Academics
Grace Christian School's Differentiated Curriculum
At Grace Christian School we understand that every student is unique in their learning needs. The teacher’s aim is to identify what those needs are and to address them.
At the elementary level this means the teacher giving a core lesson before dividing the class up into learning groups. These groups are flexible and change depending on the need of the student. Students who may have trouble grasping a concept will work in a small group teacher center to get additional help with drill and practice work to reinforce the concept.
Those students that understand the concept after the presentation will be given activities that will help them master the concept. Students that need enrichment will be given activities that will require them to apply the concept or to learn it in more depth.
In Grace Christian School's differentiated classroom, the teacher acts as a mentor in many cases. Students will be doing a combination of individual, small group, and whole group instruction. But students also learn to work cooperatively, sometimes electronically with children in other classes. Hands-on learning as well as research will become common place. Volunteers will help provide small group support.
Technology at Grace Christian School
Technology
Technology plays a key role in the academic program at Grace Christian School. Although we have a computer lab and computer program the programs we teach are to support our total curriculum and not just for the sake of teaching a program. Students will learn to do internet research and record the results on databases and spreadsheets which will be used to construct graphs. Students will also learn keyboarding, word processing, and digital manipulation to produce documents. PowerPoint and multimedia production is learned in order to do classroom presentations. We use podcasting and iMovie production for students to do classroom presentations as well as to build a bank of student produced lessons for students that need additional help with concepts.
Classrooms have four student computers for them to get additional practice or to do research. We also have an iPad lab of 30 iPads that students can use for e-books, research, or additional practice. Pictures can be taken of objects that the students can study later. They can also be used to take notes and develop databases. A media production lab allows students to produce a variety of projects from animation, movies, podcasts, slide shows, and musical productions. In time the lab will be used to do television productions and radio broadcasts.