Their classroom experience represents a wedge that the education field is focused on squeezing more and more juice from.
Never
1-3 days a week
4-6 days a week
Every day
“Children’s programs are most successful when they leverage the most important—and difficult—job in the world: parenting... It’s far less expensive to coach parents to support children than to maintain prisons years later.”
We develop schools’ existing staff through a 5-week coaching cycle for teachers and a leadership development program for Site Managers. This creates an organic pipeline from teacher to manager to school leader. 75% of 2012 Site Managers and 50% of 2013 SMs have successfully attained school leadership roles.
This program has done wonders for my granddaughter’s reading level and mostly for her confidence! She and her brother would go to bed reading to each other and they were so responsible about filling out their folders each night. To me that was the most amazing thing...that their motivation to
read was maintained for the entire 5 weeks. My granddaughter's reading level went from 16 to 20 and her teacher said she probably could have kept going in her assessment. Her fluency has greatly improved, she's confident and very proud of herself, and she's enjoyed reading more things around her (like signs and t-shirts)..."
I learned how to engage my children by letting them choose the books, picture walking through the book, making predictions based on the pictures, reviewing the predictions, and breaking down difficult words."
Both my children earned tablets at the end of this program and they were ecstatic! They really just couldn't believe someone would give them a tablet for reading. It was a great opportunity for me to explain to them that those incentives represent just how important it is that they learn to be strong readers. My initial reaction to incentives for learning was not very favorable. In my ‘grown-up’ mind, learning is the reward because knowledge is useful. However, having
struggled for 2 years with my daughter’s reading, I started a reward chart (15 minutes of reading = 1 sticker, 10 stickers = 1 milkshake). It worked sooooooo well! Springboard seems to tap into that burst of motivation for students and parents alike to achieve an intense learning experience that is FUN. The incentives seem to provide strong motivation over a short amount of time which the kids see as attainable."
For my son, I have been learning to be a little bit more patient with him, listening to him and letting him figure things out on his own instead of just reading it for him. I also try to teach him to tap out words he might struggle with. It makes me a stronger parent to help and assist him because now I know not to read for
him. I know to have him read to me. I have been learning a lot of strategies from this program. My son is reading in the car now, he reads when we stop somewhere, and he is always bringing his books everywhere we go."
What motivated me to attend the workshops? The realization that my kids’ education—specifically their progress in reading—depends on the partnership between myself, my wife, and the teacher. It takes a village."
Just like it helps the students bridge the summer learning gap, Springboard helps me as a teacher the same way. It helps to keep my skills fresh and introduces new ways to grow and expand as an educator… I look forward to having more 1 on 1 conversations with parents and providing them with strategies that will positively impact their students’ reading behaviors during the year."
