Superintendent/Principal
Message from the Principal
Tricia T. Price, Ed.D.
Here are three things we know about improving teaching and learning:
01High quality instruction leads invariably to higher level of students achievement. Most educational researchers have concluded that the quality of classroom instruction is the single greatest determinant of student success.
02High-quality instruction is replicable. There are specific, research-based strategies that are proven to raise student achievement - and that all teachers can master with time and support.
03Schools that function as effective professional learning communities see "big, often immediate, dividends in student learning and professional morale in virtually every setting" (Schmoker, 2005, p. xii).
-Above from Compare and Contrast, by Harvey Silver
At Cold Spring School, staff is committed to providing a consistently high-quality learning environment by working together as professionals on refining and improving instructional practices. This year's professional development focus is on Visible Thinking Routines. Making a students' thinking visible requires an organizing structure, and the Visible Thinking programs help guide learners' thought processes. The Thinking Routines don't ask students to only list facts. Instead, they encourage students to actively engage with a topic by asking them to think with and beyond the facts they know---asking questions, taking stock of prior knowledge, probing the certainty of their own ideas, and visibly connecting new knowledge to old.
