I work at a K-8 elementary charter school in Northern California. It is a small family friendly school that attracts families from the surrounding communities. The school has been recognized as a California Distinguished School and has always scored well on state testing. The combination of the academic successes and family friendly atmosphere has made it a highly sought after placement. Typically, each grade level has a waiting list of 10+ students hoping for an opening at their grade level. There are two classes per grade level, Kindergarten through 8th grade as well as a Transitional Kindergarten class, totaling approximately 420 students. The staff is comprised of 21 Certificated teachers including Special Ed and P.E., 6 Instructional Aides, school secretary/ administrative assistant and Principal. The nurse, speech pathologist, ELL teacher and psychologist are all employed part time to serve the needs of the site.
The school offers an after school program for homework help and intervention 2 days a week for one hour. The computer lab is open daily before school for student use.
Teachers meet weekly to collaborate with their grade level partner to ensure consistency. PLC teams, grades K-3, 4-5, and 6-8 meet two times per month to collaborate and discuss needs, intervention and enrichment based on student data. This year, the staff will be meeting once a month for staff development focused on 21st Century Skills and technology integration.
As of the end of September 2014, each student, grades 3-8 will be issued an iPad for their use. An iPad cart of 30 iPads will be shared between each grade level, 2-K. Additionally, there will be 2 Mac laptop labs available for checkout for larger projects that cannot be completed on the iPads. Teachers each have a laptop and are varied in their technology comfort levels. Depending on their level of comfort, some teachers are more game for trying new programs and experimenting with different technologies than others. All, however, are willing to learn and use the hardware and resources provided with training.
Curriculum is primarily all digital grades 6-8 and is becoming more so in the lower grades as well. The school is a project based environment and therefore the technology has been essential for research and creation. The computer lab and library are utilized 1-2 times a week per classroom teacher for whatever project or lesson they are working on.
For the most part, it is clear that teachers love their job and it spills over into their classrooms, apparent to students, fellow teachers, and parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment