Proposals managed by Develops Schools (No. 121)

Is your school venture not doing well?

Well we all know when it is going wrong but do we address it when there is smoke or wait for the fire.

Here is a comprehensive framework for school improvement that can support all schools in the K–12. How can one framework for school improvement work equally well in schools of different grade levels? You are right, it need not prescribe a specific model that a school must follow, but rather build upon the individual school’s data to assess strengths and identify needs so that a customized plan for school success can be developed. But the primary focus areas that need to be addressed are:

• Is your school leadership skilled to deal with the situation?

• Is your school environment personalized and comply with the conceptualized vision?

• What has been the focus on the area of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve student performance?

How Do We Improve Our School?
School improvement requires more than a great idea. Transformation does not take place until the culture of the school permits it—and no long-term, significant change can take place without creating a culture to sustain that change. We at Develop Schools provide a well-defined process that helps to foster a culture of excellence and continuous improvement within your school.

The process consists of a few stages:

• Gather and analyze data to determine priorities

• Explore possible solutions

• Assess readiness and build capacity

• Create and communicate improvement plan

• Implement the plan

• Monitor and adjust

We suggest f0ur focus areas and our thoughts to improve your school:

1. Students

• Engage: Project-Based Learning

• Connect: Integrated Studies

• Share: Cooperative Learning

• Expand: Comprehensive Assessment

2. Teachers

• Coach: Intellectual and Emotional Guide

• Learn: Teaching as Apprenticeship

3. Schools

• Adopt: Technology

• Reorganize: Resources

4. Community

• Involve: Parents

• Include: Community Partners

Improvement means change, to implement any change you need a team. The job of the school improvement team is to lead the development of a school improvement plan that addresses student achievement needs, to monitor the implementation of the plan, and to revise it when appropriate. You might not seeW the outcome immediately but certainly steadily you will be able to see result and Develop Schools

Blended Learning

Rita Wilson, Chief Editor

(Ex-chief executive and Secretary, ICSE)

Blended learning offers special opportunities in special education, allowing new levels of individualization and engagement for students with special needs.
Blended learning, simply defined as a combination of face to face and online instruction, is a pedagogical model that is often and easily misunderstood. It can mean many different things to different educators and usually it means nothing at all to most. Though it is a term creeping into the ever-expanding teacher lexicon, it remains meaningless to many because it is a pedagogical strategy that is not yet widely in use. When teachers do know what blending learning is, they can easily misunderstand it because it can take many different forms and have many different uses.

The growth of blended learning has alarmed many teachers who fear it and see it as a strategy of replacing teachers with computers to reduce costs. They have a right to be suspicious. Some schools have indeed used technology to reduce staff and cut expenses. Some teachers simply see blended learning as diminishing the profession by shifting so much of the instructional burden to an online programme.
The concerns that teachers have about the shift in teacher roles in a blended learning environment are reasonable. A computer programme alone can’t teach a child, but with a quality teacher blended learning can be an effective option for any student.

A teacher commented, - I found that the long-term advantages for my students far outweighed the early struggles. Students quickly learned to treat the equipment respectfully (in most cases), took to the routine, and stayed engaged in their work with little or no distractions throughout each class period. I was able to easily see who struggled with the content and spend significant time with them while other students worked at a faster pace. Managing the different paces was a challenge but also an opportunity to give the stronger students mini-projects while the other students continued in a unit.

The benefits of using the multi-media platform in my blended-learning classes were numerous and varied. The multimedia content and one-to-one delivery supported my students’ needs in many ways and kept them fully engaged in their work throughout class and outside of school. The 24-hour, remote access to content and assignments extended the time of my class and kept some chronically absent students from failing. Overall, all my students benefited from learning to navigate their own way through the course at their own pace while developing the skills required to learn and participate in this new environment.

Teachers need not be fearful or dismissive of blended learning. Pedagogical models come and go, but this model has the potential to change the way we teach and learn. I was once a skeptic myself but I have become a believer.