Most of Anne Arundel County's 74,000 students returned to classes Monday and were greeted by a new teacher in a different classroom.
Except for one second-grade class.
Sherryl Barton, who taught first grade last year at Broadneck Elementary School in Arnold, has graduated with her class and Monday began teaching the same class of children as second-graders, in a process called "looping."
"It takes away the whole 'getting-to-know-you' period,' " said Barton, who has taught first, second, and third grades for 16 years, a decade of that at Broadneck. "It's more like, welcome back. We're going to be able to go so far this year. I can't wait."
According to a 1997 study published by the Northeast and Islands Educational Lab at Brown University, looping benefits students by providing continuity that allows teachers to quickly delve into learning because of previous knowledge of students' strengths and weaknesses, helps build stronger student-teacher relationships and alleviates back-to-school anxiety for students. Though looping has shown many benefits, it's a relatively rare practice in Arundel schools, school officials said.
Across the region, some school systems such as Baltimore City have used the practice of looping but not on a widespread basis. At Hampstead Hill Academy, a conversion charter school in Canton, Principal Matthew Hornbeck said looping has been used for several years, and an accelerated second-grade class is looping this year.
But it's crucial to the success of looping to assign an engaged and willing teacher, Hornbeck said, otherwise students' success could be adversely affected by the prolonged exposure to a negative academic environment.
"We have done it when it makes sense, when there's a particularly strong bond with the teacher," said Hornbeck. "Looping is a huge advantage when you have a group of students and a teacher who are working really well together and are sort of in creative discovery mode with the curriculum. It can be fantastic - life-changing."
Broadneck's principal, Alison Lee, needed to fill a vacancy for a second-grade teacher over the summer and had read positive research on looping. She approached Barton, whose enthusiasm for teaching is evident.
"You almost get a whole month back," said Lee, who has been principal at Broadneck for four years. "The kids love it. It's such a unique experience. Parents I talked to were thrilled, they were absolutely tickled."
