Greenwood Prepares For A Great EDventure! Greenwood Elementary School kicked off the 2019-20 school year with the theme “Welcome to the Great Edventure!” It has certainly been an “Educational adventure” for everyone as twenty-two new faculty and staff members joined the Dragon family. Our teachers and students have embraced our new Math Curriculum, Big Ideas Math for grades K-5, new Social Studies standards, and new computer programs: Lexia, Dreambox, and Mindplay. Our general education and special education teachers and support staff are building and sustaining effective classroom partnerships as we embrace the inclusive schools model to support students in making academic gains. Elizabeth Weatherly, our Curriculum/Technology Coordinator, provided our entire faculty and staff with an overview of the Co-Teaching Model for Inclusive Schools the week before our students arrived. Dr. Collins developed a schedule with Intervention time built in throughout the day so students and staff have designated time to work on specific skills needed to support student learning. The general education and special education teachers and support staff work side-by-side to provide the assistance students need in all of our content areas. This model helps ensure that all of our students have access to the content standards in every subject area and provided appropriate support to help them achieve their individual goals for learning. Our teachers and students have quickly acclimated themselves to the new Smartboards that were installed. All of our students are enjoying using their devices to advance their learning with Lexia, Dreambox, and Mindplay. Some of our students are enjoying them so much that they are finding it difficult to stay within the appropriate range of minutes for the week and not go over. One teacher reported that overnight one of her students logged in 200 minutes on Dreambox and when asked about it, the student said, “But I just LOVE it!” Our teachers are learning how to implement and monitor the new programs as well and we’re excited about the data it gives to assist the teachers in promoting student learning. Not only are our students learning, our teachers are learning, too! Tuesdays are set aside for Professional Learning Communities to meet in grade level and whole group meetings during their common planning periods and after school. This provides our teachers with the opportunity to learn and grow together. The PLCs are led by various members of our school and district, such as, Dr. Collins, Maureen Moore, Katrina Rouse and Richard McCabe. Mrs. Stacie Owens, our Reading Coach, has been instrumental in facilitating our K-3 teachers in implementing the new Fountas and Pinnel Guided Reading Curriculum and Benchmark Assessment System as well as providing support in planning and implementing the Orton-Gillingham Methodology for Reading.
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