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=**Study Skills for All Students**=

Welcome! I am a middle school learning resource specialist at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi, and I provide study skill support for middle school students with mild to moderate learning challenges. All students benefit from solid study skills instruction, yet in many cases, only students who have been identified for resource support receive this instruction. My professional goal this year was to create an efficient way to support classroom teachers in building study skills into their curricula. I have created this wiki as a means for sharing study skills topics, lessons, and ideas for my colleagues.

I work with incredibly talented teachers who already do so much to support their students' learning needs. It was hard, at first, to determine the areas in need of support. I also felt a bit isolated in my search for information. Most teachers have partners, team members, and/or a department with whom they can share ideas and get feedback. In my case, which is often the case for "specials" teachers such as resource, art, or drama teachers, I am a single entity in the middle school. Sometimes I have an ELL counterpart, but at ACS ELL services stop in the elementary school. I felt a bit stuck. I could easily research other schools with similar profiles, but I was missing a team of professionals who can relate to the experiences of an international learning resource teacher. After running my ideas by my principal, I decided to set two objectives for my goal:

1. Create a bank of study skills lessons, ideas, and activities that is specifically tailored to the needs of each grade level. 2. Explore different ways to create an Internet-based professional learning community (PLC).

For the first objective, I created and administered a survey to assess the students' and teachers' needs. Based on the survey results, I identified areas of focus for each grade level. The grade level conversations that happened as a result of these surveys were fantastic. Each team eagerly listened to feedback, reflected on the responses, and put plans in motion for supporting some of the needs that arose. Add links to surveys here? Link to grade level pages?

For the second objective, I attended a year's worth of school-based PD sessions focused on setting up PLC's. In these sessions, I learned how to use online organizational and networking tools such as twitter, ________ to connect with other professionals in my field. At the end of these sessions, my principal (who happened to be the PD instructor) suggested that I try a wiki. This does seem to be the best tool to meet both of my objectives; I can use it to share ideas, files, and build up a bank of grade specific study skills, but I can also invite others in my PLC to take a look at what I have done. I hope you enjoy my experiment and welcome your feedback. = =