The Big Picture> To read the entire “Big Picture”, click here. In the News |
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On November 20th, WBUR featured the Massachusetts ELT Initiative, highlighting that Massachusetts is the only state in the nation to fund the redesign of the traditional school day in multiple districts. The story also focused on the Edwards Middle School in Boston, interviewing students, teachers and the principal, Michael Sabin. The Boston Globe featured an Editorial/Opinion piece by Paul Grogan, President and CEO of The Boston Foundation and co-chairman of the Great Schools Campaign, on November 27th calling for extending the school day to be one of Boston’s top education priorities to meet the needs of today’s 21st century global economy. On November 29th WGBH’s Greater Boston with Emily Rooney aired “Schools Try Longer Hours”, featuring the Umana/Barnes Middle School in East Boston and Principal Jose Salgado, as part of its Eye on Education series. Lastly, on December 3rd, Boston’s Urban Update featured Boston ELT principals Jose Salgado and Valeria Lowe-Barehmi as well as Massachusetts 2020 President Jennifer Davis and YMCA partner and ELT parent Wendy Zinn.> For more on these stories, click here. |
ELT at a Glance
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Worth a Thousand Words
> Guitar class at the Umana/Barnes Middle School > Chris Gabrieli visits the Kuss Middle School |
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Peaks and ValleysIn each issue of the ELTimes, we will interview an ELT principal to get a candid analysis of theparticular challenges and the rewards of creating “a new day for kids”. Michael Sabin is Principal of the Edwards Middle School, in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. The school has 414 students and 54 staff. Uniforms are mandatory. In 2005, the Edwards received the Pamela Trefler School Partners Award from Boston Partners in Education. > To read the interview, click here. ELT InnovatorIf you closed your eyes, you could easily think that you were in a Beijing kindergarten. More than a dozen 4 and 5-year old children greet their teacher with the traditional “Ni hao” (hello), recite their numbers and colors in unison and sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”—in Mandarin Chinese. Open youreyes and you see, instead, the kindergartners at the Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Cambridge, where 72% of the students come from low-income families. These kindergartners study Mandarin Chinese for 30 minutes every day, as do all of the students at the K-8 School. > Click here to learn more about the Mandarin Chinese program at the King School in Cambridge. Promising PartnersThis section features a community partner who is participating in the Expanded Learning TimeInitiative. A community partner with a large ELT presence is Citizen Schools, a national education initiative that operates a network of after-school apprenticeship programs for youth that connects middle school students with adult volunteers through hands-on learning. Children who participate in Citizen Schools have the opportunity to apprentice with lawyers, web designers, architects - culminating their learning apprenticeships by arguing trials before federal judges, designing web sites for their school, organizing public events, publishing newspapers, and much more. Click here to learn more about what Citizen Schools is doing in several ELT schools. Union MattersUnion Presidents joined Superintendents and Principals at the November 15th conference for the 29 school districts and 84 schools that recently were awarded ELT planning grants from the MA DOE. Union leaders Gerry Ruane and Paul Toner, as well as Building Representative Ted Chambers, served on a conference panel entitled, Creating Effective Labor-Management Collaboration to Expand Learning Time. In the five districts and 10 schools implementing the expanded day, union leaders continue to play a critical role in the ELT process. In Malden discussions are underway to improve the schedule for elementary school teachers and in Boston, Boston Teachers Union President Richard Stutman recommended that Massachusetts 2020 jointly convene a meeting with the BTU and Boston Public Schools of the building representatives and principals to review the successes and challenges of the first few months of implementation in the three Boston ELT schools. The meeting will take place next month.Tip of the MonthThinking in Outlines: Taking notes in outline form in a Math or Reading class helps students to build organizational structures in their heads. These habits of mind (i.e., thinking in outlines) help them not only write but read better.For more information about outlining, click here. Forward this Email!To forward this email to a friend, click here. |
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