School: Sonora Elementary School
Location: Springdale, Arkansas
Principal: Regina Stewman
Background
Principal Regina Stewman opened Sonora Elementary School in Springdale Arkansas 11 years ago with a mission to innovate to educate, believing all students should have time in their day for passion-based learning.
One of the main goals Regina had in opening Sonora Elementary was to make sure each student had choice and voice in their learning, allowing them to follow their passions and be innovators.
Armed with the knowledge that enrichment is often limited to gifted students only, Regina began her search for solutions to provide every student with the opportunity to pursue their passions in order to continue to truly innovate.
Challenge
Focused on the PLC Model, Sonora Elementary’s curriculum must align to core state standards at each grade level. However, when a child achieves proficiency on a standard, Sonora’s teachers and leaders strongly believe they should be provided with extension.
But providing every student with the time and resources to explore their own interests can be a challenge for teachers. With a classroom full of +25 students, catering to each student’s unique passions can seem next to impossible.
Regina realized teachers at Sonora were great at providing interventions, but didn’t always have the resources to provide extensions for students that needed extra time to apply the standard and excel with such a tight schedule during the school day.
To overcome this hurdle and make the process easier for teachers, Regina began looking for solutions. After reading an article featured on AJ Juliani’s blog, she stumbled upon Tract.
“When I heard about Tract, I immediately saw it as a tool that would give students choice, voice, and allow for student ownership. Every child needs this opportunity - not just those achieving proficiency on grade level standards.”
-Regina Stewman, Principal at Sonora Elementary School
Solution
Regina saw Tract not only as a unique way to allow kids to own their learning, but also a much-needed resource to give teachers time back in their day while empowering students with an opportunity to take charge of their education.
Within a week of hearing about Tract, all of Sonora Elementary’s grades 3 - 5 classrooms were set up with their accounts, and began engaging with passion-based learning in ways that Regina has rarely seen in her 30-year teaching career.
“It’s students teaching students at a level of depth that is much more than simply watching a video.”
-Regina Stewman, THE Journal
Sonora teachers also took a unique approach to implementing Tract, by having a group of student leaders act as the school’s Tract ambassadors to show their peers how to use the platform. Without any teacher assistance, they’ve been using Tract as a true peer-to-peer program.
As Sonora Elementary continues to expand their usage of Tract throughout the school, the Tract team is partnering with the teachers to develop classes aligning to the core standards in their curriculum - a solution offered to every teacher on the platform.
“Tract’s support and willingness to work with us is something I have not seen (or found) from any other platform.”
-Regina Stewman, Principal at Sonora Elementary School
