Partnership Teachers Embark on Teaching Fellowship in the Middle East

By Evan Dvorak

Conceptual and AP Physics teacher at Jordan High School

A colleague once remarked to me that teaching is about enabling connections. We work to connect students to the content, to ourselves, or to their classroom peers in an effort to engage their minds in learning. As educators, we should similarly connect ourselves in as many ways as possible to those who can help us further refine our craft. One way of enabling this is by traveling abroad and fostering relationships with educators of different nationalities. Not only do we gain insight into how different cultures approach the central problems in education, but we see our own society's approach to education with fresh perspective. Such a trip is invigorating both on personal and professional levels.

A TEACHING FELLOWSHIP TO BAHRAIN AND QATAR

Partnership teachers at the site of the first oil well in Bahrain

In June 2013, I traveled to the Persian Gulf on a teaching fellowship through the Bilateral US/Arab Chamber of Commerce. Accompanying me were two fellowship leaders and nine teachers from across the United States, including two other Partnership teachers, Joy Lee and Fred Simmons, who teach math and biology at Roosevelt and Mendez high schools, respectively.

Over eight whirlwind days, we met with educators and students, visited numerous schools and historical sites, and took in as much culture as possible in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Qatar.

The fellowship's mission was to foster ties between educators from the United States and the Arab world, which took place through sharing methodology, best practices, and classroom experiences with our Arab counterparts in education.

HISTORY AND HOSPITALITY IN BAHRAIN

Fellowship members meeting with the president

 of Gulf Petrochemical Industries

Our stay on the small island country of Bahrain (pop.: 1,200,000) commenced with visits to two of the most significant historical and cultural sites in the capital city, Manama: the archeological site of the Bahrain Fort, an ancient fortress with a stunning panoramic view of the Persian Gulf, and the equally beautiful, albeit more modern, Bahrain National Museum.

While visits to museums can be impersonal and leave a traveler feeling detached from the people and society of a country, our hosts made sure that we enjoyed the full embrace of Bahraini hospitality. The management executives at GPIC, one of Bahrain's flagship petroleum companies, welcomed us to their country and corporate campus with a warm reception. And before leaving the country, we enjoyed a traditional meal of fish at the home of one of our Bahraini hosts, a highlight of the trip.

QATARI EDUCATION AND GEOGRAPHY

The fellowship group upon reaching the Gulf on the desert excursion

We continued our tour through the Gulf by visiting more schools and universities in Qatar, including an international K-12 school run by the petroleum company RasGas, and an expansive multi-university campus known as Education City.

For some high-level perspective on education in Qatar, we met with officials at the Supreme Education Council. In an impressive board room, complete with UN-style language translation functionality, our group engaged in a question & answer session with a handful of the leaders who craft country-wide education policy. While the entire nation has as many citizens as LAUSD has students, our education systems share many of the same challenges.

To escape the congested streets of Doha, Qatar's rapidly modernizing capital and regional economic hub, we took to the empty deserts to the south. Qatari drivers led us on a wild excursion over and across seemingly endless sand dunes until we reached a small barbecue spot on the beach. With the Persian Gulf in front of us and the sun setting into the dunes at our backs, it was a supremely tranquil capstone to an otherwise frenetic, but phenomenal, trip.

For more insight and pictures please visit http://plastravels.weebly.com/ 

Taking a Leap of Faith - Ms. Olivas

Back in the summer of 2011, our principal Mr. Mauro Bautista asked teachers if we would be interested in participating in a "Pioneer" program that addresses teacher development and was being offered by the Partnership for LA Schools. This was during Mr. Bautista’s first year as principal, needless to say he is a dedicated individual who is highly admired by his staff, so when he expressed his excitement in this new program, I followed his leadership and embarked on a new endeavor.

The Pioneers program is a peer-developed program teachers can use to self-assess their knowledge and skills, using several tools rooted in the Teaching & Learning Framework, including self-reflection, goal-setting, high-quality teacher observations, frequent feedback, multiple measures of effectiveness, and opportunities to collaborate with other teachers.

I am a lifelong learner...as every teacher should be, right? So being a lifelong learner with a special education specialist background, I have learned over the years how easy it is for people (teachers and students with disabilities) to become too comfortable in their zone. I have heard many of the excuses from teachers who blame our neighborhood and our culture for low test scores, and I have heard excuses from students with disabilities who say "it's too hard" and give up.

So what's the harm in being evaluated?

This experience has helped connect me to other professionals who objectively critique my practice. Before observers come into my class, I have to assess myself. At the beginning, there were areas of my work, which I believed myself to be highly effective. However, I didn't want to appear conceited. I knew I would need to reflect on how I measured up against the Teaching and Learning Framework rubric.

I will admit that the whole idea seemed overwhelming. I was asked to reflect on my teaching by assessing myself.  I was comfortable assessing special education students, I did it regularly...but to assess myself?! What was being asked of me? And who would "judge" me? What will I look like on a checklist? Would I be marked Ineffective, Effective, or Highly Effective? Could I eventually lose my job?

Keeping it real!

I remember while I was working on my first self-assessment in True North Logic, an online assessment tool, I found myself a bit self-conscience and began marking "developing" in many of the areas just to play it safe, however I questioned myself because I knew I was "highly effective" in many areas. So was I being honest with myself? Or was I threatened by having observers verify my self-assessment?  Yes, all of this went through my mind.

During my class observation in 2011-2012, Mr. Bautista and another teacher observed me for what turned out to be a boring and long period, it drove me crazy because I had worked so hard on my lesson plan in True North Logic yet it really didn't flow as smoothly as I had hoped.  Nonetheless it was a great learning experience for me. This school year's observation was held in December with a pre-observation, where I met with Mauro to discuss the goal of my lesson that would be observed and a post observation to review and discuss feedback.

The feedback was a revelation. My observers brought to my attention that I was doing most of the talking during my lesson and provided proof through their detailed notes. This exercise helped me become a better listener to my students, which means learning to pause long enough to let my students process what I ask them and then allow them to practice answering by using  communication skills.

It was my, "a-ha" moment!  "WOW" I thought.

Thank you! I truly am thankful to learn what my area of need is for my present level of performance (PLOP). As I said before, I am a lifelong learner and will continue to improve myself, just as we expect our own students to do the same. We cannot allow our students to give up on themselves, and we cannot allow ourselves to be arrogant enough and to think we have exceeded our own expectations of our present level of performance.

Because of this experience, I feel like I can see clearer now. I am able to recognize my areas of need so I can improve, and once I am able to improve only then will my students be able to improve.

Ms. Dolores Olivas is a special education instructor at Mendez Learning Center since it opened in 2009 and before that worked at Hollenbeck M.S. (for twenty years).  She is currently working on an Autism Spectrum Disorder Added Authorization Certificate

Breaking Down Barriers in Reading With the Help of Technology

By Barret Graf
6^th grade language arts teacher at Carver Middle School

She sits in the second row, and she is tiny.  When I ask students to sit up and get focused, her feet dangle under her desk like the pendulum of a clock. “Slinky,” as her friends call her because of her ever curly hair, has not missed a day of school all year, and she is never late. She has never told me this, in fact she rarely speaks to me at all, but I know she likes to be here. 

Yet as is typical of most students in this class, she is a struggling reader.  At the very thought of reading grade level text, I can see her eyes glazing over as if she is travelling to a far off place where she is safe from the fear of failure and embarrassment. A note to the wise; most everybody has a fear of failure, but at no point in life is this fear more pronounced than in middle school. 

Back to “Slinky”…“Slinky” has spent so much time not comprehending text that, instead of asking for help, she has slowly developed coping strategies to deal with this dilemma. She pretends to read. To answer written questions, she writes parts of the text.  During sustained silent reading, she tries not be noticed. 

Getting students like “Slinky” to embrace the possibility of academic success appears monumental. You see, on paper “Slinky” is a 6^th grade student, but inside her own head she knows she is not. She knows that she can not do what successful 6^th graders are doing. On the play yard, these are her close friends, but in the classroom they are miles apart.  This is the conundrum that struggling students face every school day. 

Enter blended learning (insert trumpets here). Blended learning gives all of our students the time they need to work on what is most pressing to their long term academic success. They need time to experience the intrinsically rewarding sensation of true success. 

Since the initial inception of blended learning at my school last year, my students, “Slinky” included, have shown dramatic improvement on both state test scores and the quality of class work.  “Slinky” has improved  2 grade levels in reading, since blended learning has addressed her areas of greatest need.  

The time period each day where “Slinky” is reading materials appropriate to her lexile level makes all the difference. She is learning more now than she has in a long time and slowly, but surely, her confidence as an academic and indeed as a powerful person is beginning to bloom.

Mr. Barret Graf has been a teacher for 14 years, the past eight of which have been spent as a 6th grade language arts teacher at Carver Middle School.  The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools recently awarded Mr. Graf a challenge grant to research blended learning models and produce a series of self-guided mini-lessons using Achieve3000.

K-3 Classrooms Receive Leveled Library with a Target Grant

All K-3 Classrooms Receive Leveled Libraries Thanks to $100k Target Corp. Grant

Leveled Libraries Help Elevate Students to Reading Proficiency

LOS ANGELES, CA (Sept. 24, 2012) – The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is pleased to announce it has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Target Corp. to purchase leveled libraries for all of its six elementary schools, impacting thousands of elementary students.

Leveled libraries provide students with a variety of preselected books that are grouped by reading level. Leveled libraries are a proven way to build student fluency and comprehension skills by offering books that are at a student’s specific learning level versus a one size fits all approach.

Providing texts for students at their independent reading level has shown to increase student reading fluency. It also greatly mitigates the frustration some students feel when assigned a book beyond their reading capabilities, which could eventually lead to disengagement and poor performance. Through this program, the Partnership hopes to set the foundation for student literacy and provide teachers with the tools they need to engage their students effectively.

The project was inspired by the Partnership’s Ritter Elementary School, which due to severe budget cuts last year had to eliminate funding for their librarian, who had assigned level-appropriate books to students during library visits. Having lost their librarian, Principal Charlene Green decided to provide leveled libraries in classrooms to meet the needs of students and teachers. The libraries have been a tremendous help to students and teachers, which prompted the Partnership to launch the program network-wide.    

The grant from Target will be used to provide leveled reading starter kits for more than 100 classrooms and professional development to support teachers on how to effectively use the libraries through techniques of differentiated instruction.

BREAKING NEWS - CST Scores have been released

Partnership for Los Angeles Schools Achieves Best CST Performance to Date

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Strong Improvement in All CST Subject Areas for Mayor Villaraigosa’s Network of Historically Low Performing Schools

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English, Math, Science, History and CAHSEE

Pass Rate Gains Exceed District Averages

LOS ANGELES, CA (August 31, 2012) – The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools today announced that its network of schools saw their largest increases ever in Math and English proficiency on the California Standards Test (CST).  Proficiency gains at the Partnership schools exceeded the average gain by the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) in all four tested subject areas: English, Math, Science and History.  

“These CST scores represent the best year yet for the Partnership for LA Schools,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  “We saw improvements in all core subjects, and substantial gains at most of the schools, though a few schools still have a ways to go.  I am so proud of our Partnership teachers, principals and students.  These scores are a direct result of the passion and tremendous work ethic they bring to our schools.  It is clear the Partnership is poised for continued success.”

Mayor Villaraigosa launched the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in 2007 to focus reform and resources on a set of historically low performing schools and to help drive change in LAUSD.  It is one of the largest public school turnaround efforts in the nation, serving more than 16,000 low-income students in 22 schools located in high-need urban neighborhoods across East L.A., Watts, and South LA.

The number of Partnership students testing proficient in Math went up 5%, double the LAUSD average gain of 2%, and the number proficient in English increased 5%, above the LAUSD average increase of 4% last year.  The number of Partnership students proficient in Science was up 4%, and the number proficient in History was up 3% compared to average gains by LAUSD of 3% in Science and 2% in History.  In addition, the percentage of Partnership students passing the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) increased 4% according to the most recent figures, compared to the LAUSD’s 1% average increase.

““Throughout last year, our teachers and principals focused on improving classroom instruction, bringing technology into their classrooms and engaging parents at their schools.  Their efforts directly led to strong achievement in many of our schools,” said Marshall Tuck, Chief Executive Officer at the Partnership.  “The fact that our network of schools had the best year its ever had, in spite of difficult budget cuts and other obstacles in public education right now, is a true testament to the potential of our students and the commitment of our school staff.” said Tuck. 

Highlights of the Partnership’s CST performance were:

• Partnership elementary schools—where the math blended learning strategy is most fully implemented—saw an overall increase of 6% in Math scores compared to a flat District average
• Particularly strong proficiency gains at the secondary level:
• Jordan HS, up 8% in English and 6% in Math
• The Academy of Environmental Social Policy at Roosevelt HS, up 11% in English and 13% in Science
• Markham Middle School in Watts, up 8% in each English and Math
• Santee HS saw gains on all subject areas of the CST
• Strong decrease across the network of schools in the percentage of students scoring Basic or Far Below Basic, the lowest achievement bands of the CST 

“We have established solid momentum this year in achieving our goal of transforming our schools as evidenced by these results,” said Colleen Oliver, Chief Academic Officer at the Partnership.  “Key to our success has been the consistent and persistent laser-like focus of our administrators and teachers in implementing our key strategies throughout our schools.  Our teachers and administrators are the backbone of our work and we are grateful for their passion and commitment.  We wouldn’t be celebrating our progress today without their hard work.”

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About the Partnership

The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools strives to uplift children in the city’s poorest communities by transforming their local public school into a safe and secure place of opportunity, achievement and discovery.  In terms of students served, the Partnership is one of the largest public school turnaround organizations in the nation.  To learn more and get involved, go to www.partnershipla.org

Ritter Elementary Awarded $25,000 Grant From Target as part of "Give With Target" Education Initiative

Ritter is One of 100 Schools That Will Receive a $25K Grant From Target

Congratulations to Principal Charlene Green and the staff at Ritter Elementary for being selected as one of 100 schools nationwide that will receive a $25,000 grant from Target as part of the "Give With Target" initiative.

"We are so touched, so proud and so appreciative of this much-needed grant," said Principal Green.  "We are elated and overjoyed beyond compare! We have also been humbled and will be eternally grateful for this wonderful, oh so meaningful, honor."

On the first day of instruction, Principal Green delivered the news during her "Welcome Back" assembly to loud cheers from teachers, parents and students! Principal Green and her staff are forming a committee of parents, staff and students to assist with creating a priority list for how the money will be spent.

"We don't want to 'rush' to spend this grant money right away," Principal Green noted. "We are going to take our time and conduct many thought-provoking meetings before making any final decisions."

"Give With Target" is a two-part giving campaign aimed at helping schools across the country, just in time for the new school year. Target will provide $2.5 million in grants to 100 in-need schools, as well as up to $2.5 million in Target GiftCards to local schools that receive votes on Target's Facebook page. The 100 in-need schools will be announced throughout August.

All Partnership schools can receive $25 Target GiftCards through the secondary component to the "Give With Target" initiative that will give up to $2.5 million in Target GiftCards to schools that are nominated by consumers on Target's Facebook page. For every 25 votes a school receives through Target's Facebook application, the company will donate a $25 Target GiftCard, with a maximum donation of $10,000 per school. Parents, students and teachers are encouraged to vote from July 26 to September 8.

Congratulations once again to Principal Green and the staff at Ritter!

The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is now hiring single-subject teachers! We are currently focusing on nine great schools…Hollenbeck, Stevenson, Gompers, and Markham Middle Schools and Jordan, Mendez ET, Santee, and Roosevelt (L&G, and STEM) High Schools! Come out and learn more about the staff and the great opportunities with the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. We will be hosting this Meet & Greet event on Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 from 12:00pm-3:00pm at The Partnership Home Office. To view the event flyer, click the link below.

(http://www.partnershipla.org/system/storage/3/d2/0/801/Single_Subject_Meet_and_Greet.pdf ).

Refreshments will be served!

Hope to see you there!

To Register please email Zoe Melczer at

zoe.melczer@partnershipla.org

For more information on LAUSD vacancies please visit:

http://www.teachinla.com/cert/vacancies.html