Dan Peterson School

I had a meeting last week at the Dan Peterson School in American Fork.  I was so impressed with the faculty and the courageous students who they serve.  I had to ask myself what would happen to these students if Alpine District were not big enough to support their care.  Charter schools could never take care of these children and yet their need is so profound.  One of the students needs a ventilator and can only communicate through moving her eyes and eyebrows.  The faculty has a goal to teach the students 11 words that students can use to control their environment.  The students are so excited when they can get the faculty to understand one of these 11 words.

I wish all of the students in the district could visit Dan Peterson school.  It would give them a new appreciation for the value of education and the importance of communication.

High Aptitude

Sam Jarman made a presentation at the school board meeting tonight.  He showed several examples of how alpine schools were the top in the state in several topics based on the CRT tests.  Then he observed that some of the schools that were below the state average in some topics, were the top school in the state in another subject.  His conclusion is that Alpine School District students have the aptitude to be the best in the state in almost all of our schools if we can just improve our educational process.

IPADS

I like the idea of using ipads for textbooks.  I thought this article provided good information.  Two points I hadnt considered were to have parents buy the devices for their children or to charge them a fee to buy them.

Parental Involvement

This article discusses the importance of parental involvement.

Technology Suggestions

I thought this was a good summary of technology best practices.  I like the waterfall model for replacing equipment.

National Technology Plan

Although it is a bit fluffy, this national technology plan provides a good vision of the role technology can play in education

Classroom evaluations

This article concludes that frequent classroom visits improves teacher performance.