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Teaching with Technology: Easiteach at LFDCS |
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As LFDCS looks at ways to differentiate instruction, add project-based learning, and develop critical thinking, LFDCS teachers have expanded their use of Easiteach to incorporate their text and verbal instruction with videos, audio and interactive Easiteach widgets. LFDCS teachers’ general use of Easiteach are as follows:
- to develop visually-appealing presentations
- to create lesson activities, such as cloze activities
- to design their own lesson dashboards that incorporate diverse teaching resources, such as Microsoft Office, PDFs, videos, images, audio and interactive games
LFDCS teachers understand that students have different learning styles and preferred learning resources. By using multimedia-enriched teaching resources, LFDCS teachers stimulate student interests and engage them in learning. They also aim to more effectively meet different student learning needs and achieve educational goals. The below table shows survey results of LFDCS teachers related to the Pros and Cons of using Easiteach. As a LFDCS dissemination goal, we hope the following information helps other educators plan to use Easiteach in their instruction.
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Pros
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Cons
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Easiteach provides diverse interactive tools/widgets, such as cloze tool, word wallet and randomizer that teachers can use to teach diverse subject matter
“[I like] to use different media to stimulate the interest of students.”
“I like how many widgets there are to be used in a variety of subjects and lessons.”
“There is something for every subject.”
Easiteach allows teachers to insert diverse media files including document files to an Easiteach project.
“I like how everything can be in one place for the lesson.”
“I can have all files in one place.”
Easiteach lessons and embedded objects can be saved as lessons for other teachers on the team to use from year to year!
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Easiteach interface is not user-friendly, so it is difficult to navigate in order to learn and use its features
“So much to learn and hard to keep track of what all the buttons do.”
“[It is] Tough to learn without supervision and expert guidance from a digital instructor.”
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Ms. Vining's Class - Instructional Strategies from Landmark School - Creating Writing Projects with Students |
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MCAS Highlights - Spring 2014 Scores |
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LFDCS is a Level 1 School for the third year in a row!
On Wednesday, October 8th, 14 LFDCS students and their parent(s) were invited to the LFDCS Board of Trustees Meeting in celebration of 13 out of 14 students receiving perfect scores on the Math MCAS test and one student receiving a perfect score on both the ELA and the Math MCAS test. Each student received a certificate of academic excellence in recognition of their accomplishments. Test results for the entire school were also announced to the board members by Head of Schools, Jennifer Fanning and Stephanie Cole.
Across public schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MCAS academic testing measures student achievement in English Language Arts, Math and Science. Based on the Spring results for the third year in a row, LFDCS ranks as a Level 1 School. Only 19% of Districts and 26% of public schools across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts earned Level 1 status this year.As specific highlights, at every grade level LFDCS students outperformed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ students in English Language Arts (ELA). In seventh grade, 90% of LFDCS students scored Proficient or Advanced on the ELA MCAS test.
In Math, achievement was also very strong--the largest gap between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and LFDCS was in third grade Math. Across the Commonwealth, 68% of third grade students scored Proficient or Higher and at LFDCS ninety-three percent of third grade students scored Proficient or Higher on the Math MCAS test. Of that 93%, 58% of third graders scored Advanced in Math. Superintendent Ralph Carrero was delighted to learn that twelve third grade students earned perfect scores in the Math MCAS test. These scores were of great pride to the third grade teaching team, as well as their teaching colleagues in earlier grades.
LFDCS's school-wide Composite Performance Index (CPI) for ELA was 91.1 and school-wide Composite Performance Index (CPI) for Math was 87.5. These are the highest ELA and Math CPIs that LFDCS has earned in the past five years. Since last year, LFDCS has made a 1.9 gain in ELA and a 0.9 gain in Math and since 2010, LFDCS has made a 9.8 gain in ELA and an 8.4 gain in Math.
According to LFDCS Principal, Dr. Susan Earabino, "the success of the students earning tremendous scores could not have been achieved without talented and dedicated teachers." Dr. Earabino eagerly shared information about the factors which contribute to LFDCS’ student success: teacher planning, mentoring and dedication. “We look for rigor throughout the grades, individualize our instruction, and also use looping which allows teachers to manage small classes in a highly personalized way.” Complementing school year efforts are: summer programs, enrichment programs, onsite school gardens to increase awareness of food choices and nutrition, as well as interesting STEM activities which encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Lawrence Family Development Charter School is also closing the achievement gap for Hispanic students, 99% of whom are Hispanic. The school is outperforming Hispanic students across the state. For example, in seventh and eighth grade Math, the percent of students who scored Proficient or Higher at LFDCS is more than double that of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Hispanic students.
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HISPANICS – STATE VERSUS LFDCS
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GRADE
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ELA- STATE
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ELA-LFDCS
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MATH-STATE
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MATH-LFDCS
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3
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34%
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72%
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50%
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93%
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4
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31%
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63%
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33%
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59%
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5
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40%
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68%
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38%
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55%
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6
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45%
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79%
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37%
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71%
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7
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49%
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90%
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26%
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61%
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8
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58%
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88%
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29%
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69%
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Click here to view which students had perfect scores
Click here to read an interview with third grade teacher, Nicole Rapsi
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Our program includes a dual-language model with students learning in both Spanish and English. The goal is to enable students to attain advanced levels of functional proficiency in two languages and to promote understanding of and appreciation for the cultures represented by the languages studied. The primary objective is to teach students language and literacy skills that will allow them to function effectively in both their personal and professional lives. We feel the development of literacy will foster a love of learning to read, and then the competency of reading to learn.
We believe there is a strong link between school success and effective and consistent leadership. As a result, our Board of Trustees, composed of parents and community leaders, provides valuable oversight and focuses on creating and upholding policies that support our students and their families. We also have initiated a new administrative structure with a principal and heads of upper and lower schools, who manage daily operations and discipline. Leadership from the ranks of the teaching staff is also highly evident, as teachers improve curriculum, serve as mentors to novice educators and work to attain National Board Certification. Our goal is to work with many individuals and organizations in order to provide the resources necessary to enhance and enrich the lives of our students, both during the day and in our extended day and extended year programs. The quality and breadth of our community partnership program is unique. We work with an extensive array of local private schools, parent and community volunteers, and organizations providing on-site programs.
We believe that when parents are actively involved in their children’s education, students have a better chance of succeeding academically. At LFDCS parents are required to be active participants in the education of their children. Parents serve on our Board of Trustees, participate in training programs designed to help them work with their children at home, volunteer in the classroom and on field trips, and assist with fundraising initiatives. All parents sign a contract that places high expectations on their participation both at school and at home. |
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