Journal 3

I attended the second seminar of the Summer Institute and was unfortunately not impressed. I think that the speaker, Richard Reid had the ability to speak well in front of a large crowd; however he had difficulty making the purpose of his lecture known to the audience. The title of his presentation was: “RTI-innovations in Prevention and Intervention”, to begin the speaker never really defined what RTI was, or what the letters stood for. From what I understood from his lecture I can assume that RTI is an organization which works towards the goal of every child learning successfully. I would guess that organizations like RTI have come about due to the demands and requirements set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act, (NCLB). The purpose of his lecture, I think, was to encourage the actual implementation of programs into schools. Too often there are good ideas projected by teachers and faculty, while there are no useful tools to implement these ideas in the classrooms. Richard Reid’s PowerPoint was meant to map out the ways in which these ideas are implemented, but the excessive commentary and distracting images steered the audience way from the intended purpose of the lecture. The proposed path in order to see change in schools was: Vison+Skills+Incentives+Resources+Action Plan =Change. The speaker had slides provided for each of the steps on this path, but there were no real contextual examples being exemplified. Another suggested formula of implementation was: Exploration and Adaption, Installation, Initial Implementation, Full Implementation, Innovation, and finally Sustainability. In order for these steps to be taken towards improvement, all members of the educational community: students, parents, principals, superintendants, etc., must be active parts in the process.

How will I get my ideas “off the ground” when I am an actual teacher in the classroom?
-I know that I will develop different ideas and lessons for my classroom and students at my future school that I will want to implement and share with others. I think that an effective way to do this will be through creating a blog and /or wiki to gain knowledge about what other institutions and teachers are doing. I’m sure that the RTI organization or program is effective in doing this, but for some schools do not have the funds to hire people like Richard Reid and will have to find other ways in implementing a successful program.
Are the suggested plans of action presented by Richard Reid applicable to classrooms?
-I think so. I wish that I would have had an example of how his model works in the “real world” but it seems as though rich’s ideas would be effective in maintaining proficiency throughout multiple grade levels.