Rolla Traditional School Together We Achieve More

School Growth Planning Rolla Traditional School 2013-2014 Thinking about your school, what does the ideal look like? The core value for Rolla Traditional School is continuous growth and improvement for all: students, staff, and parents. Our core business is a quality education for each student through strong partnerships between school and home focusing on: Student Diversity Instruction to focus on students strengths and needs by addressing readiness levels, preferences, interests while maintaining high expectations Differing academic abilities and skills Differing technological abilities and skills Differing communication and collaboration abilities and skills Differing cultural and language abilities Differing preferences and motivations for learning Differing physical, sensory, and learning levels Student Engagement Active involvement in the learning process Supportive environment Incorporation of Technology Collaboration among students, home, community, and school Productive communication with students and families Personal reflection and goal setting Authentic learning opportunities Participation in school activities Student input in the learning process

 Literacy and Numeracy Integrating these critical skills into all subject areas Understanding working with numbers in all areas Designing and sharing information Managing, analyzing, and synthesizing information Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally Development of strong reading skills Participate in goal-setting and reflective conversations Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate Assessment For Learning (AFL) Assessing not to assign a grade, but to identify student strengths and needs in order to guide instruction (Formative) - Continuous feedback (critique) and communication between teacher and student and between peers to establish a process of continual reflection and review of progress - Informs teaching adjust plans to engage in corrective teaching and refinement of skills in response to formative assessment - Opportunity for student improvement and growth - Diagnostic and formative - Criterion referenced based on performance in relation to a specific learning task (PLO prescribed learning outcomes) - Teacher assessment, student self-assessment, and peer assessment Continue to shift from a focus on content instruction (traditional teaching) to a focus on student learning (inquiry-based learning and one-size-does-notfit-all) Teacher is a mentor or facilitator of learning Differentiated instruction content, process, and product Creative and critical thinking Strong relationships built on trust and respect Establishing connections between students learning and their lives

Expand responsibility for student learning by working together to meet the needs of all students Examining and refining teaching practice What are the strengths that currently exist in your school that you can build on to help you achieve this ideal? Staff is collaborative, collegial, and constructive works hard to focus on strengths with compassion and flexibility Inquiry-based projects / Project-based learning have been a priority Student-centered atmosphere Willingness of staff to meet needs of students Increased teaching of 21st Century Skills Using technology as a tool for learning Generous and welcoming students Morning meetings allow us to talk about character goals were focusing on and allow problem-solving, discussion, goal-setting, and reflection (helps solve many social problems) Where do you need to grow and improve? Students Literacy skills (content area reading and writing) Students Numeracy skills Connection of school to community Development of learner profiles Using information in the Class Profiles (School Profiles) to inform instruction (collaborative planning)

What road signs or benchmarks are you going to pay attention to as you move towards this state of ideal? Class Profiles and collaborative instructional plans Satisfaction Survey results Attendance Letter grade distribution Teacher feedback regarding collaboration time Parent Satisfaction Learner Profiles

Principal Plan Based on the schools plan, what do you need to do to lead your school to the ideal you have described? Develop tools and strategies for personalizing education Building effective collaborative practices Developing strategies for implementing authentic learning opportunities Increasing Supervision of Learning (observing in classrooms more) Providing specific feedback to staff Providing opportunities for professional development and mentoring Establish a strong Professional Learning Community Support our schools K-3 Literacy Project Develop community connections Flexible scheduling and fluid process for numeracy and literacy groups Advocate and support opportunities for Presentations of Learning Continue to foster open dialogue about Best Teaching Practices and methods available.