General
Studies Strategy for Oregon Standards
The underlying pin to all of Maayan’s education
is the “Jewish values” rich environment, or “the Neshamah”, that Jewish feeling,
that is deeply a part of the daily experiences of the children at our school.
This feeling becomes deeply embedded in a child’s identity, securely connecting
them to their heritage and continuing it on. This is an invaluable gift to a
child.
There is so much excitement, warmth and
vibrancy that the teachers create in their classrooms making the children feel
nurtured and happy. I see it all over their faces. Part of their happiness
comes from the feeling of being valued because we see each child as not just a
brain to educate but a “being” made in the Divine image with beautiful talents,
only needing our help to make them shine forth.
Below, we would like to elaborate about our
meeting / exceeding Oregon State Standards and how we plan on achieving this
necessary aim.
Here is our current strategy:
1.
We
align our general studies program to meet all of the Oregon State Standards for
Math, Language Arts (Literacy/ Writing) and the significant standards for Science and Social
Studies.
2.
Our
curriculum materials are from standardized curriculum publishers for Math and
Literacy/ Writing. These curriculums come with assessments, homework, challenge
and support materials. This is a tremendous support for guiding teachers each
day in the classroom for meeting benchmarks.
3.
Students
in Kindergarten and up are formally assessed three times a year by standardized
assessments, like the DRA, giving the teacher and parents clear evidence of
student progress.
4.
We
employ Oregon certified teachers who have taught in the public school system
with a number of years of teaching experience.
5.
Teacher
oversight: Teachers hand in weekly lesson plans to the director to assure that
current classroom instruction is progressing through the benchmarks in the
curriculum. Teachers are assessed once a year formally for their teaching
efficacy but are observed more regularly.
6.
We
put our main instruction focus on Math and Literacy with rotating thematic
units for Social Studies and Science. This means that the meat and potatoes are
getting all the focus they need.
7.
Very
Important: Our main goal for the next three months is to hire a general studies
coordinator who will be guiding and overseeing the developing general studies
program with the director and teaching staff.
8.
State
Testing will be starting in third grade (formal state testing doesn’t take
place before third grade) which will show how our students score on Oregon
state standards compared to all public school students.
9.
Our
Judaic Studies is a rich and academic program that really develops our students
in their analysis, critical thinking and problem solving skills. The time in
Judaic Studies also uses its time for reading, writing, researching, music
enrichment, art, Jewish history and focus on social skill development. A person
needs to see that the time in the Judaic program is also used to reach
standards for skills but with other content.
10. Currently, all of our students are meeting or exceeding benchmarks
for Kindergarten and First Grade. This is because of a number of factors, one
being that a teacher can move much faster when she needs to make sure 5-10
students have understood the concept versus 17-25.
11. We do have blended grade classrooms. This allows for students to
really fit in where they can grow best. Reading groups are according to reading
level which means that students can keep growing as far as their ability level.
Math is taught by grade level groupings.
Those
are the inner workings of our education. I feel confident about what our
students are learning and able to do. We make education full of first hand
experiences and see the student as the most active participant in the
classroom/learning process. Our learning philosophy focuses on the active
acquiring of knowledge which helps kids to love being in the classroom and
helps them be SELF- MOTIVATED students.
While growing a school, every family
and student is important to us, more importantly is that child’s
success wherever they go to school.
Aviel
Brodkin
