Ms. Worcester's Room

2010-08-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome! I hope that you have had a terrific summer! We are getting ready to roll into another great school year! The following are ten important things that I would like you to know about the Title I program: 10. Title I is a federally-funded program. 9. The purpose of Title I is to help level the academic field for students. Students are provided supplemental help to strengthen their skills in math and reading. Title I does not replace core instruction. 8. Students qualify for the Title I program through testing and observations. The diagnostic assessment is a profile of behaviors (academic and behavioral) that the student exhibits. 7. Parents will be notified if their child qualifies for the Title I program. Notification may be in the form of a conference, email, phone call or letter. The notification may be handled by the classroom teacher, Title I teacher or administration. 6. If a student enters the program, this does not mean the student will be in the program until the end of the year. The program focuses on having the student meet the academic goal and then having the student exit the program upon the mastery of the goal. Students may need additional goals written once the initial goal has been mastered. 5. Students work on targeted goals and objectives in a small group or in a one-on-one setting. 4. North Winneshiek School has begun testing all of the students. Kindergarten-2nd grade students will participate in the district-wide testing. North Winneshiek uses DIBELS. This test is a timed test. The students also will take MAPS. This is a computerized assessment. These two assessment instruments are given nation-wide. By looking at all of the test results (scores and error analysis patterns), this can help determine how North Winneshiek students are functioning in comparison to students nation-wide. It is important to emphasize that this is only one of the instruments (diagnostic assessment) that is used to determine how North Winneshiek students are performing when compared to their peers. The student assessment goal is to meet the requirements of NCLB. 3. I am a certified K-12 teacher in reading. I am a graduate of Luther, and I earned my Master's degree (in education with a concentration in learning disabilities) through Winona State. I have taken additional courses in a variety of fields through Morningside, University of Northern Iowa, University of Minnesota (Rochester Center), and NICC. 2. Parents and community are critical components of the Title I program. 1. The Title 1 program is designed as a supplemental program for children. Your role as a parent is important. If you have questions or comments, please direct them to Mr. Dugger or to me. Have a great year!

Endorsements

2010-05-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

If you go to the Iowa Department of Education website, you will find the following information regarding my endorsements. I am certified to teach: Spec Ed K-12, English (language arts) 5-12, Reading K-8, Reading 5-12, Speech communications (theatre) 5-12, multi-categorical resource 5-12, learning disabilities 5-12, mildly disabled 5-12, multi-occupations 5-12, work experience coordinator 5-12, instructional strategist I (mild/moderate) 5-12. By virture of holding a certificate prior to October 1, 1988, I am authorized to teach all subjects in grades 7 and 8 except art, music, industrial arts, and physical education.

Testing Update

2010-05-14T10:43:00.001-07:00

We have just completed the MAPS assessment. We have started DIBELS testing. DIBELS is a timed test. All testing should be completed by next week. I am thanking you for all the support that you have given the North Winneshiek Title program. Due to parent and teacher participation and student effort, students are showing success! Thank you!!

End-of-the-Year-Assessments

2010-05-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

This week marked the beginning for students taking the end of the year assessments. MAPS (http://www.nwea.org) is a computerized assessment that is not timed. DIBELS is a timed assessment that focuses on oral reading. Students have worked very hard throughout the year. We want students to do as well as possible. Please have your child go to bed early and eat a healthy breakfast. Students frequently go too fast while taking the test. Please emphasize good attitude, great effort, and slowing down. It has been a great year, and we want the students' assessment results to reflect the knowledge that they have gained.

2010-03-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

Just suppose you know of a woman who just gave birth to a wonderful baby. That mom would have to feed her child. When children are nourished, we speak not only of food. Let's consider another type of nourishment. Since Mrs. H just had a baby, let's use her family as an example. We know that Mrs. H feeds her baby. If Mrs. H reads to her baby every night for 30 minutes that would work out as 30 minutes a night multiplied by 7 days in a week. That would be 210 minutes for one week. If we took it one step further, and multiplied 210 by 52 weeks in a year, Mrs. H will have read to her baby 10,920 minutes. If we divided that number by 60 (60 minutes in a hour), she will have read 182 hours in a year. Now, if the H family would read every day for 30 minutes a day until the child reaches age 5 (entering school), the H family will have spent 54,600 minutes reading. This translates to be 910 hours or 37.9 full days of reading.

In contrast, let's take family Z. Family Z provides wonderful food for the baby. Yet, family Z doesn't start reading to their child until the child reaches preschool age of 3. Family Z is really swamped with things to do, so they squeeze in fifteen minutes a night. This goes on until the child enters kindergarten (3 years). Let's look and see what happens: 15 multiplied by 7 equals 105 minutes of reading on a weekly basis. To tell the truth, reading doesn't always happen every night. If they get in four good nights of reading, they are happy. Let's refigure this: 15 multiplied by 4 equals 60 minutes a week. Multiple the 60 by 52 weeks in a year=3,120. Since they started when the child was three years old, multiply 3,120 by 3=9,360. Family Z read to their child a total of 9,360 minutes before the child entered kindergarten. This would mean that the Z family read a total of 156 hours or 6.5 days.

The question is: Who do you think is more prepared for school?

2010-02-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

Coming soon......links to educational sites.

New Year!

2010-01-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

We are up and running again! Have a great year! Keep reading!

Welcome to My Blog!

2009-01-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

This is where you will find information about learning to read! And use your imagination and skills! It will be fun!