Natural Bridge, VA – If Hogwarts came to life in Natural Bridge, it might look something like this!
The kindergarten class of Mr. Ryan Clifton, aka Master of Wizardry. Clifton uses the magical world of Harry Potter--as a backdrop, the catalyst if you will --to engage his young students.
And it’s working wonders, perhaps like a spell.
“His ideas are so vast and incredible when he brought it to me I thought I thought why not we have to do what we can do to engage students and bring learning to life and that’s exactly what he does in the classroom every single day,” Natural Bridge principal Melanie Hickman explains.
“It was received greatly by the parents and the community so then it started growing and they started buying into it. The kids buy into it administration just everybody in the school buys into it,” Natural Bridge Kindergarten teacher Ryan Clifton explains.
Clifton’s a United States Army veteran who is in his second year at Natural Bridge Elementary, his 5th in teaching overall. His fondness for Harry Potter led him to use his passion to connect with his classroom. From his wizard robe to a room transformed, the world is recreated here. It is used as a vehicle to support and stimulate learning. And this is one potion that’s had a strong effect.
At the beginning of the year, I had them make wands. This gets them using their hands, they painted wands. They adopted an owl. The owl is to kind of help them get through some of their emotional turmoil that they might have for the first couple of weeks. If they got upset, or whatever -- they could go to the owl, the owl they could hug it. And it would come to me and I’d be like --Alright. Let’s talk about it," Clifton explains.
The approach--creative, and delivered with Clifton’s special flair. But the goal remains the same. Engaging his students, making them both excited and comfortable for the school journey to come.
“He has on his wall the quote that says ‘Something magical happens when you read a book”...something magical happens when you have teachers like Ryan Clifton! He just brings that fun way to to get the education aspect going, just to really engage them and to take it to the next level," Blue Eagle Credit Union’s Laurissa Thompson says.
His passion is evident and it was from day one, so yes, we are so blessed to have him. We look forward to his seeing his ideas and hearing his thoughts and his plans for for what he’s bringing to us next," Principal Hickman adds.
Clifton and Natural Bridge Elementary receive $250 dollars each from Blue Eagle Credit Union as a reward. Clifton says the parents are sometimes as --or more excited than the kids to find out the classroom is a Harry Potter theme. And he’s constantly getting new ideas to further his teaching approach.