I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~Author Unknown

We also met with the READ 180 person for our district. We were able to borrow a bunch of her materials for a couple of days and in that way we could see all the different options with that program. The teacher also allowed us to sit in on one of her classes and we were able to see the program in action. It seems to be a great motivator for students as they really enjoy working on the computer and they also seem to be very into the books she has provided for them. She has included a lot of supplemental books that she bought herself and it is great to see how into those books the kids get!

In addition to seeing the READ 180 we went in and observed the language arts aspect of Success Maker. This program looked like it was very engaging for the students. All of the kids were focused on the material being presented to them on the computers. When we talked to the kids they were excited about the program and thought it was helping them. Not only does the program focus on reading, but it also has a lot of grammar integrated. When students are struggling with the material it slows down and introduces direct instruction about that specific topic.

We are currently in the process of trying to find out a way to use Google Apps for Education for our students. We would love to be able to include this free suite of programs to aid the students in our blended learning environment. We will be contacting tech departments in order to see how they are able to use this with internet explorer and still use the county filters. It has definitely been a challenge, but hopefully it will work out.

One of the most interesting visits we had recently was to another alternative middle school. It is one of only a couple in the area so we were very lucky the director was able to spend time speaking with us. She explained to us all of the procedures at the school including intake and exit processes. It was great to see that the students there had a real chance of moving back to their regular middle school. It was also very helpful to see how they implement their PBIS plans. One of the most notable things about the school is how "on board" everybody is. It isn't seen as a negative thing to go to there. The kids are able to transition back and forth and we saw no issues with behavior. We were also able to talk to several of the teachers. They told us the things they found most helpful (small classes, all staff being on the same page, PBIS program) and the things they found most hindering (kids being dropped into the school in the middle of the quarters, getting 6th graders half way through the school year, having no support staff such as counselors or social workers assigned specifically to their program.) We will be able to take these things into account as we are creating our new program for the middle school. 

"They Succeed, Because They Think They Can" Virgil

The past two weeks we have worked with our small group of middle school students. They have been incredibly receptive to working within the group setting. The first week we talked about coping with transition and change. We did an activity that had students changing the foot they wore each shoe on to see how sometimes change feels weird and makes things harder. This week we focused on organization. We went through an imaginary student's day and looked at the places he could have been more organized. The students all had interesting ideas to add to how he could adjust and get organized.

We have also gone in and observed the use of Success Maker with a group of middle school students. The program was awesome! All of the students were engaged with the learning and it seemed to be a very helpful program. The teachers showed us all of the available data that could be gathered about the students' progress which was laid out in a way that would make it very easy to see how each student is doing. It also comes with easy options for print out worksheets for the Language Arts component. This will be a great addition to look into for our program.

Next up, will be a focus on learning about Read 180 and researching grants to get technology for the school. We will also be researching more about using Project Based Learning and other best practices that might be a good fit for our students.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." N. Mandela

Welcome to our blog! 

We are three educators on a mission to find a new way to educate our students. We will be creating a program to work with at risk students at the middle school level. We are looking for innovative methods to engage them in learning and increase their likelihood of success. We are passionate about education and want to start that fire in our students. We plan to give our students the support they need to help them learn. We will utilize technology in every way we can in order to offer a blended learning environment to our students.

We are now into our second week of the school year. We plan to visit other programs to find the successes they have had and apply those same ideals to our own program. We have met with several key people in our district so far and will be meeting with others in the weeks to come. It was very encouraging to meet with the administration of the middle school who is very motivated and supportive of this program. We will be at the open house for the middle school so we can connect with the parents of these students. We will also be working with a small group of students before we get this program off the ground for the beginning of the school year next year (2013-2014.) We can't wait to get going on our small group sessions!