POINTS of PROUD: Dubuque's Table Mound Elementary

Sarah Weber, Principal Brenda Mitchell, Jennifer Hoffman

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

I had the opportunity to work with Sarah Weber, Brenda Mitchel, and Jennifer Hoffman this summer as we served on an Iowa Core team that traveled to Orlando, Florida, to attend a conference on "Re-Imagining Education."  Table Mound is one place in Iowa that has been re-imagining how it delivers instruction.  This school is very appreciative of the community in its support of late arrival times every Friday to accommodate professional learning communities and staff development as this school strives towards continuous improvement.  Table Mound Elementary has been undergoing a major transformation by providing meaningful leadership roles in the form of instructional strategists, resident mentors, partnerships with Clarke College, and the establishment of a building leadership team.   Staff has been studying "Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry" by Nancy Love.  Their professional development focuses on the power of the data team which looks at the right things when it comes to assessing what is learned.  Significant questions they are asking include:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be?
• How did we get to where we are?
• How are we going to get to where we want to be?
• Is what we are doing making a difference?

 
TABLE MOUND DEMOGRAPHICS
Enrollment:  450 grades EC through 5
Free and Reduced Lunch:   26%
Certified Staff:  38

DUBUQUE'S DEMOGRAPHICS
13 elementary schools
3 middle schools
2 high schools
Enrollment:  10,000
 

This building strives toward improvement in all areas.  Table Mound has changed their process in math instruction through the implementation of CGI - cognitively guided instruction.  This process moves students through developmental stages in the area of math instruction.  It provides a process that lays a foundation upon which students build math concepts. 

Non-negotiables within each classroom include:  differentiated instruction, 90 minutes of literacy instruction, and clearly articulated behavior expectations.  One major initiative this year is the development of common formative assessments in literacy and social studies. 

Amy Herber and Nicole Posiask

Table Mound has a partnership with Clarke College - a very impressive professional development program.  A certified teacher teaches in a classroom with an established teacher for one year while working on his/her Master's Degree.  The established teacher writes an action plan to implement for 50% of the time during this partnership.  It is a very special way for a new teacher to be inducted into the teaching profession while another teacher provides an action plan to improve a specified area in the school. No value can be placed upon the collaboration that occurs when two committed professionals work closely together.  It's a win for everyone involved especially the students.

 "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." Leadership opportunities, additional studies, collaboration, coaching, and action plans all lead to make Table Mound being a very special place to learn.