| 1. | 2/5/2008 3:48:00 AM | Clearly defined beliefs will lead to better decisions regarding staff resources. |
| 2. | 2/5/2008 2:08:00 PM | Work with staff in developing inservices that are jointly considered important. Ask first, then listen. |
| 3. | 2/5/2008 2:32:00 PM | For ALL learners. |
| 4. | 2/5/2008 3:30:00 PM | We all have a different idea on what differentiation truly is. We are all looking for ways to do this better across the content ares with the time we have to instruct as well as prep for this. |
| 5. | 2/5/2008 3:36:00 PM | Again, we need to also have time to help support this goal. We have parents and students coming in before and after school, and prep can easily be taken up with a little bit of paperwork or a parent phone call. We will need support to ensure that this happens, it is on many levels already, but could definitely be stepped up if the support/time were there. |
| 6. | 2/5/2008 4:08:00 PM | In many ways I see this connected to RTI--doing what is best for each student. It makes sense. We want it, but as always the constraints of class size, high needs, and lack of additional support make it a monumental challenge. |
| 7. | 2/5/2008 4:58:00 PM | Isn't this what RTI would do? I believe that smaller class sizes would be one of the best ways to help us meet the needs of our students. This has to be a priority. Class size is getting out of hand in the elementary schools. |
| 8. | 2/5/2008 6:21:00 PM | Define differentiation, more clear to all staff. |
| 9. | 2/5/2008 6:53:00 PM | Continue to focus on Balanced Literacy with Guided Reading providing a high degree of differentiation for our students, while at the same time keeping the standards high for all students to learn grade appropriate strategies/genres through shared reading and read alouds |
| 10. | 2/5/2008 7:53:00 PM | We need help with this. The message has been that we need to be differenentiating but we often feel left in the cold when it comes to how best to do this or to having resources to do this on top of everything else we do. |
| 11. | 2/5/2008 7:54:00 PM | With more human support! |
| 12. | 2/5/2008 9:28:00 PM | I believe differentiation is extremely important! It is embedded in my day! However, as class sizes increase, the ability for me to meet the needs of all my students in an appropriate way does not exist. I feel extremely torn on who should get my support: GATE, ELL, SPECIAL ED., 504 students, or the average student? Someone does not get enough of my time. We need to have smaller class sizes so that needs of students are taken into account in a more appropriate way. |
| 13. | 2/5/2008 9:58:00 PM | As teachers we are always trying to differentiate, however, I would like to see more options for differentiation other than "worksheets" and this becomes difficult to do when you are "1" and they are "25." |
| 14. | 2/5/2008 11:03:00 PM | Differentiation could be done more effectively if we had smaller classes. Student needs should dictate the size of classes. |
| 15. | 2/6/2008 3:07:00 AM | I agree, as long as the strategies are common knowledge to all across the district. In this way, we can have commonality throughout. |
| 16. | 2/6/2008 8:45:00 PM | Will need support to make this happen. |
| 17. | 2/7/2008 5:36:00 PM | I believe in differentiation and I feel that the district does well. I feel that more Staff development could be focussed on differentiation. The biggest problem with trying to meet all of the students' needs is becoming harder and harder because the students' needs are becoming more in-depth. When looking at class size the needs of the child also need to be looked at. Some students count as more than one child because of all of the needs of that particular child. |
| 18. | 2/12/2008 10:07:00 PM | How do we get in-services that address this? |
| 19. | 2/14/2008 9:52:00 PM | Incredibly important in order to effectively teach every student, but difficult to do without help. |
| 20. | 3/5/2008 1:23:00 PM | This is possible to accomplish when teachers are given adequate planning time and are not overwhelmed by assessments. We need to abandon some of our old responsibilities in order to take on new ones. It just seems that we are expected to do more and more with each passing year, and nothing is taken away from our duties. I am concerned about the mental health of our teaching staff. I would like to see the report card change from quarterly reporting to semester reporting. The rubrics are written by semester. It only makes sense to grade them at semester then, rather than having to guess at their grades at quarter time. I feel foolish explaining to parents that I am guessing at their child's grade and that it might change at semster time. |
| 21. | 3/5/2008 7:40:00 PM | A huge amount of inservice training would be needed on this one. A whole new generation of specialized schools with specially trained staffs, are leading the way in this niche. |
| 22. | 3/5/2008 8:57:00 PM | Yes. I believe we should look at all learners as individuals. |
| 23. | 3/6/2008 4:52:00 PM | I think that teachers at the elementary level really try this. The hard part is that there is so little time in our schedules that it feels like we have less and less time to get to know our students and to get them to know each other. We are working so hard to get “the academics” into their heads, that we don’t have time to spend having them work on activities that build community or a sense of belonging. Adding extra lessons does not do this. At this level, group activities, projects, and even sharing time allows this to happen. All of our time is spent completing lessons that someone else tells us to teach. It is getting harder and harder to get to know who our students really are. |
| 24. | 3/6/2008 5:00:00 PM | I think the elementary level does a good job of this. I would be very interested in having some kind of Math intervention in our district, maybe Math Recovery. |
| 25. | 3/6/2008 5:05:00 PM | We already do this. It helps to have refreshers. |
| 26. | 3/6/2008 6:38:00 PM | We give kids test and then nothing is done to help them! It is no child left untested! |
| 27. | 3/6/2008 6:40:00 PM | Smaller class sizes need to be kept in mind. Some classes may be full of high needs kids-so one child may act like 5. Differentiation works only if the teacher has planning time to create materials to support student needs. |
| 28. | 3/6/2008 7:02:00 PM | Again we need to have time to work and coordinate with our coworkers in order for this to be effective |
| 29. | 3/6/2008 8:05:00 PM | Looks great on paper, but are we willing to give the teachers the planning time, the professional development time and the time to collaborate and small class sizes to make this a reality? |
| 30. | 3/6/2008 8:33:00 PM | See comments for goal #1. |
| 31. | 3/6/2008 10:37:00 PM | As one teacher, I already do what I can with the time I'm given to prepare. Will there be more reading and math aides available to help us meet this goal? |
| 32. | 3/6/2008 10:51:00 PM | I feel like we already do this: guided reading, writer's workshop, math pre-tests/post test, leveled readers in social studies... we've got this down, it's just finding enough TIME to PLAN for these differentiation strategies to be effective for our students. |
| 33. | 3/9/2008 10:45:00 PM | Increase differentiation to increase mainstreaming of students with disabilities |
| 34. | 3/17/2008 9:19:00 PM | Charter/Alternative MS/HS setting would fit this as well. |
| 35. | 3/18/2008 11:53:00 AM | This and many of the academic goals are tied to class size. This is possible with smaller class sizes. |
| 36. | 3/18/2008 12:51:00 PM | As the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders grows (1 out of 150 kids), we need to continue to find ways to support students with ASD. This needs to be implemented by all staff, not only special ed. |
| 37. | 3/18/2008 2:10:00 PM | Another good idea, but when are staff going to get the time and energy to do this with all the other projects, plans, and good ideas that keep getting piled on our plates. The pressures and tensions are increasing and people are tired and frustrated. Many of us are not seeing these plans followed up on and seem to really do much to make our lives or students any better. We see curricular almost every year and more and more changes some good and many not so much. |
| 38. | 3/18/2008 2:48:00 PM | We are currently doing this but need time to develop it well. It is really hard when teachers are teaching more that one subject and have to plan multiple lessons for each in order to differentiate. It is hard enough to differenitate for one subject area that I teach....now add on another subject and differeniate for these students also. You are going to loose the quality of the lesson planning and the lesson if the teacher is spread too thin and is not given enough time to plan. |
| 39. | 3/18/2008 4:17:00 PM | Differentiation has been around a long time. Strategies have been shared with staff members through the years with very little follow through or support from administration. Why the sudden importance? Is it really doable? |
| 40. | 3/18/2008 4:44:00 PM | Idnetify and help students before they get so far behind or are such a disruption that they nor the others in the class can learn effectively |
| 41. | 3/19/2008 5:22:00 PM | Curriculumn standards and assessment should be finalized first so that the differentiation is of high quality and in line with standard based grading. |
| 42. | 3/19/2008 5:41:00 PM | We're working on it already, aren't we? Actual instructional time in the classroom, class sizes, large spec ed ratios all make differentiation difficult. Time to meet with and share ideas with grade level teachers is often taken up with IEPs and parent meetings, leaving little time to learn from each other |
| 43. | 3/19/2008 7:20:00 PM | This is very important. More training and practice needed by district educators |
| 44. | 3/20/2008 3:18:00 AM | Differentiating takes time to plan and prepare. Where will this come from? |
| 45. | 4/7/2008 9:44:00 PM | This goal is great, yet it is important that teachers get proper training on how to use differentiation in the classroom. |
| 46. | 4/7/2008 9:56:00 PM | Support, time, training and flexibility will be key to create a culture that believes in this important inititiative. |
| 47. | 4/7/2008 9:21:00 PM | Provide support to the staff for differentiation in the core required classes. |
| 48. | 4/8/2008 12:31:00 AM | We need to make differentiation easy for teachers to understand how to do, realistic to implement and applicable for the HS situation. This can seem overwhelming, but I think most teachers know it is the right thing to do. Again - time to learn, try and discuss will be really important with this goal. |
| 49. | 4/8/2008 1:03:00 PM | This should be part of RTI. They can not be seperated. |
| 50. | 4/8/2008 12:10:00 PM | I think this is more of a job target for certain teachers than it is a district-wide goal. |
| 51. | 4/8/2008 12:26:00 PM | Again, time is the contraint with this one. We often don't know who is walking in our door and what their needs are until well into the first quarter. We don't always get information about students far enough in advance to start with differentiation strategies soon enough. |
| 52. | 4/8/2008 4:21:00 PM | we have to let go of the old ways that WE LEARNED and look at how to teach and reach these digital natives. this is huge we need inservices we have to address this issue it's not going to go away |
| 53. | 4/8/2008 5:08:00 PM | I think most of the high school teachers already do this. |
| 54. | 4/8/2008 4:59:00 PM | You could perhaps combine this goal with the previous one about scheduling. |
| 55. | 4/8/2008 8:52:00 PM | Do this by departments. The English department has already gone through this process, and it may very well be our next year-long goal to foster it cooperatively (only to serve as a model for the rest of the departments (esp. core areas)). |
| 56. | 4/8/2008 9:06:00 PM | Rather than always providing differentiation, it might be helpful to address lack of acquisition before students get into the high school setting. |
| 57. | 4/8/2008 7:58:00 PM | At the high school we should certainly look at the restrictions we place on students as to what coures they can access at what grade level. I sometimes feel that it is a convenient manner for staff to avoid younger students. A student's interests and skills should drive whether or not a course is available to them. |
| 58. | 4/9/2008 4:10:00 PM | I feel this is already being done. |
| 59. | 4/10/2008 1:16:00 PM | Very important. However, a one and done workshop isn't going to even come close to helping teachers actually do this. This is tied directly to professional development, but sending teachers to speakers who show strategies on differentiation is an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars. Without a plan for implementing and checking up on this initiative, it is a wasted effort. Again, the "wait it out" motto comes into play. This isn't to say that educators aren't differentiating instruction. Some are. But to make the massive sweeping changes in the district, as we should continue to do if we are going to "sell" ourselves as a leading edge district, on some level feet need to be held to the fire. |
| 60. | 4/10/2008 6:13:00 PM | This is very important, but we have little training in the area - subject area training is vital, as the general training does not offer concrete examples of how to use it in our classrooms. |