Folks from all over the state were treated to a day of training by the Arizona Department of Education. The underlying focus of most workshops school staff attend is to develop new ways to engage learners and to increase student performance. This workshop was no exception, but our suggestions focused on engaging families in the process.

Participants enjoyed exchanging ideas that worked at their school, hearing a myriad of new ideas, focusing their attention on 101 more ideas from the book 101 Ways to Create Real Family Engagement and finishing up by beginning an action plan to take back to their school.

Some schools are just beginning to realize the power of parent involvement in learning. They are making their school user friendly and welcoming. Others have parents volunteering for fundraisers and bake sales and are seeling they could enjoy more learning from kids if they directed the parents energies to learning activities.

An interesting questions arose as we talked "..looking at the rest of the activities, some of our seem superficial. Perhaps we’re not doing it right." My answer: "Nothing is superficial if the activities result in the goal you want. If your goal is to have parents at school and they come for the school play you got it. If your goal is to have parents help with learning, then you need to include them in what and how you teach. They’ll help. Just ask and show them how."

Thanks for a great time Tucson and ADE for sponsoring the event.

Your school is like any town. It is what you see it to be for yourself and your children.

Last week the Murphy School District in Phoenix Arizona relooked at their schools to see if the place their children enter was a warm and friendly one. The leadership asked a group of people from the district-administrators, teachers, and parents-to relook at the Vision and Mission of the school district. If their vision is of a great place to be and their mission is to turn the schools into what the stakeholders want it to be, then they know they can deliver what is best for kids.

If a wise man was at the gate of one of the Murphy Schools, I might ask, “What’s the school like?”

Simply telling me the vision of the folks at Murphy would help me know whether I would want to bring my children here:

Educational success to achieve tomorrow’s dream.

Think I’ll stick around for awhile. Sounds like they’re on target for kids.

So for those expecting to be parents or grandparents in the near future, or to those of you who already are, here are a few things to ponder:

Do you tell your child you love them-every day?
Are you reminding them of what a wonderful, perfect person they are?
Do you listen when they talk?
Are you interested in what they do (even when you’re not)?

I have four children and I couldn’t have answered yes to all those questions. I worked, shopped, cleaned, drove, did dishes, worked more, and occasionally slept during those growing up years. I could tell you I did all of those things with a great deal of style and panache. My kids grew up with an understanding of the importance of working, shopping, cleaning, driving, doing dishes, and, did I mention, working. I’m grateful they did.

Now, though, I have an opportunity to focus on answers to those other questions. I now believe that if I could answer those questions to my satisfaction that the working, shopping, cleaning, driving, dishes and more working issues would all take care of themselves quite nicely.

Every once in a while I give you an update on the one or more of the four now adult children who have all left the nest and are flying on their own. I’ve told you about the Air Force for my two boys one of who is now out of the Air Force and headed towards a law degree. I shared a wedding for one of my girls and the other is now a senior at Sonoma State.

Today’s update, however, may be the most amazing event so far. Yesterday London Paige arrived as the newest member of the family. Jennifer and Jordan are the proud parents of this 6 lb 5 oz wonder. I’m usually pretty good with words, but this one left me without much to say. Well, at least for a while.

What an incredible miracle. As I held this little one only a few minutes after she was born, it was like looking at life in this moment now, yet also seeing life stretch out into the years ahead. It was no coincidence that only a couple of hours before her birth, we were watching the inauguration of our first African-American President and feeling the hope, excitement and expectation of a whole country. What a time to be born. What amazing possibilities await this child.

As I looked at her I realized how much I believe all babies, all children are miraces and all have such amazing possiblities awaiting them. Those possibilities become possibles because we, the parents and adults in their lives, believe in who our children are. We can't make a child into someone not matching with who he or she is, but we can provide them the love, support, and the freedom to think, to learn, and to choose to be who they are. Whoever baby London is will come directly from her and will be guided and supported by those around her. Your children are who they are through and because of you. Make the best of every loving and learning moment.

I apologize for not giving you her name, but I have misplaced her card temporarily. When it shows up I will happily provide the information. At first I didn’t want to bother her, but school curiosity got the best of me. She graciously let me in.

Built in 1894, yes a different turn of the century, the Centerville School has the real feel and charm of the old one room school house. I was given a quick history of the schools built before this one, but they couldn’t top the story of how this one came to be.

It seems the area around Centerville was growing a bit in the early 1890s. A small school existed, but more room was needed. One of the families contained a young woman who could do the teaching, but there wasn’t room enough for her so she decided to go to San Francisco where the schools were larger. A gentleman from the community had become quite smitten with the lady but had not even asked her for a date.

Realizing that she was going somewhere else to teach, Charles Hintz did the only wise thing he could do. He hauled lumber from his mill above Magalia and built a school on property he owned in Centerville. Then he went to San Francisco to ask Miss Ada Woods to go out with him, come be the teacher, and to marry him. I’m not sure in which order. It seems Miss Ada agreed and became the school’s first teacher.

Miss Ada, however, was definitely not following the 1915 Rules for Teachers my guide gave me as I was leaving. I’ll mention just a few of the rules for the women teachers and let you go visit the Colman Centerville Museum on some Saturday or Sunday afternoon to get the rest:

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
9. You many under no circumstances dye your hair.
12. To keep the school room neat and clean you must: sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day, and start the fire at 7 AM so the room will be warm by 8 AM.

The toughest one for me might well be the not being able to loiter downtown in ice cream stores. Sigh…

Even the name of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet School http://www.ltusd.org/subpage_schools/schools/ltesms.php tells you what to expect from this preppy K through fifth grade school. It’s science throughout the curriculum. All subjects are studied. The children don’t miss reading or math, but they learn to read and do math for the purpose of doing scientific activities and experiments. It starts as early as that preppy kindergarten where four year olds come to class with their kindergarten friends so they’ll know how to be in kindergarten the next year. Cutting, pasting, recognizing letters and writing their names all means they’ll be ready.

By the time the children are in fifth grade they are into serious science. According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune, “In 2006, teacher Bob Comlossy's fifth-grade class won Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge for their project "Build it and they will come: Bat houses for the Cookhouse Meadow restoration.’" I looked at a project they built for determining the best solar products and this year they are into raising seedlings for forest restoration after a fire devoured the area. The kids are interested and motivated to be there. A comment from a parent following the Tribune article tell sit all, “This school is the main reason we are moving back to Tahoe. I know we have to get on the list, but I am sooooo excited!!

Charter schools have the ability to pick their area of focus. A school visit just yesterday has another version of focus.

Terry Tozier met me at the door of the Four Winds Charter School http://www.bcoe.butte.k12.ca.us/sps/schools/lccs.htm on the Butte County Fairgrounds. We laughed about the ability to use facilities wherever we could find them. The school’s charter is to serve the Native American population of the area. Their student make-up appears to have expanded a bit, but the idea of recognizing and respecting culture is still very evident throughout the school. Their stated purpose is to recognize the culture of the students as fundamental to education.

Like Lake Tahoe this charter begins the learning process early. There's a preschool program on the site. Children then continue into the school years and add an afterschool component which allows them to extend their learning day. On a Friday at 1:45 PM kids tumble out of classrooms surrounding the gym floor to begin their afterschool session. There’s a bit of chaos until everyone settles in, but once order is restored, learning proceeds.

The teaching staff also then settles in for their afterschool sessions, some days to learn new techniques for teaching and working with their community and other days to prepare for the days ahead.

Charter schools are unique and their uniqueness is what allows children to be that much more of who they are.

Here’s a high school to go to if you’re looking for training in Media Arts, Culinary, Auto, Wood, Computer Assisted Drafting or an interest in Dental Hygiene or a plan to be a dentist. These days since less than 35% of California students completing a four-year college program, these kinds of programs are a leg up on a career kids can choose, enjoy, and plan a lifetime in.

But Career/Tech is only part of the program at the high school. They have nine advanced placement classes and a very large AVID population. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and is a system that helps fourth-twelfth graders get ready for a four-year college program. Many times students in an AVID program are the first in their families to go to college.

Stafford credits their superintendent, Jim Tarwater, and principal, Ivone Larson, for the vision to get their school headed in this direction. He also says the teachers know they need more training to keep up with all of these new plans and they’re asking for it. “We’re ambitious,” Stafford say, “but if you’re not ambitious you’re not going to get anywhere at all.”

Sounds like a place to be and the lake added to making this a worthwhile visit.

Administrators shared ideas about ways to engage parents. One group in particular were asking how to engsge parents who are currently coming to schools to enjoy their second and third cups of coffee with friends in the neighborhood. How could schools get these wonderful folks into classrooms and learning related activities. Everyone could use the extra sets of hands to help the kids learn, and money issues or not the goal is to help children learn.

But money was still on everyone’s mind so the EdSuccess website (www.edsuccess.com) will shortly begin providing grant funding sources for folks who are looking for ways to jumpstart and/or support their parent involvement program. Let us know how we can help you begin to utilize parents to help children be more successful in school.

Saturday
Saturday saw a small but exuberant group of parents and professionals at the California Association for Compensatory Education conference. Although money may have been an issue, the major issue here was, regardless of money, how do we help the kids? Sounds like the same song different day and a different city and a different group, but it’s a very familiar melody.

Folks shared their vision for their children and discussed how learning was the key to bringing about those visions. One mom clearly declared that education was freedom. Education meant that her children could choose what they wanted to do with their lives and how they wanted to live. Another mom whose grown daughter was with her at the conference, stated with tears in her eyes, that education meant that her daughter and grandchildren could have a good life, perhaps a better one than she had had.

So…
Two very different groups with very different daily lives, but both have a major theme in common-helping children learn. I described my two days to someone by saying it was like going to a Methodist prayer session and a Southern Baptist tent revival meeting. Both were looking to the same Source and desiring a similar outcome. They just did it in a different way and I've had the good fortune to participate in both.

I’ve known in for years, since the time when I realized I was both an educator and a parent, educators and parents want the same thing. They both want children to be successful, happy, and have a wonderful life both now and in the future. We really are all for one when that one is the children we care so much about.

(To both groups: My apoligies for not using the pictures. I couldn't get them out of my phone onto the blog so I guess those of you with wanted posters out are safe for now. Whew. Thanks for being the people you are and keep up the great work. Joni)

Wilfred was also in the brown-eyed children’s group when we were doing statistics. The statistics included how many brown eyed children there were in comparison to blue and green-eyed children. Children gathered in their groups of other children with their same eye color then looked around to see how many of them were there. Seven brown-eyed children looked at each other, while one blue-eyed child looked into the eyes of one green-eyed child. One brown-eyed little boy tried hard to squeeze in next to his blue-eyed brother, but the facts remained. He couldn’t change his eye color so he stayed with his brown-eyed group to be counted.

The kids played games while their parents listened and shared activities they could do at home with their children. Checkers, crazy eights, dominoes, and chutes and ladders kept everyone’s interest. Once everyone enjoyed the play, we moved on to other fun games-ones that could help with school activities. Reading and math games took on as much importance as the game of checkers.

Teachers play too. Two teachers joined the parents and children in their games. Afterward they were excited about the possibilities of what kind of difference playing reading and math games could do for the children in their classroom.

Parent involvement makes a difference. Every book and workshop I write or give has the same message. Your child does well at what you pay attention to. So what will you pay attention to this week?

So.. this week when I met Kara and her Grandma, I got some tips. I was visiting in Ashland, Oregon and couldn’t resist Lithia Park. Brilliant reds, yellows, and orange leaves swirled on sidewalks in town and over the creek in the park. My camera longed to be used, but the first thing that caught my eye was not the park colors. 15-month-old Kara, dark-haired and dark-eyed, and her red-haired grandma, who drew me in. They were standing at the foot of a bridge watching the water drizzle over the rocks.

Kara, acorn in hand, watched grandma toss a similar acorn in the water. Kara, though, was reluctant to let go of the nut in her hand. What would happen? Would it come back or was it go forever away from her? You could almost watch the wheels turning in her mind. Not enough words there yet to express her thoughts, but she was watching everything closely and making a decision based strictly on emotion.

Finally, her decision made, she followed suit and threw an acorn in the water. It was then I noticed the one in her other hand. Smart young lady at 15 months. One in the hand would be worth two in the water.

Grandma extolled the virtues of not only her first grandchild, but Grandmahood in general. I can see the joy already and am looking forward to its reality. Poor London child doesn’t know what she’s in for. Her mom, aunt and uncles have been mentioned in articles, books, and blogs for years. She’s not even born yet and she’s already in print. I, of course, love it.

It was nice meeting you Kara and Grandma. Thank you for making my visit to Ashland such a memorable one.

Preschool and Kindergarten teachers are looking for pictures representing their vision of what they want children to be in El Dorado County. The words going with the pictures are happy, secure, loved, successful, and learning. The pictures say it all …

Two gentlemen showed up in a crowd of 100 women in two sessions of workshops this week at the El Dorado Fairgrounds. The spot, home for the afternoon for food and lively discussion, was the third such session and the first for this school year. The teachers, brought together by Deputy Superintendent Cathy Bean, share what they do in their programs so the children and parents who are going from one program to the next, preschool to kindergarten, will feel more comfortable and know what to expect.

It shouldn’t be too hard. Sometimes the programs are right across the school yard from each other or just down the block. The difference comes not in proximity but in philosophy, training, and community perception.

Have I mentioned purple yet? I should. The perception of the philosophy for preschool teachers is often that of warm, soft, fuzzy loving, kindly and nurturing-what I might call blue. The perception of the kindergarten teacher because they are part of the K-12 system is much more academic, learning, test oriented and competitive-perhaps red fits here. The goal for the day was to put the two colors together and form a purple mass with teachers being loving, caring and supportive as well as providing great learning opportunities for children’s growth.

The importance of quality preschool is showing up across the country as research shows how much difference this nurturing, learning environment can make in a child’s entire lifetime. From development on language skills to reading and from quiet and shy to quietly, confident, the few years in preschool make a huge difference.

So preschool and kindergarten teachers in El Dorado County are talking. They’re comparing notes about what they teach and how they teach it. They’re sharing ways of including parents and having children feel comfortable growing and moving from one classroom across the street to the next.

My Spanish has improved greatly over the last couple of years working with schools like Luther, and Jackson Heights in Red Bluff or Fowler and Sun Empire near Fresno. Many of the parents “no hablan English,” but my dusted off high school Spanish seems to help bridge the gap a bit.

Written Punjabi appears a bit like worms have been dipped in ink and crawled across a page. I can’t speak or read a word of it, yet there are melodies in the words and portraits in the writing. My neighbors, Surrinder and Taj, translated books and materials for me, and, over tea, showed me India through the eyes of people who know it and love it.

As Elio from Fowler told me, “I didn’t go to school. I want my children to go to school and not have to work two jobs like I do.” Surrinder, who taught in schools in India for 32 years, explained that education is of highest importance in India.

Luther is a wonderful blend of three cultures. The other evening was no exception. Preschool parents shared a listening walk where they went outdoors to both see and hear what they could on a five-minute walk. They returned talking about cars, bouncing basketballs, birds chattering overhead, and voices. It didn’t matter the language. They saw or listened in a universal language. What mattered was their participation, their doing, then their talking with each other in words they understood. Next will come the most important part-their willingness to take the same walk with their children, building vocabulary in any language as they walk and talk.

The K-4th parents sorted and then counted screws, nuts, nails, and bolts. Any Dad or Mom can find a can of these in their garage or kitchen. Algebra activities come in all shapes and sizes, but even the most math phobic parent can do this one with their child.

All the parents were attentive when two of the Luther teachers, Lucia Espinoza and Claribel Frenger, explained both in English and Spanish how to “Write Right” and
“Read the Room.”

Here are their favorite Parent Playbook (www.edsuccess.com) activities you can try at your house:

K-2 Parent Playbook Activity: Write Right

Materials needed: paper, pen
Time: 5 minutes

Have your child write a story. For kindergarteners it may just be a scribble to begin with, but focus on starting from the left and moving to the right. For older children they may write a word or two, a sentence, or a paragraph. Then have them read what they wrote.

3-5 Parent Playbook Activity: Read the Room

Materials needed: none
Time: 10 minutes

Have your child read items in the room. If you are in the kitchen can labels or the back of a cereal box will do. Have him read the recipe to you while you make dinner. In the living room the TV guide or newspaper can be read. Wherever you are let him read and explain what he’s read to you.

Two grandmothers, Maxine Calkins and Pat Martin at Park Avenue help provide ideas for new moms trying to balance kids and jobs. Maxine had plenty of experience with six grown children, 18 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, there wasn’t much that she hasn’t seen or done in helping her brood. One of her comments during the evening was, “I want to help my kids. They work and I can give them some relief with their children. I live two blocks away from the preschooler, Katie, so I just go pick her up and we do things even when I have nothing planned to do.”

Grandparents make a difference. Preschool teachers make a difference. And more than anyone, parents make a difference.

The parents at both schools got and gave some ideas about things they can do to help their preschoolers with math:

MATH ACTITIVY: GARAGE SORT

Level: Preschool up

Materials: Nuts, bolts, screws, nails, washers, etc

Activity: Your garage is a great place to start algebra and you and your child may not even know it. Let your child help sort out all of those nuts, bolts, etc. you’ve been throwing in a can until you got time to do it. They can sort by color, size, shape or whatever you choose. Sorting and classifying is part of math specifically algebra, but also helps in science.

MATH ACTIVITY: CARD MATCH

Level: Preschool

Materials: Deck of cards

Activity: Match the cards that have the same dots on them. They don’t even need to be able to count yet to match the ones that look alike. As they can count and recognize numbers, the game gets easier. This is actually an algebra activity too. And you thought you couldn’t remember anything about algebra.

One Bridge Street preschooler joined us for the meeting. She was great fun. She played the entire time with the learning toys and games on the table. Making the best point possible-learning can be fun.

Five minutes later, moms and dads began returning talking about what they’d done on their walk-counted leaves, picked up rocks, and talked about their kids. Talking about their kids was a great segue into the next few activities. The focus for the evening was for parents of preschoolers to experience some fun things they can do with their kidlets that help reinforce what the children learn in preschool. We mostly did pre-reading and math activities.

The walk was for talking about what they see. It’s a great vocabulary developer and a good oral vocabulary leads to easier reading skills. We played with magnet letters that go great on a refrigerator. One mom shared that Michaels has alphabet cookie cutters. I need to get a set. We also read a couple on sale from Target Sesame Street books to each other for read aloud practice. One mom and grandmom giggled a great deal over their story. A last piece on the language and literacy side was to write in a journal. It doesn’t need to be a fancy journal-a few printer pages folded in half will do. The Dollar Store has them too. The writing will probably be scribble words and pictures for awhile, but it won’t be long before a letter, then a word or two will emerge from those scribbles.

When I asked my favorite question, “What will you do with your child this week,” I got a new answer. I like to share good ideas so here’s one from Sheila:

Materials: A sales paper that has any type of food, plain paper to write on and a pen. This activity is great for kids of all ages, I have a 8,6,and4 and they all love playing it together

Activity: One person is the waiter or waitress, and they take orders and write them down, and depending on witch child is waiting my 8 yr old adds up the bill and gives us the total and then makes change, my 4 yr old just pretends to use money and the 6 yr old is starting to make change. We also use the something to play grocery store. Same ideas just different settings

This activity is great for both writing and math and great for a variety of ages. One simple activity also reinforces a number of writing and math standards the teachers are teaching in their classrooms. Thanks Sheila.

If you have a fun idea please share it as Sheila did through our website at www.edsuccess.com. I’ll be happy to share it with other parents who can

I’ll save the math activities we’re doing for next week after the workshops at Park Avenue and Bridge Street Schools. Stay tuned for more.

Something that will make a difference for kids. Something that will make teaching and learning better and easier. When I was teaching, that’s what I wanted in a staff meeting. Heck, that’s what I wanted in any meeting. I didn’t have time to listen to bus and bell schedules. I wanted something that would make a difference for the kids in my classroom.

So we talked about something that could make a difference-involving parents. Sure we’ve involved parents before in Back to School Nights, PTA meetings, and spaghetti dinners, but we were talking about involving them in learning. There's a whole lot of research out there that shows when parents are involved in their children's learning, the kids do better in school. These days schools are really trying to find as many additional ways as possible to help children succeed in school.

To involved parents in learning, it needs to be easier than the complexity of some of our adopted school curriculum. It needs to be something parents can and will do. Nothing fancy. Just easy, fun activities, but activities that specifically reinforce what a child is learning in school.

For kindergarteners learning algebra, yes they do start algebra concepts in kindergarten, helping Dad to sort the nails and screws in the garage. For first grade sound recognition writing a letter on a yellow post-it and having a child find something in the room starting with the sound of the letter. Nothing fancy. Just easy fun activities, but each activity helps to promote learning as well as confidence and ability to succeed in school.

By the end of the meeting, the teachers were coming up with all kinds of ideas to help parents help their kids. One second grade teacher really liked the idea of a history line using family photos. The textbook was over the kids’ heads, but that would be something they could see and understand.

Teaching is about getting someone's attention and holding it long enough for a new concept to be developed. Then the learner gets to run with it. If it's a valid concept and something the learner can use, the teacher can stand back and let things happen. The King Avenue teachers are great at it. They grabbed a concept and are already running with it their way. They'll pass it on to their classroom parents and kids who will benefit from new learning too.

To me, that's what makes teaching and learning so much fun. I'd like to think it was an OK staff meeting.