“Caring.”

“Supportive.”

“Warm.”

“Family atmosphere.”

“Community-oriented.”

Most people know about the dual immersion program at the Academy of the Americas, where students take most of their classes beginning in Spanish in the earliest grades and phase in more English at the later grades, helping them to be fully proficient in Spanish by eighth grade.

But just as important to the identity of this school seems to be its familial, caring, team-oriented atmosphere, where students, teachers, staff, parents and community organizations work together to create a well-run, rigorous program starting in kindergarten.

The adjectives above are just a few visitors will hear when asking about what makes Academy of the Americas tick.

“There’s a lot of togetherness,” said fourth-grade teacher Katie Kutney, also known as Maestra Kutney. “It creates a big positive feeling.”

The togetherness begins with the very look of the school, located in the former St. Hedwig school building in Southwest Detroit. Nearly every wall, hallway and stairwell is adorned with art and murals painted by students or staff, giving the school community a sense that the building is theirs, said Principal Anthony Houston.

The message is reflected in the courtyard where colorfully-painted silhouettes of students holding hands run the entire length of the concrete wall.

And the students take that message to heart by caring for the building and maintaining a positive school atmosphere.

The school’s Student Safety Patrol is a prime example of that. With 60 members this year, the two safety patrol teams work shifts throughout the day and take their job very seriously.

“The safety program has grown so much,” said Jorge Guzman, 14, a Safety Patrol Captain, who wears a bright safety patrol sash and badge. “We open doors for the little kids and help in the classrooms and office. And if something is going on during recess, like trouble, we go to help out.”

Having students work on safety is key to maintaining a positive school atmosphere, said 13-year-old Carmen Ramirez, also a Safety Patrol Captain. That means that if students are causing trouble in a hallway, a safety patroller will assist in diffusing the situation.

“Students like to listen to their peers,” she said.

Students also work shifts as part of the school’s partnership with Playworks, a nonprofit organization that works to transform schools by coordinating play and physical activities throughout the school day.

Playworks bills itself as an organization that restores valuable teaching time, reduces bullying, increases physical activity and improves the school and learning environment. According to its website, Playworks teaches children to resolve their own conflicts that arise at recess and carry over to the classroom, improving school climate both on and off the playground.  That philosophy helps transform recess into a safe, fun and inclusive time that gets students active and engaged so they can return to the classroom focused and ready to learn.

Students agree. During recess, Junior Coaches are tasked with running activities, said fifth-grader Estrella Escutia, who said her Monday shift includes supervising the 6-square and 4-square games.

“We make it safer during recess,” Estrella said, not to mention more fun for the other students. She also likes that the school, together with Playworks, provides a variety of activities allowing students to engage in physical activity and blow off steam so they can better concentrate on their schoolwork when in class.

Some fitness offerings include softball, soccer, archery and volleyball. Basketball is expected to be added next year.

“We try as much as possible to empower and engage students. And that translates to everyone helping make sure the students get ahead academically,” Houston said. “It’s like a big family here.”

Parents are integral to that process at Academy of the Americas, too, and there is parent participation in abundance.

“We have parents who sign up for every single daytime slot at parent teacher conferences, so we create additional slots after school,” said English Language Arts teacher Michelle Ezop. And meetings held by the parent organization typically draw 75 to 100 parents, Houston said.

The school tries to be even more welcoming to parents by offering a variety of workshops, including Zumba classes and technology workshops specifically for parents. The idea is that having actively engaged parents helps to increase student achievement.

Thanks to the immense community-oriented nature of the school, Academy of the Americas does not have significant discipline issues, Houston said. “That allows staff to focus on what’s truly important – academics and cognitive growth.”

Teachers at the Academy of the Americas relish their jobs, weaving the community feel into their class lessons and making student learning participatory in nature.

In Ezop’s English Language Arts class, this played out in a recent lesson tied to an upcoming school-wide festival called Arts, Beats and Eats. The sixth graders were allowed to cast a ballot on which country they wanted to study for the festival. Brazil won the day.

In Ezop’s class, students then had to pick a partner and a topic, research it using their school-provided Netbook computers, and create a poster that would be displayed in the hallway.

“We have a big community feel, but we also try to build students to be independent,” Ezop said.

Teachers also strive to make lessons interactive and fun. In Kutney’s class, that includes allowing the students to feed the classroom iguana, Lola, with live crickets. Students eagerly raise their hands to be the ones to feed the iguana and happily “oooh” and “ahhh” and giggle as Lola swallows the crickets placed in the cage.

Like many teachers at the school, Kutney incorporates her own travels and experiences, including to far-off places like Peru, into her lessons.

“I’ve been able to make a lot of connections to my travels,” she said. “That helps to make it seem to students like anything is possible and that they can go out and explore the world.”

The rigorous program and unique dual-immersion offerings help to ensure Academy of the Americas has a stable enrollment, even drawing parents from far-reaching suburbs, Houston said.

“We are one of the few dual immersion programs in the state of Michigan,” Houston said. “We work to have our students exit eighth grade being fully bilingual. Research shows that students who are bilingual also tend to score higher on standardized tests.”

Some other academic programs at the school include El Arte – Art infused education; PeNut: Physical Education Nutrition program; Project Seed, a science-based program; Math Core, a Socratic method for teaching math; Science With Engineers, a program in which engineers come to fourth and fifth grade rooms and do project-based instruction with students in Science; and Go Games, an ancient strategic Chinese board game. Through the latter program, Academy of the Americas has partnerships with a local university and a school in Mexico where students interact through the game that helps with critical thinking skills, strategy, mathematics, collaboration, and team building.

And based on input on what is best for students from this community/parent-friendly school, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) certification is expected to be infused in the curriculum next year, Houston said.

Something you didn’t entirely know:

Academy of the Americas students begin taking 90% of their lessons in Spanish in the early grades, gradually phasing to a 50-50 system, with 50% in English and 50% in Spanish.

As students progress through the grades, English instruction increases each year by 10%. It is based on the 90/10 model where students in the kindergarten and first grades receive all instruction in Spanish with 10% of their day in English. In second grade the ratio moves to 80% Spanish and 20% English. This ratio continues to increase the English by 10% yearly. By the time students reach the fifth grade, instruction is 50% Spanish and 50% English, and follows this format through eighth grade. In addition, students learn about the Spanish culture of the Americas through themed studies of different countries and school wide events such as the multicultural festival. The main goal of the school is to graduate bilingual and bi-literate students in Spanish and English ready to function at a high bilingual level in high school.

Something else you didn’t know:

Academy of the Americas is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year! A celebration is in the planning phases that will bring in not only parents, students, and staff, but will include the numerous partnerships and individuals that are involved yearly and daily in school processes. This school has enjoyed a very consistent staff and student enrollment for the last 20 years with many students being second generation enrollees. A high percentage of the staff (73%) is bilingual with a majority being native Spanish speakers. They come from Spanish-speaking countries all over Central and South America giving students a rich cultural experience.

Amidst change, it takes a team to make Sampson-Webber Leadership Academy a daily, consistent positive educational setting for students and families

Sampson-Webber Leadership Academy in the 2012-2013 school year stands out as a learning and supportive environment with remarkable stability and teamwork within Detroit Public Schools.

That’s a remarkable sign for a school that’s been the center of transition for a number of years. The students and families, as well as the teaching staff, have come from many directions on their journeys which have led them to Sampson Academy.

Detroit Public Schools educators with many years of experience are in most cases new to Sampson within the past two years. Students have followed both the route of transition due to family moves and the district’s consolidation of a number of near-west side educational programs.

The 50-year-old, well-maintained, bright and active school displays its heritage and its current mission in overlapping ways every school day. A reinvigorated team spirit among the educators is supported by longtime community and parent volunteers and partners.

Thursday morning, May 23 before 9:00 a.m. is a busy time as students, parents, volunteers and supportive partners arrive at the school. On this morning of the Spring Musical, the atmosphere is even busier as cars line both sides of Tireman Avenue in front of the school bringing participants and guests to the event.

Music, Art…

Music, as well as art, play an important role in the school’s educational model, not only as elective creative activities but in direct support of essential reading and comprehension skills.

The first display case within the entrance hallway showcases band instruments, something not seen in all schools. Academic Engagement Administrator Ricky Jones credits recently retired Principal Coy Lynn Robinson, who nominated the school for the DPS School of the Week feature, for working to include art and music in the Sampson program.

Music teacher and this morning’s Concert Musical Director Teresa Youngblood echoes the importance of music to the students, one-third of whom are engaged in her program. “It’s both an outlet and a means by which students can express themselves better, as well as develop literacy and common core skills.” And students are regularly exposed to additional reading, writing, explaining, revising, and rehearsing educational activities.

Art teacher Jeffrey Ferreri similarly talks about the higher level thinking skills that he is able to bring out in the 300 students who take part in his program. In his room is a poster that states, “Art makes your brain powerful.”

It’s all about Reading.

Putting books in the hands—and homes—of the school’s children at all ages is a mission at Sampson.

Reading Recovery teacher Patti Garbacik distributed more than 2,000 donated books during the recent Camp Want to Read event in the school’s cafeteria, which is transformed into a campground setting for a day with younger children reading together under tents in the morning and the older students moving the tents out of the way but losing no interest in obtaining the books and developing reading skills later in the day.

Garbacik, like many of the teachers who are new to the school this year, brought ideas and programs they developed at other schools, many of which have the common theme of motivating students to read, into the rich atmosphere at Sampson during 2012-13.

Instructional Specialist and School Improvement team member Kim Newell is excited about an upcoming first Family Literacy Night designed to assist parents in understanding reading strategies as well as ease transitions from one grade to the next.

Twenty-one year DPS and second year Sampson teacher Amy Krzyzanowski, a recent Race for the Cure winner, credits the school’s team spirit and family atmosphere for support in her victory. Her classroom, like so many others, is filled with lessons and educational materials on the walls, floor and ceiling. Commenting on the ceiling, she states, “If they need something and I’m working with another group of students in the classroom, they can just look up and get the answer.”

Eighth grader Roderick Martin whose sights are set on attending Cass Tech, Renaissance or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. high schools next year, is the regional winner in the America and Me Essay Contest and, along with his teacher Jacqueline Blakely, is anxiously awaiting the statewide contest results. His essay is about plans to grow up as a successful man and the success his mother has had in raising him.

Families in Blakely’s class have new home Internet access after she was successfully selected as one of eight DPS teachers to win free one year home access for the families. She’s excited about the literacy impact not only on the children but their families.

Want to find great Customer Service within Detroit Public Schools? Look no further than the main office at Sampson Academy

In the main office, the three DPS veteran office staff possess a combined 77 years of service to the district’s students. Their eagerness to serve the families is immediately evident. The largest of several boards in the room displays the word “Compassion” in large letters and offers this definition: “Commiseration, mercy, tenderness, heart, and clemency.”

“We have to be on our P’s and Q’s, and always make the parents know that their children are in a safe and caring environment,” says Verla Taylor. “We’re the first ones that anyone sees. We set the tone. We know that not everyone who comes through that door is having a good day, and our job is to help to assist them and, if necessary, to calm them down.”

Taylor and her colleagues credit their customer service from “learning from the best” among other longtime members of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees.

Elsewhere in the office there are many other signs of compassion, and quite a few pink hearts, as well as reminders to the students that “I believe in myself and my ability to do my best,” and “I am intelligent.”

Jones says the school has been known by a number of names over many years and many have known it as Sampson-Webber School. Merging school programs have brought students from the nearby Sherrill School community and as far away as the Jemison Academy, as well as others consolidated over the years.

Jones credits the teachers, staff and community supporters for keeping an often-negative outside culture away from the hallways of the school, whose culture is decidedly different.

A Webber Wall of Fame overlooking the two-story entrance atrium painted by art teacher Dennis Orlowski and his students features former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, Longtime City Council President Erma Henderson, DPS Superintendent Arthur Jefferson and eight others. “It helps to both warm our school and to celebrate the accomplishments of these leaders with our current students every day.”

Volunteers and supporters including longtime community member Mrs. Wells, who helped to coordinate a library makeover and influx of 5,000+ donated books, as well as the Motor Moms and the Yes Foundation, have a longtime presence in the school through its many transitions and are as focused on ensuring these students read as the newer staff. “I am determined to see these kids read,” Wells states.

Martisa Gandy is the parent of four Sampson students in grades 8, 6 and 4 and serves as the secretary of the parent organization. “I’m here every day, just to help keep an eye on all the children.” Gandy recently relocated to the area and transferred her children from a charter school and credits the school for better education, discipline and culture than the previous school her children attended.

Instructional Specialist David Watkins credits Sampson’s positive impact on students and their families on the “togetherness of the team. Staff come and go, but we have to always work as a team. We have to be in it for the kids, and not for ourselves.”

“All of the students have potential to be scholars,” Watkins states. “So when I walk through the door, that’s what I tell them every day.”