NCLB Illinois

I'm writing tonight from the NCLB conference in Chicago, Illinois. Today was the first day of the conference. There is two more days left, but unfortunately my district only paid for two days. One more day left for me. One conference I sat in today dealt with technology. I feel really good about what our school is doing in regards to technology. My building is a 3rd-5th grade building. Last year we began using a semi-block schedule. Each grade level has two 45 min. sessions. During the first 45 minutes, Half the students are broken into 4 groups that go to P.E., Music, Computer lab, and library. The other half go to break out sessions chosen by each grade level. Students that receive RTI service, ELL, speech etc., get pulled during their break out session time so they do not miss any core teaching or their special classes. Then the second 45 minutes the students switch. Each day the Music, P.E., Computer Lab, and Library classes rotate.

 I know its confusing, took a lot for us teachers to get used to it as well. But it has really been a blessing. Now all students are receiving technology starting in 3rd grade for at least 45 minutes a week. Our Pre K-2 building does not have a computer lab, but each classroom contains 3-4 computers. When they reach our building we can utilize the computer lab more efficiently with this block schedule. The computer lab is no longer being left unused. And teachers that are not comfortable with teaching with technology, are not as overwhelmed with learning how.

 We are still in the mist of building the curriculum, but after listening today we are in the right direction, and have taught in some ways more than expected. We are always looking for suggestions though and to increase the bar for these students. Now in year two we are seeing things that need to be eliminated, and looking for ways to implement more.