Idaho Examiner: STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, TOM LUNA, TO VISIT GATE CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL"Common Sense News"

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Education

STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, TOM LUNA, TO VISIT GATE CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Posted on: November 08, 2007

State Superintendent, Tom Luna, will visit Gate City Elementary school on Friday, November 9 at 1:45 p.m. Pocatello/Chubbuck School District Superintendent, Mary Vagner, will accompany Mr. Luna on his visit to the school. The purpose of his visit is to see the school’s chess program which was funded by the State Department of Education.

Gate City Elementary School Principal, Janice Green, received a grant through the Idaho Department of Education for the chess program. It is a curriculum for grades 2 and 3. Each classroom received materials and each student will receive a small, personal chess set, once they are able to use them. The purpose of learning to play chess at school is to:

• learn abstract thinking
• work on memory and pattern recognition
• learn calculation
• learn logical reasoning
• enhance creativity
• learn problem solving and decision making
• increase student’s ability to focus
• learn etiquette, sportsmanship and courtesy

In addition to the State Department of Education grant, local partnerships have provided the student’s with the ability to play human chess. Businessman, Caleb Corona, donated $1,000 worth of t-shirts to the classes. Each shirt has chess pieces on them for the game. Last week, Gunnar Barfuss a student from Franklin Middle School, painted a chess board on the school’s play ground for the outdoor human chess game.

The visit is scheduled to follow Mr. Luna’s luncheon with the Greater Pocatello Chamber of Commerce to raise funds for the Chamber’s concurrent enrollment scholarship program.