January Update

Time for another update...

One of the elementary schools in my district liked the idea of the new master schedule so much that they decided to begin implementation in January.  They jumped right in!  Things seem to be going pretty well for them.  They are working out some kinks as they arise.  I plan to learn from their implementation!

Essentially, each grade level has a 45 minute time period carved out in their schedule where they have specialists converge on their grade level.  All classroom teachers divide up their students and put them into small groups for a time of differentiated instruction.

The TAKS grade level teachers seem to have warmed up to the idea a little quicker than the K-2 teachers.  For the 3-5 teachers, this has cut down tremendously on the number of pull-outs that students were experiencing.  Now, all pull-out programs also take place during this time period.  This has allowed classroom teachers to have all of their students present in their classroom all day, except for during this 45 minutes period.

The plan for my campus... We will wait until around Spring Break to introduce the idea to staff during PLCs.  At that time, we are thinking we would still like to take a small group of teachers over to the model school to see this master schedule in action.