RIDGEFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
PROGRAM NEWSLETTER
Newsletter
Highlights of our Program Accomplishments & Achievements
Website: http://wwww.ridgefieldschools.com/domain/112
Location: 555 Chestnut Street, Ridgefield, NJ
Phone: 201-945-7747
Where We've Been
Over the past three years, the Ridgefield Public Schools have worked diligently to create individual program departments that help our students to achieve and succeed. These departments include curriculum, special services, library/media services, and technology. During the course of the past three years, all of the programs have striven to make advancements and align to 21st century skills and requirements.
In the area of curriculum, our schools have implemented many new programs and revised the alignment of classes to best suit the needs of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Common Core State Standards, and student needs for technology. We have implemented new programs titled Being a Writing and Recipe for Reading in the areas of writing and word study for the elementary grades. Teachers have received full training in both programs for the implementation within the classroom. The programs also align to our Response to Intervention program, in which struggling students receive interventions in the areas of math and English/Language Arts in both a push-in to the classroom and pull-out model. We have also piloted a blended learning program in the areas of math and science in grades 5, 7, and 8. In this program, student learning is individualized using technology. Students can progress through grade level curricula at a pace that suits individual need;. the Teacher then provides instruction on a level that is tiered for each student. We have been rewriting our curriculum at all levels to ensure the best alignment to new standards and skills. All of our teachers have been participating in curriculum revision and writing. Lastly, we have re-aligned our high school science sequence to better meet the new NGSS. Students in the High School will now receive science in a "Physics First" model, in which all freshman receive the subject of Physics as a freshman.
We have used our resources in the areas of library/media to best of our abilities. We currently have only one media specialist to service all of our students in grades K - 12. To best utilize her skills and share them with all of our students, we have implemented an information literacy curriculum, starting with a research protocol. Within this curriculum, the library/media specialist works with students in each grade level for a six-week period in developing and creating a research project based upon content within the grade level curriculum. The research protocol uses the Guided Inquiry process to assist students in asking questions, investigating those questions, creating a research project, sharing the project, and reflecting on their work. Both the students and the teachers responded very well to the project. The implementation of the research protocol also provided us with the opportunity to train our teachers in the use of Google classroom.
The Ridgefield Public Schools are known for our wonderful special education programs. We have worked over the past three years in better aligning our programs to the curriculum and standards in regular education. Special education classes have been planning using the latest standards and aligning those standards to the individual needs of the students within the classes. This alignment better prepares our students when they are ready to enter the mainstream, grade level classrooms. We have also instituted an aligned data management system from grade K - 12. The Rethink program allows teachers to maintain data on each student in their various academic and behavioral areas. Data will travel with the student from one year to another to allow teachers to build upon previously learned skills and content. Data also helps parents to better understand their children's progress. Rethink has been a useful resource for both teachers and parents to help students.
With the advent of digitized PARCC testing, our schools needed to invest in more technology to prepare our students to take the tests. In order to do more than simply purchase the technology, the Ridgefield Public Schools invested in the technology and the tools to enable our students to have the skills for the digital age. Students are using both Chromebooks and Macbooks to work on digital content and participate in online lessons. The district has also invested in online programs to help students to use technology to gain skills and answer questions with program such as; Study Island, IXL, Front Row, Achieve 3000, and Pebblego. The students can use these programs both in school and at home. We have seen an increase in the use of students using these sites in the hours after school!
Please continue to stay tuned for our upcoming newsletters, as we will continue to bring you information on our progress and current programming.
Where we are now: Getting Back into School
- Re-establishing school routines
- Nurturing independence
- Setting up a time and place for homework
- Attending Back to School Night and parent meetings
This year, you can look forward to some new programs and classes. At the high school level, we have implemented an integrated studies class in the areas of English and social studies. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a class that teachers these subjects in combination. Students will have the opportunity to learn about literature and authors in an historical context. The teachers are creating unit based projects and lessons that will allow students to take a more active role in learning and presenting content to each other. We have also expanded our blended learning pilot to English and math at the high school level. These classes will be using the ALEKS program for math and Revision Assistant for English. Students again will have the opportunity to determine the course and pace for instruction. We are implementing new programs in both math and reading at the elementary level. The Ridgefield Schools are upgrading to the latest version of the Envisions math program, which we have been using for the past five years. The new program is entitled Envisions 2.0, and will have students applying and using math for modeling. We will also be piloting Envisions math at the middle school level in grades 6 - 8. The Mondo Bookshop program will be implemented to complement the word study and writing programs that were put into place over the past two years in the area of ELA in grades K - 5. This implementation will complete the Reader's and Writer's Workshop Model in those grades. These curricular implmentations have been expanded to include our special education classes, so students can learn from programs that are being used in the grade levels. This availability to the curriculum will provide for greater access to standards and mainstream opportunities.
We are also expanding our library/media information literacy program to include critical literacy. With this skill, students will read and analyze information from various sources and apply it to the research protocol, which the students began learning during the past school year. These skills will presented in the library/media class and then generalized to the classrooms throughout the day.
The district has continued to invest in technology and programs. We have invested in 83 more Chromebooks and carts to enable a greater number of our students to have access to technology throughout the school day. We are also expanding our use of Google Apps for Education to allow teachers to use Google classroom and reach their students in the virtual classroom beyond the school day. Our technology programs such as, Achieve 3000, Front Row, and IXL, have also been expanded to reach a larger number of grade levels. Students in grades 2 - 12 now have access to a greater variety of choices and programs online.
We continue to strive to provide the latest, research proven programming to all of our students to enable student success beyond high school.
where we are going: planning for the future
- Continue to fund the new science teacher at the secondary level to ensure the success of the new "Physics first" program and allow the district to offer a greater of variety of science electives; such as Forensics and Environmental Science.
- Build our Career and Technical Education Program by adding a new business teacher. The addition of this teacher will allow us to provide the students with business curriculum that culminates with a community based experience in a business work environment.
- Build a solid, aligned world language program that will support growth and success in this content area in grades K - 12 by adding a world language teacher. This teacher will help to align instruction so students will engage in solid learning of world languages that begin in kindergarten strengthen throughout their education.
- Reinstate an English Language Learning (ELL) teacher to provide our non-English speaking students with the best opportunities to engage in instruction that will create opportunities to provide them with access to our curriculum.
- Build a more progressive Social Studies program with the addition of a new teacher. This teacher will enable the district to provide our students with greater opportunities to engage in the study civics, economics, geography and history. Students will have more opportunities to choose from electives to provide them with a better sense of our the ways in which our government and economy work.
- Expand our library/media program by adding two library/meida specialists. The addition of the two teachers will enable the district to expand upon the great work being done through the research protocol and critical literacy curricula. Students will gain exposure to these 21st century skills on a more regular basis with a focus on the skills that best benefit their developmental level.
- Provide a comprehensive school counseling program with the addition of two counselors. Our students in grades K - 2 do not have access to school counseling and the elementary and middle school students only have one counselor to service their needs. The addition of the two counselors will enable the district to create a true school counseling program where the counselors can provide students with proactive skills and strategies to build their character education and persevere through difficulties.
- Provide the funding for curriculum resources to continue to invest and implement in the programs that have begun their implementation over the past two years. Our continued growth is contingent upon the investment into our school resources.
If you would like more information regarding the second question, please visit our website at www.ridgefieldschools.com and "Welcome Back Letter: State of the District."
Program Highlights: Google Apps for Education
Students in grades 6 - 12 receive Google user and email accounts. The email is hosted through Microsoft 365, so the students have a school based Microsoft email account. Students can communicate with their teachers and other students through the email accounts as well as Google classroom. Your child may be accessing homework through their Google classroom accounts in addition to the Ridgefield website. As a parent, you can still access homework and Google calendars through the link on the website. If you have any questions, please ask your child to demonstrate the new Google Apps. Even at the upper grade levels, children like to share their expertise (that they know more than we do) regarding the technology with you.
If you have any questions about accessing homework or Google classroom, please contact your child's teacher. He or she will share their use of technology.