Volume 1 No. 7

   A
   Henry
   Quinlan
   Publication

The Principal's
Idea Notebook

Volume 1 - Number 7 March 28, 2003
		Programs 'Cool Careers for Guys' Seminar Officers Build Rapport Over Lunch 'Mini' School Studied For Core Program Program Offered To 12th-Graders Two Initiatives In Battle Against Bias 'Houses' Please Students, Staff Students, Staff Don Hats For Fund-Raiser Drama Class Reaches Out Specialized Programs Keep At-Risk Kids In School Policies High School Fine For Smoking Incentives Lead To Higher Scores High School Links Cameras To Police Department Video Cams Now Inside School Too Teaching Aids Classroom Designed For Disabled Children Teacher Shows It's Cool To Be A 'Geek' A Living Lab For The City's New Curriculum Odds & Ends Reading From The Rooftop Safety Suggestion Box Homework For Parents
		Editorial Policy: It is the policy of The Principal's Idea Notebook to present ideas from principlas around the country that are innovative, creative and worthy of being adapted at other schools. It is the free flow of ideas that make our education system the best in the world and most of these ideas come from School Principals. Henry M. Quinlan Publisher Programs ----- 'Cool Careers for Guys' Seminars Traverse City, Michigan - High school boys in the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District who are considering careers in education or medical services attended a seminar that gave them an idea of what to expect in their future careers. Brent Boerema, principal at the Career Tech Center, which sponsored the event, said the reason for the seminar was to expose as many students as possible to careers in the traditionally female-dominated professions of nursing and elementary school teaching. February 2003 Officers Build Rapport Over Lunch Onalaska, Wisconsin - The Onalaska Police give students of the school district a close-up look at the officers as regular people by inviting them to lunch. First-shift officers make regular monthly lunchtime visits to each of the district's five public and three private schools. Eagle Bluff Elementary School principal Todd Saner said it was a great idea to give the students a real connection with the people who protect them. February 2003 'Mini' School Studied For Core Program Poudre, Colorado - The Poudre School District is deciding on whether or not to open a mini junior high school within a high school that is scheduled to open in 2004. The reason for this proposal is that Boltz Junior High School is extremely overcrowded because it is the only junior high to offer the Core Knowledge curriculum. Many students who have been enrolled in this curriculum on the elementary level want to continue in it because it is extremely challenging and it provides a clear delineation of what is expected of students at each grade level. Boltz Junior High principal Mike Walz said his school has reached capacity. Gary Bamford, assistant superintendent of secondary schools in Poudre said that by moving seventh and eighth grade students into a wing of the new high school, the classes at Boltz could remain at a manageable level. February 2003 Students Prepare For Black & Gold Games Dyersburg, Tennessee - Students at Dyersburg Intermediate School are preparing for the annual Black & Gold Games. These games help the school raise money for student activities. According to physical education teacher Mike McCullough, the games have been held for the last ten years. However, this is the first year that third graders are permitted to participate. The games feature students taking on their peers with entertainment between games. March 2003 Two Initiatives In Battle Against Bias Easthampton, Massachusetts - Two diversity groups at Easthampton High School are taking steps to ensure that students and faculty remain sensitive to the needs of all students. The group Busta Move will circulate a questionnaire asking for students' reactions to the racial slurs posted on the school web site by one of the students. The other group, Erasing Racism and Affirming Cultural and Ethnic Diversity, led by principal Charles Kaufman held a teacher-training course focusing on diversity in the classroom. The efforts to increase cultural awareness in the school began in 2000 when a school survey revealed that a dozen minority students in the school felt they needed an adult to talk about the level of acceptance of minorities in the school. February 2003 'Houses' Please Students, Staff Salina, Kansas - Salina South High School has established three small learning communities called Houses within the high school. Beginning this past fall, students were equally divided into the Gold, Green and White houses. Teachers are assigned to a house and they are to follow the same group of students through their four years. Principal Myron Graber said that they have been some problems, but the administration has been able to work through them. He also indicated that during the second year of the program, there would be greater emphasis placed on collaboration among students. March 2003 Students, Staff Don Hats For Fund-Raiser Sellersburg, Kentucky - Restoration Christian School is raising money to help the family of two students diagnosed with ALD. They held a fundraiser in which students and staff paid for the privilege of wearing a hat to school for the day. The event raised more than $1,400. Principal Sara Hauselman came up with the idea. She said it didn't require much planning and it provided immediate results. March 2003 Drama Class Reaches Out West Bloomfield Township, Michigan - Twelve students in the advanced drama class at West Bloomfield High School, with the help of two local organizations, have formed an acting company for Project TRUST - Teaching and Reaching Using Students and Theater. Through the program, the students will be acting out anti-violence and other messages for students in elementary through high school in West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills, Farmington and Walled Lake school districts. West Bloomfield High School assistant principal Rob Leider said school administrators were eager to pilot this program because it portrays these anti-violence messages in an interactive format. March 2003 Specialized Programs Keep At-Risk Kids In School Owosso, Michigan - At-risk students at Owosso High School have two program options to help them stay in school and graduate. If a student has failed past classes and is short on graduation credits, they can participate in either the After-School Credit Hours or the Student Seminar Program. These programs have smaller class sizes than regular courses and more one-to-one attention between students and teachers. The programs do not focus on the entire curriculum, but instead teach the students core information in the subject that is needed to pass the exam. Principal Bart Wegenke said that as a result of the programs, 93% of the school's senior class graduated last year. March 2003 Top Policies ----- High School Fine For Smoking Lake Wales, Florida - Students at Lake Wales High School are enrolled in a new program to combat tobacco usage. The program, called Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), levies a $25 fine on any student caught using any type of tobacco product in school. Principal Terry Ashley said that since the program's inception in his school, the percentage of students using tobacco products has dropped significantly. February 2003 Incentives Lead To Higher Scores Forreston, Illinois - Forreston Valley School District has been operating at a deficit. The school district spends $3,998 per student on instruction, which is well below the state average of $4,667 per student. However, this has not affected classroom performance. The district's three elementary schools and its middle school are among the top 25 schools in Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores. The secret of their success is that teachers create programs to motivate students and keep them in school. One such incentive is the program that allows students who avoid being tardy, miss one day or less of school, have no discipline referrals and maintain at least a "C" average in every subject through one quarter to miss one final exam of their choice. Forreston High School principal Mark Hansen said that the district was conservative on expenditures, but high on achievement. March 2003 High School Links Cameras To Police Department Bay Minette, Alabama - In late February, thirteen cameras that monitor the Baldwin County High School Campus were linked by computer to the local police department. There have been a rash of break-ins in schools throughout the county and the school decided to link cameras to the police department as a preventive measure.. Principal Eddie Mitchell said that the police could provide instructions to staff and administrators as to what to do to better protect their school. March 2003 Video Cams Now Inside School Too Bremen, Indiana - Bremen High School installed its first hallway security cameras a month ago. Principal Bruce Jennings said they were there to discourage potential disciplinary problems such as students stealing from lockers. In addition to the four hallway cameras, Bremen schools have four outdoor cameras that pan the parking lot and the school grounds at the high school and the elementary-middle school next door. March 2003 Officials Map Road To Success Beaufort, South Carolina - Battery Creek High School has a plan to improve and all staff members, teachers and students are involved. Principal Rodney Jenkins said that the school was looking at last year's poor test scores on the South Carolina High School Exit Exam and the SATs as a wake-up call to get up where they belong. One of the proposals is to reduce the size of the school. Ninth-graders will be separated from upper classmen giving them time to adjust to their surroundings. They are also attempting foster more interpersonal relationships between students and faculty. The principal believes that employing these measures will improve test scores. February 2003 District Schools Will Start Earlier Next Year Eudora, Kansas - Eudora students will start the school day fifteen minutes earlier. The proposal was decided upon when Eudora High School principal Dale Sample brought it before the USD 491 School Board in February. He said that 87 hours of school time were lost a year because of students leaving early to be on time for extracurricular activities. He originally asked to begin school 30 minutes earlier each day. However, fearing that it would create a problem when scheduling student lunch periods, the Board decided that a 15-minute earlier start was a better solution. February 2003 Top Teaching Aids----- Classroom Designed For Disabled Children Mitchellville, Maryland - The C. Elizabeth Rieg School is a special education center for severely handicapped students ranging in ages from 5 to 21. They have developed a multi-sensory room with red, yellow and blue flashing lights, glowing strands of fiber optic ropes, moving shapes on the walls and ceiling and a seven-foot illuminated tube filled with bubbles. The room addresses the needs of specific students. The flashing color lights help those with limited vision identify color, the bubble tube helps children with limited coordination; and for children who are normally withdrawn, the moving objects inspire them to move their heads. Principal Mark Norman said that their goal was to get each student moving to the best of their ability. February 2003 Teacher Shows It's Cool To Be A 'Geek' Cincinnati, Ohio - Randy Wilson is one of the most popular teachers at Ockerman Middle School. He calls himself "Grand High Geek" and he teaches students it's all right to be smart, science-minded and more than a little eccentric. By applying the label of geek to himself, he has removed the sting out of the label. Now when students are called geeks, they consider it an honor. Principal Mel Carroll says that Wilson has exhibits a love of science that comes through to the kids. March 2003 A Living Lab For The City's New Curriculum New York City, New York - Students at P. S. 172 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn spend almost half their day in "word work". They use music and rhyme to study phonics usage in both reading and writing. Sixty-nine percent of these students read at or above grade level. The program involves the students spending 20 minutes a day on a page of phonics, studying the sound a group of letters make. They chant words using that letter group so that they can see that by simply adding a different letter(s) to the group, you create a new word; e.g. bring, spring, sing. Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company in Greensboro, North Carolina publishes this program, called Month by Month Phonics. P.S. 172 principal Jack Spatola says it provides enough phonics drills even when only used for 20 minutes a day. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein plans to impose this methodology on the 600 elementary schools in the system as part of his efforts to standardize instruction. March 2003 Top Odds & Ends----- Reading From The Rooftop Interlachen, Florida - Principal Sandra Gilyard and Assistant Principal Neil Stephenson spent two and a half hours reading on the roof of Price Middle School. It was their pay-up for losing a bet they made with the students that the children couldn't read for a million minutes over the period beginning on October 21st and ending on February 12th The children actually read 1,020,079 minutes, averaging 89,000 minutes per day. February 2003 Safety Suggestion Boxes Staffordshire, England - Students at the Shire Oak School came up with the idea of placing mail boxes in prominent areas of the building so that children could contact the police about their safety concerns in the school. A police spokesperson said that this represent a positive change in attitude in the school. February 2003 Homework For Parents Fort Wayne, Indiana - Sorting out the different types of school can be extremely difficult for parents. Finding the right school for a child means that parents must do their homework by checking out the school's web site observe classes and meet teachers. Croninger Elementary School principal Carolyn Powers believes that parents want a school that celebrate children's success. They school should also have enthusiastic teachers who love to teach. She says that the bottom line is what does the school have to offer a child. March 2003 Top
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