Lindsey Hancock Warden
Access
The teacher researches and presents outside opportunities; students can describe their opportunities and take advantage of them, based on their skills and qualities.
Introduction
Though private schools often enjoy a reputation for having greater access to opportunities than students in other school settings, my experience at a small, independent school demonstrated to me that a small student body can create funding difficulties that force administrators to make difficult decisions regarding the programs and activities that are funded. For example, retaining even five or six fewer students than anticipated results in a $24,000 loss in funding raised through tuition, which severely strains the budgets of small schools. Few people, in hearing where I teach, would imagine that our school van is over thirty years old and that some of our textbooks are nearly as outdated!
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Another challenge of my unique school setting lies in the fact that the school has been operating for forty-five years. The school has had only two administrators during this time, and the huge majority of the teachers on staff are longtime veterans in education. While the benefits of retaining administrators and teachers for several decades cannot be understated, we have found that it can sometimes lead to a reluctance to change and innovate. We all have certain ways we like to do things, and this can create challenges for newer teachers who would like to start new programs or purchase new materials when the old programs and materials seem to have served adequately for so long.
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With these facts in mind, I initially identified two major gaps in access opportunities for my students at Heritage Baptist Academy. First, there were few extracurricular activities or team activities available for students through the school. Boys could participate only in basketball, and girls could participate only in cheerleading. Having competed in speech and debate as a student myself, I decided to start a club for students that would allow opportunities to work and learn after school with friends, discuss current events, and travel around the state for competition. Second, my students did not have access to a wide variety of children's and young adult fiction and nonfiction. There is no school library, and the books available for older students are few in number and as old as the school itself. Through the introduction of a robust independent reading program, I built a classroom library, implemented a check-out system, connected my students to outside libraries through their tablets, and encouraged the reading and sharing of diverse texts.
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Please click the images below to see how I have provided multiple modes of access to opportunities for my students.
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Speech & Debate Club
Book Access
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have been key in increasing my students' access in two primary ways. First, through the introduction of a secondary speech and debate program, my students have accessed increased knowledge of world events, academic skill, communication skill, competition, fellowship, travel, and college preparation. Second, through simple methods to stock a secondary classroom library and access online libraries, my students can access literature that interests and fascinates them, thereby broadening their knowledge, perspectives, vocabulary, and understandings of the world and the others in it. Whether it is developing a brand new speech and debate program from scratch, or implementing changes to the way my school handles independent reading, access comes in many shapes and forms. I am proud to have brought these changes to a student body at a very traditional school and I plan to continue ensuring my students have access to such resources and programs in my future school settings.