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June 08, 2007
Tennessee Teachers
I’m sitting in a room with six very talented teachers. Lesley and Nicole are primary teachers (K-2), Kelli and Jeannie are third through fifth, and Charlotte and Vicki do six through eight. We’ve spent the last week together, and I’m here to tell you it’s been a fabulous week.
The ladies agreed to help me with an experiment. I had been in Tennessee a couple months ago doing some work with friends. My friends introduced me to a school district who was very interested in helping parents. They have a wonderful parent coordinator in the form of Sharon. Sharon and the Federal Programs Coordinator, Theresa, set up a week long session with these six teachers just after school was out for the year.
The task was to create my Parent Playbook series which is in California state learning standards into Tennessee standards. We’ve been working for a week and are almost finished.
What a pleasure to work with a very professional group of women who are truly dedicated to helping kids and parents learn. For the last four days we have worked and shared stories about how children can learn better.
This morning Vicki showed me a new program they are using in their classroom. It involves a very smart white board connected to a computer and a very sophisticated set of learning tools. I watched as she showed me how she gives spelling tests, teaches language arts, and how the math and science teachers at her school use the same tool. I can’t imagine a sixth grader who wouldn’t be interested seeing Greece in full splendor, surfing the Internet for space shuttles, or graphing math in color. Learning has become high tech.
It’s funny having been here for several days and listening to the conversations. Kids in Tennessee and kids in California aren’t that different. Kids anywhere are learning and growing, and we’re all still parents and teachers trying to find the best ways to make that happen.
Yesterday at lunch Charlotte and I were talking about where I live in California. She said, “You’re not a hippie and you don’t seem really way out in what you think.” I assured her I wasn’t a surfer either.
She also mentioned that they weren’t from Appalachia and did actually wear shoes without holes. I think she’d come to the conclusion maybe I was okay and not everybody in California was “way out.”
I agreed, but admitted the only thing I saw about folks in Tennessee that was different was they “tawk a lil funny, ya’ll.”
Guess our kids are pretty much the same too. I’m sure glad I know that.
Thank you ladies for a wonderful week. I love you all, and I truly love what you do for kids.
Posted by Dr Joni at June 8, 2007 05:53 AM
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