Sustainability and Improvement

So, the program is up and running and I am thrilled to report, all is well. We have 6 high school tutors in two elementary schools teaching about 50 students in grades 3-5. We have our wonderful after school program where my colleague and I work with about 20 students over the course of two afternoons, grades 2-5. We have two websites, one launched and one in the making. We have published one newsletter. We have an excellent curriculum to use (Project M3). The administrative time for everything is way more than I anticipated but it takes that kind of attention to keep things running, I find. The tutors require significantly more time from me than I imagined they would. They work with a lot of students and are students themselves....that requires an investment of time, attention, and focus to make sure we have a happy, fun, educational math enrichment program.

Sustainability was a big component of my sabbatical. How can we keep the programs I have developed beyond my 4-month sabbatical? That is the question I face right now. I am also at the point where I want to go see other model programs to see how we can improve ours. So, as the weather warms up in New England, I will be traveling around Maine, New Hampshire and maybe even Massachusetts to see what kinds of programs are out there for elementary-aged students who are highly capable in math. And, I would like to see a bigger after school program at both schools I am already in. This is the time and place where we do projects and run studies and have a lot of math fun with teachers guiding and teaching. I would also like to see the programs I have developed in all of the elementary schools in my school district (there are 3 schools but only 2 are involved the the AMP program so far). And, importantly, I am developing, with my computer-expert step son, an open source website so all of my work can be posted on the web. And, I have thoughts of a summer program swimming around in the back of my mind as spring break nears!!! Whew........ with two months left, I have my work cut out for me!