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Schools That Change Communities A film by documentary filmaker Bob Gliner
When we think about schools, it usually evokes images of places separated from the larger community, place where students go to learn. Occasionally during the school day students venture outside classroom walls to take field trips meant to enhance the academic rigor of their classroom experience, but the classroom as the primary vehicle for educational success remains largely unchallenged despite often questionable levels of achievement. Yet, a number of public schools across the country are trying a different approach to engaging students in the learning process, using the community and neighborhoods where students live as classrooms - creating not only a different type of learning environment, but a different kind of student. Schools That Change Communities focuses on a diverse range of K-12 public schools in five states: Massachusetts; Maryland; South Dakota; Oregon; and California, that have the potential to refocus the national debate around the direction educational reform should take. more information
Through the Schoolhouse Door: Folklore, Community, Curriculum Paddy Bowman and Lynne Hamer, editors. Utah State University Press, 2011
Thecreative traditions and expressive culture of students’ families, neighborhoods, towns, religious communities, and peer groups provide opportunities to extend classrooms, sustain learning beyond school buildings, and better connect students and schools with their communities. Folklorists and educators have long worked together to expand curricula through engagement with local knowledge and informal cultural arts—folk arts in education is a familiar rubric for these programs—but the unrealized potential here, for both the folklore scholar and the teacher, is large. The value that folklorists place on the local, the vernacular, and the aesthetics of daily life does not reverberate throughout public education, even though, in the words of Paddy Bowman and Lynne Hamer, “connecting young people to family and community members and helping them to develop self-identity are vital to civic well-being and to school success.”
Through the Schoolhouse Door offers a collection of experiences from exemplary school programs and the analysis of an expert group of folklorists and educators who are dedicated not only to getting students out the door and into their communities to learn about the folk culture all around them but also to honoring the culture teachers and students bring in to the classroom.
Paddy Bowman directs Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education and Lynne Hamer is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership at the University of Toledo.
Soul of a Citizen Paul Rogat Loeb
In April 2010, St. Martin's released Paul Rogat Loeb's wholly updated exploration of citizen involvement, Soul Of a Citizen: Living With Conviction In Challenging Times. The new edition is already in its fourth printing. With over 100,000 copies in print, Soul's original version has become a classic handbook for budding social activists, veteran organizers, and anyone who wants to make a difference—large or small. An antidote to powerlessness and despair, it has inspired thousands of citizens to make their voices heard and actions count—and then stay involved for the long haul. Soul explores what leads some people to get involved in larger community issues while others feel overwhelmed or uncertain; what it takes to maintain commitment for the long haul; and how community involvement and citizen activism can give back a sense of connection and purpose rare in purely personal life. It speaks particularly to how citizens can remain engaged despite damped hopes from the euphoria of Obama's election.
The Impossible is being used in hundreds of classrooms throughout America to help students get involved in the critical issues of our time. It's sparking powerful responses in every conceivable discipline and in all-campus adoptions, like for all first-year students. Professors say it offers a range of powerful and eloquent voices to help their students reflect on their lives and commitments. Iit seems to offer a particularly useful framework for hope in a time when many of our most idealistic and engaged students feel politically demoralized or cynical. It's also a great complement to Soul in that it offers a kaleidascope of powerful voices compared to Soul's single narrative voice. Visit Paul Loeb's website for more information.
The Impossible Will Take a Little While Paul Rogat Loeb
Paul's previous book is The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear (Basic Books, 2004), named by The History Channel and The American Book Association as their #3 political book of 2004. A global anthology on political hope, it creates a conversation among some of the most visionary and eloquent voices of our time: Think Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Arundhati Roy, Tony Kushner, Václav Havel, Pablo Neruda, and Howard Zinn. Alice Walker, Jonathan Kozol, Diane Ackerman, Susan Griffin, and Marian Wright Edelman. Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, Jim Hightower, and Desmond Tutu. With this book Loeb explores what it's like to go up against Goliath, whether South African apartheid, the iron fist of Eastern European dictatorship, or Mississippi segregation. The stories he collects don't sugarcoat the obstacles. But they inspire hope by showing what keeps us keeping on--even when the odds seem overwhelming. They replenish the wellsprings of our commitment. The Impossible is also a BookSense bestseller with 65,000 in print and won the Nautilus Award for the best social change book.
“One of my students captured it best: 'The Impossible turns social heroes into real people.' The book's power is in letting us hear the voices of those who have struggled for change, how hard it was for them, and what kept them going. For young people working to make a difference, this kind of first-person inspiration is invaluable." Jackie Schmidt Posner, Director of Public Service Education, Haas Center, Stanford University
"My first-year students love the readings. We've had great discussions and their written responses are powerful. They said the book challenged them from different perspectives and helped them figure out what they believe and feel most passionately about." Joan Kopperud, Dept of English, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN
Organizing Schools for Improvement
Lessons from Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) Researchers from the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) provide a detailed analysis of why students in 100 public elementary schools in Chicago were able to improve substantially in reading and math over a seven year period and students in another 100 schools were not. Using massive longitudinal evidence, the study yields a comprehensive set of school practices and school and community conditions that promote improvement, noting that the absence of these spells stagnation.
These five essential supports are: school leadership, professional capacity, parent-community ties, student-centered learning climate, and instructional guidance. In contrast to many current reform efforts that seek to spur progress through one or two of these elements, this book shows that substantial school improvement requires building the social organization within schools and orchestrating initiatives across multiple domains.
Moving beyond the schoolhouse, the authors analyze community context to discover the ways internal practices of improving schools are inexorably entwined with the social resources of local neighborhoods. They raise troublesome questions about our society’s capacity to improve schooling in its most neglected communities. For schools in these communities, the task of improvement is much more formidable than most have acknowledged to date.
These findings are particularly timely as school districts nationwide launch a new round of efforts to turn around their most troubled schools. Urban education professionals and policy makers alike will learn valuable knowledge from this pioneering undertaking in Chicago.
Professor Gail. L. Thompson, PhD, has two new books released which address effective methods for helping African American youth navigate through school and through life. In A Brighter Day: How Parents Can Help African American Youth and The Power of One: How You Can Help or Harm African American Students, Thompson offers a balanced perspective, grounded in research and personal anecdotes, that exposes the myths about educating African American youth and challenges teachers, parents, and other influential adults to incorporate successful strategies into their every day practices.
A Brighter Day includes stories, research and strategies that parents can use for raising African American youth. Geared toward mothers, the book stresses the importance of personal growth and emphasizes getting past the issues and baggage of being black in America. Two of the most powerful stories are about Thompson’s brothers, who died under tragic circumstances. Thompson explains why her life turned out so differently from theirs.
The book discusses ways to keep black youth from getting caught up in the prison pipeline, and using anecdotes and personal stories as reinforcement, talks to moms about what they can do if their kids are already caught up in the prison system. According to Thompson, there are many reasons why poor parenting decisions are made:· We may have had poor parental role models ourselves; We may have become parents when we were children and never developed good parenting skills; We may put our own needs before those of our children; We may fail to see the long-term consequences of our actions
The Power of One is a personal growth book that is designed to help teachers, school administrators, professional development providers, and teacher training faculty increase their efficacy with African American K-12 students. Each chapter contains unforgettable true stories, research, and practical exercises. It contains stories, practical advice, and research for African American parents, teachers, social workers, therapists, counselors, mentors, and anyone else who wants to help African American youth have the best life that they can have.
An in-depth study of more than 600 educators uncovered that 92% said teachers don’t know how to effectively work with black students. “Many teachers don’t do well because they don’t see a payoff,” Thompson said. “They ask, ‘Why am I knocking myself out for nothing?’ There are direct and indirect benefits to helping African American students.”
Six Inches to England: An Anthology of International Children’s Stories compiled by Jeannie Ferber and Priscilla Harper
Andover Green Book Publishers, 2001
It took a world community to make this book—and the best of that community to make the book so special. More than two dozen children’s authors from every corner of the globe (many of whom are award-winning), came together to produce a book that leaves you in awe of the nobility and beauty of our world—realities so often hidden from view. They sent their stories from India and Ingushetia, Russia and Rwanda, Strathmiglo Scotland, Australia, and even outer space to a small publisher in New Hampshire who urged the contributors to send stories that would give children a chance to discover the best of their world. Stories poured in that would prove to grip the hearts of both children and adults. What made their work even more meaningful was that everyone involved, from the authors and artists to the editor in London, fully contributed their work so that the proceeds from the book could be used to buy library books for Russian village schools. To add even more to the storybook plot of how this book came to be, it quietly appeared in print exactly one week after 9/11. The book’s reassuring message, in the face of a dramatically changed world community, sold out and went into a second printing.
The book’s title comes from a true story of a little boy who was asked to tell his teacher how far New Hampshire is from England. Racing to the map in the front of the room, ruler in hand, he proudly announced, “Six inches!” The teacher didn’t correct him. Instead, for a moment, she remembered those days when distance had no meaning—nor “foreigners” nor “strangers.”
The anthology includes stories from Scotland’s loved authors Duncan Williamson and Pippa Stuart, a true story from Sue Hendrickson of her discovery of the most complete tyrannosaurus rex, and from astronaut Rhea Seddon. From India’s famed Ruskin Bond, there is an extraordinary story of a child’s overcoming envy and dishonesty in a community, as well as little known classics by Hans Christian Andersen and Leo Tolstoy.
The proceeds from this book continue to be used to buy library books for Russian village schools. The book is obtainable only from the publisher.
Price: $20.00, Paperback ISBN:1-885934-07-6.
Order direct from publisher: books@worldpath.net or by mail: Andover Green Book Publishers, Gilman’s Corner, Alton, NH 03809
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DON'T MISS A UNIQUE Professional Development OPPORTUNITY
Schools That Change Communities
Thecreative traditions and expressive culture of students’ families, neighborhoods, towns, religious communities, and peer groups provide opportunities to extend classrooms, sustain learning beyond school buildings, and better connect students and schools with their communities. Folklorists and educators have long worked together to expand curricula through engagement with local knowledge and informal cultural arts—folk arts in education is a familiar rubric for these programs—but the unrealized potential here, for both the folklore scholar and the teacher, is large. The value that folklorists place on the local, the vernacular, and the aesthetics of daily life does not reverberate throughout public education, even though, in the words of Paddy Bowman and Lynne Hamer, “connecting young people to family and community members and helping them to develop self-identity are vital to civic well-being and to school success.”
Paul Rogat Loeb
Paul Rogat Loeb
Organizing Schools for Improvement
Six Inches to England: An Anthology of International Children’s Stories
