A lockdown, a lesson in Spanish, and a BLAST(off): Safe Routes Philly at Independence Charter School

Students: 84 Students (5^th Grade)

Date: Monday, April 26 and Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Philly Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square

Sometimes you can walk into a school and see how special it is right from the start. Independence Charter School is one of those schools.

Safe Routes Philly had a fabulous experience at Independence Charter School.

We taught two classes of fifth grade students and two classes of fourth grade students. All classes have been incredibly supportive. One teacher in particular shaped the attitudes of her students into an incredibly positive and supportive environment. The students would cheer for each other when their classmate was selected to volunteer in the lesson, and at the end of class, I received an enormous salute in which the entire fourth grade class would shoot their little hands and fingers into the air and shout in unison, “Blast off!!” It was cosmic and remains a lasting impression in my mind.

Another interesting event on the second day was when one of our lessons was conducted in Spanish by our very own bilingual educator and Assistant Director, Diana Owens.

If you’ve ever travelled to another country, then you would’ve experienced the situation of being immersed in a culture speaking a foreign language. You’re put into a situation where you are forced to learn and try this new language. It’s a high learning curve. Some students at Independence Charter School have been placed in a similar situation since their early years – a Spanish immersion class. I was pleasantly surprised, not only by the students’ fluency in the language, but also to see such a widely diverse classroom community from many different ethnic backgrounds; not just for recent Hispanic immigrants, which is common to see in many other schools. Diana had great discussions with the students on biking safely in Philadelphia.

A special thanks goes out to the teachers of Independence Charter School for allowing Safe Routes Philly some class time, and a VERY special thanks goes out to Teacher Martha for helping us make it happen! Here’s to 84 more students who are now safer in the streets of Philadelphia.

Ride Safe,

~Cy