Marysville educators are making personalized learning and intervention priorities in the district.
At a Marysville School District board of education meeting Thursday night, board members were given presentations from educators about how they are impacting their students’ lives through learning and mental health services.
Kathy Savage, an instructional coach at Mill Valley Elementary School, said she’s implementing personal learner profiles at the school. These will help teachers discover how their students learn and what their talents are. The profiles ask students what they enjoy and what their talents are to implement into teaching lessons.
“We’re giving students a pre-assessment in where they fall in this learning process,” Savage said. “We’re working with teachers to understand, ‘you’ve got this group of students who’s going to fall in all different places. How are you going to provide instruction that supports all of those learners?’”
Savage said blended learning will be used, beginning with the learner profile questionnaires being available via Schoology. She said this is useful because these learner profiles will follow students as they move up in the school district.
She said this helps personalize learning and open students up to their teachers.
“You can tell in the classrooms these teachers know their kids,” Savage said. “It makes a world of difference to know if a student prefers to work alone or in a group… It really helps develop relationships, and when a kid knows you know something about them and you know what they’re passionate about and interested in, they will have a strong connection with you.”
Board member Brian Luke asked how kindergarteners are surveyed, as they most likely don’t know how to talk about their interests and talents. Savage said teachers keep spreadsheets to collect that information. She said older students are able to take these surveys online.
Board member Dick Smith asked how often students can update their information, as they might change their goals as often as weekly. She said they can complete the survey once a year, but can go back to Schoology and update their listed goals.
Smith said he marvels this as a positive step for education in Marysville, and “learning is going to explode in this district the longer we keep on this journey.”
Afterward, psychologist Mark Gallagher said he, along with the Mental Health and Recovery Board, is helping provide more mental health resources for the district by providing a universal screening process.
He said the exercises he’s incorporating into classrooms will help treat depression, anxiety, behavioral issues and at-risk behaviors better, as well as teach students self regulation.
“Once we identify the needs of a youth, we’re able to connect them with the most appropriate intervention here at the school,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said this is a partnership with organizations like Maryhaven and the Union County Council for Families to make sure academic and mental health remedial resources can be provided at school.
He said a new process started with the community response team, where it helps students with their problems before they “fall into dire situations” by connecting with families.
“The school is very uniquely positioned to help with intervention earlier, and getting families access to the resources they need,” Gallagher said.
He said this is more focused on younger children, as high school “is a complex system.” He said it’s easier to give screening resources to a kindergarten teacher compared to a high school teacher because the kindergarten teacher will see the same group of students all day.
Also at the meeting, treasurer Todd Johnson said the district received two donations for the stadium project, totaling $3,500, recently. He also said appropriations for the project will be increased by $200,000 for its 21st Century grant.
The board will meet again at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at Marysville High School.