Sloan teachers, students move into first fully renovated classroom wing

When Sloan Elementary School teacher Janine Mickel attended a meeting with VEBH, the architects spearheading the design of the Sloan “elementary campus” project, she was told they “planned to bring the outdoors into the classroom.”

Standing in a freshly renovated wing of the building that is complete and occupied by teachers and students, it’s clear that goal has been achieved: warm earth tones on one section of floor tile are interrupted by a splash of tiles colored bright blue and green. Skylights bring natural light into classrooms outfitted with new carpet and a fresh coat of sky-blue paint on one wall.

The nature theme was inspired by the school’s surroundings, bordered by woodlands as well as Haymaker’s Run, and the design will be consistent across the school’s classrooms.

“This theme will also extend to the (new) intermediate school, so kids will be able to bridge easily from one building to the other,” district communication director Cara Zanella said.

Mickel said her third-graders are “very excited” to be in the new classroom. She has some new toys of her own to explore, including a Promethean interactive screen that eliminates many of the previous smart-board-related challenges teachers faced.

“It’s really nice because it’s like a big tablet,” Mickel said. “I don’t need a laptop to be connected to use it.”

Mickel is also able to split the board’s screen so multiple students can work on it simultaneously.

“I love it,” she said.

Read the rest of the TribLive article

GDPR

  • Cookie Policy

Cookie Policy

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.