On September 3rd, Walden held its annual Open House for our parent community. Many parents told Mrs. Filippi and me that they enjoyed the evening and are excited about the year ahead. Our teachers were able to share what this year will look like in their classrooms, how they plan to communicate, and how they will get all their students to master each of their grade level standards. In addition, during the session in the gym, Mrs. Filippi and I focused on the fact that schools need to function differently today than they did when we went through school. We shared some of the skills that we need our 21st-Century-Learner students to master in order to be successful in their careers and discussed how personalizing our student’s learning can help us achieve these goals. We know our world is changing faster than in any other time in human history and, as a result, we don’t know what world we’re preparing our students for (unlike past generations).These challenges lead to great questions:
- Questions from a principal’s standpoint – What does the future look like for our students? What skills do we need and want our students to have in order to be successful in their careers later in life? What industries will exist when our current K-5 students enter the workforce – some time around 2027 (5th graders) and 2032 (kindergarteners)? How can we help and support teachers and parents navigate the world we live in now, educationally speaking? How can we UNLEARN the way we went through school and adapt to teach 21st century learners?
- Questions from a parent’s standpoint – Why change the way school is run? “It worked for me.” How do I parent a child with so much access to the world through their iPad or Chromebook? Do I let my child get an Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/etc account? How do I manage all of this?
- Questions from a teacher’s standpoint – How do I prioritize what I teach in order to do what’s best for my students. How can I change the way I run my classroom to meet the demands of a 21st Century Learner? How can I best manage all the ability and readiness levels of my students? What does a personalized learning environment look like? How do I building the appropriate relationships with my students so that they are comfortable taking risks?
At the end of the day, we want to help navigate these waters for our parents. In order to do so, we sought out feedback from our parent community to see if we are meeting their needs and to seek out ways we can improve upon our Open House for next year. The feedback was, overall, very positive and complimentary. We did received a few requests for more information about WHAT their children will be learning this year. I get that. It’s a good question and is the reason for this blog post.
First, if you are interested in learning more about WHAT your child will be expected to know BY THE END OF THIS YEAR, please click here to access the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Math and English Language Arts (ELA). If you’d like to learn more about the CCSS in general, please click here for a quick video. Please note that all grade level standards are end-of-year expectations. It is a primary job of a teacher in 2015 to recognize what standards are already mastered and what standards are a work in progress. Our teachers are experts at analyzing your child’s mastery of these standards and adjusting their lessons as needed.
Second, you may also click any of the following links to see each grade level’s Progress Reports (what we used to call Report Cards) and a parent guide to understanding our Standards Based Grading system that went into effect last year. You will receive three progress reports each year.
You can view blank copies of the new progress reports for each grade here. For more detailed information, you can view the parent guides for progress reports for each grade:
Both the CCSS and our district’s Progress Reports provide some insight into WHAT your children will be expected to learn this year. It is our job together to ensure that happens…
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