Gadsden Elementary School is helping all students Soar to Excellence by ensuring that students are immersed in meaningful activities that promote creativity, critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
This year's focus has been to provide our students with a solid educational foundation. We are helping them develop the critical thinking skills necessary for all future learning. In mathematics, our students develop numeracy skills. Fluently constructing and deconstructing numbers builds students' conceptual knowledge of numbers. This allows students to learn the concepts of multiplication, division, decimals, and fractions more efficiently and with a greater level of understanding. In Reading, our students are learning to use their critical thinking skills to question what they are reading. They are learning to understand what they are reading and make connections from the text to other texts, what is happening in the world, and what is happening in their lives. These connections allow the students to figure out why the author makes their literary choices when writing. When students are thinking critically, they are engaged in meaningful learning.
Collaboration and communication skills are developed through AVID, Advancement via Individual Determination. Our goal is to engage all of our students in collaborative activities. These activities allow students to develop their communication skills and learn from each other through sharing thoughts, ideas, and solutions to problems the classroom teachers pose. Students learn just as much from each other as their teachers. Students need this collaboration for academic, social, and emotional development.
Over the past few years, our students’ teachers will continue utilizing Visible Learning concepts based on the work of John Hattie. This concept has been proven to make students more active in their education. By setting clear Learning Intentions (what the students are learning) and Success Criteria (how students will know they have learned it), our students can measure their progress toward standard mastery. The students clearly understand what success looks like and can monitor their progress toward reaching that success. Also, as a part of Visible Learning, teachers create a Learning Progression. This progression provides a clear instruction plan to ensure that students master every component of South Carolina State Standards.
Our mission is to grow scholars academically by providing a high-quality education in an environment where students feel valued, respected, challenged, and supported. At Gadsden Elementary School, we set high expectations for all our students.
Dr. Shevawn Rivers, Principal
Kelley Sullivan, SIC Chair
