SCHOOL ZONE 12-12-13

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

On behalf of our entire staff, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.  I hope that you are able to spend some time enjoying family and friends during this season of celebration.  As a reminder, all of our schools will be closed beginning Monday, December 23 through Friday, January 3 for our annual winter break.   

HOLIDAY ENTERTAINMENT – LOOK NO FURTHER THAN YOUR LOCAL SCHOOLS

School events are a great way to learn more about our school district, and the talented students that we have in Vermilion.  Our concerts and athletic events are great for family outings, and will help younger students learn what is available to them in the upper grades.  Please visit our website calendar for a full list of athletic and co-curricular events, or “like” our Facebook page to get daily reminders of activities.  Two of our most popular holiday concerts will be held in the Vermilion High School auditorium next week.  We hope to see you at the Holiday Instrumental Concert on December 17 at 7:00 P.M., or the Holiday Vocal Reunion Concert on December 18 at 7:00 P.M.

OHIO IMPROVEMENT PROCESS GOAL AND STRATEGIES

Recently the Vermilion Board of Education adopted a new Ohio Improvement Process goal for our district, and three strategies that we will use to achieve that goal.  Our goal, as developed by the District Leadership Team of teachers, administrators, community members and representatives from the Board of Education is:  “By the year 2016 student learning in all content areas, assessed by Student Growth Measures, will meet or exceed one year’s growth in one year for 100% of students in grades K-12.”

The strategies that we adopted are:

1.     Implement co-teaching to provide high quality first instruction, appropriate intervention and/or enrichment as indicated by assessment data.

2.     Implement blended learning to provide high quality first instruction, appropriate intervention and/or enrichment as indicated by assessment data.

3.     Implement center/station based learning to provide high quality first instruction, appropriate intervention and/or enrichment as indicated by assessment data.

Because these terms are probably unfamiliar to many of our residents, below is a brief explanation of each.  Teacher professional development in our district will continue to focus on implementation of these strategies. 

CO-TEACHING offers six different approaches to teaching.  Sometimes the approach is used for an entire lesson, sometimes for part of a lesson.  Basically, two teachers in one classroom are sharing the responsibility of teaching students in different ways.  The six approaches are:  One Teach / One Observe - One teacher leads instruction while the other teacher gathers data from individual students; Station Teaching - teachers divides content and students.  Each teacher delivers the content to one group and repeats the instruction for the other group; Parallel Teaching - Teachers are teaching the same content information to half of the class at the same time; Alternative Teaching - One teacher takes the responsibility of the large group while the other works with a smaller group; Teaming - Both teachers deliver the same instruction, tag teaming, taking turns and adding information to the lesson;  One teach / One assist - One teacher takes the lead teaching while the other circulates through the room to offer assistance to students.

BLENDED LEARNING is a formal education program in which a student learns, at least in part, through online delivery of content and instruction, with some element of student control over the time, place, path and/or pace, and delivery of instruction is part of a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home. 

CENTER/STATION BASED LEARNING is a strategy in which students are divided into small groups.  The classroom has several centers, with a different activity at each center. The teacher is based at one center, computers at available at another center, and different assignments at two other centers. Students rotate through the centers approximately every 20 minutes, but the time at each center can be flexible and is decided upon by the teacher.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more, please feel free to talk to your building administrator, Assistant Superintendent Jim Balotta or me.  As always, we welcome visitors to our buildings to see these practices in action.  Arrangements for visits should be coordinated with the building principal.