Watch our webinar on the topic and read the article below
As educators and administrators, we are constantly exposed to programs that seek to meet the needs of the whole learner and account for learning gaps in their education. Finally, here at The Cottage School, we have discovered a program that does just that: MTSS, a multi-tiered system of supports.
MTSS tiers instruction and intervention in such a way that every child’s individual needs are met. Most importantly, the focus is not just on academics. Emphasis is also placed on a student’s social and emotional needs. For too long, standardized test scores have driven school programming and goals for teacher development. In today’s day and age, with Covid gaps, a lack of accessibility to the internet or literature, and other environmental barriers, students come to us with more than just the need to learn their ABCs. Gone are the days when a paper-pencil approach could reach every student in the classroom.
MTSS has allowed us to use evidence-based instruction and data-based problem solving processes to help inform our educational decisions for our students. This system has been so well received and has produced such positive results that it has been adapted by more than 40 states. Each step depends upon the collection of data and appropriate intervention techniques that reach our students where they are. For us, technology has been the key to these markers of success. A blended learning approach allows us to teach, assess, and engage our students in all subject areas.
From collecting data to pushing out content to our students, we have found technology is the determining factor in the success or failure of our MTSS interventions. MTSS has significantly contributed to the individualization of each student’s program. We take special care to identify social and emotional gaps for our students so we can address the needs of the whole person. Our class curriculum includes written work, audio, visual, video, and hands-on engagement in each of our units. We use VEDAMO, a virtual classroom, to disseminate information to students and the educational team. This allows all steps of the MTSS process to be interactive, and collaborative.
It is our hope that through our webinar you can gain insights into how technology can factor into the individualization of your educational plan for each and every student. Teachers no longer have to carry the burden of creating assessments, lesson plans, and activities on their own. There are so many wonderful research-based curriculums and technology tools available today that put all your necessary tools right at your fingertips. If your school has limited access to technology, VEDAMO is an interactive and virtual classroom that can be projected to the entire class and allow for the engagement and interaction that technology tools make possible. We encourage everyone to embrace technology and take a blended learning approach to their MTSS interventions. It has been the key to our success and can be the answer to your teaching practice as well.
By:
Lisa Baumohl, Learning Specialist, The Cottage School
Lynn Bosworth, Principal, The Cottage School
