A+Place+to+Start+5

Question #2 - Part D


 * It’s five years from now… 2014… and we have worked to create the school that we are now only envisioning. (This is not an “every student comes to us knowing how to read” or a “no student ever gets into trouble” or an “every parent helps with homework” type of question. This is about what really can change.)**

What best practices have we kept and refined?
Interventions will be on-line and readily available. Small class sizes and scheduling to permit small group instruction. Sequential curriculum for every academic study will continue to track student progress, and adjust to the needs and goals of the school. (S.Rahm) Rahm's comment also speaks to my question about differentiation and diagnostic testing. (Susan Hayes) Inquiry learning will still be present and on-going in the classrooms. (H. Witt)Although some practices can be accessed on line, we still retain the best practice of allowing the teacher to decide what kind of intervention is the best for each individual child. Small group instruction remains at the heart of elementary school instruction. (E. Hodgen) Teachers and schools are student-focused. The top priority is teaching what our students need to know, and we teach it in a way that is optimal for their learning. (J. Layman) Teachers will systematically use differentiated learning to meet the needs of all the students in their classrooms. (J.Hall) Oh, I like the idea of being able to go on line, type in an interference, and then a list of intervention ideas will come up with ready to print manipulatives and lessons. Yes, tracking progress, flexible grouping, and "double-dipping" will continue.(R.Russell) Small group will be kept and refined. Computers will be used more to help those with holes in their skills and to move the enrichment along.(E Lee) I think that we will hopefully be compacting curriculum so students can move at a pace that is right for them- maybe even group students according to their abilty for some of the instructional day. We will meet with small groups and individuals on every level and help lead/ guide them on projects that they are interested in.(KJared) I hope that we will continue with the small group instruction and the emphasis on reading skills. I would like to see that we have refined the data collection process in a way that is more geared toward our students and their needs rather than a "research based program's" broad quidelines. Ex.: Scott Foresman's wide range in the "On-Level" group. Keeping class size at the current level if not even smaller is a must.(Regina Hames) Parents will be more involved and tuned in because of the advances in technology in the classroom and in THEIR world. (Hey they have a cell phone/blackberry on all the time they might as well be involved in their child's education in a positive way.) (P. Bradford) I also believe parents will be more involved/accessible to teachers and students because of the advances in technology and the fact that this is something they are more comfortable with because of the way they have grown up with these resources. (K. Hargett) We will use differentiated teaching techniques to accommodate the students' different learning styles. (A. Robinson) We have kept the small group instruction, individual teaching styles, and the accountability that is now being used. (Linda Wren) The use of flexible grouping is continuing to benefit our students. (M. Brown) Targeting specific skills in a small group will aid in student progress.(Thrasher)