There's Greatness Within...

"I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free." - Michaelangelo

So much of teaching and learning is uncovering greatness within. Sometimes it's hard for adults to look at a young person and believe that under that hoodie, behind those noise canceling earphones, underneath that surly mood, or disguised by immaturity, greatness lurks. It does though...there is greatness in all of us. In our building's Challenge Day activities, facilitators challenge students to look below the "waterline", or surface, and discover that there is more to each of us. In doing so, as Michaelangelo did, we may uncover greatness.

A recent news story that has made the rounds on the internet and television gave an account of a small diner, where in the holiday spirit and in an unsolciited, random act off kindness, a patron decided to pay the tab for another patron. In turn, that patron paid for others, and the "paying it forward" continued all day. It's this kind of kindness and goodwill that the holidays often bring out in people, and that our best educators employ daily. Education is ,after all, the ultimate "pay it forward" occupation. The lessons of today lead to the innovations and creations of tomorrrow.

The holiday season is the perfect time to look a little deeper, be a little more accepting, and search more passionately for the "angel in the marble". The holiday tradition of gift-giving also reveals one of life's most precious secrets - the greatest and most staisfying joy comes from giving.

Happy Holidays!

The Three W's...Writing, Writing, Writing...

"I heard from my teachers that 'practice makes perfect', but then they told me that no one is perfect, so I stopped practicing..." - Jeff Foxworthy, comedian

Just before Thanksgiving break, North administered a practice ACT writing test to all juniors. The test was scored by teachers of our English and social studies departments, and copies of each student's writing, and their scores on the ACT writing rubric were sent home to parents of each student, given to the student's English teacher, and copied to 100 Club mentors. The ACT rubric is a 6 point scale, and each paper is read by two scorers. Their combined score is the student's ACT writing score. In looking for combined scores of 8 or above (two scores of "4" or higher by each reader), we realized we still have a ways to go to make sure our juniors are prepared as writers. The absolute best strategy for improving writing is practice. Practice writing, even without feedback, improves the thought process important to producing good work.

North English teacher and North Pointe advisor, Andrew Taylor, provided me this "tip sheet" from Roy Peter Clark at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=173999&view=print for teachers to use in improving student writing. Most, if not all, of these strategies can also be employed by parents who want to support their son or daughter's evolution as a writer:

The best writing teachers:
Encourage students to write every day. Students should spend some time writing in class, where the teacher can see them write or not write.

Do not mark up and grade every assignment. Grading papers is thankless drudgery for teachers; trying to interpret those marks is punishment for students. The good writing teacher develops a rich variety of ways of assessing student work.

Write, on occasion, with and for the students. A writing teacher cannot just talk about writing. The teacher needs to be in the game, demonstrating how writers solve problems.

Teach writing as a process. By now an old idea, but still undervalued by teachers who tell students what to write about and then correct all the students' mistakes.

Confer with student writers throughout the process. The teacher should spend some class time on being a resource to the student writers, an inquisitive editor who asks good questions and listens.

Connect reading and writing. The idea is not just to read literature for content and theme, but to come to understand the strategies professional authors use and pass them on to students.

Get students to talk, talk, talk about reading and writing. Writing workshops require moments of concentrated silence, but it's not all "shut up and sit down." Teachers must inspire classroom conversation about how reading and writing make sense.

Offer appropriate praise and encouragement -- as well as correction. Teachers, especially journalism teachers, seem much better at communicating what is wrong with a text than what is right, what needs work rather than an appreciative understanding of what works.

Give opportunities for revision. Good teachers attend to the three big parts of the process: prevision or rehearsal; vision or early drafting; and revision.

Never use writing as a form of punishment. Remember what happened in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to the evil pink nightmare, headmistress Dolores Umbridge, who concocted the most wicked form of writing punishment -- letters carved in blood on the backs of their hands.
Teach skills, like spelling and grammar, within the context of writing. Teachers may be required to teach skills through specific lessons and drills. Fair enough, but at least use real writing to test whether students have mastered the elements of English.

Believe that all students, not just the "stars" can improve their writing. Writing coach Jack Hart argues persuasively that we teach reading as a democratic social skill, something that every person should learn; but we continue to frame writing as if it were a fine art.

We must all work in partnership to prepare our students as writers. With the onset of the digital age, more and more communication takes place in writing over the internet. Social networking pages for social interaction and the workplace, distance learning, working from home or remote locations - all require people to communicate effectively in writing. If you would like more information about assisting your son or daughter be a more effective writer, please feel free to contact his/her English teacher at North, or me directly. Write, write, and write some more, and don't worry if you aren't confident in your own writing and editing, after all - "Most editors are failed writers - but so are most writers. " ~T.S. Eliot

Piano stairs - TheFunTheory.com - Rolighetsteorin.se

In our desire to manage our schools, our homes and communities, and in our seriousness about student achievement, college and "future", we sometimes forget that it's important to have fun along the way.




The "piano stairs" video is a good example of how adding an element of fun can make something that is otherwise not appealing seem very attractive. Often that is the job of a teacher - creating an environment where students learn without realizing they are learning because what they're doing is fun.




For young children, one of the educational theories is learning through play. Through activities and manipulating objects in hands on ways, kids learn basic laws of physics, geometry, and even social skills. Unfortunately, as we get older there becomes an emphasis on "sit and get" learning - an expectation that students can learn by sitting, taking notes, and then regurgitating the important concepts on an assessment.




Effective learning comes when a student is engrossed in content. What better way to make that happen, than incorporating a little fun into the day. At North we've put an emphasis on project based learning that gets students involved in activities that are rich with learning opportunities. Ask your child's teacher what projects will be completed during the course of the year.

Dollars and Sense...

This year's budget process will see all schools in the state facing unprecedented cuts. With the recent actions of Michigan's legislature and government, the Grosse Pointe school system will be hit particularly hard. Over the past several weeks, members of our district's Budget Council have been meeting to determine how to manage our budget with a reduction of approximately 6.6 million dollars for next year.

Primary in our focus has been trying to be creative to ensure that we can continue to offer the many quality programs that we currently run. The high schools have a unique situation because of our seven period school day that includes tutorial periods. These tutorial periods are very costly to the district with little return because students are not earning credit during these periods, yet staff are assigned to each tutorial. Over the past several years, high school administrators have consistently advocated for a change to the structure of our school day to make better use of all of our resources.

During this budgeting process, it has become apparent that if we stay within our current scheduling framework, we will have to cut seventy or more sections out of our schedule to meet budgetary targets. Similarly, a change to a six period day would result in a cut of more than seventy sections out of our schedule. A cut of this magnitude will likely mean the end of support classes, many elective classes, entire elective programs, and high class sizes. This does not have to happen...

A move to a trimester schedule with three twelve week terms could allow us to actually add 70 sections while saving approximately $700,000 per high school. This schedule was unanimously recommended to our board by a large committee of teachers, administrators and parents two years ago. Farmington, Birmingham and Clarkston school districts all use this schedule to name a few high achieving school districts in our area. All high school administrators, our Superintendent, and our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, support this change in our school day.

The trimester schedule makes sense. It has many advantages beyond money savings, but in this day and age of cuts, the monetary savings cannot be ignored. It is time to change and move away from our costly seven period day with a schedule that maximizes both our dollars and our educational opportunities. We will discuss this schedule with our board Monday night at a workshop at 7:00 p.m. at North. Come join the discussion if you would like to learn more about this opportunity to turn the negative of budget cuts into a gain of opportunities for our students!

Problem Solving or "Mom Where are My Socks?"

How many times a day do your children yell through the house that they can't find something, only for you to walk into the maelstrom of chaos and madness we call the "teenager's bedroom" and find it right where it actually belongs? The last place any child looks is the most obvious, rightful place for an object. Perhaps this has been true throughout time, but I'm convinced the conveniences of the modern world have exacerbated the problem.

A critical function of today's classroom has to be problem solving. The world we live in changes so rapidly that people who can't adjust and adapt will be left dumbfounded as the world passes. The conveniences of the modern world have spoiled us into being incapable of solving even the simplest of problems. When our computers (the power and speed of which we couldn't have even imagined a few years ago) don't respond immediately, we're on the phone with the help desk for an answer. The changing environment in which we live has changed the focus of schools. Rote memorization has far less relevance in schools than teaching students to solve problems. We have moved more and more to skill based assessments in determining whether students have mastered the skills and the ability to apply those skills.

In a typical literature class, students will learn about authors, discuss texts, analyze those texts and have discussions regarding character and themes. Traditionally the exam might have included matching terms with definitions, answering short answer and multiple choice questions about events and literary devices from the piece, and reciting or regurgitating pearls of wisdom from teacher lectures. There is still room for some of that, however the outcome assessment, typically a semester or final exam, is now more likely to be a skill based assessment. On such a test, a student might be given a piece of literature with which he/she is unfamiliar, and asked to apply all the skills mastered during the course to analyze and answer questions based on this new, never before seen, piece. The goal is cultivating the skill to apply lessons learned to new situations.

Ask your child's teachers what kind of critical thinking and/or problem solving activities and assessments are being employed in the classroom. They should be able to point to specific examples in their lessons and assessments. We're determined to have graduates who can find their own socks, and who will never be stranded on an escalator...

The Pennant Race for Schools

Baseball pennant races are among the most exciting events in sports, and with our beloved Detroit Tigers in the midst of a down to wire chase for a playoff spot, there is a real sense of urgency here about the baseball season. Every pitch, every play, every at bat now takes on monumental importance as the team struggles to maintain their lead in the division race and make post season play. This sense of urgency has led to heightened performances for some, and disappointments for others. Mistakes at this point in the season are magnified, and every play dissected ad nausea by analysts. Our schools are in a "pennant race" every day. Never in our country's history has our future depended so much on an educated work force of the future.

There is a tendency in baseball to discount things that happen early in the season. An error in April doesn't count as much as an error in September. This same trap exists for schools. Mistakes that students make as freshmen don't seem as significant as ones they make in the senior year. It's important that we work to overcome that apathy towards early shortcomings, and create a sense of urgency for our students. In baseball and in schools, the error early in the "season" counts as much as the one late, it just may not get the same attention.

Parents, please help us stress the urgency of schoolwork, particularly with our younger students. When we meet with the freshmen on their first day, we emphasize to them that high school is the first time that the grades they receive will actually have a significant impact on their future. These grades will determine, in part, what post high school opportunities are available. Often times this catches both students and parents bu surprise, and there is a tendency to brush off the freshman year in terms of importance. Too often I see seniors who are choosing their schedule based on a desire to improve their g.p.a. because of deficiencies from their underclassman years, rather than choosing courses that will prepare them for what's ahead.

The need to be educated to survive and prosper has never been more urgent. Help us stress this urgency with all of our students, especially our young ones, and....Go Tigers!

Lost Generation

This is a very creative and thoughtful reflection by a young person. Be sure to watch all the way through for the great twist on a theme.

Our young people represent our greatest hope for preserving and improving our great country and the world. This is a great reminder about the power of hope.