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New School Year, New Look!

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"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke Welcome Back The start of a new academic year is filled with anticipation. There is often the excitement for all things back to school: perhaps new supplies, maybe a new shirt or new shoes, possibly a new haircut, often new teachers, and certainly new classes. We, like our educational partners and the students coming to greet them, have been counting down to this week all summer. New School Year, New Look It is time to begin the soft launch of the updated software! WeCollab returns this school year with a clean, clear, streamlined look! We are pleased to have been able to re-conceive the software based on the feedback of our users so that as we move from conversation to action with Collaborative Response, WeCollab can empower classrooms, schools, and systems to provide the very best response for each and every child. If you have not had an opportunity to check out a few of the upcomin...

Summer Message 2022

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As another school year comes to a close, we want to express our appreciation for the growth we continue to experience as we are invited to learn alongside you in your classrooms, your schools, and your systems. It is our intention to  take a moment to pause, to reflect, to plan, to reinvigorate as we prepare for Fall 2022. Pausing We, like you, are appreciating being able to operate in a more familiar sense of normalcy as this year has progressed. That being said, we know that there are changes that have been made in those operations, and that you, as educators, have remained strong and true in your mission: to provide the best possible learning experiences for students. Although summer is short, we do wish for you to have a moment to pause for yourself. We hope the summer brings the opportunity to relax, reconnect with friends and family, and recharge.  Reflecting It has been an incredible year of learning for us. With the publication of Kurtis and Lorna Hewson's new book, Co...

Recording Transition Planning Details

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Is important information about students being lost as they transition from teacher to teacher? Harness the power of WeCollab to centralize your collective knowledge of students and their unique learning needs. Planning for Transition While transition planning is typically part of the process for students with a support plan (IPP, IEP, BSP, etc.), it can be beneficial to have these details shared for the students who have been a part of our classes for a semester or a year.  Within WeCollab, there are two possible areas where this information might be recorded: Student Profile Textboxes or Meeting Notes. As with anything related to Collaborative Response, how it is implemented will be influenced by the context of the school or the district bringing the idea to fruition. Student Profile Textboxes Please visit the User Support Site and search "Student Profile Textboxes" for details on how to configure this feature (a functionality limited to those with District Leader or School ...

Student Needs at a Glance

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Have you ever looked at your class list and wished that students' needs would stand out on the page so that you could make informed decisions quickly? With the desire to provide a digital solution that supports  visualizing jagged student profiles , we offer another demonstration of how WeCollab might display the diversity of student needs in different focus areas. Elaborating on the Jagged Profile We note again that every learner has a jagged profile, with areas of strength and areas of challenge that shape who we are.   In the previous post , we discussed the visualization of jagged student profiles on Team Boards. Mentioned briefly were the Student Card Icons, visual indicators that might apply to the programming needs of students in a specific focus area. It is here we will further elaborate on this feature in WeCollab and how it contributes to the Student Profile and the Team Boards. Student Card Icons Please visit the User Support Site and search "Student Card Icons...

Visualizing Jagged Student Profiles

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Do your students require more support in some areas than others? Are you looking for digital solution that can reflect the complexity of programming needs of individual learners as well as groups of students? WeCollab can help with the display of student information that demonstrates diverse needs in different focus areas. The Notion of the Jagged Profile In his Tedx Talk, Todd Rose speaks about the myth of average.  He would suggest that it is inappropriate to tier a student as no learner fits succinctly into a single category, nor do they remain in that category each and every day.   Tedx Talk - Todd Rose - The Myth of Average Every learner has a jagged profile: we have areas of strength and areas of challenge that dictate who we are as human beings. When we acknowledge this, we are compelled to move away from the idea of tiering and labelling learners because one tier or one label does not neatly fit any one individual's profile! from Collaborative Response Symposium 2022 O...