Last night the Central School Board of Education approved my recommended changes to the elementary handbook. The changes align to moving Central into a 21st Century Education System and are the same changes I shared in my parent forum at the end of the school year. The elementary handbook is available at registration and will be posted on our district website.
Changes:
Academic Achievement & Behavior Plan
Every student comes to us with a unique toolbox of prior
knowledge. It is our duty as educators
to develop individual education plans for each student and move away from the
factory model of education where one size fits all.
In an effort to move Central Elementary to a 21st
Century learning institution, the following changes are being implemented in
the 2014/2015 school year:
1.
Students will be moved along based on ability,
not their age. Before a unit of study
begins, teachers will administer a pre-assessment to determine each student’s
individual skill set. Central Elementary
will incorporate multi-age classrooms to ensure individual ability and not a
student’s age to drive instruction.
2.
Students will be given multiple opportunities to
show they have met the standard. In our
traditional school model, units are taught and if a student fails, we still
move on. In essence the traditional
model goes from chapter 1-30 in a set time frame and students that struggle get
left behind. At Central Elementary we
believe students can only learn if they are allowed to fail. By human nature, we learn from our mistakes!
3.
Homework as practice and will not be
graded. Homework should only be given to
a student if the instructor feels it is essential to student learning. If it is essential to student learning, the
teacher has an obligation to monitor homework and provide students with precise
feedback based on individual needs. This
means homework should not be reviewed in class as a one size fits all model,
instead teaches should meet with students individually to address individual
needs. Homework should also never be
graded as it is impossible to determine:
a.
Who did the work?
b.
If errors exist, why and how those errors
happened.
c.
Each “home” is different in homework.
Students will no longer receive a
zero for not completing their homework.
Because the homework given is essential to learning, students will be
required to complete the work before they are allowed to retest on a standard.
4.
No longer will Central Elementary students be
graded on points for homework assignments, work completion, and classroom
behavior. Instead, grades will be based
on a student’s mastery of each standard.
In a multi-age classroom, students will have two years to show they have
met the standards. Example, a
kindergarten aged student in a K/1 classroom, will be assessed on both
kindergarten and 1st grade standards. The 1st grade standards are a set
of standards students should know when they complete 1st grade. Kindergarten aged students will have two years
to complete that set of standards and parents should not expect high marks
immediately. Each student will be
assessed on a 4 point scale:
1= Emergent: Student work is beginning to show
progress/understanding with support.
2= Developing: Student is able to meet the
multi-year grade level standard with support.
3= Proficient: Independent work at this level
meets end of the multi-year grade level standard.
4= Exceeds: Work exceeds standard and shows
in-depth understanding that goes beyond what was taught.
Cell Phone/TelephoneStudents are not to carry or use cell phones during the
school day unless approved by their teacher.
Classroom BehaviorEach teacher is expected to work in collaboration with their
class to develop classroom expectations and consequences for when a student
does not meet those expectations.
Students should have a voice in this process and all behavior
expectations should align with the Central Elementary PBIS program. At all times teachers should manage the
behaviors in their classroom and students should not be excluded from learning
unless sent to the principal.
Emergency DrillsStudents take a textbook to use as a hard hat and go to
designated areas.
Report CardsCentral Elementary uses a standards based report
card that shows students mastery of learning as well as employability
skills. Parents can access these reports
anytime through our JMC student information system. Teachers are expected to communicate on a
regular basis with parents and parents are welcomed to contact their child’s
teacher at anytime if they have concerns
Student Lockers
A locker is issued to each 4/5
student at the…
No comments:
Post a Comment