Comprehensive Needs Assessment

At Canyon Lake, we're constantly looking for ways to improve. We want to be our very best so that all of our students get the education that they deserve.

As we plan for the future, it can be helpful to get an outside perspective. RCAS Title I schools have been going through a comprehensive needs assessment over the last few months with consultants from HMH Education Services. The comprehensive needs assessment (CNA) is used to determine how a school is performing in relation to several foundational practices for school improvement. This data-driven process, which includes a two-day on-site visit, interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, surveys, and observations, identifies a school's strengths as well as its opportunities to increase student performance.

Canyon Lake had it's on-site visit in December, and our final report was delivered in mid-January. Here are some of the major findings:

Students and parents describe Canyon Lake as a warm and inviting place to learn and grow. The school has faced a great deal of transition in leadership, teaching staff, and redistricting of students. Within the last three years, the school has become stable and cohesive and is supported by a strong culture focused on positive student behavior and learning. 

An area of particular strength was our learning environment and school culture; Canyon Lake is a results-driven school that has a safe, orderly learning environment where everyone assumes collective responsibility for student growth and achievement.

In addition to pointing out some of our strengths, our CNA gave us some ideas regarding next steps. As a staff, we've decided to focus on two initiatives moving forward:

• Personalized learning and differentiation based on rigor, relevance, and engagement
• Student and parent feedback

Stay tuned for more information!

Elementary Students and Technology

When you think of technology, what immediately comes to mind? What about the technology that you used when you were in school?

For most of us, some type of desktop computer probably comes to mind - maybe an Apple IIg or a Commodore 64. For others, a graphing calculator might be the most significant technology.

I'm guessing no one though of the light switch as technology, but 150 years ago, this would certainly have been a major technological advance.

The key point to keep in mind is that we don't consider things that existed by the time we were born to be technology; they're just expected.

The image below illustrates the various "light switch" technologies for current college students (the bottom line, just above the timeline), current high school students (one line up), current middle school students (second to the top), and current elementary school students (the top line).

Current college students have never known life without Google; search engines for finding new information are a fact of life for students born after 1998. Research is done differently now than it was when I was in college.

High School students have never known a world that didn't contain an iPod. This technology completely changed the way we consume media. Current high school students expect to be able to carry their entire music collection (and videos, data, etc.) in the pocket of their jeans.

For our current group of middle school students, Facebook and social media are "light switch" technologies. Prior to 2004, people had private lives and personal lives; middle school kids don't know what it's like to have separate personal and private lives - everything is on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat.

Finally, elementary students were born in the touchscreen era. Have you ever seen a 2-year-old try to swipe the TV to change the channel? Kids who are currently in elementary school often don't know what to do when they encounter a keyboard and mouse.

So why does this matter? Knowing what "light switch" technologies our kids will come to us expecting to have available changes how we provide resources, and how we provide instruction. We have to modify our lens when considering technology purchases for our school; what we grew up with and sometimes think is a critical skill may be something that our students will rarely ever use. For example, cursive handwriting was replaced by keyboarding as a critical skill; soon, voice dictation may overtake typing.

At Canyon Lake, we prioritize learning with technology; we have approximately 250 iPads, and we're 1:1 with laptops in 2nd through 5th grade, with plans to add even more in the future. Students use OSMO devices with their iPads to work collaboratively, and use Makey Makeys to solve all kinds of fun and interesting problems.

We live in exponential times, and we want to make sure that our students are prepared for jobs that don't yet exist, and to solve problems that we don't yet even know are problems.

Raising the Bar, Closing the Gap: Intervention and Enrichment at Canyon Lake

Over the past several years, Rapid City Area Schools educators have been engaged in the work of becoming a Professional Learning Community. This means that during our early release Wednesdays (and other common planning times), we've been determining essential outcomes for all students in each grade level and content area, developing common pacing guides for each team of teachers to follow, and creating common assessments to measure student progress; the work has been difficult, but rewarding. Now, we're turning our attention to two critical questions:

1. How do we respond when kids don't learn?
2. How do we enrich and extend learning for kids who are already proficient?

At Canyon Lake, and across the school district, our daily schedule includes an intervention and enrichment block. During this hour-long time period, groups of students are meeting in small groups with certified teachers; we're providing additional time and support for students who are struggling, and enriching learning for students who've already demonstrated proficiency at a significantly lower student-to-teacher ratio than we're able to provide in regular classroom instruction. 

This is a different approach than schools have traditionally used when students have struggled. In the past, schools have relied on summer school, possibly remedial courses, or retention. At Canyon Lake, our approach is systematic, meaning that we respond to students' needs based on a school-wide plan, using a wide range of data sources to identify the academic needs of our students in specific areas. Once we've identified the needs of students, we're able to create groups of students with similar needs. These intervention and enrichment cycles are six weeks in length, and we embrace the notion that we are ALL responsible for ALL of our students. Classroom teachers and instructional support teachers work with students from across the grade level to provide "point of need" teaching for students for four hours each week. 

Our Mission at Canyon Lake is, "Collaborating to ensure academic, social, and emotional growth for every student, every day," and we take our Mission seriously. Over the course of the year, we will continue to expand and deepen the opportunities that we provide to all of our students. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Source: DuFour,Richard, DuFour, Rebecca, Eaker, R. & Karhanek, G.A. (2010). Raising the bar and closing the gap: Whatever it takes. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

College Day

Did you know that every Wednesday is College Day at Canyon Lake? Students and staff are encouraged to wear college attire. You'll see college pennants hanging near the front doors of Canyon Lake East and West, and every teacher has a sign outside their classroom door that says where they went to college, and what they majored in.

So why are we talking about college in elementary school? Well, that's a good question. Here are some answers:

• A college education allows your child to choose their career. By going to college, your child will be able to choose a career that interests them. According to research nearly 50% of jobs that currently exist will be replaced by automation in the next 20 years! A college education will help to ensure employment opportunities in the future. 
• A college education increases the amount of money your child may be able to make. The more education your child receives, the more money he/she may be able to earn. According to the U.S. Census, a college graduate will, on average, earn 2.4 million dollars, compared to 1.4 million dollars for a non-college graduate over a 40-year career. 
• A college education expands your child's mind. The more educational opportunities your child is exposed to, the more knowledge and skills they will obtain. Education will expose your child to a variety of people, topics, and experiences, and allow them to learn about things that interest them. 
• A college education can help your child improve their community. Going to college will help to teach your child how to make a difference in their community. As a college graduate, your child will also serve as a role model for other children in the community. 

According to a study by the American Psychological Association, thinking about college as being "within reach" appears to affect achievement goals in young students. The study shows that children spend more time studying and have greater expectations of their own academic performance when they view attending college as a realistic possibility. And students who decide early to go to college are more likely to enter higher education, so we're hoping to start that dialogue with our students now.

And college doesn't have to mean a 4-year university. There are great vocational and technical schools, like Western Dakota Tech, available as options, too. 

If you have any questions, please stop in and ask!

Innovation and Instruction at Canyon Lake

Canyon Lake is such an exciting place to get to spend my days. Over the past three weeks, I've spent quite a bit of time visiting classrooms and observing the work our students are engaged in. One thing that has really stuck out this year is how much exposure and experience our students are gaining in regard to technology; the innovative practices that teachers and students are using on a daily basis are really awesome to get to witness.

The CLE News 5 Team

Our 5th grade students have begun writing, producing, and shooting their own daily newscast, which is broadcast to the rest of the school during lunch. These short, 2-minute productions share information including lunch menu, birthdays, historical facts, health tips, and a little humor with the joke of the day.

The Research and Writing Team prepping the next day's news

While only three students appear "on-screen," there's a whole team of students working behind the scenes, researching, writing, and planning for the show, as well as getting everything set up for the shoot and the presentation.

The Production team

In other classrooms students are engaged with OSMO devices for word work, problem-solving with Makey-Makeys, and using iPads for a variety of educational purposes.

Amidst all this technology, we haven't forgotten to focus on the basics, either. There's great instruction going on in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies.

Mr. S. confers with a group of students focusing on citing evidence

Writing about the "main idea" and working on inferences

Practicing multiplication fluency with playing cards

Using iPads to access Dreambox for individualized math instruction

Working independently on math

I would like to encourage ALL of our Canyon Lake families to stop by the school sometime to see the great things that are happening here everyday!