Saturday, November 12, 2005

Saturday Academy Works!

Yes, yes, yes. On those skills pre-taught/ front-loaded at Saturday Academy, students who attended averaged 93%. This is good. Students who were targeted but did not attend averaged 72%. Of the students in attendance, 88% of them MASTERed the skills, while only 22% of those targeted but not attending MASTERed the skills.

All students can learn! All students can learn!

They just need to spend an extra 4 hours in ultra-high teacher-student ratio environments to do it. Okay. This means Saturday Academy next week, too. And I need to get more kids there (but not too many, or they become too smart and destroy the dynamic). And I need to get the school to subsidize the pizza. I'll donate my labor, but I want pizza-delivery comped.

All students can learn! All students can learn!

This is one of those double-edged things: Once you establish that Saturday's work, you now feel ethically/professionally obligated to keep them going. How can you not? Students experience their first real successes, the secret has been unearthed. More time on task and smaller class sizes, who woulda guessed? I've got the calendar open right now, and I'm plotting out the days and the skills that will be pre-taught. What else can I do? These are big-time results.

District leadership take note: The longer kids are in school, the smaller the classes are, the better they perform. Loosen them purse strings.

UPDATE: P.O.Y. and Vice-P.O.Y. volunteer pizza subsidies. It's on.

4 Comments:

Blogger posthipchick said...

just another reason you're a far better teacher than i.

9:35 AM  
Blogger Johanna said...

Good God you are a dedicated individual. I agree with phc, you're not only a better teacher but a better person.

8:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Teaching

HI TMAO

After a good read on blogs like this I like to leave little tips on goal setting. You know, the things you used to dream of when you were young, or even now.

A lot of research has shown that only those who set goals are likely to achieve their dreams.

When is the last time you really sat down and wrote a few short term and long term goals down?

What? It's been that long!

A new year is coming. You could do the same things you did this year and achieve the same results you did with your life dreams last year…

…or you could visit Effective Goal Setting and read all the FREE information on setting goals and getting what you want out of life

OR

you could just piddle on through life hoping for the best, like most people do.

Which will it be?

You really can have a lot more of everything than you do now. All you gotta do is know what you want and have a plan.

Have a GREAT New Year!

10:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Home school

HELLO TMAO

I was going to leave a little tip on New Years Resolutions and how to make the best of them.

Unfortunately, I would not be able to keep it brief.

Goal setting takes effort and you really have to know how to do it to do it well. Especially the follow-up.

That's why I've included a lot of FREE goal setting information on my website, to help folks like you be more successful.

In fact, you can start now, and get a head start on the new year - and the rest of your life.

Think goal setting isn't important?

Spend a little time at Developing Goals and you'll change your mind.

Have a GREAT day!

9:43 PM  

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