Greenway Elementary and Publix Engage Lifelong Learners

A friend of mine who is a parent of a child at Greenway Elementary in Marion County, Florida, left an excited message tonight about how much fun she and her children had this evening at Publix Family Math Night.

Publix, a local grocery store, and the teachers at Greenway Elementary, worked together to help parents and children solve real world shopping problems using skills the students have been studying in school. (Problems were provided in three learning levels - K-1, 2-3, and 4-5) The children had a chance to share learning with their parents, and gave teachers and opportunity to model for parents something they can do to help their children learn and reinforce their skills using ordinary, everyday activities!

Teachers met families as they came into the store, welcoming them, and providing information. Families visited a variety of stations set up throughout the store solving problems together. Publix provided snack foods and drinks and a treat bag (coloring book, crayons, and an apple) for everyone who attended. More teachers were stationed at the store exit, to thank parents and students for attending – and giving students a homework pass for attending the event.

Notice what this school did. They took the activity off the school campus, to a place that is familiar ground for families - the grocery store. They made sure they welcomed families, and created an opportunity to build relationships. They linked to learning - giving children and families a chance to share learning. We often hear from parents that they want to help their children at home, but they don't know what to do. The Greenway teachers used this fun opportunity to show parents how to use something they already do - grocery shopping - to reinforce what students are learning. And Publix not only made the night fun for the kids, but they build customer loyalty in the short run, and a better workforce down the road!

Kudos to Greenway Elementary and Publix Supermarket for an outstanding example of creating an Engaged Learning Community!

Extreme Makeover: School Edition

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is one of my favorite television shows. The show, which airs on ABC, is dedicated to rebuilding a family’s home when the family is in need of hope. The transformation is no mere facelift. They do not add new coats of paint, build additions to the existing structure, or put patches here and there. The old house is literally torn down. While some of the elements of the old house may be reused in new ways, what emerges is a completely new home.

Schools can learn a lot from the show. There are many students and families who have lost hope in schools all over this country. Hopeless leads to despair and disengagement. Band-aids, newsletters, and progress reports are not enough to create the extreme makeover these students and their families need.

On the television show, a small team of people arrives at the house of the family for whom the makeover is being done. They spend time getting to know the family, connecting with them, learning about each person’s unique interests, and any special needs or circumstances that must be considered in the makeover design. Community resources are then marshalled, and scores of individuals and businesses rally to create exactly what is needed for each member of the family, giving them new hope for a brighter future.

The disillusioned and disenfranchised families in our school communities are not all that different than the families on the ABC show. The specific circumstances that have led to their sense of hopelessness and despair, and caused them to disengage are not the central issue in creating change. What is important is what WE do next.

What if we sent a small team of people to the home of the disengaged family? What if we spent time getting to know them, and learning about their unique interests, needs, and circumstances? What if we reached out and helped meet those needs and began restoring hope?

Rhonda Ulmer of Van Bokkelen Elementary School in Severn, Maryland did just that. Five years ago, Van Bokkelen was one of the worst performing schools in the entire state, and was in danger of state takeover because of failure to make AYP for more than one year. Rhonda knew that something major needed to happen. And so she started reaching out to families in the community, soliciting help to get the school turned around. It didn’t take long before it was clear to her that the reason that many families were not more engaged in the school was because all of their time and energy was going to solve more basic challenges like providing shelter for their family, getting medical care for their children, putting food on the table, and trying to keep their children safe while they worked two jobs to just keep their head above water most of the time.

So Rhonda started marshalling community resources to meet the needs. She convinced the city to buy an abandoned building in the middle of the neighborhood, just up the street from the school, and put a medical clinic there. She had local groups bring first time homebuyers programs, complete with incentives that contributed down payments to purchasers completing a financial education program to the school. She brought GED programs to the school. She brought job skills training programs. She brought after school enrichment and child care programs. She brought more and more programs that addressed more and more of the basic needs the families needed. The school became the hub of the community, meeting the needs of more than just elementary aged students. As families started coming to the school to access these basic needs through the services offered there, they began connecting with teachers, with the principal, and with each other.

Five years later, Van Bokkelen has been transformed by the Extreme Makeover. Seventy-eight percent of fifth graders scored proficient or advanced in state math testing this year. The school has made AYP 4 years in a row. Grades and test scores are up across the board – but even more importantly – hope is restored to families who were desperately in need of hope – and re-engaged in the educational lives of their children.

Where will the next Extreme Makeover: School Edition be?

Engagement = Nurturing in Healthy Ways

My parents just celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary this week. If you know them, you know they are truly extraordinary people. They are also terrific parents – and now, wonderful grandparents.  I was reminded again tonight how unbelievably wise they are. Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock was interviewed on Nightline tonight about the damage that is being done to children because of the "praise addiction" of the adults around them. Researchers have discovered that telling children how smart they are actually causes children to fear challenge and avoid opportunities for learning and growth so that they will continue to appear smart!  (Click here to read more on the interview)

My parents didn’t need the PhD researchers at Stanford and Columbia or Bronson’s NurtureShock to show them this truth. When my sister was in elementary school, she was placed in new program the school district started for students with high IQs.  My parents never told her why she had been placed in that class.  They kept the same even hand they had always had, making learning fun, challenging us, learning with us, and encouraging us to explore all of our interests and dreams.

One day my sister came home from school and told mom that one of the kids in the program said the reason they were put in there is because they were smarter than the other kids. She wanted to know if this was true.  My mother looked at my sister and said, “Well, what do you think? Do you think that you are smarter than the kids who are not in that class?”  My sister thought for a minute and said “No, I don’t think so.” My mother’s reply was “Well, then I guess you will just have to work hard and do your very best.”

It worked pretty well - my sister is now a pediatrician - and a mother raising a child to love growing the brain!