Observation #1

Learning for Leadership Charter School

I’m going to observe my hours at Learning for Leadership Charter School, which is located between Northeast Minneapolis and Columbia heights. Since I’ve spend all my high school years in this school I didn’t have to walk around to gather information, or look for coffee shops because I already know there’s nothing around the school except parks, golf field, green lands and old train bridges, and town houses. Learning for Leadership is small K-12 school about 250 students attend the school, about 69% of the students are African Americans, 16% white, 7% Hispanic, and 5% Multiracial. Half of the students are English learners, almost all the students have their siblings or family member, and all the students personally know one another.

I’m not drawn to the building and I never was due to the fact that the building itself does not look like a school, the only sign that makes you realize that you’re standing in front of a school is the name that’s on the front wall right above the entrance door. Despite the ugliness of the building I love all the people inside, the art that covers 90% of the school walls. I’ve spend all my high school years at Learning for Leadership charter school, and now every time I come to this school I feel like nothing has changed nor my emotions nor the teachers or the students. I’m always welcomed by warm hugs starting from the office to all the classrooms, and I’m used to hearing, “Oh, Mana is here!” and my old friends rushing to hug me. Ever since I’ve graduate I feel like celebrity whenever I go there.

The school is based on art and projects, and you will notice that without anyone telling you because all the walls as I said are covered with student arts and many different projects. There’s actually two days of every month where students do group project works, and students decide whatever they want do from the project list that the teachers provide. They call those two day AP days, and most of the fieldtrips are based on those projects. It’s an awesome kind of relax two days where students enjoy projects that they are interested and go to fieldtrips. All my years there I’ve enjoyed the nature writing project where we went hiking, and going to lakes sitting in middle of nature writing poems or shot stories.

Not many students from the neighborhood attend the school maybe due to the fact that they don’t know about because it’s really small school, and the neighbor only sees the students in the park, and they ask the students what school they go to, and they get surprised when students tells them who close the school is to them. Or maybe the school is small school that doesn’t get that much of founding, but anyway seems like the majority of the students are Somali-Americans English learners that aren’t prepared adequately for other big school where they don’t get that much of a help.

Even though I spend four yeas going to Learning for Leadership, this was my first time doing some research about the school itself and I was amazed about what I’ve sound out. 86.4% of the students get free lunch, and 49% of the students are female while 50% are male students. Academically the school has 20% of proficient math, and 17% of proficient reading.

Here are some pictures I've took on my last visit :)