HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY!
There were many things shared with the group by Dr. Gallagher, here are a few of the things that he talked about along with websites that he recommended.
They have four "exploratory" classes at Osage, Art, Music both vocal and instrumental, Physical Education and Keyboarding. In addition, kids spend time during the "rotation" period with their guidance counselor.
They have four teams/grade level and two of those teams have special education students. The teams with special needs kids have an extra teacher that helps during co-teaching.
At Fort Osage they loop their counselors when possible and their administrators, teachers do not move from one grade to the next. Fire Prairie website: http://www.fortosage.net/education/school/school.php?sectiondetailid=145&
He mentioned often, PLAN-DO-STUDY-ACT, as a way of making change happen. http://www.edequity.com/PDFs/Data_Protocol.pdf
BIST is the support system they use at Osage. http://www.bist.org/
They are standards based, something that we may consider as we move into the process. Our new curriculum director may want some input into this decision. I will say, I appreciate the report card that tells a parent and student exactly what the child is mastering and what they need to work on to reach mastery. A "C" only tells them they have a grade between 77 and 85 while a standards based grading system would provide information about the objectives they did and did not meet. This information is well beyond our first few meetings and may not be something we address until much later in the process...like 2013 for instance.
Some references he mentioned including books: (Kris Woods has ordered many of thes books and they will be in the MS professional library soon-Thanks Kris!)
- "What Great Teachers do Differently" (Not about programs but about people)
- "Fierce Conversations" by Susan Scott
- "Brain Rules" by John Medina
- "Cooperative Learning" by Kagan
- Dr. Gallagher's blog site he uses with kids: http://www.fortosage.net/education/components/board/default.php?sectiondetailid=6128&
- "Depth of Knowledge Chart" - http://www.pdesas.org/main/fileview/Instruction_Depth_of_Knowledge.pdf
As we discuss our new school and the many opportunities it will provide for our students and teachers this information will become even more helpful. I remind you however, we won't be placing their plan and program on top of what we have but rather will use it as a reference to aide us in the development of a wonderful 5-6 center that will meet the needs of Fremont students and be a result of our work and dedication to doing what is best for kids.
In looking at the standards based system that is in place at Fire Prarie, I personally think that our district could learn from a system that is organized in this fashion. It would be interesting to see if they have benchmarks in place for 4th, 6th, and 8th grade. This would allow the district to be sure that students have the necessary skill set as they progress throughout their educational career. Obviously the intervention piece of a system like this would have to very thought out.
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