Things have got to change...

Things have not gotten any better at the Edge. I know the effective use of this blog is to reflect on what is right, but right now I need to vent on what is wrong. This will not be a normal blog or an eloquently written rant. To make this blog make sense, I am creating a chart of the crazy things I have witnessed at the Edge. This chart will probably be used as evidence in my case study -- that is if I can make it sound professional.

Negative Observations	Effect on the Students	Why it is wrong
Phil, one of the facilitators continues to pull a select number of students from classes to complete the building of the Edge sugar house. This is sometimes used for students who are having behavior or attention issues on the day of construction.	Like pulling out students for specialized instruction, pulling out students to work on the sugar house leaves gap in their study of specific content material. In the case of students who have IEPs or 504s, the time in the content classroom is extremely valuable and should not be infringed upon.	Students should only be pulled for construction, when content is not being taught or learned through practice. This may be through working during a study time, a recess, a free block, or afterschool. Students, especially those with disabilities should not be pulled from content learning environments.
In Elizabeth’s lit block, consisting of 12 students with moderate to severe disabilities, for the past few weeks have been working on a movie to promote the themes of the “Spread the Word to End the Word”. During its culminating week, students finished preparing for presentation during Lit Block on Monday, during Lit Block on Tuesday, and stayed after school on Tuesday. For almost the entirety of Wednesday’s school day, students traversed the schools giving presentation. To finish the week, students practiced for a district-wide common assessment on Thursday and went to a viewing of The Lorax at a local movie theater on Friday.	The students of Elizabeth’s lit block, some of the Edge Academy’s most vulnerable students, need the extra time of direct instruction to succeed in the classroom. Although it is great that the students were able to get involved in a national campaign, students lost almost, if not all, of an entire week’s worth of direct instruction time with a teacher, paraeducators, or student intern, which equals to more than 10 hours of loss instruction time.	Work on extra-curricular projects, such as the creation of the Spread the Word to End the Word Campaign should be saved for Project Time or entirely after school. The students in this class need all the instruction they can get and through taking several class periods to complete an extracurricular project, students are not given the education time afforded to them.
In January, students in Elizabeth’s Lit Block  began reading the book Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights. This book was read only once a week when student interns were there. As vacation came closer and the completion of a film project came to an end, the book was no longer read. As of 3/14 the book had not been read in 3 weeks. Starting the week of 3/19, Elizabeth would once again like to take up the book again in the classroom.	If a book is read only once a week, it becomes difficult for students to comprehend all of the literary elements that arise in the novel. These difficulties arise not only for students, but the teachers too. The comprehension challenges that arise from sporadic reading are especially inherent in students with moderate disabilities, such as the ones that form the population of Elizabeth’s lit block.	The reading of classroom texts should be done on a consistent basis to ensure comprehension. The reading of Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights should have occurred at least three times a week. Going forward, a review of the book must be done alone with a more consistent reading schedule.
Students in Phil and Lindsey’s lit blocks are tackling quite a bit during their short one hour class periods. In this one class, students are working on literature circles, preparation for a common assessment, participation in a technology survey, and participation in a special experiential learning partnership with a service coordinator in Ecuador.	Although it is wonderful that Edge facilitators are trying to give their students all the learning opportunities possible, it is difficult to achieve everything in one class at one time. The constant changing of topics may be difficult for some Edge learners to focus and complete all necessary tasks.	Curriculum opportunities should be better planned out with more space in-between. In order for students to focus on their work, curriculum focus must first come from the educators.