There’s not much to say about today. We had years 7 and 10
English today, as well as year 8 social studies. Most of our classes are
currently working on projects coming up, such as essays and reports, so there
wasn’t much to do other than keep students on task and answer any questions.
The end of the day was interesting as we had a Professional Learning Group
(PLG) meeting. This is where teachers who are working on similar projects or
committees meet and collaborate to benefit the school. Our meeting was on
Response to Intervention (RTI). For those of you not in the education world,
RTI is a three-tier system designed to identify students in general education
that may be struggling and to provide assistance to them, in combination with
the curriculum. The system was created to intervene and catch the students who
are struggling before they fall too behind. Tier one is called the Core, after
the common core standards that we teach, and 80% of students will only require
this tier. This is where students are receiving the common core through
differentiated instruction and it is successful, therefore they require no
additional assistance. The second tier is called Core and More, where students
receive additional outside assistance in whatever area they are struggling in. About
15% of students will require this but no more. Usually this is either small
group during free or after school times. The third and final tier is called
Core Before, which means that it is the last step before looking at special
education. This is where a student receives whole group (core), small group
(more), and one on one (before) instruction. If a student continues to struggle
after this tier, the next step will be to look at special education. About 5%
of students will require this tier. RTI can be either for academic or behavior
issues. KSS has only just started implementing RTI and they use only academic
right now. This is where their Links classes (the literacy program that all
students attend) come from. What’s interesting is that RTI is something that
has been around in the US for several years now and is something that all
teachers (at least at CMU) have been trained on. It’s cool to see the early
stages of implementation in a whole new school.
After
a quick stop at the grocery store, I made it back home and spent the rest of
the night doing very little. However, I did cook myself dinner for the first
time since I’ve been here! I’ve been living off of peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches for lunch and dinner for the past week or so and I really needed a
change so I made pasta! Admittedly all I did was boil some noodles and pour
sauce in but it was a win in my book. Plus I even picked up some fresh broccoli
to cut up. After that it was dishes and bed before 8:30. I know, such an
exciting life.
