Rita Reardon, Admin. Assistant; Denise Richartz, Special Needs Assistant; Linda Terranova, Principal

Congratulations to Western Academy Charter School on achieving an “A” rating. Through teamwork and a commitment to succeed no matter what, Western Academy truly is an extraordinary school.

The school has a special mission to serve students with special needs. Of the 220 students at the school, 25% are designated exceptional education students. They use a full inclusion model which means that all students are mainstreamed together in the CHILD cluster classrooms.

Western Academy resides in an ordinary looking strip mall in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Behind the doors of this K-8 charter school, however, there is nothing ordinary about what is going on. Now in its fifth year of operation, Western Academy has been a Project CHILD school from the beginning.

 
Fifth graders at Computer Station

Principal Linda Terranova and her staff meet the needs of each and every student by providing specialists and special programs to ensure success for even the most challenging students. At a time when many schools are cutting back on art and music, students at Western Academy have 45 minute classes in art, physical education, and media.

Students who have fallen behind can participate in free after-school tutoring all year long. They are grouped by developmental scale score rather than by age or grade. This enables tutors to target skill gaps to streamline instruction.

The school’s goal was "Let's Shine with a 509!"  However they overshot their goal with a 612, which meant a grade of A! Kudos to the students, teachers, parents, and support staff for this well-deserved recognition.

               
(left) Alta Anderson presents “Old Tricks for New Teachers” --organizational ideas and strategies for a successful CHILD classroom. (right) Two teachers put their heads together to share classroom ideas.

Over 60 CHILD and First Steps teachers and administrators from around the country met in June for a two-day CHILD Summer Institute. They participated in a variety of workshops that were hands-on and interactive. Jan Gabhart, Diana Paulson, and Paula Cannon coordinated the event.

Topics included: Using Foldables to Take It Up a Notch, Old Tricks for New Teachers, Tackle the Test with Great Station Activities, Differentiating Your Stations to Meet Student Needs, Getting Organized and Creative in the CHILD Classroom, Bringing Technology Alive, and Make It a Holiday with Seasonal Station Ideas.  

Thanks to Partin Settlement Elementary School in Kissimmee, Florida for hosting this fabulous event! Everyone left with a wealth of new resources, strategies, and ideas, as well as developing contacts to network with other CHILD teachers in their specialty area.

Renewing CHILD and First Steps schools should look for their new product updates coming in August.  Included will be revised Reading Activities Guides with many new station activities, Task Cards, six full-color Activity Gameboards, and three new Seat Sacks.

New feature! Check the ISI web site http://www.ifsi.org/ for a new monthly poll. Let your opinions be known about current issues in education. Other new updates are a photo gallery, web blog, special page for CHILD consultants, and FuseTalk forum for teachers.

Technology Update