ES WIN/FIT time: how does your school use it?
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Anonymous
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I was upset tonight to find out in our PTA meeting that during WIN ("what I need") time at our school, the students who don't receive SPED services just do online Boost games. It seems like such a waste of time for the kids. This is different from last year, when they split into groups and did enrichment activities or received supports as needed.
What do they do at your school during this block? |
Anonymous
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Kids catch up on work as needed. My kids read, color, draw, write their own stories, sometimes help classmates with work.
SPED services can’t all be provided during WIN time logistically - some kids would have more hours than WIN would allow, plus every kid in Teacher X’s class can’t all have speech at the same time with the one SLP. I imagine they try to schedule services during WIN when possible, but it’s not like that is why it exists or even who it’s for. |
Anonymous
I’m sure they do schedule services at other times. But in our school this year, the only kids who do anything other than the Boost program during WIN are the kids who get pulled out for sped services. This is different from last year, when all kids moved around to different classrooms during WIN based on what they needed (enrichment or supports). Last year it was great; this year it seems like a waste of time. At the very least, it seems like they could do centers and have kids rotate activities rather than do Chromebook games the whole time. |
Anonymous
| Our DC's grade had "Learning Lab" last year for what seemed.like a ridiculously large block of time. They did some SEL and team-building things during that block, but it seemed to me to be a huge waste of what could have been actual instructional time. As PPs have noted, breaking out support services into that block is not sufficient for the students who need them, so the main purpose of this time seemed to be effort reduction. To me that is a sign of needing to support teachers better. If they need to ramp it down during the day like that, they need more help so that the students can keep learning. |
Anonymous
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I teach at a Title I school, so a lot more than just the special Ed students get pulled—math intervention, reading intervention, ELD groups.
Some teachers use it the time to catch up, others yes put kids on educational games like Boost or Zearn. Ultimately it’s never a full 30 minutes. It’s usually about 20 and the kids enjoy the break after a long block of learning. Would I rather they have extra recess? Hands on activities? No extra screens. Yes, of course. But transitions take up so much time and there’s so much content to cover in the curriculum, it’s hard to justify pulling out and cleaning up a project in 20 minutes. Especially when kids aren’t as cooperative in schools as they used to be. |
Anonymous
| Our school uses WIN time for reading differentiation based on DIBELS or MAP scores. It's wonderful, they have my child reading chapter books. |
Anonymous
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Last year my DD who is above grade level on the dibels was in a group and they went to a teacher's room and worked on packets together and at one point were practicing a play. Unfortunately there were no extra teachers to support this. The classroom they went to the teacher was still teaching and couldn't watch them. There was one boy in my DD's group that misbehaved so their group was disbanded and my DD ended up staying in her classroom on the chromebook were she and a friend were looking up celebrity birthdays, lol.
This year, she and a group go to a room with a paraeducator. The para reads them stories and she and the group work on note taking. Her writing has improved a lot. Even within this group of kids that are above grade level there are still kids that are rowdy so my DD doesn't love it. My DD is in a title 1 school that also does home school model. Not sure all schools do win time. |