My Current Teaching Context

I currently teach at Avon Grove Intermediate School.  AGIS is located in West Grove, Pennsylvania and is part of the Avon Grove School District.  AGIS serves 1,573 students in grades 3-6.  Avon Grove Intermediate School opened in the fall of 2002. 

AGIS HISTORY
The Avon Grove School District used to include three elementary schools serving grades K-5, one middle school serving grades 6-8, and one high school serving grades 9-12.  A large number of families were moving into the district, so the schools had to reconfigure to accommodate the growing number of students.  After much debate and controversy, plans were made to merge all of the elementary schools in the district.   Grades K-2 would be housed in Penn London Elementary School and the other two elementary buildings would close.  AGIS would be built adjacent to Penn London and it would serve grades 3-6.  The middle school would then serve grades 7-8, and the high school would remain unchanged.  In 2000, construction began, and AGIS was opened in 2002. 

THE SCHOOLHOUSES IN AGIS
Avon Grove Intermediate School serves a large number of students in a new, impressive facility.  The school is broken into four pods or "schoolhouses."  There are the purple, orange, red, and blue schoolhouses.  Each schoolhouse holds 18 classrooms and has its own principal, guidance counselor, instructional support teacher, students, and teachers serving grades 3-6.   When the students enter the schoolhouse in grade three, they remain in that schoolhouse until they finish sixth grade.  The common areas including the media center, gymnasium, cafeteria, science labs, art, and music rooms.  They are shared by all students.  The students cycle through specials on a 5 1/2 week rotation.  They attend Spanish, Computers, Health, Guidance, Science Lab, Music, Art, and Physical Education.  There are a variety of instructional settings in all of the schoolhouses including multiage, teaming, and looping. 

THE RED SCHOOLHOUSE
Before AGIS opened in 2002, I taught third grade at Penn London Elementary School for three years.  All third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers in the district were moved to AGIS, and I was one of them.  I've been working in AGIS ever since.  I work in the red schoolhouse, and we have four teachers in every grade level.   I work with an amazing group of third and fourth grade teachers.  We are a very collaborative team and share all of our units, materials, and ideas.   Our house offers a looping option, and I am proud to say I was instrumental in starting looping in our schoolhouse.  During my first year at AGIS, my team made a great deal of progress with our students.  Therefore, we wanted to see the affect of looping with them to fourth grade.  We wrote a proposal and presented it to our principal and the fourth grade teachers.  We all agreed this was an excellent educational decision.  We looped to fourth grade with our students, and the fourth grade teachers became third grade teachers.  Because the parents and teachers believe that looping is beneficial, the looping process continues today.  Looping is something that makes our schoolhouse unique.   

CURRICULUM
AGIS follows a state standards-based curriculum, and we work together to ensure we meet the standards.  Every lesson plan that we write needs to state the standard and objective we are teaching.  In Language Arts, we use leveled texts in guided reading groups with our on-level students.  The district also uses Daybooks of Critical Reading and Writing with our on-level readers.  We use flexible grouping to meet the needs of the diverse levels of academic needs.  For students who are below level, we use Project Read, SOAR to Success, Read Naturally, and Reading and Writing Sourcebooks.  In addition, we have Writing Workshop and use Written Expression.  In math, we integrate Investigations and Scott Foresman.  In third grade, we team teach social studies and science units which are based on district standards.  I work with one teacher to teach our social studies units and the two other teachers work together to teach science.

REPORT CARDS
This year, we implemented a new standards-based report card.  This was a adjustment in the way we assess our students, and this was a challenge for all teachers.  However, because I work with a wonderful team, we all supported each other and modified our assessments to fit the new reporting system.  We report student progress to the parents three times a year, and we hold conferences twice a year. 

SCHOOL POPULATION
Overall, the Avon Grove School District serves 4,826 students in four buildings.  The district has 591 students in special education programs and 296 students in gifted programs.  309 students are Limited English Proficient and 12% of our students come from low-income homes.  We have a 95% attendance rate.  In AGIS, we have 1,268 White students, 230 Hispanic students, 57 African American students, and 18 Asian students.  The community plays a very active role in the education in our district.  Our PTA is very active in all schools.  Students in the "limited english proficient" group are not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), so the district has created  Student Achievement Team Goals that includes having the LEP students use the Ellis computer program to learn english.  The district also uses the Compass Learning program to help students who are slightly below level in the area of math. 

TEACHERS
We have 337 teachers and 18 administrators in the district.  40% of our teachers have been teaching for five years or less.  Our district will reimburse teachers for up to nine graduate credits at West Chester University's in-state rate.  In order to obtain Pennsylvania's Instructional II teaching certificate, a teacher needs to earn 24 graduate credits during five years of teaching.  36% of our teachers have their Master's degree or higher.  This is my sixth year in the district.  I am tenured, and I received my Instructional II certificate last year.  I will receive my Master of Instruction degree from the University of Delaware this spring.  I will begin my Ed. D in the fall of 2005 at the University of Delaware.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Over the past six years, I have witnessed the changes that No Child Left Behind has made in our district and in education.  We are in danger of not making AYP.  Therefore, the district is placing importance on the state testing.  In Pennsylvania, we take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).  We spend a lot of our time preparing the students for the PSSA and our students and teachers are under pressure to perform.  The school collects data on the students that we teach and their performance on the test.  The teachers are held accountable for the students' test scores.  Testing begins in grade three, and now every grade level takes these high stakes tests.