Art

Music should not be an intimidating art. In fact, no art should be intimidating. The arts are not an elitist group of people who have some secret that they’re keeping from the rest of us. Then why is it that my interactions with non-musician friends often include a twinge of shame, a joke about their tone-deafness, or an overall feeling of dread? Why do we more easily gravitate to one type of music? Though the thoughts I have to share on this topic are a far cry from a scholarly research, they are the analysis of my observations throughout the past 15 years in the classroom and as a...Read more

Last year I took a graduate course entitled Foundations of Global Citizenship. The course changed my teaching drastically. We studied what it means to be global citizens and focused on the importance of teaching children to become productive global citizens. Being a global citizen means that you are aware of the problems that face your community and world. The next step is to feel a responsibility and also be willing to take action to solve those problems – even in a small way. As teachers in that class, we were charged to determine how we could teach global citizenship in our classrooms...Read more

Great Stories. Great Graduates. Introducing our Alumni Spotlight Series...

Stories. They are one of the best parts of my job. I get to listen to stories about tooth fairy visits, recess boo-boos, soccer team successes, field trip discoveries, homework woes and much more. I love hearing all about the lives of our students. Recently, many stories I have found great delight in are those of our Rossman alumni, the students who skipped down the halls of our school years before I arrived. Their memories of Rossman and the passions they pursue beyond our walls both...Read more

While recently conversing with a third grade child at lunch, he shared with me his excitement about the “numerous” houses he would visit on Halloween. I was struck immediately with his ease of using the word “numerous.” Clearly, he had a firm understanding of the word, which he spoke so fluently! It was obvious to me that he is well on his way to developing a strong vocabulary.

Rossman teachers explicitly weave vocabulary into their daily instruction, creating a seamless transition from learning words orally at a young age to acquiring the tools to learn from the written text. While...Read more

Can you imagine living in an art museum? Rossman fourth graders recently visited the St. Louis Art Museum trying to imagine just that.

This spring, the fourth graders have been reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. In this classic novel, two siblings decide to run away from home and hide in a magnificent, beautiful place - the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In their quest to learn “everything about everything” in the museum, they find themselves amongst a mysterious statue that may be the work of Michelangelo. This sends the pair on an...Read more