by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and Christina Bemboom, principal of Rice Elementary School, is relaxing a bit and catching up on work that was interrupted the last few days. The school year ended just a few days ago, and the end of the year is a whirlwind of activity.
This is the end of Bemboom’s third year at the school, and it gives her time to reflect and plan for the future. Prior to taking the job, she worked as an administrator of the special-education departments in Little Falls and in Princeton.
Because Rice is some distance from Sauk Rapids, it’s largely an independent school. That makes for both benefits and challenges. Bemboom said she believes Rice has the best of both worlds.
“We’re part of that larger Sauk Rapids-Rice School District which provides access to so many great people and resources,” she said. “But then we are also a small building, so there are things we get to explore here. And with our small staff, we really enjoy serving our students and our community.”
She speaks glowingly about collaboration within the district but is even more effusive in talking about the benefits of the small staff at Rice. With only two or three sections at each grade level, teachers can work closely with one another and get to know each student on a more personal basis.
Looking back on the year
Reflecting on the year’s accomplishments, she says it seems to coalesce around a number of things: the support of the community, the ability of staff to work closely together and help one another to move forward together, and the success of the positive behavior and interventions for students.
“The Path of the Storm Program really accomplished a lot this year,” she said. “It allowed us to have really solid discussions around research-based instruction.”
It helped teachers provide the support students need in their daily learning activities. Bemboom also talked about the fun community events the school planned and carried out; a recent success was the turnout for the PTA picnic, and the community barn dance that was funded with a grant.
“That was very fun,” she said. “We had a really nice turnout and kids got to teach their families dances they had learned.”
Asked if there were things that didn’t turn out or that didn’t get accomplished because the school year ran out, Bemboom shook her head and shared a bit of her philosophy about education.
“I look at how we move forward in education as a journey,” she said. “There are always things we would like to keep working on, and I don’t think of it so much as disappointment as we are where we are on the journey and we are going to keep moving forward.”
She says part of the journey involves emphasizing state standards and making sure students are prepared and are taught the skills they will need to become successful students. Critical thinking is a key part of that program and teachers work hard on trying to move that along.
The school is entering Phase III of the Sauk Rapids-Rice initiative to introduce computer technology into the learning process, she said. This new phase will affect the elementary building more than the previous phases.
How can teachers keep getting better at using the technology in a meaningful way? She refers to the four C’s – increased collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. The emphasis is on how to apply and use the knowledge rather than just knowing it, she noted.
“We are trying to do more of that,” she says, “and technology helps us do that in more and interesting ways.”
School staff, she said, talks a good deal about how to embed movement opportunities into the student school day. She noted they start each day with a song or movement activity. There is also emphasis on nutrition, as well.
Looking ahead to next year
Bemboom said the staff and she were very excited about the International Baccalaureate Training Program in which Sauk Rapids has been participating. Bemboom said it will give them the tools to support kids to be strong and positive, to apply inquiry-based learning and support positive-behavior interventions through the Path of the Storm program.
As far as technology is concerned, the goal is to use the technology to help make a better learning environment a real possibility.
“Technology really is a tool,” she said. “It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself.”
What is important for kids, she said, is that kids balance their lives, with technology, with outside physical activity and with face-to-face interactions with others.
“That is the challenge for us as caregivers and educators – to support them in developing that balance,” she said.
Rice Elementary School Principal Christina Bemboom makes a point about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program at a recent Rice City Council meeting, which she says helps emphasize inquiry-based learning and development of math and language-arts skills, as well as supporting the growth of students into positive community members.
