Don't wait

If you are wondering about a part of Skills Iowa that you haven't used, and are planning on using it next year, don't wait. Get started with it this year with a group of kids who you already know. This will help you get familiar with it for next year.

If you are using the benchmark assessments, but have not created and used your own assessments as well, try to create and use one over the concepts you are teaching right now. Your kids already know how to do their part, so why not reach out of your comfort zone just a little bit and start gathering more information about your students' achievement levels.

Some of our teachers use only one or other of the programs. While we are always happy to find usage of our programs, using one or the other of them in isolation will not lead to the same results as using both programs in conjunction. If you have not used Skills Tutor, and feel you need a little review, let your project leader know. Your project leader is going to be in your building soon for implementation meetings for the 2010-11 school year, and it would be easy to add a visit with you to the day.

Assess, Analyze, Act. This is our plan, and with the use of both of our programs, you can complete the process.