As many of you may now know, the District leadership has determined that SuccessMaker is no longer a viable program to maintain for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of funding and functionality. The District has relied on SuccessMaker for many years to provide a differentiated opportunity for student learning on a daily basis, but next school year, SuccessMaker will not be available. As a result, classroom teachers and building administrators need to begin thinking of ways to purposefully and strategically use the time and space previously allotted to SuccessMaker.
Let’s first think about the amount of instructional time gained. One of the main struggles of most classroom teachers is the demand for time. With 120 minutes of ELA (includes intervention), 90 minutes of math (includes intervention), 20 minutes of social studies, 30 minutes of science, 15 minutes of handwriting (K-4), keyboarding (2-6), along with specials of gym, library, music, and art, not to mention the all important and necessary recess times, it’s not a surprise that time is in high demand! So what if we had more instructional time? I’m so glad you asked, because you may have just gained anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes of additional instructional time. Guided reading groups, where intentional, differentiated instruction happens, can benefit from additional time to reach every student every day. How about the writing process? Or with the implementation of the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the INSPIRE Science program, teachers can appreciate the time to dedicate towards the scientific inquiry process of claims, evidence, and reasoning. Or perhaps you may have time to implement the Daily 3 structure in math by using the 10-10-10 leveled instruction guide. And then what do we do with our computer labs? How do we continue to meet our technology standards, particularly with K-1 students? With computer lab schedules essentially wide open, teachers could schedule lab time when needed rather than forcing or rushing their use of the lab. Now teachers could set up lessons in Seesaw through a collaborative effort in the classroom, and then when students are ready to demonstrate independence in their final products, the computer lab provides opportunity for students to do so. As we restructure how we spend this time and use of the computer lab space, we want to avoid simply filling time and space with drill and kill programs. Instead, let’s aim for quality, meaningful use and take advantage of this new opportunity to structure learning for our students.
1 Comment
5/21/2019 01:02:38 pm
Is there a way we can be trained on how to use Khan academy mappers as an alternative? I am aware of the program but need to be trained on how to set up my students and use the components to make data based decisions.
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AuthorAs an instructional coach for technology, I get the pleasure of working with 1 preschool and 15 elementary schools to support integration of technology with classroom instruction. Archives
August 2020
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