THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

A frequent question my dad would ask me during my youth was, “Erika, are you going to share the long version or the short one?”  As a result, I consciously apply effort to being succinct and concise.  Sometimes I hit the mark; other times I’m way off.

Why share this with you?  At Saturday’s auction, I will speak to the need for additional resources in the area of technology to achieve our goal of revolutionizing learning for children.  As scintillating as this topic is to me, I imagine some partygoers might be a bit more focused (justifiably so) on catching up with friends and making their way to the dance floor while the kids are tucked away at home for night.  Therefore, please indulge me in the long version here because I commit to you that I’ll deliver the short version on Saturday.

Many months ago, the Almond staff began a dialogue around our vision and focus for the 2014-15 school year.  We looked back at areas of success and future needs – all grounded in what’s best for student learning.  After gathering a wealth of input, lead educators partook in a Leadership / Visioning Summit at the LASD iLearn Lab.  In the morning we processed and synthesized data.  Nine parents then joined us for lunch to elicit reactions and ideas.  Since then, we have been further distilling the needs list and have shared it at School Site Council, with the PTA Board, and spoke briefly about it at the last PTA meeting.

Our parents reminded us to shed our timid, humble educator approach of meekly asking for just the basics and to instead dream big and live that bold, audacious notion of articulating our utopia.  So here it is!

Almond Elementary will sculpt learners that master academic content in tandem with qualities necessary to achieve life long success:  curiosity, courage, creativity, confidence, empathy, and resilience. 

To this end, students will partake in innovative learning experiences that are project and inquiry based, collaborative, design thinking focused, responsive to student needs via differentiation and individualization, and blended with technology.

We espouse to utilize technology as a tool to enhance instruction so that it is seamlessly integrated into learning.  Increased accessibility to these tools through a 1:1 device model in grades 3-6 and a 2:1 ratio in grades K-2 will assist students and teachers in accomplishing this goal.  A systematic approach to teaching technical skills, as per the LASD scope and sequence, will be embedded into daily/weekly lessons within the classroom.  Staff gathering and collaboration time will be set aside to afford teachers the ability to leverage efforts in designing instruction that wraps academic content with digital tool learning.  Such an approach will encourage efficient use of these tools so that the focus is on learning, creating and demonstrating mastery of content – as opposed to learning technology for technology’s sake. 

Students must still be able to thrive in a three dimensional world that includes face-to-face interactions.  Therefore, a strong emphasis will remain on providing students with abundant opportunities to interact with that physical world.

It is with genuine sentiment that I boast of the integrity of the Almond staff, both instructional and classified.  This is a collective group that constantly seeks to improve on existing practices to optimize the learning experience of each and every child.

See you at the Viva Las Vegas Gala!