Woodland Academy is a school with students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. The building in the picture below houses Woodland Academy and Claremont Academy. 

Claremont Academy is where my students (assuming they do not move) will attend middle school and high school. Both of these schools are neighborhood schools, meaning each student walks or is driven to school (excluding extenuating circumstances).

During this year I had the blessing of being part of the fourth grade teaching team. The fourth grade team work together in a way which I hope my next team will. These women eat together, plan together, share lessons to then alter to their specific classes needs. From observation of interactions of other grade level teams, it seems as though this was a trend throughout the school.

 This school has an Apple grant which allows each student to have an IPad to use at school and gives each homeroom teacher an IPad and a MacBook. In order to present and interact with content the school uses this grant steadily throughout each day. The intermediate grades use the Apple grant and resource to further improve the curriculum already in place by the city. As an organization and grading tool Woodland Academy also utilizes Google Classroom.

 Worcester has chosen to follow Envisions for their math curriculum. For the reading curriculum the city follows a program called C.I.A which is a branch of the Reading Side by Side program. When teaching writing Worcester is using a program called Self-Regulate Strategy Development (SRSD).

As a way to address the high level of student needs this school contains 5 ESL teachers and  multiple emotional support staff. As a form of intervention, the students are put through language arts RTI for a small portion each day. In addition to this the students are sent home half way through the day, one day a month to provide space for the staff to engage in a school specific professional development. This professional development allows the school administration to address immediate needs of the school.

A Few Statistics

Total number of students: about 600 students

Students per class:  20-27 students 

Race/ethnicity breakdown: 73% Hispanic, 9% African American, 8% White, and 7% Asian

Percentage of ELLs: 63% (393 students), EPLs 1-5

Economically disadvantaged students: 69% (435 students)

Students with disabilities: 14% (85 students)