[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=47843.67

Community Can Shadow MCAS Teachers

Phyllis Stark
For The News-Dispatch

Think back to how you spent your elementary, middle- and high-school days. Ever wonder how much things may have changed since the time you graduated?

We may have the experience you have been looking for.

The Michigan City Education Association is offering community members the opportunity to shadow a teacher for a day and experience what Michigan City students and teachers experience every school day. We are calling this program "A Day in the Life."

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, during National Education Week, community guests will shadow host teachers at all school levels. Community guests will arrive at their assigned school when the teacher's day starts, spend the entire day working with the teacher - including lunch - and leave when the teacher's day ends.

MCEA began developing this opportunity last spring to give community members a glimpse into what education is like in today's classroom. We are in the age of educational standards, increased accountability and increased student needs. For many of us, school today looks very different from when we were the students.

Due to the challenges of today's educational system, it's hard to truly understand the time, effort, professional development and expertise that are essential to running a successful classroom without experiencing it firsthand. We hope we may have created that experience.

In the coming weeks, more information will be presented to the community. MCEA will seek teachers to volunteer to host a community member. We also will send invitations asking community members to come spend the day in our schools. Finally, we will share the day with you - our reader - in one of our upcoming Partners in Education columns.

We are excited to get this program up and running. We know opportunities like these really develop partnership between teachers, parents and community members, and will open healthy dialogues that will help move our schools in the right direction.

Partners in Education is sponsored by the Michigan City Education Association. Phyllis Stark is its president and a Michigan City High School teacher.

[JHeath]

What a great opportunity! I know that the teachers my daughters have had put a lot of effort into planning their time, and inevitably, there are interruptions or other unplanned incidents that occur in the classrooms.

So many parent's just think that being a teacher is an easy job, when in reality, it's anything but that. i give teachers a lot of respect and credit...after all, where would we be without them?

[Roger Kaputnik]

How do I sign up for this?

[Southsider2k12]

Let me find out... I'll post it here when I get the info.

[Southsider2k12]

Hey Rog, I got the answer. Because of obvious space limitations, they are sending inviations to people who request them. If you are interested, I can put you in contact with who you would need to talk to.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Yes, please.

[Southsider2k12]

Yes, please.

Check your private messages for the contact info.

If anyone else is interested, feel free to contact me!

[Roger Kaputnik]

I wonder is they would allow recording devices?

[Roger Kaputnik]

I sent a request.

[Southsider2k12]

For those who are interested let me know. There are still spots available as I understand it!

[Roger Kaputnik]

I sent a request, no answer

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=46738.13

Spend A Day With A Teacher

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - City Council members along with local business owners and members of the Michigan City Area Chamber of Commerce have been invited to spend a day with a teacher.

"We have sent out at least 90 invitations," said Liz Schreeg, a first-grade teacher at Knapp Elementary School and a first vice president of the Michigan City Education Association, sponsor and organizer of the event.

Invitations also went to members of the Commission on the Social Status of African American Males and to a number of elected officials in addition to city council members.

Schreeg said she is certain those who attend will find the process of educating youngsters interesting.

More than 70 teachers have volunteered to host a visitor. "The teachers come from all grade levels and all subject areas, including some who travel from building to building," Schreeg said.

"Things really have changed in the last few years," she said. The establishment of state standards and standards-based testing brought with it some teacher accountability, she said.

"More is expected of both students and teachers," she added.

The premise is a simple one: The visitor will spend the day doing what the teacher does.

The Day in the Life program is open to those who have been invited, Schreeg said. The deadline for registering, which was included in the invitation, is Wednesday. The event is Nov. 14. "We might be able to accommodate people who miss the deadline," she said.

For more information, call Schreeg at 873-2096, Ext. 6438.

[JHeath]

So this is really an "invitation only" event?
That might explain why Roger never received a response....unless he was invited.

[Southsider2k12]

It sort of was to start with. They sent out a bunch of invitations to local VIPs, politicians etc. They also were sending invitations to anyone who asked for one. I asked about Roger, and it seems no one ever got an email, so I don't know if the MCAS spam filter was working over time, or I gave him a bad email address, or what.

I do know because of the horrible response rate from the people who received invitations, they are opening this up to the first people who call and ask to be in, up to the 70ish teachers who have committed to having someone follow them for a day. Maybe it was optimism on their part, but I think the teachers thought there would be a much higher response rate from those who were invited to this event, so they didn't make it an open public type of thing.

[Southsider2k12]

It sort of was to start with. They sent out a bunch of invitations to local VIPs, politicians etc. They also were sending invitations to anyone who asked for one. I asked about Roger, and it seems no one ever got an email, so I don't know if the MCAS spam filter was working over time, or I gave him a bad email address, or what.

I do know because of the horrible response rate from the people who received invitations, they are opening this up to the first people who call and ask to be in, up to the 70ish teachers who have committed to having someone follow them for a day. Maybe it was optimism on their part, but I think the teachers thought there would be a much higher response rate from those who were invited to this event, so they didn't make it an open public type of thing.

I will have to apologize here as my assumption was wrong. The event was always an invitation only event. The reason they never made it a general public event was the problem with logisitics dealing with security issues. Controling invitations controls who exactly has access to the schools, and through that, to the kids in the schools.

[Ang]

"We want you parents to be assured that your children really ARE getting a good education here at Good Ol' MCAS so we're going to invite you to shadow a teacher. We want you to have a bird's eye view of what really goes on. Oh, but we're only going to let a few of you in to do this. We don't really want ALL of you to visit. We're going to pick and choose who we want, then they can tell you about it when it's over."

[Roger Kaputnik]

How about a little camera work?

[Ang]

Well, it's begun...

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=43928.78

Shadowing The Teachers
About a dozen take part in event to watch, participate in school day.

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Vicki Hill was still in her classroom at Knapp Elementary School.

She was not alone. Many of the Knapp classrooms were occupied by teachers catching up from the day or preparing for the next.

Hill didn't start her day at Knapp. She started at 7:45 a.m. at Niemann because she teaches a half-day kindergarten class at Niemann and a half-day at Knapp. She is one of four traveling kindergarten teachers in the Michigan City Area Schools.

"She surely was busy, grading papers and then getting things ready for her class (before students arrived)," City Planner John Pugh said. He was spending "A Day in the Life of a Teacher" with Hill, who has been teaching at MCAS for 17 years. The event was organized by the Michigan City Education Association.

Hill's 23 students arrived at about 8:20 a.m.

From that time until about 11:20 a.m. the pace never slowed. The day was crammed full of activity, including two short sessions of dance to "get the wiggles out," Hill explained.

Students spent some time with numbers and Hill read a book called "The First Thanksgiving." She talked with students about unfamiliar words and context.

When the Pilgrims arrived, she explained, they had no houses and no burger shops adorned the land in Plymouth, Mass.

Looking shocked, some students asked, "Why?"

Next on the agenda was a writing assignment.

Yes, some kindergartners are writing and with coaching on Wednesday, all produced pictures and a story, with varying degrees of assistance from Hill, instructional assistant Vera Gaston and, on Wednesday, Pugh.

Someone tattled on Pugh.

"He told her," a little girl said, pointing to another little girl, "how to spell a word."

Time passes too quickly for Hill. She knows her students need more.

Too soon, Niemann youngsters are out the door and Hill packs a cart on wheels with things she will need at Knapp.

"I can't forget things," she said, "or I would have to change my lesson plans."

Just down the hall from the Knapp kindergarten room, third grade teacher Deborah Bartholomew was busy teaching students to not only add and subtract but, given three numbers, to create their own problems.

Later, following Bartho-lomew's lead, they built a paper skeleton from pre-printed bones.

Soon, they will label the bones and learn about them, fulfilling both health and science requirements.

After the skeletons were built, Bartholomew led students in an animated version of "Dem Bones."

With her background in music and community theater, she often breaks into song.

"This is a wonderful class," said Bartholomew, who has taught at Knapp for 34 years. "These kids are creative and inventive."

Peggy Moore, co-owner of MTI Dage, observed Bartholomew and loved the experience.

Moore is a former teacher of business.

"I just love being in a classroom," she said.

________________________________________________________________________________
_

Only 13 take advantage of learning about educators
The Michigan City Education Association invited 90 community leaders and business people to spend a day with a teacher on Wednesday.

Thirteen community members took advantage of the opportunity.

Of the 90, only 21, including the 13 who said yes, bothered to respond with a yes or a no.

At the Tuesday school board meeting, MCEA President Phyllis Stark spoke for elementary school teachers about the imposition of more responsibilities with no corresponding resources.

Teachers are willing to do nearly anything for students, says Liz Schreeg, first grade teacher at Knapp and a first vice president of MCEA. But they are not convinced that some of the new programs and the attendant work are helping students at all.

"I don't know where we got this notion that teachers should work without pay," she said.

Some people do not understand how teachers are paid, she added.

"We don't get any vacation or holidays," she said. "Our contract is for 180 student days." Salaries are based on the contract days.

Summers and so-called holiday vacation then cannot be seen as vacation time.

Many teachers puts in up to two hours per day beyond their contract day, beyond the day for which they are paid.

Vicki Hall, who teaches morning kindergarten at Niemann School and afternoon kindergarten at Knapp, spends her planning time driving between the two schools. Four MCAS traveling kindergarten teachers follow a similar pattern.

Hall spent two weekend days and three evenings preparing lengthy and complex report cards. She then spent 2 1/2 days of her own time in conferences because she has 44 students.

A teacher of full-day kindergarten would have 23 or 24 students.

Students come to school with a variety of skill levels and from wildly diverse backgrounds, she noted.

"Some kids have been to Hawaii," Hill said. "Some have rarely left their neighborhoods."

She knows it's her responsibility to reach each child at his or her level but it's frustrating because she believes "all children need to be in full-day kindergarten."

Third grade is an exciting time in the lives of students, Knapp third grade teacher Deborah Bartho-lomew believes.

"It's the time when they are changing from dependent learners to independent learners.

"And I love to help them toward independence."

Bartholomew will retire at the end of this year.

"So I don't mind saying this: I had an instructional aide for one hour a day at the beginning of this year and the administration took my aide away."

Bartholomew is angry because she knows she was able to accomplish more with that aide, even though she was there for just an hour a day, than she can on her own.

Two new administrators have been hired this school year, she notes.

"But we need people in the classrooms working with the students," she said. "Where are the priorities?" By Deborah Sederberg, The News-Dispatch

Roger, did you ever the get invite you requested?

[Southsider2k12]

Interesting. I would be curious to hear the stories from the people who participated and see if it gave anyone a different feeling about the teachers of the MCAS.

I really wanted to go, but I had zero extra days left between taking care of a hurt mom, and needing to save a week for when the new baby gets here.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Never heard from anyone. I guess you had to be a member of the MC nomenklatura.