| Cottonwood
School District aligns curriculum to state standards
October 4, 5, 2007, Cottonwood School District staff and administration met to talk about curriculum and aligning standards.  Thursday
morning started with a presentation from Mr. Blaz on why we are aligning
standards. He talked about working together as grade level teams
and then expanding to building level team work. He stated that the
district’s goal is to have curriculums aligned to standards and then matched
to the IRI and ISAT tests. Mrs. Forsmann showed a power point on
how to navigate the state’s web site to find resources. She then
went out to the site live and answered questions fielded by the staff.
Mr. Shumway talked about the final product and how we wanted that to look.
Each teacher was given a flash drive with a template for the final product.
On Friday, teachers moved into groups and talked about what each individual grade level looked like and how the standards were covered. K-6 teachers met in the library with Joan Riggers leading their discussion. Social Studies teachers met with Jerry Uhling as their team leader. Bruce Nuxoll met with science people and Sarah Remacle worked with 7-12 Language Arts teachers. Colleen Sonnen is in charge of the math curriculum and alignment. Sherry Holthaus was asked to present her document to the group and explain the process she went through to coordinate all of the materials it takes to teach Language Arts in 1st grade. She had this comment to make: “I enjoyed meeting with the teachers within the district. We were able to discuss that standards taught in first grade are still being taught at all grade levels but at higher capacities, and we realize continuity and collaboration between the grades is very important.” The final products will be printed and bound to be used in all classrooms. Parents and community members are welcome to go through the binders as well. Alignment of all curriculums will take time. We hope to have all curriculums aligned to the standards within the next couple of years.  |
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