J. PAUL TAYLOR ACADEMY
By Mike Cook Las Cruces Bulletin
- Paul Taylor Academy teacher Jaime Alvarez said he “took concepts and skills from language arts, mathematics, art and social studies” to create a project called Cookies for Caregivers as a way for his students to learn, give back and say thank you to people who serve the community.
Alvarez and 21 students in his second-grade class at the K-8 charter school “used what we learned in our social studies class about governance and citizenship to discuss what good citizenship was and what kindness looked like within our community and who the people were that provided those services to us,” he said.
“That is when the class decided as a group who we wanted to recognize and how. We used what we learned over a couple of small math-group Zoom meetings about rectangular arrays and group/skip counting to design how the cookies or treats would be placed in the boxes,” Alvarez said “Once that foundation was set, the students were asked to use their creative/art skills to create gift boxes that would carry the cookies/treats and bring smiles to our caregivers’ faces.”
“When that was complete, we used what we had learned in a couple of small reading-group Zoom meetings about poetry to create haikus, a Japanese form of poetry, about the caregivers in our community. After they went through the writer’s process of editing their poems, [the students] created a final copy that they attached to their gift box.”
For safety during the pandemic, Alvarez delivered the gift boxes – filled with cookies either made or purchased by his students and their families – to caregivers throughout Las Cruces Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 1, he said. Those receiving cookies included the Las Cruces police and fire departments, nursing homes, animal shelters and doctors’ offices, Alvarez said.
“Public service has been a major component of J. Paul Taylor Academy since its inception,” said the academy’s co-founder and first director, Cynthia Riseer-Schiller. “We use [former teacher, administrator and state representative J. Paul Taylor] as an example of the importance of service to others. It is critical that students learn they have the power to make a positive difference in the world and experience the joys of helping others. The children are very aware of the healthcare providers working tirelessly during the pandemic to save lives, and they wanted to do something kind for them,” she said. Risner-Schiller returned to the school this year as assistant director.
“This project is exactly why I love teaching at J. Paul Taylor Academy,” Alvarez said. “Our approach to learning through projects is a lot more engaging and has real-world ties that learning from a workbook and doing worksheets just can't compare to. We use current events in our community to integrate our learning opportunities into one beautiful thing called project-based earning (PBL). I think it's important for all my students to understand that just because they’re second graders doesn't mean they can't have a positive impact on somebody else's life. I also want them to understand the world around them in a more deep and meaningful manner.
“I love that my students get to critically think their way through these projects and create the ideas from their mind instead of a cookie-cutter product everyone has to do the same way,” he said. “As a teacher, you always have a part in your students’ learning, but with PBL you have to let go a little bit and it can be kind of intimidating to allow your students to own their own education and learning, but the payout when you see what the kids have created is priceless.”
For more information, visit www.jpaultayloracademy.org.
February 12, 2021 at 12:17AM
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'Cookies for Caregivers' means giving back for second graders - Las Cruces Bulletin
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