It is with great pleasure that I nominate Mrs. Barb Meyer, Title One and Reading Recovery teacher at Tri-Valley School. Throughout the time that we have implemented the Academy of READING and Academy of MATH programs at our school, Mrs. Meyer has been instrumental in monitoring and maintaining them and has volunteered countless hours of her time to ensure that they have been successful.
From training the teachers and students, to initiating passwords and ordering headphones, Mrs. Meyer has been a continual advocate of these AutoSkill programs. She comes to school early in the morning on a daily basis to start the computers and ensure that they are running properly for the first wave of students who arrive prior to the first bell. In addition, she assists the teachers with scheduling so that all children who need these vital interventions are able to participate as fully as possible. Further, she is always willing to support the teachers in monitoring and graphing the students’ progress and aids them when they are delineating and defining this data.
An ever present cheerleader of the Academy of READING and Academy of MATH programs, Mrs. Meyer spearheaded the team that developed an incentive program promoting “Mustang Money” that the children earn through their award certificates. Each month they are able to use this “money” to purchase literacy related items at our school “store”; many of which she ordered or made herself.
I am fully confident that Mrs. Barb Meyer’s dedication, expertise, and excitement for learning and the AutoSkill programs make her an excellent choice for the Academy Innovator Award.
Submitted by: Dr. Marcie Highstreet , Tri-Valley Elementary School
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It is my pleasure to nominate Belleville East English/Title I Teachers, Marci Reeves and Rita Menke for the Academy Teacher of Excellence Award. I am nominating these two teachers because they do such a tremendous job. In the past, Title I classes had 1 teacher per every 12 students. Marci and Rita developed the idea of pulling their classes together and team-teach 25 students. This has proven to be a valuable teaching strategy to their students. To have two highly qualified English teachers whose strength is in providing reading strategies to struggling students and combine that with AutoSkill Academy of READING and Oral Reading Fluency you have a dynamic instructional team.
At least twice a week, Marci and Rita have their classroom in the lab for at least 1 hour using the Academy of READING or Oral Reading Fluency. Marci and Rita keep their students motivated by an incentive system they developed that encourages the students to achieve higher levels of proficiency. Every day they are in the lab they provide incentive to their students whether it is time on task or number of skills mastered. At the end of the week, one student is chosen as Student of the Week and a picture of the student receiving their recognition and letter is sent home to their parents.
Whether it is their lunch or planning hour, Marci and Rita will give up their time to assist a student with extra time in the Academy. In addition, with over 20 teachers utilizing AutoSkill in the district, Marci and Rita are always willing to give up their time to assist another colleague.
Throughout my 16 years in education, I have never meet two individuals more driven to see their students succeed. It would be impossible to award one of them over the other because they are a true instructional team.
Submitted by: Andrea Rudanovich, Belleville Township High School East
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I am nominating, Tyler, an 11th grade student who trained on both Academy of MATH and Academy of READING. She has proven to be diligent, steadfast, respectful, and responsible as she frequently stayed after class and came in during free time to continue her work and push herself to achieve more. In math, Tyler has accumulated 41 hours of Time On Task between August 29th and January 14th and has completed 73 skills, completing 65% of her program and mastering 99% at the prescribed mastery criteria. Because of her hard work, she has increased her Academy of MATH score from a 5.5 to a 7.7. In Reading, Tyler completed the comprehensive training program from January 23rd to March 31st. In approximately 18.5 hours, she mastered 98% at the prescribed mastery criteria. Tyler’s score rose from a 5.0 to a 10.0!
Submitted by: Ita Schmidt , East St. Louis Senior High School
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Shania is a sweet, caring third-grade girl that has overcome hardship in her young life. She has made friends at school and is well-liked by her peers. She was referred to the Academy of MATH for help by her classroom teacher as she was unsure of herself in math with weak skills in problem solving.
We enrolled Shania in the after-school AutoSkill program that we offer at our school. Shania qualified for both the Academy of READING and the Academy of MATH as did several other students. Shania was excited about coming to after-school class. We always know when she’s here because she greets us with an excited comment such as, “I’m glad it’s time for AutoSkill!” She looks at the calendar to see if it’s a math day or reading day. She sits down to her computer and gets started right away. She likes to go to the trophy room and see how she’s doing. Overall, she adapted very well to the format we were using for our after school students.
Then, one day, Shania came in unusually quiet. She didn’t want to get started right away or have her usual upbeat greeting for us. I asked her what was wrong and she said she didn’t want to do math; she said it was too hard. For the next few weeks, Shania did not want to do any math. She always asked if she could work on reading. We assured her that would be fine.
A month later, Shania walked in and decided she wanted to try math again. We visited with her about her decision, but she was confident that she was ready to do math once again. She completed her after school lesson without any anxiety. Now, she wants to work on math all the time!
This spring, when Shania took the NWEA math test, her score went up 11 points. Her confidence during the test was visible; she was positive and didn’t get weary as she worked. She portrayed an attitude of confidence that we did not see in the fall NWEA testing. She not only did very well in the math test, the scores on her other tests also went up. We believe AutoSkill has made a significant impact in Shania’s approach to mathematical proficiency and the other coursework that she encounters in school each day.
Submitted by: Diane Selvig, Turtle Lake-Mercer School
