helping Nashville students
Kimberly Carraway
Hello Everyone -
There are no words to describe this past week and how much life has changed. It has been a week full of 1000 different emotions. My counselor described grief as glitter - something that gets everywhere, sticks to the strangest places and just when you think you have cleaned it up-it shows up again and again in the most random of places and times.
In the midst of immense grief, I am also completely overwhelmed at God Almighty's incredible dome of protection he placed over so many friends inside Covenant that day. I attend Covenant and the past few days have been filled with story after story of how people were hidden, spared, protected, passed by, and so on. One friend was hiding in a file cabinet and the shooter opened two of the three cabinets, but not the one she was in. Another was behind the door she walked by and chose not to open it. Others were sovereignly not in the place they were supposed to be and therefore were able to escape without harm. It's so overwhelming. And then there are our other friends, like Katherine, who decidedly got up and walked straight towards the shooter. For all of us who knew her well, this is exactly what you would have expected.
I wanted to first encourage all of us, that while it is dark, the light of Christ always pierces the darkness. John 1:5 says The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I see that light daily piercing through Covenant daily.
Secondly, we are going to need your help. I am working with the Covenant School in helping them figure out next steps for their students and families for their siblings at other schools. I am sure each of you will become the point person for all of the academic needs at your schools. I will need volunteers to help as we develop and implement plans. Your voice is powerful and your experience is really needed.
We have had an outpouring of people offer to help our Covenant students, siblings, friends and other affected students. As we are putting together various plans, I wanted to go ahead and let you know of some of the ways I have personally worked with individual students and private schools in Nashville over the years (for various situations). I thought some samples of how this could look might be really helpful for you as you help the students who are at your schools and who are having a hard time. So you can see what other schools have done in the past and get ideas.
We have also had an outpouring of donations and offers for free tutoring and support. So my goal is that we as a team of learning specialists in Nashville help our students and families get what they need regardless of financial need.
Sample Options to Consider
1) Additional Tutoring & Academic Support
As much tutoring and academic support as is needed can be provided. The Carraway Center along with others can take these students under our wings and provide the extra organizational, time-management, teaching, tutoring and academic support they need to complete the school year. Students attend class as regularly as possible and take tests and quizzes at school with their classmates. We have an outpouring of people who are willing to tutor, tutor for free, mentor, etc.
2) One-on-One Private Instruction using the School’s Curriculum
We have taught the regular school curriculum to students in a one on one setting at our office or in their home and then administered the classroom teacher’s test to the student. We prepare them for the test, administer the test and then send a copy of the test to the teacher to grade. This allows the student to finish the semester and the required content but in a different physical setting. The tests are not allowed to be shared with anyone else to protect the content for the school (so the test isn’t floating around for other students). The school assigns the grades and report card.
3) One-on-One or Small Group Private Instruction using the School’s Scope & Sequence (list of topics to be completed this semester)
We have been given the chapters, textbooks, and scope and sequence of content that will be covered until the end of the year. We teach the content one on one or in a small group and then give our own assessments. We report the grades to school (teacher/usually learning specialist) and they are used by the school. The school assigns the grades and report card.
4) Completion Grades Assigned with Optional Final Exam/ Progress Assessment
Some students have been given the grade they currently have (if it is a strong grade) and then all work following is graded for completion - sometimes including the final exam and other times not including the final exam. The school assigns the grades and report card.
5) Incomplete Grade Assigned - Postponement until Summer
Some students will need a lot of time off or time away from school. For older students (jr high and high school) there have been situations where the student receives an incomplete for their grade and the work/learning is postponed until the summer months. The specific content to be learned is determined and taught at a pace that the student can manage. Depending on the age of the student and the state requirements, some subjects are prioritized over others. Once the student completes the work or passes the predetermined assessment, they are given a final grade for the course. Younger students in elementary school have been given a grade and a list of skills needed to be mastered is generated for each child and worked on over the summer months. For example, a student who currently has a B in reading would receive a B for the semester but would have specific goals set to work on increasing fluency and improving decoding skills by working with a reading instructor over the summer.
6) Zoom Options with the School
Students who need to stay home one day, many days or can only attend a half day, would be allowed to join in class over zoom or watch the recorded zoom lesson at a later time. This may be a good option for some students for some classes, but it will depend on the individual student’s learning needs. It is important to be aware that oftentimes students will watch the class but will be zoning out during the instruction leaving them to have to independently relearn it on their own later in the evening. For older students who are strong in certain subjects, this can be a great option. For other students during this season, they may need to watch the zoom with a tutor or mentor to help them learn the information and interact with it at that time.
Next Year:
It is way too soon to start talking about a plan for students for next year. However, I do want everyone to know that there are alot of different options available to students and families.
School Choice and Home School Consulting
We consult with parents about the different homeschool options available like co-ops, small groups, Gateway Academy, Fusion Academy, Hoover Learning’s Dyslexia Group, and many more!!!! My goal is to help them figure out what is the best next step for their child and what resources in town will help them accomplish that goal. They can call our office or email and we can set up a time to talk with the parents. There are other groups in town who can help with this as well.
Carraway Center Boutique Style Home School Instruction
One option we can provide is home school support through the end of the year or next year. We are not a homeschool academy, but what we do is partner with accredited homeschool programs and provide all of the instruction to the students for the parents. One example of how we work is that a parent can choose to homeschool their student for next year. They would register through an accredited homeschool umbrella program like Franklin Christian Academy for about $125. Franklin Christian Academy is the accredited homeschool umbrella academy who approves the curriculum and assigns the grades and report card/transcripts.
The parents hire The Carraway Center to evaluate what their child needs, choose the best curriculum for each subject, choose the instructors for each subject, design the plans for the year, teach one, two, or all of the subjects, evaluate and give tests, and assign grades for each quarter, semester and year. The parent is the official homeschool teacher by law, and the Carraway Center Instructors are hired to teach that content for the parent.
We do this individually and put together small groups of students. If a student is hoping to attend a specific private school in subsequent years, the curriculum is aligned to mirror the future school’s standards. Some students will take language arts courses with us and do a co-op for other subjects or we may only teach math and science to a student and the other courses are taken online or taught at home. It is a boutique style of providing quality academic instruction in the areas, methods, and levels the student needs. This format allows us to craft coursework tailored to the learning differences of each child, individual interests with content, and at a speed at which they need to learn. We provide instruction for K-12 and some college courses as well. We provide this instruction in student’s homes and at our offices in Green Hills. We do not have yearly contracts, so students can work with us for 6 weeks, a quarter, semester or full year - with it being fully flexible and based on student need.
I want you to know about what we offer so that as you meet with different families you can share all these options with them.
For now:
Generally speaking, it is best to get students back into 1) safe environments 2) predictable routines 3) community with their friends 4) emotional space and opportunities to process feelings 5) sleep, rest and play and 6) sports and other activities they enjoy.
Research shows that after acute trauma, the brain will not efficiently store newly learned academic information well. Basically, the brain needs time to heal and process. So while students can sit in school and be exposed to all of the new content being covered, the long term memory storage of that information for those experiencing trauma will be significantly impacted and minimal at best. In my opinion, this is where we take off the pressure for academics and we provide consistency, routine, community, and space to heal. Doing math in school is part of a regular routine for a student and has a place in the next steps, but my expectation is that they are not going to be able to really learn, master and store that mathematical knowledge in long-term memory at this point.
Success needs to be redefined for these students as showing up for class, attempting to do some of the questions, and for listening and participating in class. Work can also be a good thing to distract us from all of the hard emotions that we are processing. It allows us to dig into the moment and focus our thoughts on one particular task. Long nights of trying to finish homework only add to the stress and compound the problem. I would waive assignments for certain students, reduce the number of problems, give them extensions or opportunities for extra credit, and allow them to work with their teacher or with a friend to complete some of the work. Expect the students to be irritable, sad, have stomach aches, be less adaptive, whine, be mean, and get in more trouble at school. This is what it may look like in their behavior.
Cognitive Learning Specialist
The Carraway Center for Teaching & Learning
615.279.9376
www.carrawaycenter.com
Lynne Robertson
Lynne
On Apr 3, 2023, at 5:28 PM, Kimberly Carraway <kimberly...@gmail.com> wrote:
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