A Look Inside the Triple-E Classroom

Walking into Farook Bootwala’s Arts & Humanities Triple-E classroom can feel like a bit of a culture shock. The room is loud and students are all over the place: sitting on tables, lying on rugs, and curled up in bean bag chairs. But this “organized chaos,” as some Triple-E teachers lovingly refer to it, is purposeful. The students–fifth graders who are developing scripts for their own radio dramas–are engaged, excited, and focused, bouncing thoughts off one another, and trying out new ideas in real-time. Mr. Bootwala walks around the room, stopping to celebrate interesting storylines and asking questions that push each group to think about different perspectives and how to create different effects through the radio format.

“I don’t teach them what to do,” says Mr. Bootwala, who splits his time between Pershing Hill and Seven Oaks Elementary School. “I get to push these kids to try something different [and] I facilitate; I talk with them. It’s about the process and not the product.”

What is Triple-E?

Launched in September 2015, the Triple-E (Enhancing, Elementary, Excellence) program is a cultural arts class where students work together to ask questions, solve problems through trial and error, and learn through hands-on exploration. As of Spring 2018, the Triple-E program has been implemented at elementary schools in the Chesapeake, North County, Northeast, Meade, and Southern feeder systems. In each school, students explore different subjects through the lens of their Triple-E theme: Arts & Humanities, Global Studies, World Culture & Language, or STEM in Society.

Triple-E Teachers: The Facilitators of Learning

Mr. Bootwala works with students in the Seven Oaks Bucket Band. “We get to push kids to try something different,” says Mr. Bootwala.

At the center of every Triple-E classroom is a passionate and dynamic educator who approaches teaching as a facilitator of learning. Triple-E teachers ensure that students have the background knowledge and tools that they need and then empower students at every grade level to look at problems on their own, develop a plan, and find their own creative solution. Whether designing an electronic board game to creating a menu for an international restaurant to building an instrument from another country, Triple-E students guide their own learning to create projects that have meaning beyond the school walls.

Want to learn more? Watch our video to go behind the scenes and see how Triple E teachers around the county are changing the way that that our students learn.