JEFFERSONVILLE, Ga. — In Jeffersonville Elementary School, they're focusing on meeting the needs of students by doing something that may seem small, but has a big impact.
"Learning is fun, we also do activities like making different types of shapes," kindergartener Gabriel Williams said.
The list goes on as to why Williams loves school. His favorite subject is math.
"The reason why I love math is because I like to do math problems," he said.
Another thing Gabriel enjoys at school is small groups.
"We wanted to make sure we really targeted students' needs. Our small group allows for us to use the data for our kids to learn. Our teachers have really used the data to target those specific learning needs for our students," Principal Rise Jenkins said.
The school uses data driven strategies to help students be the best they can be.
"You're going to see an opportunities for teachers to accelerate students and also an opportunity for students to really remediate those areas where they missed the learning opportunity," Jenkins said.
Kindergarten teacher Latoya Pearson sees the difference its making in her students since they started learning at their own stride.
"I don't have to worry about this group being too fast paced to where I can't keep up, or maybe this group not being where I want them to be. No, it'll be right where they are," Pearson said.
At first, the small groups focused mainly on K-K2 but now it's expanding even further.
"We moved that initiative up to K5 meaning every student has the opportunity to have a small group here at J.E.S." Principal Jenkins said.
To make sure no student's voice goes unheard, and that each need gets met.
"I just love small groups there's nothing bad about it. It's just so fun to do," Gabriel said.