Minnetonka Shools by Clear Springs Principal Curt Carpenter
Posted by Steve Frazier
Our Program on November 30th was presented by Curt Carpenter, the principal at Clear Springs Elementary School.
Curt was raised in St Francis, MN, and served our country as a member of the Air Force. He taught at Deephaven Elementary School prior to getting his certification as a principal, and has been the principal at Clear Springs (located on Highway 101 next to the District Service Center) for over 5 years. He thanked us for the student dictionaries that our club has given to his students, and said that it's great to see students get excited over receiving the books.
One part of his talk was a short video showing how technology is now used in the Minnetonka grade school classroom. A class on the human brain was videoed at Deephaven, and the video demonstrated how technology and creativity can combine to make a lesson vivid for the students. And, of course, as it's recorded and on the district website, students can bring it up on their home computers and review the exact lesson. He also showed the club the 2010 annual report of the district. He also pointed out that district enrollment is up in numbers, primarily because of open enrollment. About 1 in 5 students in the district are living in other districts and attending Minnetonka Schools under open enrollment. His school, because of its location, has a higher percentage of students from outside the district: one in three are open enrolled.
During question time, open enrollment came up again, and Curt explained that all of the state funding for transferred students comes to Minnetonka, so that there is more revenue, and class sizes are actually lowered by the added students. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and Photo by Steve Frazier)
Curt was raised in St Francis, MN, and served our country as a member of the Air Force. He taught at Deephaven Elementary School prior to getting his certification as a principal, and has been the principal at Clear Springs (located on Highway 101 next to the District Service Center) for over 5 years. He thanked us for the student dictionaries that our club has given to his students, and said that it's great to see students get excited over receiving the books.
One part of his talk was a short video showing how technology is now used in the Minnetonka grade school classroom. A class on the human brain was videoed at Deephaven, and the video demonstrated how technology and creativity can combine to make a lesson vivid for the students. And, of course, as it's recorded and on the district website, students can bring it up on their home computers and review the exact lesson. He also showed the club the 2010 annual report of the district. He also pointed out that district enrollment is up in numbers, primarily because of open enrollment. About 1 in 5 students in the district are living in other districts and attending Minnetonka Schools under open enrollment. His school, because of its location, has a higher percentage of students from outside the district: one in three are open enrolled.
During question time, open enrollment came up again, and Curt explained that all of the state funding for transferred students comes to Minnetonka, so that there is more revenue, and class sizes are actually lowered by the added students. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and Photo by Steve Frazier)