(by Don Meador, July 24, 2021)
A pair of academic related changes highlight the new school year at the Allen County Intermediate Center (ACIC).
“We are introducing a new writing initiative called Writing City.” ACIC principal Shawn Holland said. “Every student in the building will start their day in a writing period. Our instructional day starts at 7:50 and we will be in writing until 8:20 every single day. Everyone will be writing. We have seen over the years that writing skills are a deficit in our students. We are 100% convinced that when students write better they perform better across all subjects. So writing is a renewed focus.”
A second change will affect the way teachers respond to students needing additional help.
“We are also revamping our Tier 2 RTI (Response Through Intervention) efforts,” Holland noted. “In the past our Tier 2 students received interventions at the end of the day. We have built into our schedule, especially in reading and math, extended time during the school day. We want our kids who are struggling, based on their formative assessments, to have immediate remediation. When they take a formative assessment in the classroom, we are going to have time built in for the teacher to work with individuals in small groups on the skills they are lacking. It will be real-time intervention delivered by a certified teacher. We think this is the best way to do it.”
For students who show they have mastered the concept, teachers will have more challenging work to assign related to the subject. The concept was implanted in some classrooms on a trial basis last spring with teachers noting favorable results.
In terms of organization, educators will teach this year in teams of three with the exception of one tandem teaching group in fourth grade.
Holland also notes that his teachers will be focused on helping kids master the content outlined by the standards in place.
“We want to slow down and focus on mastery of the standards as opposed to covering the content,” Holland said. “I’m preaching that this school year. We are not going to worry about test scores. We are going to use our formative assessments because we feel if we teach to mastery of the standards then the test scores will take care of themselves come May.”
The changes during the 2020-21 school year brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted several key programs and activities at ACIC. Hopes are high that the new school year will see ACIC able to resume several things---things such as a full Leader in Me schedule with parent involvement activities, clubs, field trips, special guests, and the highly popular reward slide.
“We are coming back more focused on Leader in Me,” Holland explained. “We did that two years ago but our fourth and fifth graders have not had Leader in Me to the point that it benefits the program or the school. Also clubs and extracurricular activities are extremely important. I want our chorus to go full blown this year. I would like to see the art club come back. I would love to see FCA and Beta back. Archery will be back again as it was last year.”
Obviously, a resumption of normal activities and daily procedures hinges on COVID guidance established by the District. An uptick in cases could affect activities and plans. .
“We are anxious to have parents back in the building for Leader in Me and all the things we do,” Holland stated, while noting a COVID-guided change regarding lunch visitors. “Parents can come and eat with their kids and we encourage them to do so but because we may have to contract trace and other things, the child will not be able to bring a friend with them this year to lunch. It will just be the child and their parents.”
As of now, two staff changes have occurred with the search just starting for a teacher to replace an educator who recently departed for a position in her home county.
“We lost our longtime guidance counselor Anne Vinson to retirement,” Holland noted. “That was a tremendous loss for us. But Holly Dewitt will replace her in that position. We are also doing everything we can to pull some of the administrative duties of the counselors position in order for her to spend more time with students. She is already looking at how she can do more classroom guidance and structure small focus groups for kids struggling with a particular issue. We are adding a second MSD unit. Kelsi Pardue has been hired to fill that role. She is a tremendous young lady with a heart for kids/”
Holland also notes that COVID did bring about a change that will carry over into the new school year and most one that is most likely here to stay..
“We do plan to still upload lessons to Google Classroom) on a daily basis,” Holland added. “If you have a kid that misses for any reason, they will be able to watch their teacher in Google Classroom. They will have access to materials at home. Mom or dad will not have to run up here and pick up a packet for the work they have missed. That will be very beneficial and it's going to be here to stay.”
Like counterparts across the District, Holland realizes that the pandemic year helped the school and community grow through the use of technology.
“We were forced to integrate technology,” Holland explained. “While there were struggles early on from students, teachers, and parents at the end of the day, everybody is stronger in technology especially around the Google Classroom.”
Holland adds that the morning will have a slight change from the way school ended in May.
“Our drop off time is 7 a,m, and I would love to see all kids dropped off by 7:30,” Holland noted. “I would like us to be able to use 7:30-7:50 as the time we could talk to kids and establish relationships. I don't want kids running in at the last minute. We start loading our car rider kids by 3 p.m.”
ACIC will also benefit from a pair of new District learning coaches housed in the school---Dr. April Craft (English/Language Arts) and Jennifer Tatum (Math).
“I’m hoping the new coaches will give us a fresh set of eyes,” Holland said. “We feel like we have a pretty strong reading and math curriculum but a fresh set of eyes to tweak that and make it better. Also, hopefully the new coaches can help teachers to help those students who are struggling and help our teachers develop a toolbox of strategies to use. ”
Holland encourages all students and parents to visit ACIC during Open House scheduled for Thursday, July 29. The Open House will start at 5 p.m. and end at 7. To help space out the number of people in the building during the Open House window, students with a last name of A-G from 5:00 until 5:30, H-M from 5:30 until 6:00, N-S from 6:00 until 6:30, and S-Z from 6:30 until 7:00.