"Our principal is a man... unlike in other schools, there's just a suit..." a video by Erik Friedl about a school in Los Angeles (Highland Park High School), which benefits from the philosophy of Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A34AR57A1Eo

Look at Minute 3:20
"our principal is a man... unlike other schools...

 it's just some suit with a face

Our principal has a personality.

he gets through to us.

Well done to Erik Friedl for capturing this moment.   Visit his channel at Youtube.com/aiglon27

Click here to see the hits rise.   576 hits on 5 May 2013

You can learn more about some of the people whom Enrique acknowledges (around Minute 5:30 in the video) by searching for these links on Youtube.


Elliot Washor  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoopqI7nPfo

Add a few hits at THIS LINK

author with Charles Mojkowski of Leaving to Learn

look for the website   www.leavingtolearn.org/



Learn more through an interview with Steve Harganon

You can see the book, too.>>>  

Hear the mp3

Elliot talks about "paying attention" to the student.  Start at minute 16:30 and hear his point about the school needs to pay attention to the student.

Michelle Rhee has answers...

Michelle Rhee sent around this email...

Dear Steve,

We are all impacted by the quality of our nation's schools. Public education has economic, social, and moral implications for our country. That is why this movement is so important, and we are so grateful you're involved. I have been so fortunate to speak with many StudentsFirst members in person. Many of you want to know more about the mission of StudentsFirst, while others have had some really interesting questions about education policy and what reform means for our kids.

Unfortunately, I can't visit every hometown and sit down with each of you, so the StudentsFirst Team came up with a fun idea called "Ask Michelle."Submit your questions online now and I will respond by video.

http://studentsfirst.org/ask-michelle

America is having a national conversation about education reform. Discussion about how to improve our schools is pervasive -- on the evening news, in the teacher's lounge or during a neighborhood gathering. Sometimes these conversations leave people with more questions than answers.

I will respond to your questions openly and honestly with my perspective as an education reformer, a former teacher, and first and foremost a parent. The issues our country faces are complicated, difficult, and deserve serious answers.

I welcome your questions on anything -- from teacher tenure and teacher evaluations, to "last in, last out" (LIFO) policy and StudentsFirst's Save Great Teachers campaign. The sky's the limit.

Send me your questions using our online form now:

http://studentsfirst.org/ask-michelle

I look forward to hearing from you!

-- Michelle

Michelle Rhee
CEO and Founder
StudentsFirst.org

==========

Here's the question that I posed:

Dennis Littky said the following in an interview on National Public Radio in April 2005: "The commissioner of education (in Rhode Island) Peter McWalter said to me, "I could have closed this school down the first year, but I had the patience to watch and I've never seen people who had the belief in the maturity of the kid" -- so half of our great work is because the [kids] grew up. In most schools, they don't get to [grow up] -- they get stopped before [they can prove themselves]."

In the Littky success story, part of the credit for success goes to Peter McWalters for giving Littky's staff the time to meet goals and to create a school with different procedures.

You can get the full radio interview at npr.org and search "Dennis Littky Small school"

(well, heck, here is a link with transcription. If you want the npr.org link, here it is)

Littky's school is a charter and from what I've seen in Florida, charters are generally inspected by the school district. To pass inspection, many charter schools adopt the same curriculum and general rules and penalties for discipline that traditional schools use. (In Broward County, where I work, this means a 30-page code of behavior that the students have to agree to follow - who reads all that?)...

What do you recommend? Should we teachers and parents go to the legislature and get the charter schools permission to try a different curriculum and discipline structure? Under the current scheme, most charters eventually look a lot like the public schools that the kids couldn't perform well in... so why should we be surprised when many kids fail to get engaged in our charter schools?

Bottom line: would removing school district oversight help charter schools find "a different way" to differentiate lessons and personalize the instruction, allowing more project-based learning?

A reminder from Dr. Fischler...

How do you become a visible change agent in this environment?

If you want to see change in education, you have to do it.

Not through talking about it. You have to do it.

You have to bring a group of people together.

It's going to take years of commitment, argument and debate.

You have to demonstrate that you are producing a product that we need.

-- Dr. Abraham S. Fischler

www.TheStudentIstheClass.com worth a visit...

Short Quotes to Drive School Reform

What short quotes could help teachers focus on what they can do in their classrooms -- today -- to move along school reform?

The teacher of today is the GUIDE on the SIDE, not the sage on the stage.

- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

Education is NOT the filling of a pail, but rather the LIGHTING of a FIRE. -- W. B. Yeats

Most students might forget what you taught them, but they will always remember how you treated them. -- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

A big obstacle to bringing Computer Assisted instruction into the classroom is the teacher, because teachers love to perform. -- Dr. Abraham Fischler

Jack is a boy from Brooklyn who dropped out of school to avoid terminal boredom.

-- biography of an entrepreneur

I never let school get in the way of my education. -- Mark Twain

Drive out fear. -- W. Edwards Deming

Never do for a child what a child can do for himself. -- Maria Montessori

There are 2 billion children in the developing world. Instead of asking their teachers to "reinvent the wheel" every day, why not share lesson plans that work with those 59 million teachers? -- Gordon Dryden (Get his 1999 book as a digital book -- free -- thelearningweb.net)

Keep Teacher Talking Time to a minimum. -- CELTA training

The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. -- Dan Pink, Free Agent Nation

What other "pithy" and focused items can you quote? What short thoughts can transform a classroom? Send your suggestions to TheEbookman@gmail.com

Recommended perusing:

Danpink.com
Will Sutherland's Qualified ByExperience.com

Thomas Friedman's columns

WhatDoYaKnow.com by Dennis Yuzenas

ascd.org articles

EdReformer.com by Tom vander Ark

TheStudentisTheClass.com by Abraham S. Fischler

TheLearningWeb.net by Gordon Dryden and J. Vos

Someone to hunt down for a cup of coffee: ribbonfarms blog by vgururao@gmail.com

Or call me at +1 954 646 8246 and dictate your favorites. I'm ready.

A view of "what's needed in schools" in the UK (and around the world)

My partner Will Sutherland (www.QualifiedByExperience.com) heads a sailing school in England that is really a character training site (for teachers as well as students).

Here are some of his comments about school reform in England....

============

We all agree that every child is different and their needs are different, so why do we think they are all going to fit into the same educational box?

I see a very big need for children to be taught the basics (a general Liberal Arts) and then taught how to learn and what to learn.

They need to understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. They also need to understand they have to be of use to society in order to fit into society, and to earn a living.

They can do anything they want to do provided it is going to lead to an income stream for themselves and their families.

They need mentoring from someone who cares about them and who can help them deal with family or their personal environment problems.

Talk to today’s students and they will tell you they do not understand the logic of their education or where they are going, but they know what interests them.

======================

My ongoing research into the effects of Aiglon college (and the philosophies of Kurt Hahn and John Corlette www.JohnCorlette.com) on the lives of the Alumni is revealing the basic student needs and ways of meeting them.

======================

In summary the reformers cannot get out of their minds the traditional image the word “School” conjures up every time they use it or hear it.

What the 21^st Century students need is a new concept education media centre: A resource for the whole community and everyone in it.

Within this there needs to be a core framework which provides a balance between academic learning and life skills, discipline, appreciation, respect and tolerance for others, sports and physical exercise etc.

We only know and are influenced by what we know. Therefore the programme should encourage enquiring minds, to develop innovation and experimentation.

Expeditions and cultural excursions have become extinct due to health and safety restraints. This problem needs to be overcome in one measure or another.

Above all, a path for future development, a light at the end of the tunnel, has to be presented to students and parents which satisfies their needs and aspirations.

A lot of what Tony Blair say is not actually happening in the UK and he introduced the most teacher-controlling regulations -- he has knocked the stuffing out of our good teachers and the new system leaves them totally disenfranchised. Central control and bureaucracy takes up more than half a teacher's working time and preparation hours have increased beyond any sensible measure. The results are lower standards and a weaker society.

Will Sutherland

Director

Learn more by going to www.QualifiedbyExperience.com

ws@QBEglobal.net

It's CONforming, not REforming schools. When will we truly change in a positive direction?

When we hear about school reform, we hear about these elements.

a) Standardized tests

b) Standards that all schools should meet

c) Standard curriculums for all students

d) Every student needs four years of math

e) Every 8th grader needs to be exposed to algebra in 8th grade, starting at age 13.

f) Send everyone to university.

g) Every teacher should have an advanced degree.


It doesn’t sound like REFORM, it sounds like “CON”form.

===========================

Instead, we need to look at TRUE reshaping and retooling and reformatting our schools.

For example

a) Time is a variable. We don’t have to group kids by age. We don’t have to require students to advance at a set time together to the next level of the curriculum.

b) Let’s us computers to allow independent rates of learning. See Dr. Fischler’s TheStudentIsTheClass.com blog.

c) Arne Duncan calls for expanded schooling to support the community, 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, 12 months a year: 12/7/12.

d) Relationships: Dennis Littky’s “three Rs” says Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. We need teachers who visit each kid's home,..."Teachers who know the kids, look out for them and push them to succeed" (from a speech by Bill Gates).

e) Relevance: Why does every child need to study biology? Robert Reich has a cogent observation about the

f) Move away from Compulsory Failure: very few of us are renaissance people – we can’t master every subject, so there will be some subjects that are difficult for us and not relevant to our lives. Why do we impose failure on children? Reform means “making school relevant to the child, fit the curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum.”

g) Teachers teach all subjects: Why does a teacher need to have an advanced degree in mathematics in order to teach math? Some of the best teachers are those who struggle with a subject. “I hated math when I was your age. Let’s work together to get through this…”

Those are elements of true reform.

=====================


Dennis Yuzenas (www.WhatDoYaKnow.com) and I (VisualandActive.com) are talking about making a presentation about “It’s not school Reform, it’s school CONform.”



Tony Blair spoke in the right direction…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-Vi3d9IPw&feature=related

Long speech but worth a listen.
Notes from Blair’s speech.
What works in a reformed school?

1. Independence -- Schools need to be independent, free to innovate and find the strategy that works for their community.

2. Community learning -- teaching adults, too. -- Continued adult learning is important becuas children who have parents with low levels of education tend to not go very far .

3. Community service: Our schools need to be more than academics and more than just for the child.

Breakfast clubs (to fill empty stomachs)

Afterschool clubs

Homework clubs

Let’s make education about the whole person and the whole community.

4. We need to remove bad teachers.

5. We need to think differently. We know what to do, we need to implement. It’s not hard to think up things to do differently – it’s difficult to IMPLEMENT. We need to focus on community interest, not about VESTED interests.

We know what works.

Well, that's what Blair said. Let's get to work. Contact me with your comments (954) 646 8246 or write to visualandactive@gmail.com

New York's "School of One" gets mentioned in Time Magazine

This is fascinating.


http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933977,00.html

This past summer, in a sixth-grade math class, New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein piloted a small program in which individualized, technology-based learning takes the place of the old "let's all proceed together" approach. Each day, students in the School of One are given a unique lesson plan — a "daily playlist" — tailored to their learning style and rate of progress that includes a mix of virtual tutoring, in-class instruction and educational video games. It's learning for the Xbox generation.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933977,00.html#ixzz0a6wJZ6QE

This reminds us of Dr. Abraham Fischler's proposals in TheStudentIstheClass.com

The Next Step in School Reform: Sharing the information

Here is a new approach (for people interested in school reform) == let's go "on the road" with our message.

Blogging and talking on youtube is one way to reach out into the marketplace of public opinion... another way is to go to churches and other religious organizations...

Here are two brochures and a cover letter that I'm sending out... let's go around Parent Teacher Organizations and get to parents through other organizations...

==========================


I’m a taxpayer and I want to see better results from our schools. The central force behind school reform and improvement is PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. When parents push for improvements, then real reform takes place. When parents get the information that they need and learn about the key features to ask for in an “improved school,” then the improvements take place.

I’ve visited nearly a dozen “Big Picture Schools,” where improvements have been made. I would welcome an opportunity to share what I learned in my travels.

Here are two possible approaches (some paragraphs for an announcement in your newsletter?). I’m happy to present the information at no charge to parents.





Steve McCrea
Founder, VisualandActive.com
Teacher trainer and advocate for school reform.
954 646 8246

Enclosed are a CD and two DVDs that describe the innovations that I witnessed.

23 November 2009

One of the people in your congregation suggested that I contact you. Please let me know when and where I might present this valuable information.

I’m not selling anything. I’m an advocate for school reform. I’ve seen remarkable schools inspired by Dennis Littky and funded in part by Bill Gates == and our community can benefit from hearing about these innovations in education.


======== Brochure #1 ___________

Offer: 201 books on one CD.
The miracle of the Internet can deliver 201 books to your family… and all you need to do to get this free CD is come to a meeting and learn about:

à How to get FREE lessons on the Internet to prepare for the PSAT and SAT tests

à How to get FREE lessons on the Internet to learn other languages

à How to meet interesting people from other countries (and earn COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS) (which are required to graduate from high school).

Are you interested? Come to the meeting at :
WHERE:
DATE: TIME:
If you can’t make the meeting, you can still get the free ebooks by contacting Steve McCrea, the presenter at 954 646 8246 or by sending an email to VisualAndActive@gmail.com

Thank you for your attention.
Steve McCrea, ESOL teacher visualandactive@gmail.com TeachersToTeachers.com and the English Visitors Network 954.646.9246


======== Brochure #2 ___________



Dear Parent
You might not have heard of some interesting discoveries about the brain and how these discoveries can make learning easier for your children.

You might not have heard of free web sites that can prepare your children for the SAT or PSAT tests. Perhaps you have heard about the efforts to improve schools (by Bill Gates and others), but you don’t know much about these initiatives.

I’m happy to share what I’ve learned from visiting three schools in Los Angeles, two schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and a multiple intelligences school in St. Louis. Come to an interesting 30-minute presentation, with time for your questions. Learn about narratives, exhibitions and the importance of Individual Learning Plans. If you can’t make the meeting, visit VisualAndActive.com and learn about a fun way for your children to complete their “Community Service Requirement” while meeting some interesting people from other countries.

DATE: TIME:
WHERE:

Steve McCrea, ESOL teacher visualandactive@gmail.com TeachersToTeachers.com and the English Visitors Network 954.646.9246

---------------

Let me know if you know of a better way to get the word out... What is the next step in school reform?

About small schools and computer-assisted instruction

Here's a question to ask politicians: The work of many school reformers points to the need for smaller schools, but effectively run schools. Is your guest aware of the growing influence of schools that focus on computer-assisted instruction? This idea is that computers will frees the teacher to spend more time as a motivator and mentor to students, since the principal activity of "delivery of information" is handled by the computer. Blogs like www.edreformer.com and www.TheStudentistheclass.com advocate more investment in computers and training for teachers to move into this important new role. What is the administration's position on using more computers in classrooms? my phone number is 954 646 8246 and I hope the guest will pass on these educational blogs to the attention of other politicians. Also www.chadphila.org, www.hightechhigh.org, www.newcityschool.org, and www.bigpicture.org, www.metcenter.org -- these websites ought to get more attention if decisionmakers want to implement computers as true aids to learning. The relevant people include Dennis Littky, Dennis Yuzenas (www.Whatdoyaknow.com), Thomas Hoerr, Tom vander Ark, Lois Hetland, and Howard Gardner. Thank you

Get some facts at Edreform.com

Look at these facts published on www.EdReform.com

http://www.edreform.com/Fast_Facts/K12_Facts/

SCHOOLS:

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 13,862
(Digest of Education Statistics 2008, Chapter 2, Table 87)

TOTAL NUMBER OF K-12 SCHOOLS: 106,746

Elementary: 72,659
Secondary: 24,856
Combined: 5,202
Other: 4,209
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 5)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 98,793

Elementary: 68,990
Secondary: 23,436
Combined: 5,984
Other: 383
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 94)

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: 4,578
(The Center for Education Reform, February 2009)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS: 35,060

Elementary: 22,870
Secondary: 2,930
Combined: 9,260
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL NUMBER OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: 7,740

Elementary: 6,360
Secondary: 1,080
Combined: 300
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

ENROLLMENT:

TOTAL K-12 ENROLLMENT: 55,394,000

Elementary: 38,932,000
Secondary: 16,462,000
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 2)

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 49,299,000

Elementary: 34,221,000
Secondary: 15,078,000
(Digest 2008, Chapter 1, Table 2)

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,407,421
(The Center for Education Reform, February 2009)

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 6,073,240

Elementary: 3,447,230
Secondary: 859,800
Combined: 1,766,220
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL HOME SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1.5 million (estimate) or 2.9% (estimate) of America's school population
(1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007, NCES, December 2008)

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 2,402,800

Elementary: 1,701,000
Secondary: 597,680
Combined: 104,120
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TEACHERS:

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 3,180,396

Elementary: 1,673,234
Secondary: 1,250,771
Unclassified: 256,391
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 65)

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS: 42,100
(Schools and Staffing Survey, 2003-04, NCES)

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS: 449,810

Elementary: 209,510
Secondary: 70,680
Combined: 169,630
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 149,760

Elementary: 97,410
Secondary: 42,680
Combined: 9,860
(Digest 2008, Chapter 2, Table 58)

Now we can ALL be more specific and accurate in our use of statistics...

You can be a mentor.

Visit a school and ask to sit with a class.

Tell students how school is related to your work.

Proceeds from the sale of this booklet support the work of small schools.

VisualAndActive.com ResolveToHeal.com BuildingInternationalBridges.org

Critical thinking: Randi.org Snopes.com Check out a rumor before passing on something that you heard. “Let’s all boycott one gasoline company and that will force the company to reduce prices.” (Oh, yeah?)

This booklet is a political document. Like Thomas Paine’s Commonsense, this booklet has the potential to spark in the reader a spectrum of emotions and feelings. Take our irritation, annoyance, outrage, and put it to use in a local school or by writing to or visiting a local school board. Let the following words inspire us, move us, impel us to reflect on what our past inaction has done to our schools. What have we left undone, what have we left to the experts (who maintain schools in the same condition as the 1950s)? What action could we take today to move schools toward their higher potential? What schools could we visit to become inspired (CHADPhila.org in Philadelphia, High Tech High in San Diego, Mavericksineducation.com)? How can the words of Postman, Hetland, Gardner, Yuzenas, Pink, Reich, Friedman, Fischler (TheStudentIstheClass.com), Littky (MetCenter.org and BigPicture.org) and others inspire us to change what we can change? Let’s visit VisualandActive.com and click on “Readings” to find more ways to inspire teachers and school administrators. Here are some samples:

A good education is the next best thing to a pushy mother (Charles Schultz). Learning is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never fear and never dream of regretting (T H White). The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows (Sydney Harris). Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance (Will Durant). I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would be really educated (Al McGuire). The mind is not a vessel that needs filling but wood that needs igniting (Plutarch).

In short, Littky’s work is not a “revolutionary” method. Littky copies what tutors have been doing for millennia --- know the student, shape the curriculum to match the student’s strengths, find experts to train the student, push the child with rigorous material that makes sense to the student.

Why not call Dennis Littky’s office? 401 752-3442. Ask why a “student-centered environment” must be in a small school to achieve the results that we are all seeking.

“Education is everybody’s business.”

Dennis Littky

This booklet is dedicated to the friendly and confident students and teachers at Met Center who gave me a warm welcome when I visited on 30 November 2005. They spent hours answering my questions about their school.

Comments ?? send your messages to VisualandActive@gmail.com

What can we do to improve schools?

What is Next?

What can each of us do to turn big schools into small schools?

What can each of us do to help small schools become stronger?

Just keep asking those two questions. The answer will come.

We can help small schools succeed.

Become a mentor. Small schools need adults to come into the school and to listen to questions from students. As a mentor, your role is easy: Make sure the students you talk with are given something unconventional. Give them a role model.

What Can We Do? Let’s get going…

1. Visit a middle school. There is one task that a teacher can’t do or pay for: Getting an adult to speak with a small group of students in a class and to answer their questions. Your time will spark something in the brains of the kids. A teacher can’t always make that happen. You can. You are a mentor.

2. Record yourself and post the video on youtube. Send the link tovisualandactive@gmail.com. Let students hear your answers to: What do you remember from school?

What did you do to learn to read? What did you like to read?

What books or articles or magazines do you recommend others to read? Tell us about an article that you read recently.

What did you learn in school that you really value today?

What did you learn outside school that you use in your life today?

Do you remember a teacher’s name? Tell the camera the name of that teacher and why that teacher sticks out in your memory.

3. Become a phone mentor. One phone call per day. Just five or six calls each week.

4. Ask to become a mentor to a class. The best teacher is a facilitator who allows mentors (adults who are not teachers) to talk with and listen to students..

5. Read some of these books:

A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation by Dan Pink

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and anything on snopes.com
Studio Art by Lois Hetland

The Big Picture by Dennis Littky

Visit these sites:

The StudentistheClass.com by Abe Fischler

Bigpicture.org metcenter.org for Dennis Littky’s work

WhatDoYaKnow.com by Dennis Yuzenas

http://www.pz.harvard.edu Project Zero’s site at Harvard university for continuing education, click on “products and services” and join the mailing list. Ask your child’s teachers and principal to subscribe to learn what’s new and effective.

Search on Youtube:

“Yuzenas visual” “Littky Small” “Abe Fischler”

Send coments to VisualandActive@gmail.com