Chester students learn together across schools, grades

Chester students and teachers across grades and schools are participating in team-driven, collaborative learning projects where they are supporting one another, the school district shared in its most recent newsletter. One of those projects, the Monster Exchange, involved first-grade students at Chester Elementary School designing monsters for seventh-grade students at Chester Academy to produce.

“The kids really love being able to support each other, and they love that connection,” said Crisseda Besson, who organizes the Monster Exchange — which is in its second year — and teaches the advanced foods class at Chester Academy.

The first graders designed what they wanted their monsters to look like. The middle school students then took the designs and sewed the monsters together. Later, the seventh graders visited CES to give them to the students.

“I really liked participating in this project because it was really nice to see the students’ faces when they got their monster,” said Jazalynn Hernandez, a seventh grader. “It was a little hard to create the monster because the elementary school students were very detailed, but I would definitely do it again,” she said.

“It was really exciting to work with the students, even though I wasn’t sure how it would turn out,” said Surilyn Cespedes, a seventh grader. “The student who got my monster said that it was even better than he imagined, which was really nice.”

Nurturing collaboration

Jennifer Daly, who teaches the introduction to health careers class, has her seniors and juniors collaborate with the first and second graders at the elementary school on a book project.

“One of the things we work on are soft skills like communication, time management, and organization,” said Daly. “Their final project is to create a children’s book based on a soft skill.” The seniors in her class design a children’s book with their own illustrations and writing.

“They’re reading to the elementary school students because it’s nice community building for them and it’s a nice way to give back,” said Daly.

Stephanie Steiler, who teaches seventh grade English at CA, has her students write “where I’m from” poems and read them to the first graders. In May, students in this class will write the poems that detail different experiences related to their background, culture, and home. Then, they share these poems with first-graders at CES.

“It’s nice for the students because they get to go back to the elementary school, where they used to be and some of them even see their old teachers,” said Steiler. “So, it’s a nice moment for them.”

“The collaboration between our young learners at CES and our students at Chester Academy is an opportunity to foster growth and unity within our school community,” said Superintendent Catherine O’Hara. “These innovative projects not only ignite the creative spark within our students but also cultivate their communication, collaboration, and leadership skills. Our teachers and staff continue to provide engaging learning experiences both within and outside the classroom, underscoring our student-centered, future-focused, and team-driven mission.”