Monday, November 5, 2012

Why?

In this posting, we try to explain some of the motivation behind our actions and our goal to help our teachers, their helpers and, ultimately, the student.

In every school, including St. Philip, there is a certain percentage of students that either excel (above the norm) in the classrooms or are challenged and require additional time/teacher.  It could be one subject, or just a different learning technique/style associated with the student.  This group of students sometimes equates to 10% of the total school population that needs additional services, whether it be enrichment or supportive services.

Traditionally, every teacher (and their helpers) in every classroom has to accommodate all students and keep all them learning at the same rate.  It is a very challenging position to be in with all of the items/lessons that need to be taught in a year.  Teachers have one of the most stressful jobs in the world, especially now with the frantic drive to reform education.

Schools cannot handle all of the students needs all the time, even with excellent programs like STEP.  Teachers are striving to meet the needs of all of the students and technology is one more way to help them to achieve their goal.

Our committee wants to help teachers to reach this goal.

We are committed to providing our teachers and students new tools to better the education process.  One aspect of the reform in education today promotes the personalization of education.  With these tools, the teacher now has the amazing ability to reach every child at where they are at developmentally.  But, it is a new world and our committee is committed to ensuring that this amazing palette of tools is available for use, responsibly, by our teachers and students.

We want the 10% to be 0% with EVERY student excelling....this is our dream for our children.