JANESVILLE
It feels cramped at Madison Elementary School in 糖心Vlog传媒 due to ongoing construction. The staff, however, has been working through the challenges and endeavor to make each day the best it can be for their students.
When you drive up to Madison Elementary, the first thing you see is the front of the building under construction. The current makeshift office is now in the back of the building, meaning visitors have to walk a lap to the back of the building to drop their children off.
The construction that started in late December has displaced eight staff members, including Principal Stephanie Filter.
Filter鈥檚 desk is currently located on the stage in the school鈥檚 lunch room. Next to her is a large table for meetings and another administrative staff person鈥檚 desk is located in the other corner. When the staff meets while students are in the lunchroom, the stage curtains are pulled closed.
鈥淭he noise is actually not bad, it鈥檚 just funny,鈥 Filter said. 鈥淚t is what it is. Sometimes we peek our heads out.鈥
The construction is expected to be completed in March. The district is currently in phase two of a three-phase construction to better the secure entrances of all school district buildings.
鈥淲e have people tucked in all kinds of corners,鈥 Filter said of staff members whose office spaces have been affected 鈥淲e all make it work.鈥
Filter has been principal of Madison Elementary for eight years and an employee of the 糖心Vlog传媒 School District for 28. Becoming the Madison principal was a full circle moment for her because she attended Madison as a child and remembers walking to school from her childhood home.
The resource room with Mary Quelle
At the beginning of the day, resource room paraprofessional Mary Quelle makes sure she has all the resources she and her students need. Quelle sees about 50 students a day from grades kindergarten to fifth grade. In the resource room, they use the 鈥渮ones of regulation鈥 to help students explain how they鈥檙e feeling when they enter the room.
This chalkboard asks students 鈥榃hat Zone Are You?鈥
If a student chooses zone blue, they are hungry, sad, bored, in pain or sleepy. They choose green when they are ready to learn, proud, happy or focused. Yellow means they鈥檙e feeling silly, frustrated, worried or confused. Lastly, if they choose red, they are admittedly out of control, mad, aggressive, mean or scared.
鈥淲hat it is trying to do is to get kids to regulate on their own,鈥 Quelle said. 鈥淭he practice here is that no feelings are bad. We just want kids to understand how to regulate themselves and how to get them back into the classroom and be able to learn and not upset the whole class.鈥
The resource room has lots of different resources, like a tunnel to crawl through and sand to play with to help with managing emotions before heading back to class. Quelle also likes to do physical therapy and yoga with the students.
A second-grade classroom
Upon entering the classroom in the morning, each student selects their lunch choice for the day.
In Sarah Duberstein鈥檚 classroom, second-grade students were just getting started with their day. Students pick what hot lunch they want on the smart board. That day the lunchroom was serving popcorn chicken and mac and cheese. A few students marked down on the board that they brought their own cold lunch.
After choosing their lunch and eating their breakfast quietly at their desks, the class started to work on an English assignment with their own individual Google Chrome books.
Special education
Special education teacher Dawnette Rockers has been at Madison for about five years but started off as a paraprofessional. She mainly works with students who have learning disabilities.
鈥淚 have students from third, fourth and fifth grade for reading and math,鈥 Rockers said. 鈥淚 also do classroom support for third, fourth and fifth grade. I have students with learning disabilities and offer them support.鈥
Special Education Teacher Stefanie Scalish works with two students.
Rockers said it has been difficult for the past couple of pandemic-affected years, but the students are doing a great job. She said they just need reminders here and there to pull their masks up over their mouths and noses.
Library time
On Tuesday, the school library had a special virtual visitor. A staff member from the Hedberg Public Library in 糖心Vlog传媒 made a video call so a librarian could read stories to students throughout the day.
Students participate in a virtual video call with Hedberg Public Library where a Hedberg librarian shared stories with them including a story about a mouse visiting the library.
The video was on the library鈥檚 smart board, and students sat on the carpet as they listened to the librarian read, 鈥淚f You Take a Mouse to the Library鈥 and more.
The librarian spoke about all the books students could borrow at Hedberg and available CDs and DVDs. The kids learned they could even get Nintendo Switch video games from the library.
School counselor
Before starting her career at Madison, Vernita Jones worked at the Juvenile Detention Center in Rock County for eight years. She was a correctional officer and wanted to help and understand what was bringing kids into the system.
鈥淥nce I accepted a position in the district as a youth advocate, I worked very closely with the school social workers and counselors, which really made me want to go back to school to get my school counseling degree,鈥 Jones said.
For four years Jones has been the school counselor at Madison. Jones used to work with groups on social skills, but because of the construction, space to do that is unavailable. She is nevertheless working on creating a third-grade social skills group that can meet when the building project is done.
鈥淭he kids aren鈥檛 sure how to express (feelings) or they don鈥檛 know how to cope with the different things that go on,鈥 Jones said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a lot of helping kids understand we all aren鈥檛 the same. We go through things differently and we just need to be supportive of the other students.鈥
Art class
A great way to express yourself is through art, and that鈥檚 exactly what happens in Ashleigh Meagher鈥檚 art class. Meagher has been teaching at Madison for about four years and has had to adjust that entire time.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 had a normal year yet,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e had a whole bunch of days off because of the polar vortex. Then the next year we stopped halfway through because of COVID. Last year I actually had to go to the rooms (using) a cart. This year, we鈥檙e back. This is the closest to normal I鈥檝e been since COVID.鈥
Though she鈥檚 had to adjust quite often, Meagher said she is glad she faced the adversity.
鈥淣ow I feel like I can do anything that comes my way,鈥 she said.