What would you do differently?

With the year so close to an end, you might want to take a moment and think about what you might have done differently in your use of Skills Iowa.

One of the biggest decisions teachers have to make at the beginning of the year is how to organize their students. Do you want to group all of your students together in one class, or do you want to keep each class separate? Each has its own benefits, but you are in the drivers seat on this call. If you are frequently putting scores from Skills Iowa programs into your grade book, you might want to keep the classes separate. If you are using the scores to determine how the larger group is performing in comparison to each other, then possibly having all students together in one class is your choice. Either way, the decision will have to be made at the beginning of the school year, and changing that decision later requires quite a bit of work.

A big decision in Skills Tutor is whether or not to use the prescriptive pretests that are offered in most subject areas. These pretests are great, but using them changes the progress of the class. If you want students doing a lesson together, then using the pretests might not allow this. On the other hand, if you are using the Skills Tutor lessons to review skills that students have been previously taught or that will not be taught again this school year, the pretests might be perfect for you.

There are lots of decisions to be made everyday in education, even using Skills Iowa is a big decision. If you would like to share how you use Skills Iowa, share your stories or suggestions with others in the comments.