Albany 8J > Oak Elementary
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
|
Oak Elementary School is dedicated to the total personal development of each student to the limits of his or her abilities and interests in a sequentially coordinated curriculum that allows for individual differences.
Staff members will strive to aid in each student's intellectual, physical, moral, emotional, aesthetic, and social growth so that he or she may become a useful and responsible member of home, community, and society while leading a personally rewarding life.
Our Focus
A major focus of our education program is to assist students in reaching their third, fourth, and fifth grade benchmarks. We use the Integrated Thematic Instruction Model (I.T.I.) to support our program.I.T.I. is a name given to a body-brain-compatible, fully integrated instructional model developed by Susan Kovalik. It is a comprehensive model that translates the best of what we know about learning from current brain research into effective teaching strategies and meaningful curriculum.
The five I.T.I. Learning Principles are:
- Intelligence is a function of experience
- Learning is an inseparable partnership between brain and body
- There are multiple intelligences or ways for solving problems and producing products
- Learning is a two-step process: Making meaning through pattern seeking, and developing a mental program for using what we understand and wiring into long-term memory
- Personality impacts learning and performance”.
(Kovalik, Olsen, Exceeding Expectations: A User’s Guide to Implementing Brain Research in the Classroom, Susan Kovalik & Associates, Inc., 2001)
Our Goal
Oak Elementary believes that the ultimate goal of an education in Albany Schools should be to provide the student with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead a happy, productive life and to be an independent citizen in a rapidly changing society.
In achieving this result, we believe that the development of the whole individual is not accomplished by the school alone. The home and community must also contribute to student growth by establishing attitudes that stimulate learning. The ultimate success of the student is therefore dependent upon the student, the school, the home, and the community.