Last year SSIA organized and hosted collaborative workshops for elementary teachers, providing the opportunity for them to work in grade level teams across schools. By all accounts, it was a resounding success. Building on this, the second elementary teacher collaborative was recently held on February 6th, an early release date. Teachers from our four elementary schools - Lawton, Blaine, Hay and Coe - gathered together to share ideas and discuss curriculum and instruction. Given the new Everyday Math curriculum, principals decided to focus on the recently administered assessment for this new curriculum. Teachers met in two large groups; grades K, 1 and 2 at John Hay, and grades 3, 4, and 5 at Lawton, working together as a large group and then breaking out into grade level teams.

It is really inspiring to watch teachers in action working together, there is great energy and everyone appreciates the opportunity to work and learn with teachers from neighboring schools. In response to consistent teacher feedback, next year our goal is to try and schedule more of these opportunities throughout the school year, including not only topic specific, structured workshops but informal opportunities to meet and talk with colleagues as well.

In March SSIA will host collaborative meetings for support staff from all seven of our partner schools; PE teachers, librarians, art teachers, and music teachers. Additionally, we are very excited to announce that in May 5th grade teachers will spend time at McClure meeting with 6th grade teachers. This is an important part of the ongoing work to align curriculum and expectations, and to create a seamless path as students transition from elementary to middle school. Thanks to our principals for their recognition of the importance of these meetings, and their work to help make them possible. 

SSIA is happy to introduce our newest staff member, Melissa Yeager. Melissa will be working part time, helping us organize and expand our fundraising efforts.  Below is a short introduction from Melissa:

I am excited to be working with SSIA as the Individual Giving Manager. This position will bring me back to my roots, since my first job in fundraising was working as a student caller at Central Washington University. I have since worked at several non-profits in Seattle and Tacoma and look forward to helping SSIA grow and enrich the lives of the students that we serve.

In my non-working life, my husband and I have a three year old son and a newborn daughter. We enjoy spending time outside and with family and friends.

Successful Schools in Action would like to recognize our recent funders. The Norcliffe Foundation recently renewed a grant for SSIA's Debate program, and has extended that funding to cover the next two years. This goes a long way to help cover the costs for this program. We received a new grant from The Moraine Foundation for the Debate Program as well. This additional funding will enable us to strengthen the program with the development of a curriculum and more comprehensive training for coaches. The Mannix Canby Foundation, who last year helped support our Tutoring program with a generous grant, has doubled their funding to SSIA this year, allowing us to begin implementing our paid math tutor program.

Finally, we are very excited to announce a three-year incentive grant from Nancy Alvord and Katharyn Gerlich. This grant provides unrestricted funding for SSIA, helping us expand our fundraising efforts and further our development work. On behalf of our students and everyone at Successful Schools in Action, we extend our warmest thanks to these funders for their generous support.