Teacher Institute Day

No classes will be held today as teachers work on a variety of tasks to support instruction. Most teachers will be involved in training to refresh our knowledge of how the ISAT Writing Test works. This test was once a part of the regular ISAT testing plan but was dropped a few years ago since Writing is no longer considered a CORE academic subject. In 2007, this test was brought back into the normal testing cycle and results from about the state, including ours, were not at the level that they had previously been. As we reviewed this situation, we became aware that many of our veteran teachers who had been trained in the ISAT Writing program had retired and many of the newer teachers had not had the training in this program. Therefore, we have decided to provide training for all classroom teachers in the ISAT Writing process. That training will take place during our Institute
Day on October 29, 2007.

Other teachers will be working on developing Curriculum Guides to provide parents with an outline of the concepts and topics covered in each class by grade level. We intend to have curriculum guides available in the areas of Reading, Language Arts and Social Studies at each grade level by the end of the school year.

A small group of teachers will be visiting other schools to observe classes and get ideas to improve our own course offerings or delivery systems. Institute Day is always a busy day for teachers and administrators as they use this time to support improvement in instruction and programs for OUR students.