Life at Wallace
 

Welcome to the Life at Wallace section of the webpage where you get to find out the inside scoop about what it is like to go here, and to meet some of the great teachers and staff who are a part of Wallace Elementary.  Follow your tour guide as they show you around. What you see here is a picture of the beautiful brick building that is Wallace Elementary. It lies in the heart of Kelso, Washington and has been around for a very long time.  It's a historic building with none of the historic downfalls. The facilities, classrooms, and technology at Wallace are top notch.  Cool to look at and cool to be in! What a place!   Follow me inside and get a glimpse of our student decorated hallways. As you can see the Kindergarteners have been quite busy with some mobiles and the event calendar on the left for all to see.  The atmosphere at Wallace is as bright and cheery as the hallways.  Lets move on!   Lets go into the Office to get a visitors pass from the secretary, Mrs. Eaves, whom is great, but not too happy about getting her picture taken.  While we are here lets go talk to Don Iverson, the building principal, about what he thinks of Wallace and how we can get involved.     "Hi Mr. Iverson, we were wondering, could you tell us a little about Wallace and how to get involved?" "You bet, I love this school! Wallace provides a quality learning environment with a caring staff and great parents. Wallace offers Head-Start through fifth grade classes. Our curriculum provides a solid educational program for the students. They receive instruction in reading, language arts, math, science, and social studies. The students also participate in art, music, physical education, media and guidance classes. We provide special educational services, speech services and a Talented and Gifted program for those who qualify. We have an elementary counselor that has weekly classroom guidance and also works with small groups and individual students. We have a school nurse full time in the building each day. Wallace Elementary School is housed in a two-story building that was built in the 1930's. We have 20 classrooms and over 60 staff members. Wallace has an elevator, which makes it handicap accessible. The Wallace campus is centrally located within the community.  Over 90% of our students walk to school each day. Wallace runs on an alternative calendar, also called Year Round Education.   Wallace starts mid-August and ends with the rest of the students in June. The students have classes for seven weeks and then have a week break. The students in this program have the option of taking classes for an additional 15 days during the breaks. These breaks are called inter-sessions. They may attend mornings only, afternoons only, all day, or not at all. They may attend for one or both weeks during these times. Everyone in the program has two common weeks of vacation. Breaks are scheduled to coincide with the traditional calendar whenever possible" " And about getting involved, Wallace is working hard to develop a strong group of volunteers. If someone would like to volunteer at wallace, please call 501-1650 and we will get them involved. If they would like more information about our school tell them, feel free to call. They are welcome to visit Wallace Elementary and find out in person about the educational opportunities that are being provided for the students." "Thanks Mr. Iverson, See ya later!"   Cool, so we have seen the office, lets take a look at the library, and meet Mrs. Johnson the librarian.  Look at how many books are in here!  This will be a great place to learn to read.  Lets find Mrs. Johnson and ask her about the library and if she likes doing what she does.   "Hey Mrs. Johnson, could you tell us about your job as librarian and the library too? "I would love to.  What a great job!  Just think, I am surrounded with books and I get to read to kids all day!  How terrific is that?!   We have over 10,000 books in our library for kids to choose from and read.  I am sure I have not read half of them yet,.  So, I have several more years to share good stories with kids. Teaching students to read and how to choose great literature is a joy for me.  Every year over 5,000 new books are published for kids to read.  It is so fun to choose the ones we can have in our library and shop for good books.  I love to spend money on books!  During the summer I read most of the new books and many more on the shelves.  Our library is a fun place and I believe our students love to come in and read.  I will be waiting for them." "Wow, thanks Mrs. Johnson the library sounds totally cool, Have a good day"   Lets take a quick trip down the hall to the computer lab. It's such a cool place. I've been in there before.  It has really fun educational programs that teach math, language arts, typing, history, and much more.  It's like playing a game and learning at the same time! !   Hey!  Mrs. Toney is in here with her class.  Lets see if we can ask her a question too. "Mrs. Toney, Do you have a couple of minutes while we ask you a question?" "Yes, I have a couple minutes, What's up?" "We wanted to ask you what you think of being a teacher?   "Teaching for me is a passion.  Working with children and seeing their eyes light up each time they learn something new is the reason I chose this career.  I want my students to come away from my classroom each day knowing that they can be successful in anything that they try, and they can make a difference in our society.  I love working at Wallace Elementary.  The students that attend our school are wonderful.  The staff here is great to work with and is my second family.  As a school we are determined to help our children learn and be successful at what they do. " "Looks like your busy with your class, so thanks for talking with us"     What a trip! We got to see the what the school looks like, what the library is like, and meet some awesome people.  Thanks for going on this tour with me and we hope you can come visit us here at Wallace,  SEE YOU SOON!