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.