Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

Charlotte Country Day School - Special Areas - Lori Townsend | School Promotional Video

8 Feb 2023 · 2 min

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2:10

In this promotional segment, Lori Townsend introduces her dual role as the lower‑school science teacher and special‑area coordinator at Charlotte Country Day School. She outlines the school’s comprehensive special‑area program, which includes robust offerings in the arts, science, daily physical education, and modern languages (French and Spanish) alongside core literacy instruction. Townsend highlights hands‑on science experiences such as a butterfly release—counting four butterflies (three girls, one boy) and tracking a caterpillar’s growth into a “teenager” stage—to illustrate how students connect directly with conservation topics. She reflects on the privilege of teaching the same cohort from junior kindergarten through fourth grade, emphasizing the deep, longitudinal impact of guiding students over six years as they develop into future change‑makers.

Chapters

I'm Lori Townsend. I am the lower school science teacher, and I'm also the special area coordinator. So in the lower school at Charlotte Country Day School, we have an incredible opportunity to have the children be exposed to so many different types of content areas, specifically the arts, science, physical education. Being able to have 5-day-a-week physical education for our young children is critical, and being able to also offer 2 additional languages besides their literacy instruction in English with French and Spanish in our modern language program is really one of the most opportune experiences that our children can have. We have such an enormous opportunity to be able to have the children explore different passions through each of these areas in their content. How many did we release today? 4! We released 4! How many were girls? 3. 3. How many were boys? 1. 1. So if we have 3 girls And 1 boy, how many does that make altogether? 4. For the, specifically the butterflies, the most important piece of that is the opportunity for the children to connect to something that we're studying and not just hear or see about it. To actually be able to live that experience and have it be authentic and to be able to connect it to a larger conservation story. And then we have that tiny baby caterpillar, remember? And then it— oh, it does. It gets so much bigger. So do we remember we called this one what? A teenager. A teenager. You're right. It's like a teenager caterpillar. Being able to watch the children grow from junior kindergarten through 4th grade is probably one of the greatest gifts of being a lower school teacher. Having them with you for 6 years, especially as a specialist, you get to see them grow and become these incredible people that are going to change the world. And that is truly one of the greatest, greatest gifts of being a member of this faculty.