I've never believed in "boiler-plate" education--that one-size-fits-all style of teaching. I believe that you have to know your students and make the kinds of adjustments in your teaching that helps make learning relevant and meaningful to them.

Aurora School District, outside of Denver, is approaching its Response to Intervention (RTI) program in that way. While RTI is mandated by Colorado, the Aurora School District is implementing it in a way that is likely to ensure its success. They are building on a sound framework: 10+ years the district has spent instituting "informed, reflective instruction," that echoes RTI Tier 1 best practices, as well a system for measuring student progress.

Each school in the district has a coordinator--a teacher who has volunteered--who ensures that help is just a step away. Laura Kelley, a coordinator at one of the middle schools, says that through monitoring the students, they are able to catch potential problems before they get out of hand. "If math homework is not getting done, is it an academic problem or is it an organizational problem? Is it affecting how the student is performing in math?" Kelley says. "Student achievement is growing because we are able to plan together to meet the needs of our learners."

Kelley provides professional development opportunities to fellow teachers through a variety of media, as well as running the weekly support team meetings. There are already indications that student achievement is up, and they are just halfway into their first year of district-wide implementation. Says Kelley, "Student achievement is growing because we are able to plan together to meet the needs of our learners."

Far from boiler-plate. Kudos, Aurora school district.

I love my job.

I love the variety of interesting leveled readers we provide at Reading A-Z and what students learn from them.

I love that our products are effective in helping students while giving teachers the tools they need to successfully teach and assess student learning.

And I love hearing from people who use our products.

The other day, we received an email (with photos) from a teacher at an orphanage in Haiti.  The students were each given copies of Reading A-Z's book All Kinds of Faces. The teacher wrote,

"When [my students] got to the "sad" page, there was a photo of a girl with tears on her face. Amongst them, the kids decided that she must be sad because someone had hit her. They got to the "excited" page, and the class decided that the boy must be excited because he was getting to play with water. And when they read the "angry" page, they were sure that the boy was angry because he had been bad and had been scolded. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their lesson because they could relate to it and they could also make it a bit humorous."

Given the tragic situation in Haiti, I also love that All Kinds of Faces made these children laugh.