Go Gators!

Yesterday I had a wonderful visit with Principal Delgallego at Avocado Elementary.  If you've ever been there, you know that Avocado has a unique open-classroom design that promotes grade level partnerships.  Enrollment has grown since it was originally built, so there are some portables now, but each year the staff optimizes the original classroom wings to best serve student and staff needs.  It was also great to see the old-style kindergarten classrooms being used for TK, as I have a certain fondness for these classrooms that can be found at many of the older schools around the district.  

We joined some of the Family Teacher Team meetings happening in the fifth-grade classrooms, and I was impressed to hear Principal Delgallego share that staff who have children at Avocado are reprieved of their duties for the hour in order to participate as parents.  The attending families were able to meet the teacher and be acquainted with the classroom, as well as view their child's iReady diagnostic scores and develop some goals for learning at home.  I especially valued how teachers explained the Lexile score as an independent reading level.  I remember the days of AR leveled books district-wide both in classrooms and in school libraries, providing an organized format for recommending and choosing books.  I know I help my own children choose books at their Lexile level, but I imagine that is a daunting task for many families.  As a parent and teacher to my own children, the partnership between parents and teachers can foster a foundational love of reading.

One final topic we discussed was grade-level rotations between teachers for core subjects, which affords staff the time to develop excellent lessons for a subject that they are teaching repeatedly to different students.  Avocado students get a 90-minute Language Arts block every day, which includes 45 minutes of Tier 1 instruction and 45 minutes of Tier 2 instruction, where every student is part of a focused small group on a daily basis.  What an integral part of helping every student succeed!  After honestly being overwhelmed by our Language Arts curriculum offerings on the Summer Academy list, I was also able to see instruction using Magnetic Reading and learn the applications of Magnetic Reading as well as Morpheme Magic.  We discussed teacher preferences as I recalled my experiences fifteen years ago when we had a single Language Arts curriculum that was used for all Teir 1 instruction in every elementary grade, making it easy for teachers to implement while comprehensively building on discreet skills.  Our entry into the "Science of Reading" era has challenged staff to find the best fit for our students among so many new options.  Principal Delgallego shared about data that follows students as they progress through the grades, and I'm excited to see where Avocado gators continue to grow!