Saseenos is clearly defined by the diversity of our community--as humans and more specifically as learners. Of our 195 students, 36 have been designated through our District Inclusive Education team. Many complex needs exist within our school community, and essentially guide many of our educational initiatives within our building.
As we are aware, diverse learners include children and students of all abilities from racially, ethnically, culturally, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse communities and backgrounds. It is our responsibility, as educators and leaders in the Saseenos community, to ensure that our educational delivery is reflective of the specific and individual needs within our building. Furthermore, we recognize that each individual within our building has a different set of interests, strengths and goals, regardless of age, ability or background. We strive to identifying the types of learners within the school, and attempt to plan activities and programs accordingly.
Throughout the past several years has existed a strong 'push' for early literacy education and intervention at Saseenos, and the need to instill lifelong reading as a habit within each of our students. We have invested much time, effort, and money in this process, stocking classrooms with the appropriate libraries, levelled reader collections and appropriate methods of data collection.
Throughout our building we attempt to utilize a universal design approach to educating our little ones. Teaching content is delivered in multiple ways. Essentially this means that lessons and/or activities are designed with all students in mind. Instruction is generally scaffolded, allowing lessons to be more relevant for each of our learners.
Whenever possible, choices are provided to allow for a higher rate of student engagement. These instructional options could include verbal questioning, games, role play or even group practice, with a demonstration of understanding being the ultimate goal. Our teachers offer other choices in the classroom, beyond instruction. Some examples within our school include flexible seating, allowing students to choose a quiet area of the classroom to finish up an assignment on their own, or to sit at tables for group work, or to grab a seat at a computer to watch a video, print a new worksheet, or read a digital textbook. The adults within our building are very accommodating in our support of student learning.
