GCSSA provides in-service opportunities for the professional growth of superintendents and provides opportunities for social interaction of members. Superintendents from Northeastern Ohio School Districts have organized to secure the benefits of working together to improve their professional effectiveness.
GCSSA was created in 1966 as a 501(c)(3) organization. There are currently 96 regular members, 58 retired members, 15 Associate and 10 Institutional members.
Something Good is Happening in Our Schools
As part of its mission, the Greater Cleveland Schools Superintendents’ Association features the accomplishments of a member’s school district in its monthly newsletter under the heading, “Something Good Is Happening In Our Schools”. This short article of approximately three hundred words highlights recent accomplishments of the school district and is shared with 273 school districts throughout the state.
September 2008 Article
Something Good is Happening In Our Schools
By: Robert Scott, Superintendent
Avon Lake City School District
Avon Lake City Schools have cause to celebrate! Individual student and staff success, team success, school building success, and District success ~ all are causes to raise our voices and hands in celebration. Whether it is a student’s first star in kindergarten that gets put on the refrigerator with a magnet, the District receiving 30 out of 30 indicators on the State assessments, or another year achieving the designation of Excellent by the State Board of Education and Ohio Department of Education, we have many reasons to celebrate!
As with all school districts, Avon Lake is always looking for ways to improve. Ways to improve are not necessarily focused on the correction of problems; ways to improve are often a collaborative effort among staff to create opportunities to meet the needs of our students today and in the future.
We live in a society which has many technological wonders. This year, our District had a particular interest in one of these wonders ~ the completion of our interactive whiteboard initiative.
In the 2006-2007 school year, through the use of grant money (and some local funding), Erieview Elementary School (K – 4th grade) and Troy Intermediate School (5th and 6th grades) replaced their TVs, VCRs, DVD players, etc. with interactive whiteboards. At that time, our focus was on the ability of the board to tie into the teacher’s computer and with the obvious bells and whistles associated with whiteboards that allow students direct interaction with the board.
Our pilot year was everything we expected and more. The 2007-2008 school year saw all of our pre-kindergarten through 8th grade classrooms outfitted with interactive whiteboards. This school year, 2008-2009, began with all classrooms in the Avon Lake School District, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, having an interactive whiteboard.
As with any form of technology, it is not the technology itself that makes the difference ~ it is how the technology is used. The whiteboards’ bells and whistles lived up to our expectations, but the key to the success of this initiative has been our staff’s hard work, talent and innovativeness. In our classrooms, the whiteboards are more than a fancy overhead projector. They are vital instructional tools.
An example of the innovativeness of our staff and the flexibility of the whiteboards was demonstrated this year in the plight of a medically fragile 4th grader at Erieview Elementary School. This student missed school three times a week for dialysis at the Cleveland Clinic. Not only was this difficult for the student academically, but it was difficult for the student emotionally.
In a tremendous effort, our staff was eventually able to use a laptop, cameras and the whiteboard to bring this student into the classroom real-time as he sat in the dialysis chair. To see him answer questions from the Clinic and to see his face in the corner of the whiteboard was stirring and inspirational to staff and to his peers.
For these efforts, Avon Lake City School District was named a Light the Flame Torchlight District by Promethean. We were one of only six districts in the world to receive this award. This recognition gives all of Avon Lake a reason to celebrate!
We are excited about our future use of whiteboards in the classrooms. This initiative has taken us to a higher level of classroom instruction ~ a new level required to educate our first generation of digital natives. We have also taken care of connectivity issues between teachers, the change to digital signals by cable companies, increased our technology turnover from four to ten years and reduced our electrical use with this initiative.
SOMETHING GOOD IS HAPPENING IN OUR SCHOOLS! We are excited about the 2008-2009 school year and about moving ahead to our next challenge. With the continued support of our community and parents, we look forward to many new reasons to celebrate! September 4, 2008 issue of OSC & GCSSA News, Notes & Notices |
