P R E S T O N M I D D L E S C H O O L
Located in the town of Fort Collins in Northern Colorado, Preston Middle School is a part of PSD School District, housing 1,058 learners.
POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Enrollment: 29,053 Caucasian: 74% African American: 1.% Hispanic/ Latino: 18% Multiracial: 3% |
Student Profile:
Participating in Free/Reduced Lunch: 34% Special Education Programs: 8% Gifted and Talented Programs: 12% English Language Learner Programs: 8% |
D E M O G R A P H I C S |
PRESTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
83.8% caucasian 7.5% Hispanic/Latino 4.1% multiracial 4.6% other 13.6% participating in free/reduced lunch |
C L A S S R O O M E N V I R O N M E N T
THE ART ROOM
THE ART ROOM
This spacious and well-organized art room is one of two at Preston Middle School, where there are six tables and approximately 28 chairs. Students of 6th grade art, 7th/8th grade crafts, 7th/8th grade painting, and GT Enrichment classes meet here and are familiar with the organization of the room, including where their class storage spaces that their personal bins reside, clay storage, extra material storage, and sinks/trash are. Each table is accompanied by a green bin that holds table supplies for students to use, including scissors, colored pencils, and pencil sharpeners. The learning targets of each day go on the whiteboard next to the smart board, which is used for presentation, morning announcements (KPAW) and demonstrations using the smart cam or Art Rage digital painting programing.
C U L T U R E & C O M M U N I T Y
In my time at Preston Middle School, I have experienced the community and strongly academic culture in all areas of the school. I was most strongly captivated by Preston being a Top 10 "school to watch" in the US during my time, especially when people from all over the country were coming to visit the school and see how they operate. Allowing students to experience lengthier classes, the week alternates days by "teal" and "purple" days, which is a modified block schedule. At the end of each day, students are given an enrichment class, which can be simply a study hall, or other enrichment classes such as flyfishing and gifted & talents (which is the enrichment classes I was able to partake in).
As Preston follows and provides great opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), it provides students with relevant 21st century leaning in a structured learning environment. With an emphasis on STEM, Preston offers several enrichment programs such as Math Counts, Robotics, and Science Olympiad. However, aside from STEM. Preston also offers enrichment programs such as chamber orchestra, select choirs, jazz band, writing club, drama productions, outdoor club, several sports teams, and more.
As Preston follows and provides great opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), it provides students with relevant 21st century leaning in a structured learning environment. With an emphasis on STEM, Preston offers several enrichment programs such as Math Counts, Robotics, and Science Olympiad. However, aside from STEM. Preston also offers enrichment programs such as chamber orchestra, select choirs, jazz band, writing club, drama productions, outdoor club, several sports teams, and more.
S U P P O R T S T R U C T U R E
Preston is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school that centralizes learning around the incorporation of technology into instruction and learning. For the Art and Gifted & Talented classes, technology is incorporated with students and their individual laptops, class tablet and iPad storage, and lab rooms to work on projects, such as ArtRage, for projects. In GT classes, students work on creative vision projects that require them to self-direct their learning and collaboratively teach and engage the class in their individualized projects/presentations. They have also used their laptops to assist them in creating Multiple Intelligence lessons/projects, where students categorized themselves based on their more prominent MI learning trait and collaborated with other students to guide the rest of the class in a lesson and activity that captures those traits
Preston provides several art classes for students to take between main art teachers, Mrs. Ibanez and Mrs. Gigliotti, including Art 1, Art 2, 6th grade art, Crafts, Photo 1, Photo 2, 3D, and Painting. The art classes support Preston in their integration of technology as it is a STEM school by utilizing digital art software, websites, and digital portfolios such as ArtRage digital Painting, Photoshop, digital cameras, bulbapp digital portfolios, etc. |