More excitement...

Another charter school that seems to be working, interesting!

Check this out, http://valoracademy.org

GO Mr. H.RAG!!! :) So impressed.

One System? Don't leave the table yet...

"Reinventing Our Community"

Is there a disparity in what city kids and suburban kids have access to?

Watch CBS coverage here:

Education Roundtable

Last Monday I had the opportunity to sit in on the Education Roundtable entitled, "Reinventing our Community" at the Birmingham-News. The room was full of excitement as Tom Scarritt facilitated a discussion that posed questions to a full room of diverse Birmingham stakeholders in education. Questions included: what the disparity looks like, what success looks like, if we had the will and from John Norris of Oakworth Capital, do we have a clear goal?

Dr. Craig Witherspoon, Superintendent of the Birmingham City Schools first made the distinction in educational opportunities and instead of an achievement gap, an expectation gap.

Jerry Tate, a Phillips Academy parent, advocated for the best technology and challenged all parents to become more involved. He also mentioned Phillips candidacy for International Baccalaureate as well as a need for the best teachers, correct leadership and a dropout recovery program.

Dr. Voltz of UAB's, Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education mentioned the key to be teachers and a need to change the mindset of the schools. She also challenged for us as a community to begin to, "move the needle on student's achievement."

Leigh Perry from Ed Birmingham commented on what success looks like as well as a design for partnerships with schools and the business communities. Other emphasis included identifying negotiables and non-negotiables, knowledge or ability, engagement, thinking outside the box, leadership and trust.

Other memorable quotes:

"Will and vision go hand in hand."

"Alternative used to be a bad word."

"Tell your story... where are they, where are our students learning, they're at libraries!"

"We gotta do it!"

"Everyone is a child of somebody."

Education Roundtable, "Reinventing our Community"

Tom Scarritt, editor of the Birmingham news, on a series of conversations for our community:

This is exciting!

Education Roundtable Discussion

We Are All Ed: EdBirmingham.org

    Here's a movement that continues the work of Yes We Can! Birmingham by reporting the findings of community meetings across the city.  This website combines many efforts of stakeholders from all over Birmingham who are united by a desire to see our school system be successful.  Similar to Michelle Rhee's Student's First, EdBirmingham asks for input from parents, teachers, students, and community members on ways to increase achievement for the students.  By tackling issues of parent involvement, college and career focused schools, professional development for teachers, and pre-advanced placement initiatives, edbirmingham is a forum to get results through engaging everyone with a place that they can contribute for the good of all the community of Birmingham.  Calling for 3 simple things, money, time and heart, this could be the catalyst for what we so desperately need to give our students the schools and opportunities they deserve.  Be sure to view the notebook, a link at the top left of the homepage, http://edbirmingham.org/notebook.htm and sign up for the mailing list.

I am Ed Birmingham, and so are you.

Performance Assessment for EPR 688

Rationale for "30 Days of Slow Food and Poetry" on scribd.com, inspired by the $5 Slow Food Challenge!!!  Please feel free to use in your classroom.

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/65669985?access_key=key-2nlzmft1vwpdk0azmm0y

"Empowering Teachers, Enriching Students."

Yesterday, I presented to the RMWP Leadership team a dream that many of my fellows and I discussed during our month as fellows in RMWP: 1-1 mentors for students in writing.  Being someone that benefitted both personally and professionally from RMWP, I was thrilled with the opportunity to dream.  What we came up with is a center at UAB for students from K-12 to come after school for tutoring, SAT/ACT prep, and enrichment which would be taught by fellows of the project.  Following models of Dave Eggers and Chip Brantley, we hope to bring to UAB a center for students and teachers to develop and share a love of writing.


     "Empowering teachers, enriching students."  This is the theme of a dream that RMWP’s leadership team discussed yesterday.  We will bring fellows and students to UAB's campus to apply RMWP concepts to a select group of K-12 students from all of metropolitan Birmingham.  Taught by fellows who are also teachers, students will get tutoring, writing support, and SAT/ACT prep in all content areas with writing as focus.  Simply put, teachers who teach writing must write themselves, and writing must be taught in all content areas.  It is a process and art which we want to include the youth on.  Please join us!  More info to come...


Thank you Dr. Perry, Bruce McComiskey and all the many dreamers involved in the project.  

StoryPeople Products:Broken Down

StoryPeople Products:Broken Down

Who ever feels like education is something like this?

this is a machine that's supposed to make people good & true & kind & the funny thing is that it works best when it's completely broken down so everyone has to stop what they're doing & get together & figure out how to fix it.