Journal #4

Pardon the picture but my Education 422 professor wanted us to use a scanner, so he made us hand draw pictures of ourselves and put the class title on it. I'm afraid I'm not a very good artist, but it got the job done.

I also attended the second lecture by Rich Reid entitled “RtI: Innovations in prevention and intervention." Mr. Reid's lecture on Response to Intervention started with him explaining that a schools best use of RtI is to know where there students are at regarding development in skills, growth in response to instruction and most important of all how the school uses data to reflect on its teaching and learning practices.

If the school in question is lacking any of these above items then it is time to change the system around. Mr. Reid suggested that the school form a leadership team to head up the changes. Mr. Reid then laid out a road map of changes for the team to take up.

Within the first year the leadership team must get others on board including the principal and the superintendent if possible. In year two the leadership team must implement its changes and check for glitches, provide support for the changes, and ensure consistency and adherence to those changes. In the third year the leadership team must perform a shakedown and check to make sure the changes assure fidelity and integrity. And finally on the forth or fifth year the school must have created a new system that is sustainable.

The first question I have is how do you motivate those who are opposed to your changes? The answer to me is you have to convince them that the changes you are making are for the students, and them. You have to help them realize that the school needs to be changed for the benefit of the students, and if the students benefit then the teachers, staff, and school as a whole will benefit. But in all reality, you can’t please all of the people all of the time and the leadership team needs to realize that not everyone is going to be happy with the changes that are made.

The second question I have is how is this different than Richard Villa’s steps to creating a future in education? The answer is its not, Mr. Reid used the same model Mr. Villa did, but Mr. Reid expanded on Mr. Villas points. Mr. Reid defined what each point of Mr. Villas steps were, but provided some techniques that schools can use to implement the changes Mr. Villa spoke of. Mr. Reid went further and incorporated those changes Mr. Villa was talking about into professional growth opportunities for schools to use during in services, and staff meetings.