When Rebecca Burnfin arrived at Garden City School District in Kansas ten years ago as an elementary lead teacher, she quickly realized that the textbooks available didn’t meet the needs of their diverse student population. With students from various parts of the world—including Somalia, Cameroon, and Burma—it became clear that a more flexible and inclusive approach was necessary.
“When I went into book selection in 2017, I got to work with the high school teachers who were already using TCI. They had everything positive to say about it, from the flexibility to the ability to change languages. It was nice to see something working for our student population.”
In 2021, Rebecca moved to the district’s high school and started using TCI’s programs. “This is our third adoption of TCI, which means we have been using TCI for nearly 16 years, which is amazing! I was on both of the last two selection processes.”
What impressed Rebecca and the selection committee each adoption cycle was TCI’s commitment to listening to teacher feedback. TCI consistently provided updates and resources, ensuring teachers and students had everything they needed to succeed in their classrooms.
“You can tell how much TCI listens to teachers. Every time we’ve adopted, we’ve been like, oh, maybe we need to start looking into something else, and it’s always like, no, TCI has the newest thing!”
Improving Outcomes for State Assessments
TCI’s high school programs have played a pivotal role in providing Garden City School District students with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in state benchmarks and assessments. When Kansas introduced a competency-based state assessment, students faced the challenge of writing long inquiry pieces. Rebecca discovered that the inquiry projects in TCI’s program cultivated critical thinking skills and made learning an enjoyable experience.
“The hands-on experiential activities make it fun and make students feel like they are not doing work, but they are. These activities lead to inquiry-based projects where students explore multiple perspectives that they may have otherwise glanced over.”
Moreover, TCI’s built-in reading support features offered invaluable support for state assessments. “With TCI’s digital platform, students can annotate right in the text. They can color code and leave notes for themselves, which is awesome because our Kansas State Assessments system is the same. ”
The positive impact of TCI’s resources is evident in the improvement in the state assessment scores. “Our state assessment outcomes during the pilot year were interesting. Around 55% to 60% of the students met the college criteria for writing with inquiry. Now, we are getting upwards of 80% to 85% of the students who can read a text, take notes, put it into that inquiry model, write an essay, and do a production piece. TCI has helped us facilitate competency-based assessment and made students more successful because of its structure.”
Making TCI Your Own
TCI understands the importance of personalizing materials to meet the unique needs of teachers. By offering both print and digital resources, educators like Rebecca can choose the format that aligns with their teaching style. The ability to customize activities and lessons enhances student engagement and comprehension.
“For example, in the Government Alive! program, there’s an activity that requires chips. We can easily print them if needed. TCI allows us to have the material that suits our curriculum choices. It’s sustainable and adaptable, unlike one-size-fits-all packages. We can print, laminate, and customize based on our needs. This allows us to share resources with the next staff, making it a fun and collaborative experience.”
Rebecca also emphasizes the value of customizing activities to enhance students’ understanding. For instance, Rebecca recalls a lesson on the Byzantine Empire from TCI’s History Alive! The World Connections program. To explore the role of Constantinople as a trading hub, students participate in a trading game using cards. Rebecca makes the activity even more immersive by taking it outside the classroom.
“We took the trading activity for Constantinople outside, which was a lot of fun. The lessons and activities are not limited to the classroom; you don’t need your computer except for the reading part. We can easily adapt examples from the lessons to be done in our commons area. This flexibility allows us to make use of different spaces and keeps us from being tied down to a specific room.”.
Active Cross-Curricular Learning
TCI teachers have many options for student assessment. Each TCI lesson includes options for summative assessments, such as the Processing activity, games, and the TCI test. The lesson’s Processing activity asks students to apply what they have learned in creative ways by writing evidence-based articles, creating posters, conducting interviews, and more. These assessments offer an exciting opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge and engage with history in a more immersive and dynamic way.
“My favorite activities are the processing tasks because they offer diversity. It’s not just about writing, like in old social studies programs. These tasks cross-collaborate with other subjects. For example, students engage in graphic design when they create a newspaper or write a letter to the governor, which covers ELA. These processing tasks enable them to take the readings and transform them into something more, encouraging them to express their perspectives and engage with different modalities of learning.”
A Curriculum by Teachers for Teachers
Teachers are at the heart of TCI’s programs. We are a company founded and led by educators who understand the needs and challenges faced by teachers in the classroom. Our curriculum is rooted in proven teaching strategies and practices that bring learning to life and consistently yield positive outcomes in the classroom.
Rebecca emphasizes the teacher-centric approach of TCI. “TCI is designed with the modern teacher in mind. As educators, we often find ourselves stretched for time, going beyond our contractual obligations. TCI genuinely considers teachers, their roles, and responsibilities and enables us to be facilitators rather than being solely at the center of the classroom. This is a significant advantage compared to other platforms. TCI recognizes the vital importance of teachers and equips us with everything we might need. They empower every teacher to thrive in the classroom. When I think of TCI, I think teacher created.“
Bringing learning alive in the classroom is what TCI is all about. We love hearing from teachers like Rebecca and our goal is to empower them to achieve success in the classroom.
