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August 2006
Revised School Calendar
Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006
July 27, 2006
Dear Colleague,
Due to recently passed legislation which now requires all schools to be closed on Primary days, our school calendar had to be adjusted.
On September 12, 2006 schools will be closed and a day will be added in June. The new date for closing schools is now June 13, 2006 for 180 day calendar and June 22, 2006 for 230 day calendar.
I have enclosed a copy of the statute sent to me from the Rhode Island Department of Education as well as a revised copy of the school calendar.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Vorro
Executive Director
Pearls of wisdom at orientation for teachers
Posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Yesterday, teachers were given a refresher course which included some unusual health tips covering everything from splinters to HIV.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- On their first day of school, teachers have to absorb a ton of information on such things as attendance, schedules and discipline codes.
Then, there is the stuff that no one talks about. Like human bites.
"This calls for disciplinary action," nurse Mary Whittaker said during yesterday's teacher orientation at Perry Middle School. "You worry about HIV and hepatitis."
Whittaker offered no-nonsense advice about the kinds of things that teacher preparation schools don't cover, such as how to deal with open wounds, seizures or asthma attacks.
"My favorite word is gloves, gloves, gloves," she said. "When you have profuse bleeding, call 911."
A slide show even offered advice on what to do with a severed limb: "Place detached part in plastic bag."
Whittaker's response: "I'm not going to go there."
She offered the following pearls of wisdom: When a child loses a tooth, put it in a glass of milk and guard it with your life. When a child has an asthma attack, try caffeine, which can help open the airway. "Distract them," Whittaker said. "If they have a pet, talk to them about it."
After covering everything from splinters to HIV, Whittaker took questions.
"Is there a rat problem in the building?" a teacher said.
"No! No! No!" said Fran Rotella, the principal. "We caught two mice this summer."
Perry Middle School, like so many in Providence, is starting the new school year today with a new leadership team.
Rotella is the new principal, moving from Carnevale Elementary School. Jeremy Chiappetta is one of two assistant principals; he worked at Hope High School last year. Gloria Jackson was one of three deans at Perry Middle School last year; this year, she will serve as an assistant principal.
Earlier in the day, Rotella described the school's goals, speaking to 60 teachers, many of them Perry veterans.
"Our goal is to create a culture of excellence," she said. "I want teachers to really want to be here. I want students to look forward to coming to school and I want parents to feel welcome."
Rotella said she wants to students to believe that college is within their reach. To instill those aspirations, each class of students will be asked to pick a college to represent their team. The sixth-graders, for example, might pick an Ivy League institution; the seventh-graders might pick a Big East college.
Rotella said, "I want the subliminal message to be that college is within their reach."
Then, she outlined what she expects to find in every classroom: examples of outstanding student work, specific guidelines for helping students revise their work, a common vocabulary posted on the wall of every English class and instruction based on the workshop model. With this approach, the teacher starts with a mini-lesson, models the problem for the class and then asks students to practice on their own. At the end of class, everyone comes together and shares what they've learned.
"Failure is not an option," Rotella said bluntly, echoing Supt. Donnie Evans' mantra. "Perry has not made adequate yearly progress in seven years."
Rotella seems to bring an elementary school style to her new surroundings. Yesterday, she gave awards to teachers who had done an exceptional job of decorating their classrooms. She even gave teachers an assignment -- a question and answer quiz -- that they had to present to the entire assembly.
Afterward, a teacher privately praised Rotella for paying attention to instructional issues, not only the nuts and bolts of opening day.
During her tenure at Carnevale, Rotella helped the school move from being low-performing and not improving, to moderately performing and improving. Rotella realizes that it is impossible to make these kind of changes overnight, but she refuses to blame low student achievement on poverty and class.
Her first challenge, she said, is getting the faculty to work together. The previous three principals, called deans, struggled to work as a team and the faculty's loyalties were divided. Rotella will have to heal those divisions before Perry can move forward.
Evans has also promised to restore rigor to the classroom, and, for the first time this year, Perry will offer an accelerated English class for students who are adept at reading and writing. According to Rotella, Evans wants to create gifted and talented programs at every middle school, not just at Nathanael Greene Middle School.
Rotella wants Perry Middle School to feel different from the first day, and so she has hung large purple and blue silk butterflies near the school's entrance. The butterflies are more than a way to beautify the dark hallways, however. Rotella hopes they will symbolize the metamorphosis that will transform Perry from a failing school to a successful one.
Veazie event aims to settle students' first-day jitters
Posted Friday, August 25, 2006
At Veazie Elementary School last night, teachers were doing distinctly unteacherly things, such as serving ice cream, painting faces and making felt bookmarks.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The first things parents see are the balloons, dozens in primary colors. The first things they hear are the steel drums.
Veazie Elementary School in the North End rolled out the welcome mat last night to 200 parents and students as part of its second annual "Meet the Teachers" celebration.
As parents walked into the playground, they were greeted by teachers who asked their children's names and pointed them toward their teacher.
Everywhere you looked, teachers were doing distinctly unteacherly things, such as serving ice cream, painting faces and making felt bookmarks.
For parents, the gathering is an opportunity to meet their child's teacher in a friendly, unhurried atmosphere. Teachers say much the same thing:
"They get to see that I'm a real person, that I'm their friend," said Adele Goss, a third-grade teacher. "And we get to meet families in a relaxed setting."
The start of school can be fairly traumatic for a kindergarten student, and last night, Veazie's teachers were trying to take the sting out of the first-day jitters.
Five-year-old Jodeci had been tearful before she saw the balloons, the police horse and the fire engine. Suddenly, she was all smiles.
How do you feel about your first day of school, a visitor asked.
"I feel excited," Jodeci said, clutching her new notebook and crayons. She has already chosen her outfit: a Hello Kitty dress and a pair of Air Force Nikes.
Last year, Carl Lauro Elementary School was Timika Gilmore's first choice, but she changed her mind after her 7-year-old son, Jeffrey, spent a year at Veazie.
"It feels like a community," she said, "not a school."
By far the biggest hit was the petting zoo, where children got to handle a python, pet a 50-year-old tortoise and touch a tiny green frog.
"This snake is awesome," said one boy, as a pale yellow snake wrapped itself around the child's neck.
In another corner, one father introduced his timid 5-year-old son to a classmate:
"Go on, shake his hand," the father urged, gently guiding his son toward the other child. "See, that's how you make friends."
Principal Nancy DeRobbio said her teachers did all of the work this year.
"Our focus is on improving customer service," DeRobbio said in an interview last fall. "I tell my staff, 'The customer is always right.' "
That customer-friendly approach was clearly in evidence last night, as teachers welcomed parents and explained the basics: school begins at 8 a.m., your child's teacher is Miss So-and-so, the day ends at 2:05 p.m.
At another table, United Health Care and RiteCare handed out free coloring books, Band Aides and tooth brushes.
"Miss Moran, did you get a haircut?" one girl asked.
"Yes, I did. What do you think?"
"Oooh, it looks real nice."
With more than 600 students, Veazie is a big school and it would be easy for a child to feel lost. But DeRobbio and her staff are trying to make the old red brick building feel as intimate as a one-room schoolhouse.
"I've been here seven years," said Colleen Moran, "and I can tell you that the faculty really care."
Policy: Physically restraining a student, a last resort
Posted Friday, August 25, 2006
Teachers are told that it is unacceptable to physcially restrain a student except in rare cases when it is necessary to protect someone from an assault.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- When 26,000 public school students return to class on Tuesday, a new disciplinary policy will curb the use of physical restraint to control a student's behavior.
The new language says that physical restraint or crisis intervention will be limited to the "use of such reasonable force as necessary to protect a student or another member of the school community from assault or imminent, serious, physical harm."
Deputy Supt. Frances Gallo said the School Board decided to refine the policy because the original language was too vague.
"We want to say that as a district, no way is it OK to restrain someone," Gallo said. "The law says that physical restraint should only be used as a last resort."
Gallo said the district was prompted to revise its policy after its special-education staff pointed out that there had been a change in the state law. Last year, the May Institute trained teachers to use a variety of deescalation techniques to calm disruptive students. Sometimes, the adult has to allow the student to have the last word. Often, the teacher has to rephrase his request using less combative language. Instead of ordering the child to do something, the adult paraphrases the situation as he or she sees it.
This year, the district will use a DVD to train new teachers, bus drivers, maintenance workers and other staff in the new policy.
This fall ushers in two big changes in the Providence schools: the closing of the Nathan Bishop Middle and the construction of a new high school on Adelaide Avenue.
Supt. Donnie Evans decided to close the East Side middle school this spring after a previous plan to temporarily educate ninth-graders provoked intense opposition from neighbors. Evans said he was shuttering the school because of chronically poor academic performance. Bishop's students will be sent to the city's seven other middle schools. Meanwhile, a committee of parents, neighbors and community leaders have been meeting this summer to discuss the school's future.
The Adelaide Avenue High School is scheduled to open as early as January. The foundation has been dug and the walls are going up, according to Alan Sepe, acting city planner. The school was originally slated to open last fall, but questions about site contamination delayed the state permitting process. If all goes according to plan, Sepe said that the classrooms should be finished in January.
Evans: Schools will run on customer-service model
Posted Wednesday, August 23, 2006
"The schools will reflect a positive ethos," Supt. Donnie Evans said. "If you are an adult, you will want to be in this school. If you are a child, you will look forward to going to school."
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- In six months, the Providence schools should feel different in two important ways, according to Supt. Donnie Evans.
"The schools will reflect a positive ethos," he said yesterday. "If you are an adult, you will want to be in this school. If you are a child, you will look forward to going to school."
Evans has already met with principals to talk about the new rules of engagement: all adults will now be responsible for all of the children in the building. In other words, if a teacher sees a child he doesn't know acting up, that teacher will be responsible to correct that child.
Conversely, if a student needs help, he should feel comfortable speaking with any teacher, not only his classroom instructor.
Evans gave the following example of the kind of behavior he wants to change. When he was a professor at the University of South Florida, he picked up his daughter at her school. He walked into the front office.
"I stood there for 10 to 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged me," Evans said. "I was totally ignored."
Evans said he has heard similar stories from parents in Providence; after Christmas break, he hopes that response, or lack thereof, will be a thing of the past.
Evans calls it the customer service approach to public education.
Evans also wants teachers to use commonplace English instead of the education jargon that dominates -- and some would say -- obfuscates -- public education. Instead of referring to IEPs, teachers will talk about individual education plans. Instead of discussing ELL, teachers will talk about English Language Learners. Clarity will replace education jargon.
As Evans put it, "We will demystify the language."
The challenge will be introducing the new rules to the rank and file. Evans plans on creating a series of videotapes that will lay out each of the elements. When school opens on Tuesday, principals will be expected to model new behaviors to their staff; additional teacher training will be offered down the road.
Changing school culture is the first of two important goals that Evans will set in motion this year. Putting a strong instructional leader in each school is the second.
Evans said research has shown that schools cannot improve unless they have a strong principal who cares deeply about teaching and learning and models good instruction.
Evans has already moved nearly a dozen principals to find a better fit between schools and their leaders. The transfer of Roseclaire Bulgin from Roger Williams Middle School to another setting created a huge furor, with parents clamoring for her return, but Evans stuck by his decision.
"Principals have to be visible," Evans said. "They have to be visible when kids come into the building, visible in the hallways during passing time, and visible in the cafeteria during lunch. They have to know their school."
Teacher evaluations will no longer be seen as punitive. To that end, principals will spend a lot more time observing and evaluating teachers as part of an ongoing effort to improve instructional skills. Of the days set aside for professional training, principals will devote half of that time to learning how to be an effective leader.
"I know this isn't going to happen overnight," Evans said. "In the meantime, I'm going to be visible and I'm going to model these new behaviors."
Evans also wants to ratchet up the level and quality of work that takes place in the classroom.
"We have got to get beyond the busy work," he said. "I want rigor in every classroom. We've got to get away from thinking that just because the majority of our students are poor or have language challenges that they can't do more."
Monday night, a group of parents led by Osiris Harrell demanded a meeting with Evans and top administrators to talk about educational concerns. The group threatened to stage a student walkout if Evans refused to meet with them.
Yesterday, Evans said he welcomes talking to the parents and plans to schedule a meeting.
Hope teachers set sights high at RIC workshop
Posted Thursday, August 17, 2006
Fifteen teachers get tips they can take back to the high school and share with other teachers and their students.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Hope High School's Leadership Academy staff ran out of time before they could take on the toughest question: What is your school's "big, hairy, audacious goal."
Micah Fierstein, the director of Rhode Island College's educational leadership program, said a big, hairy, audacious goal is something so grand in scope that you have to grow into it.
"I'll be honest," Fierstein told 15 Hope High School teachers Friday at RIC. "I think your goals are informational, but not inspired."
Fierstein, when asked, threw out his own version of a goal: that 97 percent of Hope's ninth-graders would graduate four years later.
He said that nobody knows the answers to fixing an urban high school, but you can't get there by nibbling around the edges. You have to think big. You have to change your mental model of a successful school. And you have to be willing to shake the tree.
"Walt Disney didn't say, 'What's the best practice for creating a theme park?' " Fierstein said. "When Kennedy said we were going to the moon in 10 years, no one had thought of heat shields."
Staff members of the Leadership Academy, including Principal Wayne Montague, spent two days last week learning what it means to be a good leader, and it wasn't always what people thought. To be an effective leader, you have to really listen to what your students or colleagues are saying. You have to be willing to put aside your own beliefs to understand others. And you have to view tension as something constructive, not counterproductive.
"Leadership isn't about one person," said teacher Mary Markey. "Everybody has to do a certain amount of listening, reflecting and questioning."
Last year, staff members of the Leadership Academy, one of three small learning communities within Hope, struggled to define their mission, to carve out an identity apart from the Arts and Technology Academies. The Leadership faculty spent their time at RIC figuring out how to come together as a team, so they could begin to share those practices with their students.
"I'm not sure I had a notion of leadership before," said Ellen House, a teacher. "It was an amorphous thing. This process is helping to clarify things."
Fierstein said that tension arises when there is a big gap between reality (what goes on in the classroom) and expectations (the school's mission or goals).
The natural response is to reduce that tension. They can do it by collapsing their vision, or they can allow so much tension to build up that it explodes.
"That's when young people commit suicide," Fierstein said. "You can also create the illusion that it doesn't matter. You're a teacher and you imagine you're not part of the staff, or you're a student and you simply hang out.
"But," he said, "if you hold the tension long enough, you can get creative about solving it."
Fierstein asked about Hope High School's dropout rate. Montague said he didn't know.
"That's fudging it," he said.
That led to a discussion about the academy's goals and expectations. One teacher said that the faculty should help students identify what they're good at.
Montague said, "It's not just about jobs; it's about having a dream."
"These kids expect to go to college but they don't do their homework," said Nancy Walwood, adding that teachers need to be more explicit about what it takes to get into college.
"We need to get real about attendance and homework," Markey said.
During a small group discussion, Markey told Montague that too many students were skipping first period. She suggested that the current consequences weren't working and asked if the two of them could meet before school starts to figure out something new. Montague said yes and Markey was relieved.
Later, the class broke into small groups to hammer out the values and purpose of the Leadership Academy. The teachers will bring their ideas back to school and share them with the rest of the faculty and the School Improvement Team.
Fierstein will continue to help the Leadership Academy define its values and mission during the school year.
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