and 4th grade writing TAKS scores are strong. This TEA-Recognized school is striving to be innovative, creative with engaging programing, increased parent participation, cultural programs and grant funding for after school programs. Students and staff are working to become an Exemplary campus and a U.S. blue ribbon school too. Principal Lloyd says they are hoping to soon have a ballet folklorico group and a Vietnamese club.
Our time at Cunningham has flown by. We loved every minute, and enjoyed meeting the Curious Cobras.
