Walch Education

SFI OKs Walch Education Books

2009-11-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

If you're up on your sustainability acronyms, then you know that SFI stands for Sustainable Forestry Initiative. And you know that, along with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), they're one of the major organizations that certify whether wood products come from sustainably managed forests.

As a publisher, we use a lot of wood products, i.e. paper. We use less than we used to, because more and more of our titles are available as CD-ROMs or digital downloads. Plus, our on-site digital printing allows us to minimize the amount of paper (and books) we keep on on-hand in our warehouse. But we still use a lot of paper. And we're headquartered in Maine, the most heavily-forested state (by percentage of overall land) in the country. So we're particularly sensitive to the need for sustainable forestry. That's why we were so pleased, this past week, to get approval from SFI to print our books on SFI-certified paper. As Chuck Thomas, our VP of Operations noted, it was a big step to get SFI certification earlier this year. Now we've taken the next big step: getting approval to use that certification on virtually all of our books. Beginning now, all of our new books, and all of the reprints of existing titles, will show the SFI logo on the copyright page. It may not look like much, but it indicates that we're trying to do our job to ensure that the forests we depend on will still be there, and be healthy, many many years from now.

Georgia District Sees Test Scores Rise

2009-11-06T13:26:00.001-08:00

We're very fond of Clarke County, Georgia. Yes, it's home to Athens and the University of Georgia. But we're especially fond of...

...summer school test results! (Well, who isn't?) This past summer, Clarke County 8th graders in summer school used our new Georgia Academic Support Program Comprehensive Mathematics, Grade 8. According to Clarke County School District Mathematics Coach Glenda Huff, “The 8th grade teachers loved the resource. The planning time was cut in half for a summer program that was packed with content.” Just as significantly, students using the program saw their test results rise 12.8%, from pre-test to post-test.

It's one thing to develop and publish programs that you think make a difference in the classroom. It's another thing to see some concrete proof.

Digital Downloads!

2009-11-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

All new Walch Education tiles now come with a fully searchable CD-ROM attached to the printed book. But we're not stopping there: we now also offer 18 of our most popular titles as Digital Downloads on our web site.

That means that if you're searching for Dialogue, Discussion, and Debate: Science, or Daily Writing Fundamentals or Daily Warm-Ups: Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots, or any other of 18 titles, you can purchase them as traditional print-format books. Or, you can download them right from our web site -- and save a few dollars in the process.

So go to the full list of our Digital Downloads and bring our best-sellers right into your classroom or home instantly!

You Gotta' Have Art!

2009-11-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

...and we have it, hot off the press!

Meet Daily Warm-Ups: Art History, the latest addition to our acclaimed Daily Warm-Ups series. It's a stand-alone or a companion to our perennially popular Daily Warm-Ups: Art.

Difference is, Daily Warm-Ups: Art History zeroes in on how art mixes and mingles with culture and history over time. The familiar, successful format applies: 180 quick activities that require little or no prep time for teacher. These are ideal for the beginning of class, end of class, or any transition or down time.

Fact is, Daily Warm-Ups: Art has been well received year after year. So we went back to the teachers who use it and asked what more we could give them? More of this, they answered, and that's why we developed this new title. Needless to say, it includes a handy-dandy CD-ROM that's completely searchable, so you can copy from the book itself or project/copy from the disk.

Did we mention that Daily Warm-Ups: Art History addresses National Standards for Art Education? That it has links to other web resources? That it's spiral-bound and lays flat? That it's darn cute?

We did? Well, then, what are you waiting for?

Time to Visit North Carolina!

2009-10-30T06:15:00.001-07:00

Right now, our Senor Director of Programs and Partnerships, Jill Rosenblum, is down in Greensboro, North Carolina. She's at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Jill is showcasing our newest program there, Foundations of Algebra. Designed, written, and piloted with North Carolina educators, Foundations of Algebra prepares struggling students for Algebra 1 and beyond. It's aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, and can be used in 9th grade as a semester or a full-year course.

Definitely Not Your Father's High-School Science Class

2009-10-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Forensic science is all the rage on TV, what with C.S.I. and similar shows. Makes sense that it would percolate down to the high-school classroom, too. Teachers across the country are now using the cool parts of forensic science -- you know, the blood, the fingerprints, all that -- to teach basic science.

Sean Cavanagh reports on this phenomenon in a recent article in Education Week: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/28/09forensics_ep.h29.html?tkn=PQQFA0Hu7sxGMDVWXWtNmgy65xvOiTLMBWKp

And it's nice to see our new Hands-On Science: Forensics featured in the article as one of the resources educators are using!

It's Show Time!

2009-10-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year when many subject-specific teacher associations have their annual gatherings. Today, October 16th, is particularly conspicuous: Walch Education representatives are exhibiting at the Florida Council of Teachers of English, the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics! Whew!

We're showing samples of, among other products, the Georgia Math 2 suite, the Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis program, and our Critical Literacy series. If you'd like to see a sample of any of these, or just find out more about Walch Education products, let us know. You can always reach us through Customer Service at (800) 341-6094, customerservice@walch.com.

Blood, Glass, Garbage...Forensics!

2009-10-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

With all of the interest in television shows about forensics (C.S.I., etc.) -- and there are plenty of middle- and high-school classes on the subject -- it's nice to see our Hands-On Science: Forensics title pick up a nice review.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) regularly takes a look at new science titles in the classroom. On September 8, they recommended our Forensics title, saying, among other things, that it "...offers teachers a wealth of activities that are aligned with NSES content standards...Each activity gives instructional objectives, NSES correlations, vocabulary, materials, helpful hints, and scoring rubrics...Hands-On Science: Forensics provides teachers with a total package for implementing forensic lessons that are relevant and engrossing for students." You can read the full recommendation here.

Hands-On Science: Forensics includes 20 activities that introduce students to the science of crime scene investigations. Sample topics include:

Blood pattern analysis

Glass fracture patterns

Photographing a crime scene

Searching through garbage

Microscopic fibers

The program is proving popular in middle schools, high schools, and adult ed/community college settings. For more information, contact (800) 341-6094, or customerservice@walch.com.

Video Games as a Teaching Tool? That's Right!

2009-10-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Our popular Media Literacy series explores how different media have developed, how they influence us, and how they can be used to teach critical skills in the classroom. The series has looked at media such as television, the Internet, newspapers --

-- and now, Video Games and Virtual Worlds! For many students, the online gaming and simulation worlds are far more interesting and "real" than the actual world we inhabit. OK, then, if that's the case, how can educators respond? We've developed this program, formally called Thinking Critically About Video Games and Virtual Worlds, to hekp students -- and teachers-- interpret, analyze, and evaluate interactive digital entertainment.

The program includes 48 lessons, zeroing in on topics such as:

The role of violence in video games

How video games affect parent-child relationships

Video games and players with disabilities

Scams and cheats

Linden dollars and other virtual world currency

What messages video game developers and sponsors are sending

Educators are using this new title in media, design, and computer classrooms, as inter-disciplinary resources in language arts or social studies classrooms, or to address the National Educational Technology Standards. You can find our more at (800) 341-6094, or customerservice@walch.com.

New Georgia Web Site Focuses on Education

2009-10-13T10:02:00.001-07:00

Walch Education has just launched http://www.walchgeorgia.com/. The new site focuses on our programs and partnerships in the Peachtree State.

We've partnered with many of the leading districts in Georgia, including Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Lumpkin counties. The site highlights some of our work with those districts, and the resulting programs.

Want to know more? Then you should talk to Andrea Newman, our Regional Partnership Manager in Georgia. She's at (404) 543-2478, anewman@walch.com.

Lexile Measures Make the Difference in Walch's New Georgia English/Language Arts Program

2009-10-13T09:46:00.001-07:00

Our Georgia Academic Support Program for English/Language Arts, High School, has been very popular in the Peachtree State. Now, Georgia educators have more evidence of the program's strength.

Metametrics, a leading educational measurement company, has applied its Lexile Framework for Reading to the 92 reading passages in the program. The average measure, 887L, places the majority of those reading passages squarely within a 9th-grade reading ability.

In other words? As Walch's Director of Education, Susan Graham, notes, "This demonstrates that the Georgia Academic Support Program for English/Language Arts, High School, is appropriate for a range of abilities. We're supporting Georgia educators with the data, and assurance, they need, that this program works well in diverse high school classrooms."

In Georgia, students receive a Lexile score along with their regular score for the CRCT Reading or GHSGT English/Language Arts tests. Educators using the Georgia Academic Support Program for English/Language Arts, High School, can now see just how each reading passage in the program matches student reading ability.

By the way, the Georgia Academic Support Program for English/Language Arts, High School, was recently cited as a "Recommended Learning Resource" by the Georgia Department of Education.

Getting Ready for the New York Regents Exams - Something New

2009-10-13T09:27:00.001-07:00

If you're a student or educator in New York State, you know all about the Regents Examinations, or as they're usually called, "the Regents," a series of comprehensive high school exams.

In our opinion, too many programs prepare students for the Regents with short-term test-prep drills. Result: students who get a blip of insight into how to take the test, but who lack a true understanding of the material and the skills thathelp them interpret and think through what they've learned.

That's why we developed the Academic Support Program for English Language Arts, NY State Regents Prep. Yes, it has assessments and answer keys modeled after the Regents Exam, to give students practice. But it also has:

More than 80 hours of correlated instruction

More than 40 lessons correlated to IRA/NCTE Standards for English Language Arts

Strategies for direct instruction, differentiatd approaches, alternative assessments, and extending learning

And the whole program comes packaged in an easy-to-use, completely reproducible 3-ring binder. Throw in a CD-ROM with all of the content on a PDF, and you can see why the program is a boon for New York educators. Want to find out more? Call us at (800) 341-6094, or email customerservice@walch.com.

Walch Team Grows with Maryland Hire

2009-10-13T09:14:00.001-07:00

We've added to our team with Rorye Jordon, our new Regional Partnership Manager in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area. Rorye lives in Maryland, and she'll work with existing accounts and new partnerships.

Rorye is a find, and we're very lucky to have her aboard. She has been a teacher in the Baltimore City Public School System and has taught at Baltimore City Community College. She's also worked as Regional Education Quality Manager for Education Station, a partner of Sylvan Learning.

Among the programs Rorye will be focusing on in Maryland will be:

Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis

Maryland Academic Support Program for English II HSA Mastery

Maryland Academic Support Program for Biology HSA Recovery

If you're a teacher or district administrator in Maryland, Virginia, or the District of Columbia, and you're looking for affordable, flexible ways to boost student success, talk to Rorye. She's at (443) 255-8125, rjordon@walch.com.

Prince George's County Sees Scores Rise

2008-11-18T13:57:00.001-08:00

Interesting article in The Washington Post about the recent rise in test scores in Prince George's County, Maryland: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111401342.html?hpid=sec-education

As the article notes,

"The Prince George's County school system made "significant progress" in the 2007-08 school year, the first time it has met Maryland academic standards since a new testing regimen began in 2003, state officials announced yesterday."

We're particularly proud of progress in Prince George's County, which has been a partner of ours in this year's new Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis program: http://www.walch.com/product/2386

2008 Election Ideal for Classroom Discussion

2008-10-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Our newest Teachable Moment at Walch.com uses the 2008 election as a springboard for discussion. The 10th in a series of free lesson plans, this Teachable Moment helps students explore what it means to be labeled a "Democrat" or "Republican," how those terms came into use, and how political parties function today.

Complete with worksheets, answer keys, online references, and a list of National History Standards addressed, the Teachable Moment gives educators an opportunity to use today's headlines to further informed classroom research and learning. Here's the link:

http://www.walch.com/teachable/teachable_moments_10_billboard_controversy.pdf

We developed each Teachable Moment to supplement your own instructional materials, providing background information and student prompts. The 2008 election is now only a week away, but the lessons it can teach students about how political parties were created, how they define themselves, and what that means for the political process -- these lessons will be as valuable next year and for the foreseeable future.

Time was, political affiliation was unquestioned by many Americans. You were a Republican or a Democrat -- and that was it. Today's students want to know the real meaning behind these terms, and our newest Teachable Moment is a great way to kickstart that discussion.

FCTE, FCTM, GCTM, MCTM

2008-10-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

One week ago, at the same time, Walch Education was exhibiting at four educational conferences: the Florida Council of Teachers of English (http://www.fcte.org), the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.fctm.net), the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.gctm.org) and the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.marylandmath.org).

In the South and in the North, talking to language arts teachers and talking to mathematics teachers, we kept hearing the same things:

Even the textbooks that supposedly align to state standards often miss the mark, leaving the teachers to fill in the gaps
Hands-on learning is critical
If it makes a teacher's life easier, it has value
Test prep drives much of what teachers work on

That last item is particularly noteworthy. Whatever an individual teacher's -- or district's, or state's -- opinion about "teaching to the test," those standardized tests cannot be ignored.

And more are coming. According to Outsell, a research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries, "Starting in 2012, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) will for the first time measure technology literacy and proficiency among K-12 students on a national level."

The materials and programs that garner interest are those that make a teacher's life easier and help prepare kids for tests.

One of our programs that drew a lot of attention was the Station Activities series: http://www.walch.com/search.php?catid=42 We currently have versions addressing Georgia and Florida standards, as well as a national version. These are all for middle school mathematics classes; in a few months, we'll have language arts versions, too.

PD in the USVI

2008-09-15T12:33:00.001-07:00

That's Jill Rosenblum, our Director of Standards and Assessment, conducting a professional development (PD) program this past week in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

As was noted below in the June 25th post, Walch Education is providing junior-high and high-school Academic Support Programs (ASPs) for both Language Arts and Mathematics to the St. Croix School District. Jill and Susan Graham, our Director of Education, helped to develop the four programs, and spent some time in the USVI (a territory of the United States), working with local educators to implement the programs, each of which was correlated to the Virgin Islands' Academic Content Standards.

In Jill's words, “Each of the ASPs contains approximately 60 hours of instruction. They’re complete programs with a variety of teaching tools and strategies, something the instructor can use to review core concepts, assess students’ needs, and—maybe most important—provide remediation and support for the skills identified as needing special attention.”

Maryland HSA Prep Boosted with New Walch Course

2008-08-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

More than 10,000 8th- and 9th-grade students are starting the school year using Walch Education's Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis program, which you can learn more about at http://www.walch.com/news/Maine%20and%20Maryland%20collaborate%20on%20math%20program.pdf.

We developed this program in partnership with Prince George's County, but it's already creating quite a buzz elsewhere in Maryland. What makes the MD ADA so special? Not only is it ideal for helping kids get ready for the HSAs and MSAs, it also gives teachers a wide range of instructional methods to choose from, in dealing with (we are told) a wide range of learning styles and abilities.

The MD ADA comes as two teacher binders, which are completey reproducible, plus a hardbound student book. Total cost is as low as $45/student -- and that's for a full-year course.

Getting graphic about organizers

2008-07-25T12:24:00.001-07:00

We recently came across a very useful paper written by the good people at CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology: www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html

The topic is graphic organizers, those ways of displaying information or data visually and creatively. Sometimes they're called "knowledge maps," sometimes they're referred to as diagrams, but however you name them, they're incredibly useful in working with a diverse group of students, especially those who learn visually. The paper is a great overview of some of the basic forms of graphic organizers, what distinguishes them from each other, and how they are applied.

Walch, of course, has a number of books focusing on graphic organizers within disciplines. Here, for instance, is our title on Graphic Organizers for Geometry.

Florida rule heralds more summer school

2008-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Miami Herald from Tuesday, July 8th, has an intriguing story about a new law in Florida: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/596955.html.

The law, enacted two years back, requires middle school students in the Sunshine State to pass their core subjects before moving on to ninth grade, high school. That means that thousands and thousands of Florida middle schoolers who were previously "passed through" to high school will now be required to take summer school classes or in some other way raise their grades to an acceptable level.

It's clear that the trend towards tougher state standards is not going to rest at the high-school level. More and more, we're seeing states formalize their learning expectations in middle schools, too. That's a major reason why we've been developing targeted programs for that age group: http://www.walch.com/search.php?query=florida&per_page=

2008-06-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Walch Education has inked a deal with the St. Croix School District of the U.S. Virgin Islands. We'll be developing and providing customized versions of our award-winning Academic Support Programs (ASPs). The material is being developed for approximately 700 special education students in the St. Croix district. We're creating four distinct ASPS, one each for Junior High and High School Mathematics and English Language Arts.

Each ASP will be developed according to NCTM and NCTE standards and correlated to the Virgin Islands’ Academic Content Standards. The ASPs will also include implementation guides keyed to the basal series being used in various classrooms.

Walch Education’s ASP series has been widely used in both national, standards-based versions and state-specific versions in Maryland, Florida, and Georgia. The national Algebra and English Language Arts versions were recently given Distinguished Achievement Awards “For Excellence in Educational Publishing” at the annual meeting of the Association of Educational Publishers.

To Tutor: In-house or not?

2008-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in last Friday's Washington Post about how schools in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere are finding that hiring outside tutors to work with their struggling students doessn't necessarily lead to better test scores. The headline is "Mandated Tutoring Not Helping Md., Va. Scores," and you can read the full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061203681.html

The issue in a nutshell: NCLB requires certain schools to provide tutors to struggling students. But after all the time and expense of hiring and bringing those outside firms up to speed, the results are often negligible.

That emerging story is certainly contributing to the success of our customized Academic Support Program ("ASP") materials. Because the ASPs can be tailored to individual district needs, they also make sense in an in-school tutoring context. Rather than paying outside resources that may or may not hit the target, districts can use the ASPs as a comprehensive program for teacher-tutors.

That's what we're especially good at: developing customized materials that zero in on a particular district's particular needs. And then creating the materials, printing them quickly on our in-house digital presses, and delivering them with customized professional development. Sometimes the materials are new from the ground up, sometimes they're more of a tweak on the established state standards, or what the district next door has already developed. But however we work with a district, we're able to offer a level of attention and detail they simply can't find from traditional publishers.

And that includes materials that work for tutors, too.

3 for 3 ain't bad!

2008-06-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our Director of Education, Susan Graham, just returned from Washington, D.C., site last week of the annual conference of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). This, our industry group, gives out annual awards for the "best of the best" published materials for schools. They're known as "Distinguished Achievement Awards."

We jokingly told Susan before she left that she shouldn't "return without any metal." Well, she didn't disappoint. Walch Education had three books nominated in three separate categories -- and we won for each of our entries! They are:

1) Our Academic Support Program (ASP) for Mathematics (in the category of Curriculum Packages for Mathematics, grades 9-12) http://www.walch.com/product/2157

2) Building Math (in the category of Currriculum Packages for Mathematics, grades 6-8) http://www.walch.com/product/2137

3) Our Academic Support Program for English Language Arts (in the category of Curriculum Packages for Reading & Language Instruction, grades 9-12) http://www.walch.com/product/2106

No, it may not be quite the same as receiving an Oscar or Tony, but it nevertheless makes us awfully proud. These are materials we created in close consultation with educators, they have been extremely successful in the field -- and now we have the kudos of our professional peers, as well.

Susan tells us there were photos taken in Washington, with her holding the three awards...we'll find those and post them, too.

AEP Distinguished Achievement Awards

2008-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

3 of our titles have been nominated for the annual "Distinguished Achievement Awards" issued by the Association of Educational Publishers (http://www.aepweb.org/). The titles include our Algebra Academic Support Program, Building Math (created in alliance with Boston's Museum of Science) and Academic Support Program for English Language Arts. The actual awards are given out at the AEP's annual event, in Washington, D.C. in early June.

What's Next? Life skills!

2008-05-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Our newest release is What's Next? A Simulation of Adult Life Stages.

What's Next? was developed for middle- and high-school students, or special education classes, focusingon life-skills, consumer mathematics, or other similar curricula. Through role-playing activities, students learn the skills they will need as they transition into adulthood.

Take our word for it, this book is a lot of fun. Essentially, adulthood is conceived of as a "game" (and who's to say it isn't?) that the players (students) must learn how to manueuver through, gaining credits along the way.