Memorandum regarding programs instituted at the WKU Training School which  give evidence that we are breaking away from the traditional self-contained classroom and moving in the direction of progress in the future.   Memo written by James Carpenter and sent to Tate Page. This copy is housed in UA3/4/1 WKU President\u27s Office - Downing Subject File

Carpenter, James

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Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® WKU Archives Records WKU Archives 2-14-1967 UA3/4/1 Memorandum re: Training School James Carpenter Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_records  Part of the Communication Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education Commons, and the Secondary Education Commons This Other is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in WKU Archives Records by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact topscholar@wku.edu. February 14, 1967 MEMORA.NOOM TO: Dr . Tate C. Page These are some programs of improvement or projected propr ams that are presently i ~ ect or will become effective in the .J'estern Trainint School. All or' these p~~gms give evidence that we are breaking away from the traditional self- contained c~issroom and moving in the direction of or ogre~~ i~ the ftture . In t heso actions, t~ best inter est of our children and teacher education students has recetved first cC\~s{1leration. I trust that you and those who wLll r eceive courtesy cop:es of this r epo,t't will have time t o give it your careful consideration: 2. ) . We have a committee of primary grade teacher s meeting we ~ly for the pur pose of studying the University ~imary Plan of Continuous Progr ess in the primary grades . If effected, this wirreRm~nate grades one t hrough three as such and place these children into non- graded blocks on the baei s of achievement. Tentatively, we plan to place this into effect in t he 1967 summer school. We plan t o give it serious consider-ation for beginning in our primary grades, September, 1967 . I n our budget request, we have asked for a graduate assistant in e lementar y educat ion t o hel p us with this . At t he moment, this is t he onl y ad-dit ional personnel we will need t o place this pro6 ram into effect . Beginning February 13, 1967, we are extending the school day for forty minut es for most of our children in r,rades ~our throubh six to permit us to schedule a progr am of foreign languaRes to be taught :.n these grades . \le are utili zing ei~bt of Dr . Hatcher' s outsuanding foreign langua(e ,tudents t o i nstruct our children in French ani Spani~b . '£t.,._s ilill be st..Jervised by our coor dinator of inst ruction . We plan this aa a continuous program in grades seven next year . This program will be tat..ght :.n clasr:.rooms other than the chi ldrens I home rooms, thus enabll.nJ the hon room ... eacr.cr 1..0 r emai n in thei r classrooms for planning, preparation, conferencoo, or other r elated wor k . Dr. Hatcher and his staff arc helpiny us ana are ent husiastic about this pr ogr am. In the 1965- 66 school year we inaugurated a program of pre- student teaching experi ences, Education Jul , for s tudents training to become elementary t eacher s . This pr ogram has been successful. 1ve have approximately twent y-five t eacher education students assigned to this program dur i ng the current semester . Mr . 3loamaker and hi s staff are helping and supporting us i n t his pr ogram. These st udents are a·des to our classroom teacher s i n grades one t hrough six. They have, and will become successful classroom teachers of t he future because of this speci al training . D 4. 5. 2 This school year we have eliminated the method of teacher education pr ofessors having to communicate with us for small group observations. Teacher education students are welcomed into the cl assr ooms at any time . A welco sign is on each door and sufD:~ient chairs are ir.:mediately available . Larre class observations are orr,nred between the co lege professor and our coordinator of in ~~ru ti~n. \~ the r esults of this new and improved procedur e, we have teacher education s t udents mov1.ng i. _rd out of our claasr~on at a onstant nace. This gives teacher edtcation students 1r opoortunity to ob~erve all kinds of teachin~, improve attitudes toward teaching prior to their being assir.ned to their st~dent teaching, and finally, the teaching field . The read·,r specialists and pr ofessors in the College of Lducation wi.11 begin assigning the1r students to teach reading to our rrada children in Slllall groups and large classes on ~ebruary lL, 1967. Our teachers in gr~dou 01 ttrc . wix t~ve be11,t1n ~e~ching reading in regularly schedul ed blockq and have inproved in this area ~his year, slnce we eliminated our full- time r emedial reading position . The reading program receives i' r e~vion from our coordinator of ir. tru"T'on. ~he ~as ~nd will cooperate with the re~aing spec~alist ~rom thn ~ llcge of ~Cl.cation in effecting this procram. Two reading ~pecial~st~ have been assigned to us part- time by Mr . ~lea~aker this year to as~ist us :n special reading cases and to help UJ u~tablibh the program too~ in ~ebru.:t.r) lL . One of the profe:; ... ors .:.n tho '::oll ·r o. ,l.. "ation w:..11 ass~ n her n-cthods t acher euucation etudents to teach coc:al studios to small groups in r;rade uhrec this :.emes-u.r . !'he home room toacher will leave the r oom and utilize th~s t"me for planning, preparation, and conferences . The teacher education pro:essor will have charge O' this program for this scheduled block and will plan this program with the third grade teacher and the coordinator . Th·s w:11 give teacher education stuients exper iences i n handling classroom situat.ons in this area . 7. ·Begi nning ~eptember, 1966, we inaugurated a program of physical education for grades ons through six. Ever y child in thec;e grades receives approximately thirty minutes of directed physical education instn.ction by a q~alif.ed teacher every school d~. Hiss Anderson anc: ... hr . "mith teach these classes at hours when they are not scheduled for high school classes . Th~s pr ogram has received acclai~ f r om our parents, Dr . ~olley and his stai'f m mbers, our State Department of ! ducation menbers , and others . 8. Beginning ~eptember, 1966, wo i naururated a program in our El ementary School Librar:-.r . Mrs . Neel spends art of' her time teaching the children i n grades one through six i n the 1-brary. The assignment of teacher aides has permitted us not to neglect the hiE;h school 1:.brary wh l e thi., or ocra"l is being carried out. Our ~lementary Library is o~on to o~r chil en during the entire school day. It is closely su'"ler vi~ed by our coordinator of instruction, with tbe use of teacher a·des, when our librarian is unable 3 to be present in the library. We plan to improve thi~ ryro~ram when all booko have been classified and when we are able to r ovtde a or e extensive s lection and purchase of books for our e l ementary library. hi.sis a new progrS!II. The direction of t hic overt.he years has been incidenti.al in nature, cinco tho remed i~l tooct.cr waa nots qualifi ed librarian. 9. In addition to all of the above, our elementary deparln:ont ha-> shown continuous improvo~nt in tho folloving: a . Remaining on duty for longer school day, evaluat.ln;_:, planntng, preparation, ai1d con ·erence.., b . c . d . e . f . g . Cafeter J.a M OS[. nt and control ...aking d!rection in coordinated eff ortH for iurorovem.ent and inotruction !:chcduling Displsy i n roomG an on bulleti n boards ·n ~ur hal lway8 coordinat ed with instrvctio"". (We have installed thirty-two new bullotin boards i n our hallvo.yn) Clocer cooperati on in the prir.ary and i ntermediate r,rados Hoceptlo 1 and courtesy toward all teacher education student~ b. Discipline and control generally in tho classroom~ and hallways, wi th considerable improvement to come in thi~ respect 1. Use of audio-vi.nial nida i n t.he classroom anti !or large group lns1,ruction j . Receptive to inotructional imorovomont k. Receptive to olanning sessionw and daily cla~t ~~hedulcs , t ~ i~cl ude daily lesson plans 1. Recoptivo to m,pervis1.on and direction frcn1 a:.rcc t.or, coor<!ina t.or of inst.ruction, ana col.eto suoerv J.s ori; m. I 111provca supt?rv J.i:i on o.r ntuuent. teachel'B n. CurrLculum rovioory snd ~idea o. other aroas too numerous to llst hore \ You and thos receiv ~ng copies of t~is report ~Y desire to know of tho 1.morovement s we havo made or those that wo plan to make as we ~~ve into the future . 1!ith our t~nr oved high school ochedule, I feel that we are in xccllent shaoe in this area. No dis-cr epancieo were notod in o,x last Southern ssociation and State Department of Education ovaluatione. rhe above report bears out that we havo concontrated our efforts to improve our elementary department. rhis we have done, and ehall continue to do . With this in ind, I wish to express my appreciation for tho attention you gave to approvin~ our 19l7-6~ 4 budget request. with the programs we have in mind, this budgetary support will be r equired. Also, appreciation is expressed t o t he University for the splendid budgetary support given t he !'raining ~chool duri ng my years as its Director. Our f aculty and staff members are worKi ng hard in supoor t 01 uhe best interest of Western. JAC:er C e ident v 1 l-r "ho!llnson Dean Raymond L. Lravenn Dean Daro G. )owning ~ Jame~ .~. vorpenter, Director l'rainJ.nb ..:ichool 

UA3/4/1 Memorandum re: Training School

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UA3/4/1 Memorandum re: Training School

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