After starting The Cloverleaf School in January of 2012, we launched Camp Cloverleaf the following summer and had an absolute BLAST.  Part of why we were so excited to have a camp program for the school was to extend our unique blend of academics, facilitated social interactions, and learning adventures into the summer.

Our kids often have difficulty transitioning from school to summer and then back again, and it’s been fairly uniformly observed that students lose academic ground over longer breaks.  Consequently, our hope was that by keeping kids in the swing of things and continuing to stoke those fires of academic curiosity and accomplishment, that we could maintain our gains and perhaps even keep gaining!

And guess what?  WE DID!  It worked!

Along those same lines, we had planned since the inception of The Cloverleaf School to have the school run on a Balanced Calendar, with the same principles and research in mind.  Due to the fact that many of our students have difficulty retrieving and synthesizing information, a balanced calendar gives them more opportunity to have extended and impactful learning experiences that solidify connections. This, in turn, increases retention.  In addition, a balanced calendar reduces the review time needed each fall due to the short summer break.

Sometimes, though, it’s hard to have it all.  In the process of transitioning to the Balanced Calendar this year, we have found ourselves with an extremely short summer break.  We have also found ourselves in the exciting position of adding a class (and the requisite classroom) for next fall, which when combined with the planning time our teachers need over the summer, made Camp Cloverleaf logistically impossible this year.

What a bummer!

However, we are hopeful that as we adopt the balanced calendar year to year, we will be able to again have Camp Cloverleaf!  So, watch this space (or, at least, this website!) for further developments!!

References: J. Aronson, J. Zimmerman & L. Carlos. (1998). Improving Student Achievement by Extending School: Is It Just a Matter of Time? San Francisco, CA: WestEd

The post Where’d Camp Cloverleaf Go?!?! (The Case of the Disappearing Camp) appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Thank you, YouTube teacher video makers!

At the risk of revealing my own nerdiness, here is a collection of some of my favorite math-teacher-created gems:

We recently used this one for a 5th grade order of operations lesson:

For all you high school math teachers out there, this is a must-see:

Middle school teachers, enjoy:

Long division with decimals, anyone?

2nd-3rd grade geometry rap:

Do the Fraction Shuffle:

And for those tricky exponents:

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, everyone!

The post Teacher Appreciation Week: YouTube Math SuperStars! appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

What We Have Gained (and You Might, Too)

From the Cloverleaf Experience

My son is getting ready to move on from Cloverleaf to a new school. We are excited about the coming year, but leaving Cloverleaf (at least as a student family) will be bittersweet. We have all come so far since Joy, Greg, Julie, Mark, and I sat down at a table in a Decatur coffee shop and asked each other, “Can we really start a school?” and were joined by a group of extraordinary people with the vision to make that happen.So our family has been reflecting a lot on what we have learned from our experience here and how it might affect our future.

Mom and Dad Have Learned, Too

My husband and I have found out that getting out of the way and letting (good) teachers teach is a good idea. A great teacher is open to parental communication and input, but informed about innovative, research-based curricula that will best serve any student. We have found that returning to basic concepts like handwriting and phonics gives students a foundation on which to scaffold more sophisticated language skills later. We have found that it is important to learn both basic math facts and to find the individual math strategies that work for our kid. One size does not fit all in learning.

We have seen student-based inquiry (where kids pick some of the things they would like to learn about) improve research skills, help students integrate subjects across disciplines, and bolster their enthusiasm for learning. Our son’s current Apollo rocket project is challenging his math, science, social studies, English, and library skills all at once. And he is loving it!

We have learned that movement is an integral part of learning: at Cloverleaf it is worked into and between every class in some way or another. In this way, my son has discovered strategies to work with his body’s impulse to move – to “regulate his engine,” as he has learned. Sometimes small movements help him to prevent large blowups. Having acquired a greater understanding of the use of his body, my child can sometimes actually use his ADHD as a learning asset to power creative thinking, interdisciplinary synthesis, and hyperfocus for sustained work.

We have learned that good teachers can teach the whole child. To be successful, a child needs to learn more than just math and language arts. He (or she) needs to be aware the impression he makes on others. He needs to learn how to be a good colleague, friend, and citizen, displaying empathy for others and an awareness of people’s occasional need for privacy and space. Social skills are also part of the job of any truly integrated curriculum.

What We Are Thankful For and What We Will Miss

Focused, differentiated instruction from caring teachers and support from dedicated staff – Ms. Jessie’s sweetness, Ms. Emily’s solidity, Ms. Jen’s enthusiasm, Mr. Jason’s positivity, Ms. Morgan’s groundedness, Ms. Katherine’s perseverance, and Ms. Cristina’s energy. And don’t forget our absent but beloved Ms. Sarah and the facilitators, Erin and Christine, who work for individual boys, but who feel like the team.

An amazing afterschool program that has kept our son physically and mentally active and made him feel as if he truly has friends.

Awesome field trips – too many to name, but highlights have included:

• Turner Field.
• Tellus Museum.
• Huntington Space Center.
• Yellow River Game Ranch.
• Chattahoochee River Nature Center.
• Lake Lanier Outdoor Classroom.
• Delta Air Lines Training Center.

Crash pads and jumping contests.

Going to school barefoot.

Ari the Wonderdog.

Regular hiking outings at school with friends.

The generosity, hard work, and good wishes of so many people in this community and beyond – once again, too many to thank, but who hopefully have been thanked in our blog and on Facebook, who made this educational experience possible for our son and for those to come after him.

And of course, our awesome Cloverleaf kids and their awesome families – we love you!

What We Will NOT Miss

(Because We’ll Take ’Em with Us!)

A more confident, healthy kid.

A kid who has legible handwriting.

A kid who can write a brief, detailed essay.

A kid who recently snuck a book under his covers so he could stay up all night reading it (incidentally, we used to have to force him to read, and now he reads at a high school level).

A kid who loves math and who loves to build things.

A kid who still faces challenges but now has tools to meet them.

The friends who started this thing with us and their families who put up with us, our Cloverleaf Family (in no particular order): Joy, Greg, and Oscar; Julie, Ken, Edmund, and Gareth; Katherine, Eric, Ansley, Henry, and Zoe; Emily and Philip; Jen and Dave; Jessie and Tim; Sarah and John; Matt, Cristina, and Lorelei; Jason, Rose, Boston, and Aero; and Toral, Chirag, Tenzin, and Tara. Words are not enough. Really.

We can’t wait to see what’s next!

By Susan Anderson

The post What We Have Gained (and You Might, Too) From the Cloverleaf Experience appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Ari passed her test to officially become a certified Therapy Dog.  Hooray for Ari!

We marvel daily at how well Ari engages our kids in ways we humans can’t quite match, and now she’s officially official!  Congratulations, Ari the wonder dog!

From her bio:

“Ari has been working with Cloverleaf kids since the school was founded in January 2012.  She trained with Ms. Jen, her handler, while attending obedience school for her first year of life.  She passed her Therapy Dog certification test shortly after her first birthday, affirming what we already knew here at Cloverleaf: Ari excels at working with kids!  She is now also qualified to visit hospitals, assistive living and hospice facilities, libraries, schools, and other community centers for care where Therapy Dogs may be needed.  Ari is a husky-shepherd mix, adopted by Ms. Jen in December 2011.  Ari’s interests include chasing sticks on the playground, listening to students read aloud in the classroom, and playing with her fellow furry friends at the dog park.”

The post Congrats, Ari! Certified Therapy Dog! appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Ahh…. Home sweet home!

- put them on display

The post To Spring Break and Beyond: A Quick Reference Guide to Successful Home Strategies appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Yes, you read that right.  NO report cards here at The Cloverleaf School!  (Gasp!)  But what parents DO get, however, is a little something called the Weekly Parent Notes.   Instead of a letter-grade report, they get a weekly detailed summary of what their child has been learning or working toward.  Every week, we teachers write up a paragraph per student for each subject we teach, plus an additional paragraph detailing each student’s personal behavior goals.  We love staying in touch with our families on an ongoing basis.  Parents have given us such a flood of positive feedback over our weekly parent notes, we felt we had to share!  Here is an example.

Weekly Parent Notes  –  ”Johnny”  –  March 4-8, 2013

From Ms. Jen-

Language Arts:  In Phonics, we finished up the last of the ending blends, which filled up the rest of our “blender” (a visual detailing all of the beginning and ending consonant blend sounds).  Students had fun playing Strawberry Smash!, a review game to practice all the blends.  They didn’t even mind when they lost their cards to a “Strawberry Smash” card, because they got to pretend to smash it.

Next week we’ll do a brief review of the blends, then head on to the “bank of borrowers” to learn about the soft /c/, soft /g/, /y/, and /x/ sounds, which borrow from other letters to make their sounds.  In reading, we began practicing the “using vocabulary” comprehension strategy.  We made a word-web to explore the meaning of some of our vocab words in our shared novel, Because of Winn Dixie.

In writing, we continued distinguishing between fact and opinion in preparation for our upcoming persuasive piece.  Students cut and pasted statements about dinosaurs into fact or opinion categories.  In literacy stations, students practiced handwriting on words with blends; practiced basic typing skills using the “home row;” read books on their independent level to our therapy dog, Ari; sorted prefixes, suffixes, and their meanings (re-, un-, -s/es, -ed); and worked hard at finishing up our mid-year W.A.D.E. assessment.

In math, we wrapped up our unit on area and perimeter. Students used wikki-stix to measure the perimeter of found objects, then measured the wikki-stix with a ruler.  Next, we tiled shapes using paper square inches, and counted the side lengths to find perimeter by letting our “inchworm” crawl around the outside edges.  Last, we found perimeter by adding the side lengths of found objects around the room and of scaled drawings.  Next week, we’ll take a look at liquid measurement in American units (cup, teaspoon, gallon, etc.) and metric units (L, mL).  We’ll follow that up with a look at weight measurement as we build our own scale.

Johnny worked hard at his personal goal this week: to show others he’s listening, using the 4 strategies we’ve practiced in social skills (look with our eyes, turn our bodies toward the speaker, nod our heads, and say “ok” or other related comment, once the speaker finishes).  He made great progress and will move on to a complex goal next week:  Say “ok” when teachers give directions, then follow the direction right away.  I know he’s ready to take on this two-part challenge!

From Ms. Jessie -

In Social Studies this week we focused on Native Americans. We spent more time learning about the different tribes, such as the Cherokee, Plains, Apache, Cheyenne, etc. We compared traditions and customs of various tribes and had a more in-depth look at their culture. We read a book about Native American art and focused a lot of our attention on the Cherokees in the book. We also learned about the Native American Medicine Wheel and the “animal medicine” that some Native Americans believed strongly in (each animal has its own special medicine/power that can benefit all of us).

We had an extensive project these past couple of days making tipis. Johnny worked on the “buffalo skin” of the tipi, creating beautiful designs!  As a whole class, we then made a big model tipi (over 3 feet tall)! Johnny helped decorate the tipi, painting patterns around it.  We will collect some twigs together on Monday and finish assembling it.  We will also research the various regions each tribe inhabited in the United States and pick one tribe to do extensive research on as we wrap up the quarter these next three weeks.

**************************************************

We are always looking for more ways to keep families informed of what we’re working on and how their young students are progressing, and we’ve found these weekly updates to be valuable.  They are also amazing time capsules!  It’s incredible to look back over the year and see how far our students have come!

The post What, no REPORT CARDS?! appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Over these last six weeks they worked hard getting prepared for the concert and these last three weeks were very intense for the boys as they rehearsed almost every single day! For one of the songs, “If You Should Meet A Crocodile…” the boys made masks to wear for each of the four animals mentioned in the song: a crocodile, an elephant, a stinky skunk, and a polar bear (corresponding to each season of the year). We owe a big “THANK YOU” to Erica Ogawa and Susan Anderson who were amazing in helping the students complete these wonderful animal masks by finding the templates, cutting the pieces out and organizing them so that each student could make his own, unique mask!  Carol Biffle, a retired teacher and regular volunteer at Cloverleaf, also deserves a huge “THANK YOU” for generously offering to play the guitar in the show to add accompaniment for the boys as they sang.

Check out our grand finale:

A week before the show each student wrote a short story about the upcoming concert and drew a picture to go along with it. These pieces were displayed, along with the other concert decorations, and offered a personal touch to the atmosphere.

I cannot adequately express the joy I felt in seeing these boys standing onstage. There are no words for it. I feel so grateful to be working with such an amazing group of students every day! (I truly have the best job in the world!) Seeing these boys stand in front of 30+ people, singing out loud and proud, was absolutely incredible. They worked so hard and dedicated so much time and energy to this performance. I felt so proud watching them up there singing and dancing! Seeing such a huge crowd of loved ones there to support each child as he made his onstage debut was equally moving.

It was a magical night full of excitement, wonderful music and smiles! I absolutely cannot wait for next year when the Cloverleaf School performs its 2^nd annual Spring Concert!

The post Reflecting on Our 1st Spring Concert! appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

No one needs to tell parents of kids with learning differences and special needs that this stuff is expensive, perhaps private school most of all.  Fortunately., there are resources to help, especially in the state of Georgia.  Here are three options to consider:

1.   Can you include your child’s tuition (along with therapies, physician visits, aides, transporation to same, insurance premiums, etc.) in calculating your family’s medical expenses toward a tax deduction?

Depending on the sort of school your child attends and his/her diagnosis, this may be a possibility.  Total medical-related expenditures must exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

For more information, click here.  For professional tax advice on this issue, talk to your accountant.

2.   We are fortunate in Georgia to have the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program.

Every qualifying student receives a specific scholarship amount based on several factors including the previous public school attended and services received.  This amount is predetermined by the Georgia Department of Education. Scholarship amounts for students generally range from $2,500 to $13,500 with an average amount of about $6,000.

Parents can visit the GSNS Program website and calculate their student’s scholarship amount.

For more details, check our our Georgia Special Needs Scholarship page in our Admissions section.

3.   Another thing the state of Georgia has done to make private school more affordable is the Georgia Private School Tax Credit.

This program enables Georgia taxpayers to redirect, at no cost, Georgia income tax dollars to the private school of their choice.  In turn, this makes it possible for those private schools to award those funds to students via scholarships.

It’s a simple and cost-free way to put your tax money toward private school education and make funds available for kids who need it.  This can be done online or by filling out this form.  The cost will be deducted from your state tax liability.  You can even make the payment online with your credit card!

Certainly, none of this amounts to a money tree in your backyard!  Still, every little bit helps.  Our Cloverleaf families have all used one or more of these methods to make tuition more affordable and they just might help you, too.

If you are interested in applying for a scholarship or for admission to The Cloverleaf School, contact us at admissions@cloverleafschool.org.

The post How Can We Afford a Special Needs School? appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Review by: Ms. Emily

App Name: iLearn:Continents & Oceans (Jumper Mobile)

Price: FREE

Learning Goal: This app helps students learn the location of the seven continents and five major oceans.

Description: This app has three modes: Learn, Game and Test.

In Learn mode the students can touch the oceans and continents and a voice tells them what they’re touching. A label also pops up on the map as well as at the top.

Game mode includes a timer in the top left corner. A voice says the name of the continent or ocean. Students have one minute to find as many continents and oceans as they can. Their score (# correct & # incorrect) is shown in the top left corner so learners can keep track of how they’re doing.

In Test mode a voice says the name of the continent or ocean (it’s also written at the top). Students find all the continents and oceans, but it is not timed.

Features: There are settings that allow you to select which continents and oceans you want to appear in the game or test mode. It has an option to turn on/ off the voices and effects. You can pause your game or test if needed. 

Kid Feedback: This app is exciting and engaging if you don’t know your continents and oceans. Once you do, it’s hard to find it interesting. The only thing you have left to do is try to beat your time. Some of our students found that exciting, others were not too thrilled.

Uses: I would use this app to teach my students the continents and oceans. It’s interactive and gives immediate feedback. I could also use this app to assess my student’s knowledge of the continents and oceans. Since it gives you your score at the end it would be easy to keep track of student progress.

You could also use this app to assess and practice cardinal and intermediate directions. For example, you could say “Touch Africa. Now, what continent is north of Africa?” or “What ocean touches the western edge of the continent of Africa?” If you have the sound on you’d immediately be able to tell who got the correct answer and who had difficulty.

Positives: easy to navigate, simple format, customizable features, gives immediate feedback audibly and in writing, the other apps in the iLearn geography series are in the same format.

Limitations: It does not have a way to turn down the volume. The only volume options are on and off.

To hear more about our teachers and technology in the classroom, visit our Technology page!

The post Cloverleaf App Reviews: A Fun Way to Learn the Continents! appeared first on The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta.

Delta’s lounge commemorating employee breast cancer survivors is decorated with a painting made from the pink tailpiece of a plane Delta commissioned for their annual breast cancer fundraiser

A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER

If the kids had even half as much fun as the grownups did on our trip to Delta’s World Headquarters at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, then it was a smashing success! Here’s a look at our itinerary:

10:00 We “check in” at the automatic ticketing station in the lobby while we wait for our whole party to arrive. Vance especially likes this special computer. Our amazing hosts, David Janke, Carey Taft, and Rick Sherwood, start us out in one of the many classrooms at the Delta Training Center for Flight Attendants. Their classrooms are a little different from ours. Most are filled with important pieces of various Delta airplanes — MD88′s, Boeing 757′s, 767′s, 777′s and more! Here, flight crews use sections of real planes to complete rigorous safety training every year. The flight attendants put in fourteen hour days on this equipment, but for us, it is like a high-tech playground! We inspect the oxygen masks and life vests. We sit in the seats and pretend to take off for exotic places. The kids are especially interested in the safety cards, which pleases our new friend David no end. Safety first! We learn that Denzel Washington and Tamara Tunie researched their roles in the film Flight in the same mock aircrafts in which we are sitting. We don’t get to sit in first class seats — there are none in the area we visited, since they would make the floor collapse. Never mind; we can’t afford them anyway. We inspect the galleys and lavatories. Those drink carts are heavy! Ian, Jackson, and Kaden take turns trying out the jump seats. Elijah, Caden, and Sammy love the microphone. Our newest student James takes his turn: “Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a snake on the plane…”

11:00 Next up is a trip to the swimming pool, where flight attendants practice their water rescue skills. We don’t swim, but the kids try their luck on the rescue raft that the airline uses for open water emergency landings. They are even able to take shelter under the neon orange canopy meant to protect passengers in the event that they have to stay in the raft for an extended period of time.

11:30 The highlight of our time at the training center is yet to come. Our hosts take us into their flight simulator, where we all buckle up and experience a “crash”! We really feel like we are taking off, and then we are told to “put our heads down for landing.” (Our experience is actually very gentle; we don’t feel anything happening during the “event.” We adults are told separately that the actual flight attendants endure a much rougher ride to prepare them in the event of a real emergency.) Real fog fills the cabin as our attendants escort us to the rear door for an emergency exit. Then comes the great part — a ride down the inflatable slide. We are so proud of our students, who are all eager to slide down — what great sports!

12:30 The fun and learning keep coming. We are whisked across the street to the Delta Museum, where we see one of Delta’s first crop dusters, a variety of Delta uniforms, and The Spirit of Delta, the employee-purchased 767. We take turns standing just inside the turbine of one of its engines, which could hold our entire school!

13:00 We are eating lunch on patio tables outside a replica of the facade of one of Delta’s first business offices/passenger terminals, a tiny picturesque brick building no more than 40 feet wide. The kids each leave with their own barnstorming bear, Dusty. His goggles and bomber jacket are so cute!

13:30 We arrive back at school, tired but wiser. Thanks, Carey, David, and Rick, as well as our sponsor at Delta, Jarad Fisher, for making this fantastic experience possible.

– Susan Anderson

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