Mr. President, Meet Mr. Ohno

Barack Obama and Apolo Ohno are two of the 16 individuals profiled in our new 16 Extraordinary Multiracial Americans. It's the latest release in our (now 11-title) Extraordinary Americans series.

Like the other titles in the series, 16 Extraordinary Multiracial Americans contains 16 easy-to-read biographies, each including extension activities, background notes, a vocabulary list, references, and more. They're known as "hi-lo readers" -- high content, low readability level. As American society becomes more multiracial and more diverse, titles such as these help strugling readers understand the value and promise of our changing demographic landscape. (Oh and by the way, they're fun to read!)

Bio This, Bio That

We have a double-barreled "Bio" introduction at Walch this month.

First of all, we've just released our new Hands-On Science: Introduction to Biotechnology title. It's pretty remarkable -- 20 lessons that get middle or high school students deep into the worlds of cloning, natural antibiotics, jobs in biotech, much more. When you think "21st century careers," biotechnology is right up there, and we think this new title goes a long way in helping students understand and think about the field's potential.

Second, we have a new free download in our Teachable Moments series. It's called Fly Eyes and Whale Hearts, and it zeroes in on biomimicry. That's a whole new field in which man-made design looks to natural solutions and ideas. Neat stuff, and it ties in nicely with the biotechnology title, above.

Take a look, and let us know if there are other contemporary scientific topics you think we should explore!

I went to a school board meeting this week to listen in on a discussion regarding budgets cuts and the impact on class sizes.

I should say, as background, that our schools are both excellent and small. That said, the issues they are struggling with are widespread.

Our schools are facing a state budget curtailment of $326 per K-12 student this year. In ‘10/11 they are facing a curtailment of $697 per student, and in ‘11/12 anticipate a curtailment of $557 per student. And, of course, when the stimulus $ dry up who knows what the budget will be.

I was astonished by the magnitude of these cuts. We live in tough times, and we all are being forced to cut back. Most districts are facing tough decisions and have very limited resources.

That said, I respectfully asked our school board to maintain a focus on resources in the classroom. It’s of paramount importance that we fund education sufficiently, and the top priority must be to ensure that teachers and students get what they need to teach and learn.

I hope that districts everywhere place student learning first. And I also hope that Walch can continue to help them save with targeted, research based curriculum delivered at a fraction of the cost of traditional “one size fits all” materials. We can help a district do a lot more with a lot less. That seems to be particularly relevant these days!

-Al.

More Math in Maryland?

Tuesday's edition of The Baltimore Sun had an intriguing article about the (possible) future of high school mathematics education in Maryland: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.regents01dec01,0,408359.story

The gist of the story is that the University of Maryland's Board of Regents is considering requiring students to take four years of high school mathematics -- not three -- when applying to the university system. Even if a student completes algebra II by the end of 11th grade, he/she would still need to continue with another math course in 12th grade.

The article notes that "The requirements would align with a national trend toward toughening math standards, part of a larger quest to produce more science, technology, math and engineering, or STEM, professionals. The National Governors Association is leading an effort to develop core standards for high schools across the nation and those standards might include similar math requirements."

Walch Education's programs in Maryland align well with this "toughening math standards" approach, especially version 2.0 of our Maryland Algebra/Data Analysis and our Building Math program, which develops STEM skills.

25% off all titles at Walch.com thru December 31st!

Well, that headline pretty much says it all. If you go to www.walch.com, you'll see that we're running a site-wide sale on each and every title we carry -- well over a thousand. The sale is for 25% off, for all orders shipped by December 31st, and you have to order on the site. It's just our way of thanking custoemrs at the end of the year.

Enjoy!

I read with interest the news (Washington Post, Nov. 20, 2009) about The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s $335 million grants to improve teacher effectiveness.

The article cites a conference call in which, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the foundation, said she and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had discovered that innovation takes long-term commitment because school systems are often "entrenched" in their ways and teachers "siloed in their classrooms."

"We have been in this work for almost a decade" she said. "We've learned a lot about what works. . . . Let's focus on the thing that actually matters the most, which is the teacher." (Gates serves on the board of the Washington Post Co.)

Of course, we all agree that the individual teacher is critical. What we lose sight of, however, is the importance of foundational systemic changes which can raise the performance of teachers as a group.

The Frameworks Institute just published some very important research on the perception of the general public with respect to education.

"Teachers were seen as having the ability to motivate students and informants saw teacher caring as a particularly important trait. For a majority of informants, the focus on caring teachers being good teachers overwhelmed, overshadowed, and obscured the importance of teacher knowledge and training, characteristics that were not frequently connected with being a “good teacher.” Also missing from the interviews were discussions and explanations of the importance of school leadership, organizations, and other factors related to the school setting and environment".

It’s critical that we not lose sight of the needs for tools and systems that give teachers the resources and guidance they need to succeed with our children. Even (or perhaps especially) the best teacher is overworked and over-tasked these days. At Walch, by uniquely providing teachers with targeted materials that improve their efficiency and focus, we help remove some of these burdens, and help them spend time on what they are best at- teaching.

-Al.

SFI OKs Walch Education Books

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

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!

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!

...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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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.