RTI... What does it really mean?
RTI equals "Response to Intervention"... I only knew of it as a vague term... been fighting for it for almost four years without really knowing what it was called until last week when I attended the RITAP conference up in Providence. The past two years I have finally relaxed a bit... prior to that I felt like I was fighting a one-person war.
Now I am trying to think about why it is we go to conferences... what we can really accomplish as individual teachers. RTI is supposed to be a school-wide intervention for students who are failing to learn... While I love (absolutely LOVE) the concept... I fail to see how it could ever be implemented in my building. Out of four people from my building scheduled to attend, one didn't go... The next day one of the teachers that went was speaking in the hallway about this session... "it was a waste of time... same old stuff"
Hmmm... same old stuff??? If it were truly the same old stuff... why do kids fail? Why are teachers unaware that RTI programs exist? (I read widely and this is still unfamiliar to me prior to this week)
I would love to hear these answers... I would love to know how to create a community of teachers who are willing to invest themselves into this type of intervention program... geez... "same old stuff"... Right!!