Baldwin County, Alabama Success

Anne and I conducted training for over 30 teachers in Baldwin County. They began using the program at the first of the school year, so they had a jumping off point for discussion. I wish you could have all been there. One teacher said that she had been teaching reading for over 10 years will all types of programs, and PITR is the one she has been waiting for. Actual tears were shed around the table as each teacher explained that they had kids who had never read, and now could not wait for independent reading time, and got mad if they had to do something else.

The language arts supervisor said that Anne's training was like a mini-conference, and that this district had never had PD like this. This was evidenced by the fact that the high school teachers stayed over one and one-half hours past the 3:00 end time. I think they would have stayed all night.

We did a small session to introduce PITR to all the central office supervisors. A lot of discussion was generated about cross-content teaching and how PITR can facilitate this. Even the science supervisor had lots of interest in which teachers used PITR. The possibilities for this district and PITR are mind-boggling because everyone is on the same page.

On a sales note, one theme that kept recurring is that the students in all the classrooms using PITR(reading,language arts, English, special education, leadership academy, alternative school) are considered at-risk students. There is money out there for at-risk-so look for it. But look at how many different types of classes can use PITR-it is not limited just to reading.