A National Museum

Yesterday, a teacher friend of mine who teaches in New Haven, Connecticut, was visiting the DC Area. So, I went with her on a walk around the typical "touristy" part of the city on the National Mall. We ended up at the National Postal Museum over by Union Station. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. It's an interesting view into the postal world as you may have never even contemplated it.
Upon exiting the museum, we both had a thought: 'What about a national museum for teachers?' To be honest, it seems like a no-brainer to have a museum like that. What better a thing to boost teacher morale than to have a national museum praising the work of truly quality educators across our nation? To my knowledge, nothing like this existed.
I was actually wrong. I found two such places by a quick internet search. The National Teachers Hall of Fame is located in Emporia, Kansas and the National Museum of Education is located in Akron, Ohio which is, ironically, the city that my parents met in before they got married.
However, there is still no national museum for the educator in Washington, DC. Shouldn't there be? It seems to me that, because of their location, these museums are very localized. I'd never even heard of them before. There is so much to be said about the history of education in this country, and I just think it would be fascinating to put together a museum detailing its course through time while taking the time to recognize those who have truly contributed to improving the education of our country's citizens.
Shall we be being a petition anybody?

Waste Of Money

I think thatthis is a waste of money. Veteran teachers will make more money off of it and beginning teachers will end up losing more. It seems to me that this site is dangerous to education.

Spend a little time and go to your local conference to network and find ideas for lesson plans there. Or, for that matter, email me and I'll give you ideas for lesson plans for free. I believe in educating all children in the best way possible, not just my students.

The National PTA and NCLB

The National PTA weighs in their opinion on the "No Child Left Behind" Law with what this blogger considers to be a surprising response.

The Proper Collegiate Focus

Joanne Jacobs talks about the prediction that by 2036, teacher education programs will be obsolete and that instead, there will be a higher demand for those who are simply experts in the field they teach. I think this is dead wrong.
Those who go into teaching for the love of their subject often only last a couple of years. This is shown by the statistic that those who go into Teach for America just do their small required stint and then move on to other careers. The reason? When you are teaching, the subject matter may be a large part of what you do, but an even larger part is the ability to control a classroom. That is the more difficult part of the job. It's easy to know and memorize facts. It's not as easy to convey those ideas to bouncy elementary school kids or apathetic high school kids unless you have a strong basis in classroom management. People who are purely in teaching for the academic satisfaction find themselves unsatisfied.
Those who do it for the love of educating students, on the other hand, are often more successful. Now, I'm not talking about the ideological, "kids are so cute and so I want to teach them" kind of person. But, somebody who genuinely wants to teach more than anything else. Schools of education certainly produce a lot of people who don't have these skills, but they also produce more life long teacher than any other type of collegiate education.
Actually, if anything, schools of education are TOO academic.
Most of the complaints I hear about schools of education is how they didn't prepare future teachers well enough in the skills of classroom management. Truth be told, this was my experience as well, even though we did touch on it. Still, when getting into my own classroom I realize just how little I actually knew. Did I know nothing about music? Of course not! I went to a very prestigious music school. I knew and know tons about music. Classroom management skills were what hadn't been developed.
Most people end up learning most of their classroom management skills by experience. I feel that there must be better preparation for these skills than trial by fire though. I never had a class called, "Classroom Management 101." Perhaps I needed that. Seems to me that there's so much to be said that it could be a year long course.
The difference between a good and bad K-12 teacher is classroom management. How does one engage ones students and keep them both interested and on task? It's hard. It's a skill unto itself. Some of it has to do with personality. Some people just don't have the personality for it. But, a lot of it also has to do with simple knowledge and practice that is not being focused enough on in our teacher education programs.
I stuck with it and have refined my classroom management skills. Am I perfect? No way. But, I'm a lot better than I was when I first started teaching. I just wish I'd known that first year what I know now. I might have left a few less students behind.

Couldn't be further from the truth...

I read through Lou Dobbs' most recent commentary on our public schools. It was this quote that really showed me how far off the mark he was:

It is time to restore absolute discipline to our public schools and classrooms to eliminate every extraneous program in kindergarten through eighth grade that does not focus on reading, literature, writing, American history and civics, mathematics and natural sciences.

EXTRANEOUS? EXTRANEOUS?! MUSIC AND ART ARE EXTRANEOUS?!!

Mr. Dobbs, do you live in our culture? I suggest you peek your head out the door once in a while and realize that the subject you suggest we focus on are only a small part of our culture. There are many marketable skills to be gained from other unique and inspiring subjects. Education is the ambassador of our culture and to ignore parts that are so inherently important is to ignore the entire point.

That, and he's also ignoring the libraries full of research showing that the arts help to boost achievement in all of the subjects he suggests we focus on.

There are schools in DC and Waterbury that are failing by doing just what he suggests. WEDJ is succeeding.

I'm so mad. I'd better stop posting.

Attracting Great Teachers

Mary Raschko of the Teaching Matters Most Blog from the Center for Teaching Quality discusses incentives that can attract quality teachers to the profession. These are very basic incentives that people in the private sector use all of the time.

What Is AYP Measuring?

"Let's Get It Right" discusses the theory that AYP is really more accurate in measuring socio-economic problems than assessing quality of schools.
I had a long think on this article, as I used to live in Fairfax County, not far from West Potomac High School, which is one of the two high schools explored in this post. At first, I was inclined to agree. Two schools, the same district, different socio-economic make up, one making AYP and one not. Sounds like they have a good point right?
Then go to neighboring Washington, DC which has a more similar socio-economic make up to West Potomac than to Fairfax High. Look at WEDJ. WEDJ is making AYP. There's the clincher and that's why I had to think.
And then it dawned on me. Same district + different socio-economic situations = same approach at both schools. That's where the problem lies. In a one-size-fits-all education system, we end up leaving kids behind. Schools have the ability to reach AYP if they take into account the fact that different students from different socio-economic backgrounds learn differently.
That brings me back to my post on the B.E.S.T. Program and the teacher from some ritzy district who looked awkward in front of her students. She may do well in her suburban Connecticut district, but she wouldn't have the skills to handle the students I teach. Not that my students are "bad." I hate labels like that. My students are not bad. In fact, they are some of the brightest and most wonderful young people I've ever met. But, a certain amount of understanding needs to be taken into account when working with a population that often comes from underprivileged and impoverished backgrounds. Luckily, I have somewhat of a similar background myself, so I get it. But, different contexts require different methods.
I think that is the main issue when comparing West Potomac High School for Fairfax High School. It's not rich versus poor. It's the fact that the same methods are being used for different populations.
I guess that makes me an advocate for school choice.

Ignorance In Our Public Schools

"Public" Education blogs about an instance where a principal further disconnects himself from the students simply by the way he made an announcement. I agree with "Public" Education on this issue.
One of the biggest problems with administrators are their disconnect from the students. Yes, even the administrators need to have a rapport with students. That way, when push comes to shove, the administrator can support their teachers with a true knowledge of what is going on in their school.
At WEDJ, we have great administrators who are in our classrooms all the time. They don't trample on our toes, but they do hold us accountable which offering us constant support. I consider myself to be so lucky.

College Professors Versus K-12 Teachers

It really bothers me when people compare college professors to K-12 teachers.
These two jobs are so very different that they shouldn't even be in the same league.
Being a college professor, you must have a complete knowledge of the subject matter at hand. You often teach maybe a couple of classes a day and the rest of your time is to be devoted to research and publishing. Teaching, for a college professor, often consists of either a lecture where students scramble to keep up with the musings of the professor, or, in rare instances, lively discussion facilitated both by the professor and by the enthusiastic students in the class. They have no accountability for their students' successes and failures which gives them supreme power and flexibility in their classes.
Being a K-12 teacher you often have 500 students, 25 at a time, many of which who are completely unmotivated. You have to provide any and all motivation. Lecturing is out of the question and if the students are scrambling to keep up with you then you are a bad teacher. You should be scrambling to keep up with the students. Being a K-12 teacher required a whole other skill that college professors don't have to really worry about: classroom management. A college professor can fail a student and that will be the end of that student. A K-12 student doesn't care. If a K-12 student fails, they're still there, and possibly even longer than initially anticipated. A K-12 teacher not only needs to possess a complete knowledge of the subject matter, but also the skills, and even personality, required to have great classroom management. Also, K-12 teacher are accountable for their students' successes, sometime more so than the students themselves.
I had a professor in college, who taught K-12 before becoming a professor, who said it the best, "Those who teach, CAN and can do more."
Professors are not teachers. They are relayers of information. Being a teacher requires an extra sense of responsibility.
I mean no disrespect to truly good college professors out there. They have a very important function in society, but it is a very different function from that of a teacher and there is nearly no comparing the two.

Today's Commute in DC

Good luck to everyone who is braving the commute into DC today. It looks like the afternoon may not be a whole lot better than the morning. Drive safely.

More on "No Child Left Behind"

Epiphany in Baltimore posts his thoughts on many districts' choice to "dumb down" educational standards in response to "No Child Left Behind."
As you can see, I've clearly dedicated my first day of summer to significantly expanding the blog roll!

More on Arts Education in the New york City Public Schools

Jim Horn of the Schools Matter blog posts disdain over the plan for arts education in the New York City Public Schools.

No Child Left Behind

"Let's Get It Right" is an American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's top teachers' unions, blog on reform of the "No Child Left Behind" Law. I'm putting it on the blogroll to keep up with what they are saying on the topic, but have yet to form a solid opinion on their position.
They do, however, have an interesting post linking to two blogs showing the ups and downs of being a new teacher in our current system of public education. One of the links is one I already published on this blog, but I thought seeing them together would relate to my last post.

Why Do People Stay In Teaching?

I've had people in my industry ask me, why do I staying in teaching? It's frustrating, it doesn't pay very well, and I'm very much qualified to do other things. The truth is, I enjoy my job and I care very much about the kids at WEDJ. I'm also, now, very much supported in my work which makes it a different environment from the regular public schools that many in the music industry have learned to loathe. But, if it weren't for WEDJ and the love of my students, would I stay? I guess I can't answer that because the second of those two will never dwindle.
The reason I bring this up is because, yesterday, I was shopping at my local target when a couple of my students walked by and said, "Hey Mr. Whelan-Morin!" I said hello and talked to their for a minute, though, there wasn't much to talk about yet because I'd only seen them a few days before.
After they left, a woman behind me asked, "Are you a teacher?"
I answered, "Yes."
She said, "I was a teacher once too, but I quit."
Of course, asked her why and she responded, "Well, and I mean no offense, but it just doesn't pay enough."
It was at that moment that the woman who was in line in front of me spoke up and said, "I was a teacher too, for two years. I couldn't take it. Too much stress and the pay is low."
Interestingly enough, my fiancee, who is a former teacher, similar things when she decided to pursue other things.
Here I was, surrounded by people who had given my career choice up. For a moment I felt kind of alone and I thought to myself, "Why am I in a career that nobody wants to be in?"
Truly, I love my job and I can't imagine doing anything else right now. But, it just gets you to think. Obviously our public education system is driving off educators in droves. We cry "teacher shortage" but do very little to make teaching a desirable profession to be in. Unfortunately, most people aren't quite as altruistic as I am. I have always said that money didn't matter much to me as long as I'm comfortable and happy in what I do. I'm going to be honest and say that is only true to an extent. I do wish for and expect monetary gains in the future. It's human nature to want to better one's self.
But, then there's the whole "love for my students' thing." That's something I can't deny. And it is something that will make my fiancee have the burden of being the real money maker in our family someday.

Arts Education Or Lack There Of...

Mark Lerner posts about the insanity that is arts education in the New York City Public Schools.
I can't imagine what music teacher could take on 1,200 students and be effective. I give kudos to those who can and do, but, truly, they would be even more effective given a more realistic student to teacher ratio.
Not that all of these students are involved in arts education in the NYC Public Schools. But, the fact of the matter is that, if ever student wanted to be, as every student should be (I believe that, for our culture to sustain, every student must have access to a basic arts education which includes some music literacy), there wouldn't be the resources for them to pursue this.
This is a systematic problem. Perhaps we need to find more incentives for arts educators, like myself, to pursue the field of public education and then to stay there. Perhaps that incentive is something as simple as equal respect.
I will never be called a "special teacher" again. I will refuse to respond to it. I am a "conservatory instructor."

You Don't Often See This

Public Education Defender's Blog is a hat tip to the successes of public education. He has also written a book on the topic.
He acknowledges that there are problems with public education, but also acknowledges its successes as well as pointing out a strategy for its improvement. I don't particularly agree with his strategy, but I also do think it is important to realize that, while most of the press about public education is ugly, there are many success stories as well.
I still don't think I'd ever teach in a traditional public school ever again, nor do I think I will send my future children to one if I can avoid it. Charter schools, like WEDJ, are on the cutting edge of success in education while relying on proven pedagogical practices that many regular public schools ignore.

B.E.S.T. Program and Misguided District Policies

The Connecticut B.E.S.T. program is a mentorship and portfolio program that beginning teachers in Connecticut must complete in under three years. In my opinion, this program is one of the more accurate ways to measure teacher quality, but it is not without its flaws or conflicts.
First of all, mentorship is something that is to be organized by the individual districts. More wealthy school districts would pay extra to those teachers who gave mentorship to beginning teachers. Others didn't. As you would expect, in those districts where mentorship was unpaid, very little mentorship actually went on. The truth is, it is difficult to assign a mentor anyway. A mentor is generally somebody you learn to trust.
That is not what happened between my mentor and I. She actually kind of frightened me. We had two completely different styles of teaching and she didn't know anything about my subject matter. In addition, she retired before my second year, so she wasn't very much help at all.
I've heard of other situations where mentorship was nearly outright denied to a teacher. I have a close friend who's principal decided she was going to take over as a mentor as she didn't have a mentor to assign her. This principal proceeded to write my friend up every time she made a mistake: the mark of a bad mentor. This friend is no longer teaching out of frustration with the bureaucracy.
I went to a B.E.S.T. Training session once at a local high school in Connecticut. During the session we were to watch videos from portfolios that were graded as "exemplary." I remember this one video of a teacher who was teaching in one of the more wealthy school districts in the state. She stood up there awkwardly, often not giving eye contact to the students, staring confused at her lesson plan at times while the children just sat there waiting for her. AND SHE GOT AN EXEMPLARY. I remember thinking that my students would walk all over her, but, because she taught in an easier district to teach in, she would be considered a better teacher than I was. It didn't seem fair.
The B.E.S.T. Program also, sometimes, conflicts with misguided district policies.
In Arts Education we have an acronym that is king above all others: CPR. This stands for the three artistic processes: Create, Perform, and Respond. The idea behind this acronym is that every student, during a lesson in arts education, should be learning how to create, perform, and respond. If your students are not doing these three things then you are not doing your job. Great concept right?
Well, a certain administrator in Waterbury though so, too. But, he completely and utterly misinterpretted or disregarded the point behind CPR. He made it a method for planning lessons for all teachers in the district. In this policy, teachers were required to "create the lesson," "perform the lesson," and then "respond to the lesson." It had absolutely nothing to do with student achievement or higher order thinking skills, which was the original intent of CPR. In fact, it had nothing to do with the students at all! All it really did was increase the length of my lesson plans from about two pages to over five pages for a single lesson. Because I had to spend so much time creating these elaborately worded lesson plans it gave me less time to come up with creative and engaging lessons for my students. In addition, the five page lesson plan ended up being so confusing that I would end up writing a second lesson plan, just for myself, because I couldn't refer to the lesson plan I was required to write and understand what it was I had meant to do. It was a crazy situation.
Now, in the B.E.S.T. Portfolio for music in Connecticut, you are required to show how, through video tapes and lesson plans as well as student work, you covered the concepts of CPR as they are meant to be covered. So, during that same B.E.S.T. session that I described above, I told the state official who was running it what was going on in Waterbury. She said, "Oh, that's not right at all. In fact, for B.E.S.T. I would write separate lesson plans because it might look like you were confused about the subject matter and you'd probably be failed."
So, a district policy in the City of Waterbury was going to make me fail a state certification process, simply because somebody else misread, misunderstood, or completely disregarded the intent behind a method of pedagogy.
When I brought this up to an administrator in Waterbury, this administrator told me to stop whining and just write three different lesson plans for every lesson, though he doubted I would fail my portfolio if I used that type of lesson plan in it. But, the state official, who is also a scorer of these portfolios, said I would! Shouldn't other teachers in the district know this? No. Just stop whining.
I'm going to end this rant with a phrase that I've begun to use over and over again: "It is never the kids. It's always the adults."
Thank goodness I stayed in teaching despite all of this.

Mission Statements

Here is an interesting post about the mission statements of various public education-based entities from Elementary History Teacher. I just thought the perspective on the matter of mission statements in this post were something relevant to being a possible future educational leader.

End of the Third Year

So, my third year of teaching, full-time (I've been getting paid to teach for six years, however), has officially come to a close. The rest of my time at the school will be spent tying up some loose administrative ends and getting ready for the next school year.

Some things to look forward to during the summer:
- I'm getting married, so won't be around for a couple of weeks.
- I'm participating in the WEDJ "Leadership Boot Camp" which is, basically, an introduction into the odds and ends of educational leadership in preparation for leadership roles. This is of obvious interest to me.
- I'm taking the MAT's and putting together my application for official enrollment in the graduate program for Education Administration at GWU.
- I will be doing a lot of preparation for the next school year. Last year, I had about a week to get into the "WEDJ mind set." Now I have a whole month and a half to prepare. I will be taking advantage of that.

Technically I'm "not working" this summer, but, as is clear, I will have a lot to do. This will be the first summer since I was 15 that I haven't had a job to supplement my income. I was asked to work summer school but, as I will be making a lot of preparations for the wedding, it would just be an impossible task for me to take on.

I am so excited for the next school year already. My students have much to be proud of and much to look forward to. My first year at WEDJ has truly been a blessing. I couldn't have fallen into a better place to perfect my arts: both music and teaching.

Urban Renewal or Betrayal?

I had the unfortunate privelege of visiting my home town of Bristol, Connecticut this week for my youngest brother's high school graduation. What I saw there baffled me beyond belief.
A good half of the historic downtown has been demolished. Sitting in the place of these historic buildings are empty lots. These beautiful, historic, downtown buildings will likely be replaced by the likes of gas stations and convenience stores.
In addition, the old Fall Mountain School House has also been demolished. Father of the famed author, Louisa May Alcott, was a school teacher in this historic school house. Now it is gone, also an empty lot.
I'm disgusted at Bristol's blatant disregard for history and aesthetics in favor of economic progress. There are many ways in which the economic situation of Bristol could have been improved without buldozing historic architecture. The extension of Route 72 through Bristol would have drastically affected its ability to retain businesses in its downtown district. But, Bristol is trying to become more of a suburb; a tragedy in my opinion.
Bristol should be true to its routes. It is a city. It even used to have a public transportation system of trolley cars. Some time in the 1960's a good portion of the downtown area was bulldozed to make way for the Bristol Centre Mall. This project proved to be a complete and utter financial failure. It was an attempt to make Bristol more of a suburban town, but the problem was that to become more suburban, highway access would be neccesary because most people need to travel to larger cities to do business. Because of the lack of highways in Bristol, its attempt at creating a suburban community failed and the downtown area fell into ruin.
Had Bristol simply put in the money for highway extention, much of this could have been avoided.
However, years later, Bristol is making the same mistake all over again. Destroying the downtown is not going to improve it. I am just disgusted by this.

Is Teaching a Desirable Career Choice?

The Education Wonks asks the question
"Why aren't those people who are charged with formulating EduPolicy doing more to make teaching a sought after and highly-desirable career choice?"

I've often asked this question as this seems to be a problem that permeates our entire public school system. If good people don't want to work there, good work won't be done! That's why Waterbury lost me. That's why I'm staying at WEDJ.

Teach for America (TFA) is also written about a little in that article saying that, while the intentions are honorable, ultimately, it doesn't produce long term and life long educators who will continually mold the minds of our nation's students. But is that the fault of TFA or the result of the condition of many of our nation's most needy traditional public schools?

All About the Paper

I was just back tracking through some blogs on my blog roll when I came across this post by First Year Teacher detailing her frustrations with the lack of supplies at her school and how she is expected to pay for everything.
I just found this post morbidly amusing. It was amusing because of the way she approaches it. It is morbid because it's not satire. This is the way things are in many of our nation's public schools. I know teachers and former teachers whose experiences mirrored this post exactly. It's amazing to know that the same thing that is happening in the public schools in Connecticut is also happening in the public schools in North Carolina. It's truly a nation-wide epidemic.
What other nation-wide problem is ignored so blatantly? How can teachers be held accountable for students' standardized test scores when administrations aren't being held accountable for adequate and necessary facilities and supplies?

The Role of Teachers' Unions

Eduwonk links to some interesting articles regarding the changes that teachers' unions COULD be making. I agree with many of the suggestions. I don't think we should get rid of teachers' unions. I think that, in our more "traditional" public schools that they can play a very vital role. It is their current approach that I'm disillusioned by. Instead of playing a role in improving education and, thus, making the career choice a more desirable one to pursue, they've given up and bargained for shallow and meaningless things.
In addition, as a beginning teacher the union does nearly nothing for you. In my opinion, that's when the union should play the biggest role. They could play a role in giving support and advice to rookie teachers. They could help in the professional development of beginning teachers and making sure beginning teachers get the supplies and resources they need to be affective. Perhaps they could even find ways to encourage beginning teachers to pursue higher degrees. There are so many things they could do, but they don't.

New Blog

I'm adding a new blog to my blog roll. First Year Teacher, who is no longer one, details the insane atrocities she observed during her time as a teacher in a public school in North Carolina. Her second from last post, the letter of resignation, made me almost sick with fury. The sad part is, some of those things I've observed myself, though, thankfully, never at WEDJ.
How dare we short change our students this much.

Similar Experience

This post from a DC Elementary Teacher describes an experience similar to my own.

Teachers' Unions Have Failed Teachers

This article found on Edspresso shows more evidence that teachers' unions are failing on all fronts.
I used to be a union supporter myself. I still support unions, provided they do what they are suppose to do. But, I think unions have given up doing what is best. Instead of bargaining for things like smaller class sizes and safe work environments, they've given up, knowing that school districts will not give them either of these things, and instead focused on making sure everybody gets a prep period once a week. The amount of money I paid toward that union was not worth the kind of service they did for me as an educator. I the union in Waterbury is any indication of what is happening nation wide, then we truly are in a sad state of affairs. What was being done in that union only made the job of teaching barely tolerable.
Without a union, I enjoy my job. How is that so? I'm just fortunate enough to have administrators who support me. I don't claim to believe that a non-union job is better simply because it's non-union. That is certainly not the case. But, I also do not believe unions are doing the kind of job they should be doing.

What matters?

Polski3, an educator and blogger, describes the woes that certain misdirected district policies and priorities put on our students.
I remember similar things happening in Waterbury. One thing that really shocked me was when a student, who had been failing, was kept back in third grade for the first couple months of school, until the CMT standardized testing was over, and then magically promoted to fourth grade after that. I remember, in private, conversing with some colleagues, wonder how that could possibly be beneficial to that particular student. I often wonder if that is one of the reasons I became disliked by the principal at that school. I questioned things and constantly strove to provide my students with the best I could. Imagine that. What a rebel I am!
All sarcasm aside, this is a serious problem in our education system. One-size-fits-all policies, and loopholes through those policies, create a greater bureaucracy that ultimately threatens to leave many of our nation's students behind. As educators we realize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and that the real answer to our problems is constantly changing and difficult to zero in on. That's the reality that is public education. That is the reality that is the student base that we work with.
But, if we find educators who are dedicated enough to put the time and effort into figuring out these problems, and take pride in doing so, and if we find administrators who are great facilitators and support the goals we wish to achieve as educators, then we'll be one step closer to solutions. Notice that I wrote solutions. There is no one solution that will fix this problem, nor is there one solitary person who can lead it. Again, I must reiterate that it truly does "take a village."

The Wiz was...

The kids did the most amazing job at the performance. They succeeded despite the odds: their age, technical glitches, lack of rehearsal time in the space, too much heat in the space, etc etc etc. Not only did they succeed, they exceeded all expectations. Some said we couldn't do it. Well, we did and it was amazing.
I'm so proud of my students. I won't mention them by name, but I'll put their character names in this entry to preserve their confidentiality, but also to give them credit for a job well done.
Dorothy was simply marvelous. I predict that she will have a recording contract before the age of 25. She has a beautiful clear voice with a developing vibrato. She is intuitively musical. When she sang the finale there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.
Tinman is going to be the next Denzel Washington. He is an incredible actor and is going to be a complete heart throb someday. In addition, he is just a good natured kid and very easy to get along with. There is little else you can ask from a student.
Lion is such a hard worker. We ended up giving him this part late in the rehearsal process and he gladly took up the slack and did an amazing job with it. In addition, despite his unbelievably hot costume, I heard very little complaint. His projection was unmatched; he barely needed a microphone.
The Wiz is going to making his premiere at The Met sometime in the next 20 years, I just know it. He has an amazing amount of vocal control for a student his age. In addition, his voice is in the midst of changing, but his flexibility remains! When all is said and done, I believe his voice will be an unbelievably exciting instrument to listen to!
Scarecrow has it all. His acting was impeccable. His pure voice rang through out the auditorium. I don't know what is in store for him because he has so many talents, but it will be something great.
Two of the Glindette's recently told me that they both wanted to be the first black female president. I don't know which one will get it, but, I'm willing to bet the other will be the vice president. I have no doubts in my mind that if these girls put their minds to it, they will achieve their goals. Musically, they were unbelievable. Their voices blended perfectly and strongly. It was an amazing display.
I am so unbelievably proud of my students and their current and future accomplishments. Great things are in store for all of them. I only hope I can be a good enough guide to lead them in the direction that every one of them deserves to head toward: the direction of success and happiness.

"The Uphill Battle for Funding"

This article talks about the challenges charter schools face when acquiring facilities.

Choosing a school for your child should be easy?

Kevin Kosar details his experiences in his search for a charter school.
In his many criticisms of the process of finding a charter school, it was this quote that made me say,"Huh?"

"Shopping for schools is much more difficult than shopping for toothpaste."

So finding a school to educate your child should be as easy as grocery shopping, something you do on a weekly basis? I realize Mr. Kosar was making a joke and that he truly didn't think that choosing a school would be on the same playing field as daily dental hygeine, but I do think it brings to light a problem in our society.

We do expect everything to be handed to us. We do. Every one of us as Americans does, myself included. Sometimes we need to stand back and realize some of the things that we do have. Then, when making decisions in our life, such as the decision to bear children, we must take into account the responsibilities that are inherent in such an undertaking. Those responsibilities are unbelievably great and, sometimes, as a society, we forget that.

The Wiz

The William E. Doar, Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts

Presents

The Wiz

June 6th and 7th at 5 PM

at

The Hyde Leadership Public Charter School Auditorium
101 T Street NE
Washington, DC

Tickets are $12

To get tickets, contact me asap!

Inspiring our students further....

Tonight I took a few of my chorus students to The Kennedy Center to see the Washington Men's Camerata perform. First of all, I must thank Nelson Smith of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools as he, most generously, donated the tickets to make this possible. In addition, he had the director announce the fact that the WEDJ Chorus was in attendance at the performance. Of course, the students were thrilled by this! Being mentioned at The Kennedy Center is a very big deal.
The whole performance was an interesting experience. At first, I could tell the students were a little our of their element. This is may have been the most "serious" concert they've ever been to in their lives. But, by the end of the concert, all of them had a favorite piece that the chorus sang and I even got a request to teach them one of them if "we're ready for it," as one of my students put it. The song in question was an arrangement of "The Battle of Jericho."
One of my students, who has the most musical aptitude of just about any student I've ever had, was just enthralled with the whole experience. It was so wonderful to see him stare, wide-eyed, at the performance in front of him.
I enjoyed the concert, of course, and especially when they performed the Biebl "Ave Maria," which, has always been a favorite of mine. I also have to give a compliment to the Annandale High School Men's Chorus who put on an impressive performance of their own.

Not at our school!

CNN reports that a high percentage of minority students do not like their school.

What are the right questions?

An entry from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Blog talks more about asking the right questions about charter schools as opposed to the ones about charter schools in general.

I think assessment is a big factor here. We need to assess our assessments of all schools. Which ones really show what schools are doing to ensure the continued upward successes of their students?

Can we rely on standardized testing? Do we trust portfolios? How is this all measured?

The wrong questions, most definitely, are like, "Do charter schools do well?" It's too general. Charter schools are not one kind of school. It is the nature of the movement to offer choice. Some charter schools are better than others. Finding the right fit for your child is the key.

Scores show student achievement?

I believe this to be utterly inaccurate.
Both my brother and I, who are dysgraphic and, thus, have atrocious handwriting, failed the written part of our state standardized test in high school. My brother has always gotten straight A's and has been offered a near full scholarship to Weslyan University. He is a known community genius. I didn't do all that bad myself in high school. Now, granted, that's only two examples, but, to me, that's a significant enough a number. Imagine if I had not been allowed to graduate high school because of my learning disability!

Student Dreams

Yesterday, a pre-kindergarten student approached me and said, "Mr. Whelan-Morin! You were in my dream last night!" He went on to describe, in detail, everything that happened in that dream.
The idea of it affected me kind of profoundly. These kids go home thinking about me and, possibly, even inserting me into their dreams. It just goes to show what a profound affect we can have on our students.

An Essay from a Charter School Student

This essay was posted on the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' blog today.

I find this essay interesting on many levels. But, it was this passage that particularly got me:

"My school has changed me. Since then, my parents have tried to get me to change schools. I refuse. CPA is less like a school, and more like a family, a second home. The teachers actually care about us. We are not a student number; we are people."

I just think those sentences beg the question: do parents always make the right decisions about which school their child should attend?

Of course the answer is no, or there wouldn't be students at poor schools in areas with school choice at all. This is a complicated question though as charter schools truly are based on parent choice much more than student choice.

But, then who do you trust? Who will guard the guards? Educators? I imagine that would depend. Who are the educators taking orders from? Are they basing their methods on actual scientifically proven pedagogy? Or, is there more of a political agenda involved?

My plug for WEDJ, of course, is that we, in fact, do use scientifically proven methodologies. Involvement in the arts is a proven motivator for students. Making the arts cross curricular only enhances a student's learning. It's a fact and we've found a way to make it a reality.

But, then, I'm a little biased!