Computers Resource Dream on MLK Weekend

How can a school extend the learning day for kids on the other side of the digital divide?  Emerson has struggled with this question as we hope to increase learning for our kids who are not meeting academic goals, and who also don't have access to computers at home.  For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday weekend, we are trying an experiment- to send home a computer with selected children who we desperately want to make additional academic progress. 

The risk is that we may have a computer from our lab become broken, damaged or needing to be re-imaged.  The potential reward is that our focus group of students, this weekend all English Learners, will potentially spend time this three day weekend engaged in learning. 

So far the results look positive.  This morning I checked tho see how those students are doing- they have taken and passed reading quizzes, they have earned several hundred First in Math stickers playing math games, and they are expected to be using our Envision SuccesNet math program as well.  One early indicator of success that we moved up another rank in FIM!

14 Mountain View   142 798
15 Highland             136 677
16 Emerson             136 602
17 Bryant Dist         135 314
18 Victoria              131 574

When we checked the computers out to the selected students on Friday, the students were beyond excited.  They were being entrusted with a valuable school resource to take home on the weekend.  The truth however, is that the students are the valuable resource, we just need to continue figuring out how we, as the parents and educational professionals, can maximize their potential so that they can achieve academic dreams.

Riverside Magazine Highlights Mini-United Nations School!

To see a copy of the Riverside Magazine, Follow this link.

At Emerson, a “mini-United Nations"— Jerry Rice

With students from 13 foreign countries, Emerson Elementary in Riverside is a cosmopolitan school that literally gives students a global view.

“Everyone is more aware of world issues, which helps them break out of the local microcosm that they know,” said principal John McCombs. “It helps them expand their knowledge of the world, their understanding of how other people live and what the realities are for people around the world.”

The school was dubbed a “mini-United Nations” a few years ago, but in reality the school has hosted children from many countries for decades. Foreign professors and students who work at or attend UC Riverside often bring their families with them, McCombs says.

Many of the children arrive knowing few, if any words in English. There are 155 English-learners currently at Emerson, out of 750 students.

Special initiatives, including a new iScholars program, help foreign students not only assimilate with their classmates, but succeed. iScholars combines a curriculum for GATE students along with components of advanced language fluency for English learners in the same classroom.

“It’s really exciting to see students come in, move through the different levels of language acquisition, and then be able to score ‘advanced’ on the California Standards Tests for language arts,” McCombs said.

Over the years, Emerson has recognized each student and the country they’re from with a flag. Seventy-five flags now hang along one hallway.

— Jerry Rice