Fifth grade students at City Neighbors Charter School researched what makes an ideal school by interviewing adults, visiting other schools, and reflecting on their own experiences. They learned about colonial-era schools and Montessori schools. The students also interviewed graduate students about their vision for an ideal school. They synthesized their findings by creating a metaphor and writing research papers on the important aspects of a great school, such as natural light, community, and the arts.

2. Some fifth graders and John Hopkins’ graduate students interviewed each other about their ideal school. 01/27/2012

3. Fifth graders and the graduate students worked together to create a project to represent what they wanted in their dream school. 01/27/2012

5. We visited other schools and one was a Montessori school. The outside environment didn’t appear welcoming , but once we got inside it was really nice. They had art work all over the walls in random places. Some rooms had class pets, such as rats and there was a lot of natural light. In addition there was a student kitchen. Milo decided natural light and a student kitchen would be important parts of an ideal school. 01/27/2012

6. We visited classes in our own City Neighbors Charter School and observed great lessons. 01/27/2012

8. We explored metaphors and similes using a tree to represent the different parts of our dream school. 01/27/2012

9. We worked with a partner and chose a country to study. Then we read about the schools and discussed the similarities and differences between schools in other countries and US schools. We also had a teacher who had spent months in Japan come share her experiences with our class. 01/27/2012

10. Miss Bobbi, one of the founders of CNCS, told us the story of our school’s creation. She brought artifacts and sang a song she wrote. It was about how she was feeling when it took a long time before anyone read the proposal for the new charter school. 01/27/2012

11. We wrote a research paper to show how our research helped us decide on the important aspects of a great school. 01/27/2012

12. Then we wrote persuasive paragraphs to convince others to embrace our ideas . 01/27/2012