Been thinking of all of the changes we will be instituting this year. Very exciting...but also a little nervous as I want the implementation to go smoothly. The staff worked hard to create a schedule that allowed for a dedicated reading block, time for an intervention team to come in and assist each grade level (K-4), and blocks of time for collaboration.

We have also found some excellent tools to help us improve student performance. Compass Learning to go along with our MAP testing, AIMSweb to act as a data management tool, a normed benchmarking tool and as a progress monitoring tool as we begin to implement our RtI model. It all shapes up to be a very exciting year. I know that we also want to focus our efforts to become a true PLC and shape that collaborative time into a data focused session that allows us to discover various areas of improvement either in instruction delivery or in needed interventions for specific students.

After reading TurnAround Schools I also want to make sure that we put our vision statement in writing as well as our collaboration procedures, followed by the staff signing the agreements. I thought this was an excellent idea. This is of course, not so I can hold staff accountable, but so that they can hold each other accountable.