Atlas Learning: A Literacy Focused Micro School.
Supporting families & children who need structured literacy instruction. Orton-Gillingham Associate Candidate
I am finishing out the BEST year for my microschool since starting in April 2022!
Can you give me a virtual high five?
My mission remains: teach kids to read and write.
That's it.
@Her_Nonymous_D I was the bullied kid when I was in school because I am legally blind in one eye. Bullying is ALWAYS wrong, and your child shouldn’t have to disclose private medical information just to be left alone. Tell the school no. Shame the school for their response.
Today was an amazing day.
One of my 3rd graders decoded:
Environmentalists
She was so proud of herself.
Beaming from ear to ear.
@1in5advocacy
Direct instruction works!
#structuredliteracy
The life-changing power of direct, explicit, multimodal, structured, sequential instruction—delivered by an appropriately credentialed and practically trained professional—produces astonishing, replicable results that the Science of Reading consistently confirms.
Public schools could have — and absolutely should have — been using structured literacy since the 1930s.
They didn’t.
And despite decades of overwhelming evidence from the Science of Reading, most still won’t.
Why?
Today one of my 3rd graders in small group was able to decode:
colleagues
hemisphere
mathematician
mathematical
gravitational
Instead of seeing the first letter and guessing, she stuck with theword-all of it, using knowledge of syllable to determine vowel sounds.
Not teaching students math facts because they can use calculators, spelling rules because they have spell check, historical dates because they can google it, or writing skills because they have Al is a travesty. Depriving students of these things enslaves them to technology rather than freeing them to flourish as human beings.
Children do not grow out of illiteracy.
It gets worse for them 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐞. A child who struggled with reading at the end of the school year will not magically learn to read over summer without an intervention.
It’s truly an unfortunate and shameful reality today that it’s entirely possible for a young person to receive a high school diploma and college degree without ever receiving an actual education.
Children do not grow out of illiteracy.
It gets worse for them 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐞. A child who struggled with reading at the end of the school year will not magically learn to read over summer without an intervention.
@AtlasLiteracy My 7 year old successfully answered it. When I asked him how he knew he was surprised. “Dad, he just said it. It’s so easy.”
So yeah. I wish I knew “why” they would include something like that.
Insane to think this is a real SAT exam question.
Attention spans are now so bad that some "reading passages" are just 24 WORDS. We are becoming an illiterate society.
Why is nobody talking about this?
Science of Reading doesnt become real because you buy materials, host training, or say the right things. It becomes real when leaders build systems that make evidence-based instruction clear, supported, practiced, inspected, protected, and sustained.
Clarity. Consistency. Culture
I remember one part of an evaluation where the observer "dinged" me for how I copied and pasted into a shared document (I was writing with students in a shared document). He did not like how I had copied a sentence and pasted it in a different part of the draft......🤦♀️
How about this instead? Get rid of all teacher evaluations after tenure (or 3 years experience) UNLESS there is a specific concern with a teacher that has been brought to her attention in advance. Other than that, evaluations are the worst time suckers and serve ZERO purpose.
We are currently seeking dedicated professionals to serve as volunteers to support educator preparation accreditation. As part of the peer-review process, volunteers are the backbone of CAEP Accreditation, helping to ensure quality educator preparation and strengthen outcomes for P-12 learners.
All training is done between June 1st and August 15th. Reviewer training is asynchronous, with a three-hour meeting that you may schedule between July 13th and July 24th.
If you are passionate about advancing excellence in educator preparation through evidence-based accreditation and continuous improvement, we invite you to apply.
Complete the CAEP Volunteer Application by May 15.
Link to application: https://t.co/9j7GRICAu4
You can teach nearly every high school subject effectively with a textbook and a chalkboard, and the only reason we don’t is because education companies figured out they could milk districts out of millions of dollars by convincing them otherwise.
@drantbradley Public school is a big part of the illiteracy problem.
But any parent willing to learn could be mentored by another homeschooler one on one or in a co-op situation while learning alongside their children.
The real key here is the parents' willingness to learn.
@RussReadsBooks , I spoke w/ a student's dad after a session recently, and he was commenting on how they were reading a really cool science book together about rocket science...😂
I said, "Oh, is it written by Russell Newman?"
"Yes!!! How did you know?"
We follow each other on X!