Monday, June 28, 2010

Summertime, and the schoolin' ain't easy...

Interesting article in today's Washington Post on new ways of looking at summer school. 1 in 4 American students attends a "summer learning program." But there's a still a great stigma attached to summer school, and it isn't just from the students' perspective, either. Parents are often loathe to send their kids back to school over the summer, reasoning that June-July-August is a time for relaxation, for getting away from school, etc. etc.

As the article points out, summer school takes many forms, and is not necessarily a remedial environment. Many summer school programs are enriching, offering students curriculum choices unavailable during the academic year.

But it's more serious than that. "Summer learning loss" is a real problem -- students who arrive back in classrooms in September having forgotten far too much from the previous year. For teachers, that means that the new year doesn't necessarily pick up where the old one left off. Rather, there is often too much time spent reviewing what summer vacation erased.

Many Walch programs and materials are specifically designed for use during summer school. We've long recognized that learning is a flexible concept; it doesn't magically begin when the first leaves fall or end when the yellow buses pull away. Increasingly, we're seeing school districts across the country extend and broaden their academic calendars, to provide alternatives for students who simply need more.

Friday, June 25, 2010

A new way of approaching Accuplacer

If you're a high school senior, then you're likely aware of, or will soon be aware of, the Accuplacer test. The College Board administers the tests, usually given to seniors or incoming college freshman. The Accuplacer, in math, reading, or English, helps academic advisers and counselors place college freshmen in the appropriate courses.

Many students find out, after taking the Accuplacer exams, that they need (non-credit) remedial courses in college. It's to everyone's advantage if those students can instead take the classes in high school that help them to catch up, rather than in college. So more and more schools are now giving the Accuplacers in (high school) junior year, so that any remedial work can happen in 12th grade.

We've just entered the Accuplacer universe with a new set of six units of math instruction we're developing. The units will be administered in junior or senior year, and students can then do any necessary remedial work before they hit college.

Here's the cool part: these six units aren't a book. They aren't a PowerPoint. They're digital instruction that will be delivered via iTunes U, the Apple-developed curriculum program, downloadable right onto an iPhone or iPad. We're piloting them here in the state of Maine, and iTunes U will make them available free of charge to Maine teachers.

Using the digital technology, students will be be able to work through math problems and, depending on their answer, get directed on-screen to resources that help them tackle and resolve any particular issues.

We're developing this program in partnership with the Maine International Center for Digital Learning, through a grant funded by the Davis Family Foundation. As part of our development work, we recently conducted a focus group with Maine educators currently administering the Accuplacer (that photo was taken at our focus group session). Plans are to have a working pilot by this winter, make refinements to it in the spring, and have it available as instructional material for the 2011-2012 school year.

Monday, June 21, 2010

A day at Poland Spring (Academy)

For many years, Walch Education has been a fan and supporter of Poland Spring Academy (PSA). They're located in the town of Poland Spring, Maine, about 45 minutes or so northwest of Portland. Yes, that's the same town that gave rise to the "Poland Spring" brand of bottled water.

PSA is a small private school, focused on providing an individualized education to each member sof its student body. They offer many different programs to accommodate different lifestyles and educational requirements. They refer to it as "Individualized Learning At Its Best."

A couple of weeks ago, we accepted PSA's offer to visit the school and observe their graduation exercises. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by PSA parents, students, and staff, and we quickly felt at home. It was clear that this was a place where everybody was invested in the common purpose of supporting and nurturing students.

The graduation ceremony itself was highly inclusive, personalized, and student focused, and it reinforced our satisfaction at supporting this fine school through the years. In our business, we have the opportunity to see close at hand many hard working, dedicated educators and administrators. They work conscientiously all year long, often in very challenging circumstances. But year after year, in school after school, teachers do manage to inspire and educate their students, and prepare tomorrow's leaders. It's a delight for us to say that PSA’s staff ranks at the top of the list.

Monday, June 7, 2010

A Novice Teacher

What an eye opener it was. I was invited to a local middle school to teach seventh graders about Financial Literacy, Decision Making and Careers (courtesy of Junior Achievement). After 12 forty minute periods, I came away with even more respect for good teachers, a lot of appreciation for how sophisticated today’s teenagers are and an appreciation for the substance of many of the things educators say every day.

I prepared before each class, using the teacher’s guide I was given, sorting out and playing with the manipulatives and, at the beginning, writing my own personal “script”. I soon found out, however, that a script doesn't take you very far, esp. in a roomful of adolescents.

Some of the things I learned:

* There is no substitute for personal connection to and facility with the material. It allows you to respond to and interact with the ebb and flow of the classroom, bring the discussion back around to whatever your objective is and build on students’ curiosity even when it’s peripheral to the main topic

* Wow, do these kids need a hands-on, diverse, active, engaging approach! They are easily distracted and quite varied (intellectually, socially, knowledge-wise, etc). They are natural multi-taskers. Recently the head of Math for a large district in MD observed the following in an email to me: “The traditional class structure in which the teacher does most of the talking and the students just sit and listen and do practice problems for a whole class period (day in and day out) is not effective for a large number of students.” Boy, do I get it!

* Each class is a such a small part of a student’s day, and mind share, that it’s a real challenge to reach beyond the 4 walls and 40 minutes you share. I was humbled, and flattered, when I ran in to one of my students’ parents at a ball game. When I mentioned that her boy was in one of my classes she remarked that he had been talking about financial literacy around the dinner table and had been wondering where he was picking it up. What a great feeling. In a very small way, I can begin to appreciate what keeps so many of our great teachers coming back year after year.

My final observation is that this experience reinforced to me the wisdom of hiring teachers at Walch. At least half of our product development and partnership team has experience in the classroom- there's no substitute.