Better Tools Welcome to the First Edition of S.M.A.R.T. News Fine Tuning The Alligator Crawl by Kathy Orth Better Training Learning Your Learners' Style by Launa Ellison Better Results Title I Schools are Now Achieving at Similar Levels to Non-Title Schools in Huron, SD

Get Those Heads Down In Minnesota at Atwater Cosmos Grove City (ACGC) South Elementary they created this clever and fun intervention out of PVC pipe to help remind students to keep their heads down and chins close to the floor as they did the "Alligator Crawl". Other sites take hula hoops apart and stretch them across the mats. Then they hang streamers or scarves from the hula hoops as an extra incentive to keep the head low. A few schools have stretched string across the mats and attached it to the tops of cones. The students think it is so much fun and they love the challenge too. "The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work." Maria Montessori Announcing all new summer workshop dates (summer workshop schedule)

CONTENT Dear Readers –Welcome to the first edition of S.M.A.R.T. News. We are excited to launch this communication and through it, hope to share with our Designated Learning Sites...including those which have completed the three year mentoring process as well as those current and potential sites...a variety of articles to enhance learning readiness. Each month we will share tips on Better Training, Better Tools and Better Results. (more) Fine Tuning The Alligator Crawl by Kathy Orth As you watch a baby as she makes her first attempts to move across the floor you might see the prototype for what S.M.A.R.T. teachers call "The alligator Crawl". (more) Learning Your Learners' Style by Launa Ellison He comes bouncing into your classroom each morning. She can't sit still, wiggling shifting moving. Attention flits away. The kinesthetic child. Another teacher complains he doesn't listen. (more) Title I Schools are Now Achieving at Similar Levels to Non-Title Schools in Huron, SD The most recent Stanford Achievement Test results substantiate what many of us were hoping we would start to see from "the data" this year...for the first time our third graders in our Title I schools are now achieving at similar levels to our non-Title schools in all areas of curriculum assessed. What's important to realize is that this is the first group of students to reach third grade who had participated in S.M.A.R.T./Boost Up. The AVE and HSAS data is more specific in that it is related to individual student growth and was comparing the growth of their peers as a group...but that data is just as revealing in terms of what's happening for the students of our district. (more)

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