1. Healthcare

Requirements
Double Tree is open to all students who live
within the school’s geographical boundaries.
Parents of students who live outside Double
Tree School's boundaries may apply for an
Optional transfer at the Board of Education,
Department of Optional Schools and Advanced
Academics, 160 S. Hollywood, Room C106.
Parents must submit:
• An Application for Optional Schools
• A copy of the student's most recent
comprehensive report card
• A birth certificate (required for kindergarten
applicants)
To qualify and remain in the Optional Program
at Double Tree, students must:
• Maintain satisfactory conduct and skills and
behaviors
• Maintain satisfactory attendance, including
promptness to school (A total of more than
15 absences, tardies, and/or early dismissals is
considered unsatisfactory.)
Transportation is the responsibility of the student's parents/legal guardians.
Final approval is contingent upon a review
of the student’s final comprehensive report
card.
Contact Us
The principal and staff at Double Tree Elementary
encourage parents and prospective Optional students
to visit the school. Please call the school office to
schedule a guided tour.
Double Tree Elementary
(901) 416-8144
Department of Optional Schools and
Advanced Academics
(901) 416-5338
Double Tree on the Web
www.scsk12.org/schools/doubletree.es/site/
index.shtml
Board Members
Teresa Jones, Chair
Kevin D. Woods, Vice Chair
Shante K. Avant
Miska Clay Bibbs
Chris Caldwell
Mike Kernell
Stephanie Love
Scott McCormick
William “Billy” Orgel
Dorsey Hopson II, Esq., Superintendent
Shelby County Schools offers educational and employment opportunities without
regard to race, color, religion, sex, creed, age, disability, national
origin, or genetic information.12/14
Montessori/Technology
Double Tree
Elementary School
Grades K-5
4560 Double Tree
Memphis, TN 38109
Principal: Peggy M. Herring
(901) 416-8144
Preparing Children for Success
Offering a Montessori education for younger students
and an emphasis on technology for older ones, Double
Tree Elementary encourages all students to experience the
joy and wonder of discovery through hands-on learning
opportunities. An air of excitement permeates this school,
where a child-centered, interactive approach to learning
promotes a creative and innovative learning environment.
Double Tree Elementary, the first public Montessori
school in Tennessee, became part of Memphis City
Schools’ Optional Schools Program in 1977. At that time,
a modern facility, which was specifically designed to support the Montessori approach to education, was built.
Double Tree, an American Montessori Society affiliate,
offers instruction using a modified Montessori method in
grades K-3 and a technology focus in grades 4-5. Both
methods are compatible with the school's child-focused,
interactive approach to learning, since both methods base
instruction on generating ideas, forming hypotheses, and
solving problems. Students communicate ideas and retrieve
and share knowledge, using computers and other state-ofthe-art technology.
Unique Education Model
Double Tree’s Montessori Program emphasizes the
child, the prepared environment or learning space, and the
teacher, in that order. This model greatly emphasizes individualized education and child-centered learning.
Montessori education recognizes that children learn in different ways, and accommodates all learning styles. The
open space learning environment is fully equipped with
hundreds of uniquely designed Montessori teaching materials that teach specific skills or concepts. The materials are
self-correctional and sequenced in graduated steps to allow
students to correct their own work and determine their
progress while working at their own pace. A combination of
multi-age class groupings are offered for first-, second-, and
third-graders to allow collaboration, peer teaching and
mentoring.
Innovative Curriculum
observer of each child's behavior and growth. The school
holds Associate Member School status with the American
Montessori Society, which has also certified each Montessori
teacher. Every teacher is Highly Qualified and acts as a
resource, mentor, observer, and catalyst for student progress.
With resources and lessons designed by teachers, children
take risks, try new things and build self-confidence as
learners.
Enrichment and Extracurricular
Opportunities
The chief instructional components of the Montessori
curriculum at Double Tree are exercises for practical living
and sensory, academic, cultural, and artistic development.
Exercises for practical living include personal care, care of
the environment, grace and courtesy, and analysis and control
of physical movement. Sensorial exercises include work on
developing the senses.
Academic development includes Language Arts (which is
heavily phonics-oriented), Mathematics, Social Studies,
Science, and Music. The basic concepts of Geometry,
Geography, and Science are taught earlier than is customary
in traditional American schools.
Double Tree also offers Orff music, class piano, technology training, visual art, physical education, and character
education. Other activities and leadership development
opportunities include a school choir, student council positions, majorette dance groups, step teams, a school book
club, class ambassadors, student technology coordinators
and clubs for honors, art, gardening, and drama. Services are
available for students with exceptional needs, including
resource, visually impaired, and speech pathology services,
and Creative Learning in a Unique Environment (CLUE)*
classes.
School-age child care is available, offering supervised
activities for students before and after school.
Integrated Technology
*Students must meet eligibility requirements to participate.
In the technology-focused program for grades 4-5, students experience a cross-disciplinary approach, through
school wide projects that blend skills and concepts from
Reading, Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.
Double Tree has expanded its library into a technologyenriched Media Center, and the school is also equipped with
mobile laptop labs, student response devices, and SMART
Board interactive whiteboards. Students use these resources
to conduct research and then communicate their findings
through multimedia presentations. Students are actively
engaged in authentic learning experiences, rather than in
rote memorization.
Dedicated and Qualified Teachers
At Double Tree, the creative instruction teachers provide enables students to experience the thrill of discovery
and self-satisfaction, thus building their self-confidence and
creating motivation to learn more. Most teachers in PK- 3
are fully trained in the Montessori Method, where the
teacher is the designer of the environment, a resource person, a role model, a demonstrator, a record-keeper, and an
Parent and Community Engagement
Active parental involvement plays an integral role in the
successful Montessori experience, as well as in the school’s
technology-based program in the fourth and fifth grades.
Teachers work collaboratively with students and parents in
planning and evaluating student projects and using alternative assessments such as parent and student surveys, parent conferences, and student
portfolios. The Shelby
County Links, Double Tree’s
Adopt-A-School Partner,
supports student learning in
many ways, including providing school supplies and other
needed items for the school's
Clothes Closet and Dolphin
Store, and furnishing volunteers who work directly with
students on special projects
that add to the authentic
learning activities at the
school.