• SPECIAL EDUCATION
• POWER TEACHING

Curriculum

As an 'excelling' school', we have set and held high the standard of academics.  The integration of our arts program ensures our students receive exposure to different and diverse mediums, enabling them to maximize their learning experience.  Additionally we incorporate Power Teaching techniques in the classroom. The learning styles among children are as diverse as children can be, but we share in the belief that children learn more when they are having fun.  Power teaching incorporates humor and games into a well organized, structured class where children find it more fun to work with the teacher and follow rules than ignoring them.

Our academic curriculum is comprised of:

This math program takes a 'hands-on' approach to learning.  It uses a real world approach to problem-solving with high-order thinking opportunities embedded in the program.  Students are provided opportunities to use mathematical reasoning, communication and terminology in a spiraling curriculum that reviews concepts daily until mastered, then weekly review.  Frequent assessments allow teachers to monitor their students progress and prepare for AIMS.  This research based program correlates to Arizona state standards and has a proven success rate of higher achievement.

This program is also research based and aligned with Arizona state standards.  The five components of reading instruction are taught on a daily basis.  Reading, writing, grammar, spelling and phonics are taught using an integrated approach to language arts, providingstudents opportunities to improve and apply skills in multiple acitivities.  Built-in assessments, the use of DIBELS testing, (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills,) assess the acquisition of skills K through 6,)  and Galileo benchmark assessments are utilized to monitor and ensure each child is reaching their goals and to help prepare students for AIMS.

Aligned to meet Arizona state standards, this 'hands-on' program brings science activities to life and addresses both the physical sciences and study of living things.  While the focus is on the scientific process and inquiry, history, nature and the impact of people on their environment are integrated into the program.

A wide variety of materials are used to ensure history, geography, civics and economics are taught to state standards.  A social studies program, integrated into themes through literature, are utilized for younger children.  The picture below shows the 5th grade wax museum project.  Students were given an explorer to study, they made their own period costume and acted as wax figures in a museum, delivering a two minute biography of the explorer to museum visitors.