December 2007

DLC Support Knows No Bounds

Holden Village School, Dave Sather, Teacher

Provide training to a middle/high school serving nine students in a small village in a remote part of the state? No problem. In the DLC's eyes, all schools deserve the same level of support no matter where they're located or how many students they serve.

That's why one of our staff members, Michael VanHenley, recently traveled to Chelan and took a sea plane to Lucerne, and then a community bus to Holden Village School to work with Dave Sather, who teaches nine students in Grades 7–12.

"This visit really illustrated how quickly a school could expand educational opportunities for their students. All of a sudden this extremely remote school had access to online courses, curriculum, and research tools," VanHenley says. "I think these students have a great thing going, living in a small self-sufficient community...I have no doubt that they will gain some unique perspectives as well as a great education."

Differentiating and supplementing instruction

"Having Michael come up was helpful, if not crucial, to better understand everything that was of use for me as a teacher," Sather says.

The training covered the DLC's library resources as well as the breadth and depth of Apex Learning ClassTools. As a result of the training, Sather better understands how to use DLC tools to both differentiate and supplement his instruction. And ClassTools makes it easier for Sather to monitor students' individual progress.

Sather is responsible for teaching all of the subjects with the occasional help from "village experts," who teach lessons on topics such as poetry, Spanish, and carpentry. Sather says that "the DLC is very much another teacher on site."

Tested and validated online resources

"I like the DLC because it has everything there—tested and validated. There is nothing worse than Googling something, or spending time writing lessons, and hoping it will fit for your students and where they are at academically," Sather says.

Sather explains: "I don't have time to research a lesson on, let's say, mitosis for three different reading groups. The DLC allows me to easily—on one website—come up with those lessons designed for those specific students."

Students benefit from flexibility

At Holden Village School, flexibility is important for a number of reasons. For one, students are working at different levels. For example, three of the students are taking AP English while the others are learning certain topics for the first time.

"The DLC allows those older students to dig deeper into a subject without going through a 'basic lesson' for the younger students," Sather says. "And students enjoy the flexibility of when they can do the work and the rigor it presents."

Holden Village students are in many ways learning in an ideal setting. They say that one of the benefits of working in a small classroom is that their teacher knows where they are at individually and can adjust lessons to their needs.

We at the DLC are pleased to be able to help teachers like Dave Sather use our tools to do just that.

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