School of the Week: Students become leaders at Samuel Powel School

Located at 3610 Warren St. in West Philadelphia, Powel is a K-4 school with nearly 350 students.

“Every school has a vision, mission and goals, but we wanted to look at what happens when students leave Powel,” Ellerbee said. “Our focus is around laying a solid foundation focused on helping students be devoted to their own learning and embrace challenges.

“There is a component to learning that involves productive struggle,” she said. “We want our students to understand that as you learn, you’re going to encounter challenges.

“We’re teaching them how to embrace those challenges so they can continue to advance in their own learning,” she added. “We were also looking to develop students who make good choices and develop students who communicate effectively and appropriately.”

To help align with the learner profile, the school relaunched its student council this school year. Students in the council meet once a month.

“Our third and fourth graders selected class representatives,” Ellerbee said. “There are two students from each of our third grade homerooms and four students from each of our fourth grade homerooms that serve as class representatives.

“From amongst our fourth grade students who are class reps, they had the opportunity to go through a nomination process for student council president,” she said.

During the nomination process, students developed campaign material, wrote speeches and participated in a debate. Upon the completion of the nomination process, the school held an election where second, third and fourth graders had the opportunity to vote.

Ellerbee said the overall process taught Powel students about the importance of voting.

“The students had to consider the candidates who were running,” Ellerbee said. “The same way we go into a voting booth to vote we also tried to replicate that here at the school level.

“They received stickers afterwards to show that they voted,” she said. “During our first quarter awards assembly, we announced our class president.

“We also have a first and second vice president from among our fourth grade students,” she added. “We’re really teaching them how to advocate for themselves if they have an issue or concern.”

In addition to student council, Powel offers a plethora of programs for students to participate in including Scrabble club, coding, African dance, debate and drama club.

“This year, we had students participate in Speaking Sprouts where they learned the skill of debating,” Ellerbee said. “They participated in a debate against other elementary students in the state and we had one of our students place third.

“We have Playworks in place this year,” she said. “Last year, we did the musical ‘The Lion King.’ We will do another production this year. We also had a winter concert where the choir and instrumental students performed.”

Another popular event the school has is the Harmony Arts Festival that happens every spring. The festival celebrates the school’s diverse student body.

“We have our students study cultures from around the world,” Ellerbee said. “We break up that study by regions of the world for grades. We chose the regions based on our student body.

“Toward the end, the students will do a culminating project where they present information about the culture of the country they studied, the history, the geography, the food and the customs,” she said.

“We make passports for all of our children with their pictures,” she added. “They go from class to class as if they are traveling the world, learning about the cultures from other countries. It’s a huge event at the end of the year that also brings a lot of parents out.”

Ellerbee said she wants her students to leave Powel being prepared for the future.

“We want them to be good citizens and we want them to be leaders,” she said. “Everything that we do as a school community is very much focused on laying the foundation for the next school to build upon.”