Teachers Raise Achievement with High Expectations

Faubian Elementary is a school in Portland, Oregon with many minority students from low-income families. However, the teachers at the school have high expectations for their students and because of their hard work the school the school has made dramatic jumps in their statewide assessments. Viewing the video below shows us what a crucial role the teachers play in creating a superior educational environment. The teachers collaborate and work together using a variety a techniques that best suit the individual needs of each student. What I noticed was the flexibility the teachers had to do what they thought was best for the students. The teachers seemed active and willingly engaged in doing the "hard work". I also noticed that a "program" didn't "run" the school. Teachers bought in because they were valued and were considered "the experts". For example, from an article about the school I learned that for 2 hours every other Monday,

"The staff meets to tackle one in a rotating list of topics: math, reading,writing, and life-skills education. They use the time to assess data, develop curriculum, discuss the needs of individual students, and participate in professional-development workshops -- sessions often led by Faubion teachers who have completed outside training on particular skills."

That sounds like a lot of meeting time, but note that it is the teachers who are considered the experts. They don't follow what they are told they must follow, but instead there is a choice involved. When given the choice, the teachers do what needs to be done and they seem to do it willingly, happily, and with great success.

"The key to this training is that teachers choose what they want to learn; each year, they agree on one weak area to give particular emphasis (this year, writing), and it's typically the area where test results show students need the most help. As Harbolt says, "We figure if they're weak on it, we must be weak on it.""

When the teachers are considered the experts, they do the "expert" things. There are a lot of innovative and interesting techniques going on throughout the video.




Lessons learned:

If you want to create a successful school, it takes hard work.

It's not about the "program"! It is about the best experts in the business: the classroom teacher. Treat the teachers like the experts they are. Give them the power and the support they need to do what they know needs to be done. Then, and only then, will wonderful things happen! Bravo! to the Faubian Elementary School!

A Reading Program in Need of Improvement!

Today's Washington Post reports on a Reading Program in Need of Improvement. The article "Study of Reading Program Finds a Lack of Progress" by Maria Glod takes to task the $6 billion Reading First program after a congressionally mandated study determined that students have made no greater improvements or scored no better than students in similar schools who did not use the Reading First program. Of course Reading First is a program funded by the No Child Left Behind law. Here is a sad comment from the article:

"It is a program that needs to be improved," said Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst,director of the Institute of Education Sciences, the department's research arm."I don't think anyone should be celebrating that the federal government has spent $6 billion on a reading program that has had no impact on reading comprehension."

Of course the article also mentions that not so new allegations that some of the people who had oversight over the Reading First program also had financial ties to the publishers of Reading First materials. Did I mention that this is a $6 billion program? I think I smell a program in need of some corrective action.

There are some really useful things in the Reading First program and there are some dreadful things. However when will the politicians learn that it is not a program that works with students, it is the teachers. Hire good teachers and support them as much as possible so that they can do their job, but don't expect a $6 billion program to be the answer. It sounds like a lot of wasted money.

A Simple Way to Learn Luxembourgish (or many other languages)

One Minute Languages is an interesting website where you can learn the basics of another language in ten short 'couple of minutes' lessons. So if you ever wanted to learn Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Russian, Japaneses, or a roster of other languages this is the place to go. Your students might find it fun to learn how to greet someone, to count to ten, or to learn a few useful phrases in different languages. If you are reading a story that takes place in one of these countries, this might be a fun website to share or use with your class.

And if you are not sure why you might want to learn Luxembourgish, just become a fan of the Tour de France. Last year three of the tours top riders where from Luxembourg. Two of them wore the yellow jersey (as tour leader) for six of the stages. What is Luxembourgish for yellow jersey?

A Journey Back in Time

Things do change! Check out this class photo from Mr. Hansen's fourth grade class, when he was a student at the Mullen-Hall School in Falmouth, Ma. He is sitting right in front of the teacher, Miss Costello. Kids dressed for school differently back then, but Miss Costello looks like she would fit in as a teacher today! Kids also seemed much smaller. I think the front two rows of the class look like today's' second graders.

The Tale of Despereaux

Today I just finished reading the wonderful book "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamillo to my class. Like every class the past few years who have heard me read this book, they absolutely love this story about a brave little mouse. Today I ran across a trailer for an animated version of this story coming out this Christmas.

Oh no! This is not the book! Everything is different: the vocabulary, the scenes, and in particular, this is not how I visualized the book. Hopefully the movie will be great in its own way, but before you go see this movie, read the Newbery Medal winning book.

More Animoto Video Poems: Based on "The Red Wheelbarrow"

We have made more amazing poetry videos using the animoto website. First we looked at our third William Carlos William poem of the year. Previously we wrote poems based on "A Locust Tree in Bloom" and "This is Just to Say". This time we had fun with "A Red Wheelbarrow".

Who know what is so special about the red wheelbarrow in the poem, but it is fun to speculate. The mystery behind the wheelbarrow and why "so much depends upon it" makes the poem enjoyable. We discussed the "rules" that the author followed to write the poem primarily describing something seemingly insignificant as important without telling why. We also looked at the structure of the title, stanzas, and lines.

Here is a Library of Congress recordings of William Carlos William reciting the poem in 1945.

	William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Here William Carlos Williams talks a bit about the poem (from 1952).

	William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Next I reminded the class about the story I have been reading to them: "The Tale of Despereaux". We then wrote about something from the story that wouldn't seem that important at all to someone who may have not have read the book but carries loads of tragic meaning to a person who does know the book. The poem we wrote together is called "The Red Tablecloth".

In the story a rat steals a red tablecloth from a man sent to a dungeon and in doing so takes away his only comfort. We later learn that the man had earlier traded his daughter for that same tablecloth. It ends up being an object in the story that "so much depends on".

I then gave each student a photograph that I had cut our from old "National Geographic" magazines. I had them look for an object to write about and to write a creative poem of their own inspired by William Carlos Williams. Then I used my digital camera to get close up images of the photograph as well as lines from the poem that had been printed out by each student poet. What do you think of these "poetic" videos? Please note that I am using the music on the Animoto website. I try to match tunes to poems, but there is only a limited number of songs and it is hard to find songs without words. However in most cases the songs match up wonderfully to the poem.

In a couple of weeks I will be reading the class one of my favorite children's books, "Love That Dog", by Sharon Creech. In this excellent book a boy learns to enjoy and write poetry with the help of his teacher. The teacher uses famous poems to model poetry writing to her class. William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" plays an important role in this book. The class will be thrilled when this connection is made!

"The Big Mustache" by JB

"The Black Dog" by AA

"A Girl Catching Fish"

"A Sweaty Working Man" by WP

"An Old Cow" by IM

"The Brown Gourd" by TE

"The Brown Wooden Swing" by LE

"The Head Band" by JP

"The Big Paper Umbrella" by EV

"The Red Flowery Dress" by SV

"The Walking Stick"

"A Sitting Down Dog" by CA

"A Hole in a Wall" by JR

"A White Furry Goat" by JS

The Simple Truth Found in a Rubik's Cube

William Wissemann is an 18 year old college freshman who used a Rubik's Cube to teach himself some valuable life lessons. You can listen to or read his "This I Believe" speech called "Accomplishing Big Things In Small Pieces" here. It originally aired as a NPR segment.

William had to leave his public school after fourth grade because of a language-processing disorder. Solving a Rubik's Cube helped William understand that he had to first break problems down before he could solve them. It mirrored his own progress in breaking down language in order to use it effectively. A simple Rubik's Cube taught William many other important lessons about dealing with frustrations and reaching goals. It is a wonderful essay.

"This I Believe" is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada, as well as in regular broadcasts on NPR. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

Here a school administrator starts his own "This I Believe" list. What an interesting way to reflect about what is important to you as an educator or person.

I have never been able to solve the Rubik's Cube on my own, unless you count the time I took the stickers off and just rearranged them by color! After I graduated from College I worked for a summer at a day camp run by The Stony Brook School, the college prep boarding school I had attended for three years. There was one fourth grade boy attending the camp who could consistently solve the Rubik's Cube (it was new then) in a very short amount of time. I even watched him solve it in under a minute a few times.