On the 2009/10 School Year

Christine, our Staff Director, posts about developments for next year. She's currently in Costa Rica getting in some good reflection time on last year. She wrote the following to a parent.

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Dear [IA parent],

This year is going to be quite different, in my opinion. We are a much more solidified team this year. We also have an awareness of where we were struggling with our mission. We are also streamlining our program. Our program has essentially three components.

The first is our Social Emotional program. Last year we succeeded in showing kids that we are serious about empowering them. But we were not effective in producing a cohesive program and we seemed to stumble a bit through the year with pendulum swings of freedom and frustration. By February we had realized that we were going to use Positive Discipline. Then by May we found a comprehensive school program called the Responsive Classroom, that guides teachers in the organization of a classroom in alignment with Positive Discipline and our mission. This guidance is for organization and interaction. I believe this year will be different in that our interactions with the kids will be more empowering, loving and firm.

The second component is Project Based Learning. All of our teachers have now received extra training in creating projects that are not just fun but rigorous and bring with them a rubric for assessment that students can help create and use to measure their success. This will give our projects the sometimes missing component of rigor. It will also help us teach our students how to create a real project. I am hoping they will be able to implement this when they want to learn about anything.

The third component is the change in our skills program. We will be using literature to support our projects and doing more incorporation of the various styles of writing. Our teachers will be actively using high quality children's literature to model the skills. We will be working on goal setting and self evaluation much throughout the year.. Math will still be skills based but we are using more manipulatives and problem solving approaches. Children will be encouraged to master basic skills based on an understanding about how they learn best.

Many of our teachers are partnering. All of our grades are single grades so we will be actively seeking ways to integrate children in multiage learning activities.

Michelle is securing out Partner teachers. We are trying to keep our focus on Art, Music and Technology/Science.

Still no homework, though the kids may be asked to look up something on the Internet, interview a parent or grandparent or neighbor about something occasionally. The students will be compiling portfolios that parents can see anytime as well as using an online project software called Project Foundry that helps them develop their projects. The projects will be different, the structure more firm than last year with measurable components and rubrics for measurement. We are working on improving our report cards which were difficult for teachers and too subjective. The start times are still up for debate. We will be having staggered start times... the older kids will start later than the younger kids...8:30, 8:45 or 9:00? I hope this information helps.

Hope your summer is going well. I am feeling rejuvenated.

Respectfully,

Christine Kuglen