Meeting The Needs of Individual Learners
Last week’s email blast had a letter attached explaining the curriculum updating process we are working through with the diocese. If you missed that letter you can access it on Miss Giroux’s Information Page on All Saints Academy’s website.
For this week’s blog we want to highlight what we do day-to-day and connect how the vision and mission of ASA to meet the needs of individual learners through spiritual, intellectual, moral, social and physical development drive curriculum implementation.
At ASA we believe that we can all grow so we emphasize meeting each of our learners where they are at to help them grow. We are just finishing the first round of MAPs testing for this school year. MAPs is an individualized, adaptive test that indicates skills readiness and growth. It helps teachers identify the skills students are ready to work on and also allows them to track growth from year to year. In the next few weeks teachers will being looking at their classes’ data to develop goals for instruction and also learning goals with students.
Spiritual development is woven into every day at ASA. There are numerous opportunities for prayer throughout the day. Students participate in Mass and liturgical music. We have daily religion classes, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and a number of retreat options throughout the school year. At ASA we believe that all things are possible through Christ and we prioritize staying connected with Him in all that we do so that we can rely on His support in times of need.
At ASA we believe that creativity and innovation promote success. It is hard to miss the creative and innovative intellectual development happens every day in so many different ways at All Saints Academy. Tech tools are integrated into our class work to enhance our learning. Small groups for target skills practice or group collaboration can be seen working throughout both building daily. Projects that allow students to launch or publish their learning are proudly shared. Hands on investigations are woven into all classes to give students a chance to learn by doing, interacting, and problem solving.
Like spiritual development, moral development and character development are woven into all aspects of our daily learning routines also. From our school wide work on Positive Behavior Supports to student led memorials honoring our country ASA students have plenty of chances to practice loving and serving. They are also practicing empathy by encouraging each other with bucket filling and Eagle Pride Shout Outs.
Learning is very much a social endeavor. There are plenty of opportunities to work on social development at ASA daily. Students have time to build friendships at lunch and while they play! We also provide intentional social skill building opportunities by bringing in experts like Jeff Veley to work with students, parents and teachers on building resilience through the peace sign approach and other social skills practice. We also give students opportunities throughout the year to tackle teambuilding and group problem solving activities. When social conflicts arise teachers and staff respond with Time to Think reflections opportunities, discussions about virtues and character traits to improve on and ways to make reparations when necessary.
Physical development is also an important part of what we do at ASA. It is emphasized at recess, and camp, through outdoor explorations, kinesthetic math activities like walking actual coordinate grids, and middle school sports offerings.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit and dedicated to teaching and living as Jesus did we work to tie all of these aspects of the development into all our learning experiences at ALL Saints Academy, aiming to prepare our students to make a positive impact on others.
