As you may recall, at the 2015 Almond Acres Annual Gala we focused the Fund-A-Need auction on three main programs: the Teacher Led Program implementation, Destination Imagination, and the partial funding of our Intervention Specialist. This is an update of how the Teacher Led Program
Implementations are going.
The funding from the 2015 Gala Fund-A-Need went to stipends for the teachers that are paid two times per year. The first half of the year saw not only a lot of groundwork being laid for the implementations, but
also some very successful results.
Program Implementations
So far we can show the following successes for program implementation:
- Visual and Performing Arts Program Leader, Dena Vertrees, 1st Grade, with assistance from Amy Baker, led a successful musical production of Peter Pan that highlighted the talents of our students.
- Weekend art opening at Studios on the Park in MarchA school-wide art show to include mixed media and fine arts will be scheduled in June 2016
- Added the Elements of Art into the common core map units across all grade levels
- Adopted the Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship Program schoolwide
- Grade level Digital Citizenship lessons along with Professional Development have been provided for the teachers
- Almond Acres Charter Academy will be applying for school certification through the program in Spring 2016. We will be the only Digital Citizenship Certified school in the north county.
- Spanish and German have been added to the electives for the middle school students to choose from. Mr. Sommerville has been directly involved with working the bugs out of Rosetta Stone. Working on building a program to implement across all grades
- Our school collected more than $250 in gift cards and a carload full of blankets, shoes, games, toys, books, activities, art supplies and more for the students at Rail Road Flat Elementary after the Butte Fire. Students in the crafting elective sewed pockets to blankets that were embroidered with a special message from our school and filled with hot chocolate packets.
- Collect “goners” (markers that are no longer useful) for a recycling program through Crayola.
- Identified students doing their own service learning projects and helped them take those projects school wide. (Shoe donation drive, Cub Scouts food drive, etc.)
- Continued the calendaring Mr. B’s Habits of the Week
- Developed system for collecting and sharing resources amongst teachers for each habit
In addition to the programs listed above that were specified during the Fund-A-Need auction, AACA has also implemented the following additional teacher led programs:
- New teacher support at AACA and County TIP Representative – Jeffrey Smith, Kindergarten
- Outdoor Classroom design and implementation – Dena Vertrees, 1st Grade and Joy Rose, Intervention Specialist
- Common Core Maps, Daily 5/CAFE, Assessments, Data, and Testing – Carrie Fiel, 1st Grade
- Online Reading Program Support (ScootPad, Technology to support ELA) – Dorian Baker, 2nd Grade
- Support Services – Matthew Clough and Nicole Storch, Special Education Teachers
- Written Reports, Professional Educator for PEP’s, PLP’s, and Portfolios, LCAP, Charter Renewal, WASC – Alan Shore, 5th Grade
- Middle School Programs (Core Subjects and Electives) – Stephanie Broadway, 8th Grade
If you have any questions, comments, or ideas to share regarding any of the above mentioned program pieces, please contact Amy Baker, AACA’s Program Director at 805-467-2095.
