TIME Collaborative: College View Elementary School | Page 5

Next, College View shifted how the technology and
drop-everything-and-read blocks were being used,
making room for 40 minutes of “play with
purpose” — a daily extended, structured
recess/physical education period that encourages
students to explore a variety of play-oriented
enrichments. For Gamba and his team, giving
young children the time to move their bodies,
exercise, and play each day was nonnegotiable,
given what research and best practice demonstrate
about movement and well-being. The team also
established 15-minute “brain breaks” throughout
the day, facilitated by City Year volunteers, which
gives learners time to relax, regroup, and refocus
before transitioning to the next topic. While the
students are letting off steam, teachers have an
opportunity to prepare for the next lesson, allowing
both students and teachers to remain prepared and
focused throughout the day.

Another shift the team made was adding a
90-minute essentials block that included yoga,
poetry, soccer, music, and other enrichments.
Every other day, students attend an essential, and
during the first six weeks of school, students rotate
through all the various essentials so they can
choose which activity they want to explore deeply
for the next eight to 10 weeks of the quarter. Beyond
the regularly scheduled essentials, College View
also implemented enrichment days once a month
in which community partners from across Denver
come to campus for three hours in the afternoon to
create immersive experiences. (Staff participates
in professional development during this time.)
With all of these changes, College View shifted
away from the expectation that enriching
experiences usually happen after school instead of
during the school day. “Why wait until after school
to have tennis?” Gamba asks. “Instead, we made it
an essential so all kids can experience tennis for
10 weeks during the school day.”

enriching a community
“When we say ‘a whole child,’ maybe what we
should be focusing on is a whole community,”
Gamba says. College View works hard to live
this idea, opening the Center for Family
Opportunity, which is one of the most
comprehensive community centers provided
by a school. The center offers English as a
second language classes, financial literacy
courses, job support, legal counseling,
citizenship classes, one-to-one financial
advising, and more. “What’s so amazing is to
see parents on one side of the hallway and
then kids on the other side of the hallway
learning,” Gamba says. “This is the way to
bring up an entire community and ensure it’s
not just us working with kids, but instead
we’re providing opportunity to everyone.”

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