BRIGHT LINES

Students Win Facing History 

Contest

The winners of the Facing History Together Student & Alumni Upstander Scholarship Contest are students Shireen Afzal (Woburn Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario) and Arvaughn Williams (City Arts and Technology High School, San Francisco, Calif.).  

Afzal’s essay impressed judges with her focus on how stories can fight indifference. “I'm sick of indifference and whether it's through social media, newspaper articles, novels, or survivor stories, I don't intend to let the world turn away anymore,” she said.

Williams’s spoken poem, Reassurance, is a chant about his vision for the future, especially to overlooked people in society-- to let them know that their voices matter. “Pick up your pencil, don’t let them defeat you,” he says, and much more.

STRETCHING ACROSS MULTIPLE CLASSROOMS. At Bailey Middle Prep, a STEM magnet school in Nashville, Tenn., classroom teacher Whitney Bradley, plays the role of “multi-classroom instructor.” She not only teaches her own class, but she advises other teachers throughout the day. Read more about Bradley and other teachers like her who have opportunities for advancement while continuing to work primarily in the classroom in this blog by Jordan Moeny (EdWeek). Read and listen to the original NPR story from All Things Considered.

BREAKING FREE. How can teachers be better advocates for themselves? Get some answers in this interview between Nicholas Garcia at Chalkbeat Colorado and Frederick Hess, author of the new book, The Cage-Busting Teacher, and the director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Hess and Garcia address old school policies that have created barriers to reform, gridlock models of compensation and credentials, the need for teachers to take ownership for their profession, and ways to break free and solve problems by embracing leadership.

Editor's note: The following is part of a series that focuses on excellent African American educators. Educators were selected by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

STEVEN SANDERS

Celebrating African American Educators

Steven Sanders is the 9th-12th Grade Band Director at UIC College Prep in Chicago, Illinois. In 2012, he won the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice.

 What is the one thing you most celebrate about your students?

The one thing that I most celebrate about my students is the level of self-discipline they gain as they work through the curriculum. Many of my students come to me without any prior knowledge of music and must work hard to achieve success. When they leave my classroom, however, they have learned how to persevere and accomplish what many believe to be impossible.

In what ways do you encourage parents, family members, and other caring adults to support the learning and development of African American students?

I encourage parents, family members, and others to always hold a high expectation for their African American students. Statistics show that there is an alarmingly low percentage of African Americans finishing college and engaging in productive careers. If we are ever going to change that, we must hold our students to a high standard and teach them how to deal with and overcome the often-difficult circumstances they’re in.

 Read Steven’s Fishman Prize Essay, “Own Your Sound”. 

IGNITING THE SPARK

Roadmap to Building Creativity

Did you know that research shows that there is a clear path to becoming creative? This white paper developed by the Center for Childhood Creativity with support from Disney Citizenship, Inspiring a Generation to Create: Critical Components of Creativity in Children, synthesizes more than 150 studies from various academic fields contributing to the understanding of creativity.

The authors propose seven critical components of creativity: 

1. imagination & originality; 

2. flexibility; 

3. decision making; 

4. communication & self-expression; 

5. motivation; 

6. collaboration; and 

7. action & movement.

They are organized across three childhood developmental areas—cognitive; social and emotional; and physical -- that help us think about and promote creativity.

GOOD DATA

Native American Education

Native American graduation rates rose 4.7% between the 2010-11 and 2012-13 school years, according to new data released from ED.   

(Read more from National Center for Education Statistics.)

RESOURCES FOR EL AND SPECIAL ED

Writing is Thinking

A group of teachers in Boston, Mass. have created a great website to help middle school teachers empower their English learners and students with disabilities to write across the curriculum. 

The site has some really great resources for teaching scientific writing and build writing stamina. 

• Gregory Mullenholz (2011 Washington Fellow) has been appointed by the Montgomery County (Md.) Board of Education as the next principal of Ashburton Elementary School, a preK-5 school with 950 students in Bethesda, Md.

• Nick Greer (2010 Washington Fellow) has a new position at Thread, a Baltimore organization that engages under-performing high school students confronting significant barriers outside of the classroom, by providing each one with a family of committed volunteers and increased access to community resources. 

MAKING INFORMED COLLEGE CHOICES

In Search of a Match

A Guide for Helping Students Make Informed College Choices is designed for counselors, teachers, and advisers who work with high school students from low-income families and students who are the first in their families to pursue a college education. 

The report offers strategies for helping these students identify, consider, and enroll in “match” colleges — that is, selective colleges that are a good fit for students based on their academic profiles, financial considerations, and personal needs.

The guide is published by MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor. 

CONTEST: CREATE TOMORROWLAND. That’s the challenge to students ages 8 – 17. The Disney XPrize Challenge contest defies students to create an invention or innovation of the future by submitting a story, image, or video that explains what it is, how it works, and the impact it has on the world. The creative approach will help to develop their science, technology, engineering, arts and math skills, preparing them to tackle today’s challenges and grapple with tomorrow’s. All contestants must register through their parent or legal guardian. The contest registration begins April 22 and ends May 17. Learn more about the rules. 

FEEL-GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT

Seven Steps to Keeping your Sanity

Keeping it simple and making a plan can help teachers maximize their non-student time. In her blog, 7-Step Prep: Make a Weekly Plan for YOU!, consultant and former teacher Maia Heyck-Merlin offers planning tools and resources to help. 

Teachers will find out more about how to prioritize their time, get and stay organized, and plan for the week ahead, while managing to laugh and relax (Edutopia).

GOOD STUFF FOR EDUWONKS

Making Senior Year Count 

This new Education Commission of the States Education Policy Analysis on High School Assessments looks at ways to make the most of college and career readiness assessments that gauge students' mastery of standards in English language arts and math. The report investigates statewide high school college and career readiness assessments and how states are using them to overcome two persistent challenges -- the "wasted senior year" and high postsecondary remediation rates.

The report is being released with an accompanying 50-state database containing information about how states use the assessments to improve the 12th grade year. 

Teachers' Notes

• THE ABCs OF MATH INSTRUCTION. Math teacher Marilyn Burns has written a thoughtful article about how teachers can help their students experience math with the same kind of joy, creativity and discovery they feel when learning to read. One insight: "No one finds it acceptable to think of a child as a proficient reader if he or she can pronounce the words but doesn't understand the material... The same standard should hold true for math."

• NCLB OVERHAUL. Arne Duncan has called for replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), with a law that ensures opportunity for every child, expands support for schools, teachers, and principals, and preserves accountability. Learn more.

• EYE-OPENING WEBCAST. Mark your calendar for the Action Research Summit (Pikeville, Ky.), which is an opportunity to hear directly from teachers and students about how they are transforming teaching and learning in their classrooms. Look for the link to the live webcast for national audiences on the day of the broadcast, April 21.  

• STAND OUT STORIES. Find out more and read some of the stories that teachers were reading last month in past editions of The Teachers Edition.

• MAKING HISTORY MEANINGFUL. Bringing students into the “historical problem space” by using historical documents is challenging and few teachers get it right, according to the report Entering the Historical Problem Space: Whole-Class Text-Based Discussion in History Class by Abby Reisman. She focuses on reasons this work is difficult and ways to bring students into the discussion (Marshall Memo).

• PILLARS OF LITERACY. Consider these seven ways to support and promote reading and writing literacy from FREE as a means to engage students. These activities could help them now or when the school year ends.

• NEW PSAT. The College Board has posted sample questions and an entire practice test to help students get ready for the revamped PSAT, which will debut in the fall. The test does away with the dreaded SAT vocab; instead, it emphasizes close reading and analytical skills. 

• SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT. As a new teacher, Lily Jones felt overwhelmed by the range of students' abilities in her classroom. As she learned more about differentiation strategies, it became easier to meet the needs of all of her students, but it remained one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. To help other new teachers, her blog from the Teaching Channel shares six great differentiation strategies.  

TAILOR MAKING IMPROVEMENT PLANS

Rhode Island Department of Education is working with about 30 of its schools in need of improvement in a more supportive and collaborative way to improve students' outcomes. Specialists meet with the schools four times a year to help them analyze a variety of data and discuss ways to adjust their improvement plans to expedite progress. 

Rather than limiting them to four models for whole-school reform (closure, restart, transformation or turnaround) required by the terms of their federal waiver from some of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provisions, schools are able to take a much more tailored approach. Read more on the PROGRESS blog. 

Recommended Reading

• A TIDAL WAVE OF GRATITUDE. Check out this poignant story in the Kansas City (Mo.) Star about a businessman that reached out to teachers who had made a difference in his life--with a thank-you and a big check (Robertson).

• TOUGH CHOICES. PBS Education reporter John Merrow posed this question to a small group of principals in training: "Imagine you’ve been made responsible for making dramatic improvements in our public schools…but with the stipulation that you must choose one point of attack and focus almost all of your energy and resources on that." Their answers and his take on them make great reading.

Top 5 Quotes

Wisdom from educators heard by ED

5. Reflecting on her work at a Teach to Lead Summit: "Our children will benefit from the opportunity we were given to share and develop our [leadership] idea.'” (Teacher, Buffalo, N.Y.)

4. "Kids who are highly engaged lead to schools that are wildly successful." (Teacher, Kansas)

3. "Education needs to do a better job of leveraging the talents of remarkable teachers." (Principal, Maine)

2. A true story: "You know a teacher is tired when she puts her lunch in the photocopier instead of the microwave." (Teacher, Massachusetts) 

1. "The people closest to their work know their work the best" (Teacher, Maryland)