Minta, Powerful Schools’ new Development Specialist, shares her impressions of visiting a Powerful Schools site for the first time this month.

With a few weeks under my belt here at Powerful Schools, I was eager to delve deeper into what we do. How exactly does Powerful Schools inspire minds and create opportunities? I wanted to, needed to, learn more about who we serve so that I could begin to tell our story.

I sat wondering at my desk: What does Powerful Schools look like in action? Who are our students and what are they learning from Powerful Schools?

So, on a recent sunny day Jeannie Collins-Brandon, Education Director, and I took a short walk up the block to John Muir Elementary, one of Powerful Schools’ core schools to see the Learning Intervention and In-Class Learning programs in action. We visited Room 19, Mr. Lorca’s third grade class, as they were in the middle of a Family Stories unit with Arni Adler, Powerful Schools’ Staff Developer.

We walked into a room full of fidgety kids seated on a colorful carpet, raising their little hands and telling their classmates about places that were special to them. Arni and Mr. Lorca pressed for deeper answers, making them think about why these places are special, how do these places make them feel? One boy in the middle of the carpet answered, “My dad’s house.” “And why is that place so special to you?” With a tilted head and a soft smile, he said, “Because we always spend time together when I’m there.”  Clearly, they were getting it.

Powerful Schools developed the Family Stories unit to help kids share their varied personal stories – recognizing and embracing that these children come from diverse backgrounds and cultures.  This lesson was teaching them how to paint a picture with words. They were learning to tell the ‘why’ and communicate the smells, feelings, sights and sounds that made each place so special.

As we observed the rest of the lesson and the kids went on about swimming pools, classrooms, family homes and parks that were meaningful to each of them, I got to thinking about places that were special to me. And honestly, many of them were the same: the home I grew up in, the park across the street from my house and places where I can often find my favorite, most special people.  As I thought about it, I realized that Powerful Schools was becoming a place that was special to me, in part, because of the responsibility it put upon me: to support kids in their early education so that they could, one day, make a difference with their lives.

Powerful Schools has given me that same chance, an opportunity to use my education and skills to make a difference with my life.

Powerful Schools is a bright, cheery place. Walls painted orange and blue, student poems and artwork hanging in the entrance,  gigantic pictures of smiling kids line the walls, color splashed about and friendly ‘hellos’ coming from all sides. As I settle into my role here, I have felt welcomed and valued by each person I meet. It is a place I feel comfortable. It is a place where I can make friends. It is a place where my voice can be heard. It is a place where I am challenged.

This is the kind of learning environment we want to create for kids in Powerful Schools programs. A place where they feel respected, where they can take risks, where they are free to express themselves. And that is just what I saw yesterday as I watched Arni and Mr. Lorca guide the class through their exercise, encouraging everyone to speak up, giving individual time to each student and challenging them to think critically.

This is what I want to build support for.

Empowering kids to feel confident in what they know and who they are is our job as adults and I’m happy to have found my special place that asks that I do just that.

Powerful Schools held its Annual Luncheon (previously a breakfast) on March 27th, 2013. With over 400 guests, our students produced and “aired” a newscast with the help of Q13 News Morning Anchor, Bill Wixey.  They shared the wide-array of programming happening in and out of the classroom, highlighting the work of some amazingly talented students. They were followed by Executive Director, Tre’ Maxie, who shared the serious side – our outcomes and how Powerful Schools is making an incredible difference. Tre’ was followed by Kelly Aramaki, WA State’s 2012 Principal of the Year, and an incredible partner at Beacon Hill International School (BHIS). Kelly shared how incredibly integrated we are in BHIS’s everyday efforts to educate and inspire its students.

We have received a lot of positive feedback about the event, but some of my favorite came from the parents of students who were included in the program. Rachel Sanchez is both a teacher and a mom of a student benefiting from Powerful Schools’ work at his school:
“I wanted to tell you first that Arturo has enjoyed and grown so much from his participation in the Curiosity Club. At the beginning of the year (after having a very difficult year in third grade last year), he told me that he was chosen for the Curiosity Club by his teacher because she saw leadership qualities in him. This made such an impression on him and changed the way he saw himself. Over the course of this year, after participating in the Curiosity Club, as well as PS after school science class, and Lego Robotics, he has now identified himself as a “science guy” who loves anything to do with science- from electrons to ipads.

Yesterday, I wanted to tell you that he grew so much from having this chance to present at the luncheon. He has always felt comfortable talking to adults, but now as a 10 year old, he is still beginning to see how he fits in the world. In having the chance to prepare a speech with you, and then present, again, his self-image changed in a positive way, he feels very proud of himself, stronger and more confident.

It means so much to me to watch him grow this way, as every mother hopes her son will feel academically inspired and able, as well as confident in front of a crowd. Thanks again for everything. Powerful Schools is a wonderful organization. We are so lucky to have you here at our school.” – Rachel Sanchez

This is why Powerful Schools matters.  We are changing the lives of students every day.  It’s important work and we are incredibly thankful to live and work in such a supportive community. Thank YOU for making it possible!

State Bill 5237 is currently being circulated amongst the Washington State Senate as an answer for “establishing accountability for student performance in third grade”. If enacted, SB 5237 would require that by the 2014-2015 school year individual students who do not meet their third grade reading assessment standards will be mandated to repeat the third grade.

This is a heated argument amongst law-makers in Olympia, and bound to be a bigger one if it makes it out of the Early Learning & K -12 Education Committee.

We asked one of our newest Board Member’s, Joanne McEarhen, President of The Learner First, for her thoughts on the issue …  

Washington State has an opportunity to become the State in that stands head and shoulders above others in achievement outcomes for its learners.

Dramatic acceleration and sustained educational success can be a reality, including exciting results for minority and indigenous learners and those with special education needs.

But not by holding children back at the end of third grade if they fail to pass the MSP test in reading.  This attributes the blame of failure to learn onto the students. This is a system-wide issue.

We know how school systems can make a significant improvement in educational achievement. We know that our system needs to give greater attention to ‘how’ the improvement will be achieved.

In the traditional approach to lifting achievement, schools and districts have tended to focus improvement efforts on improving teacher effectiveness and subject matter competence. Students have been given supplementary programs when extra help is needed. They have been given more of the same in the hope that is will raise achievement. Yet progress is incredibly slow- too slow.

The root causes of the why children are not achieving their potential problem show up at every level in the system and with every stakeholder of the school community:

• Children don’t see themselves – their identities, languages, and cultures – reflected in what they learn, how they learn, or who they learn with.
• Parents’ and families’ expertise and support are not leveraged.
• Teachers don’t know how to effectively teach particular learner groups.
• Schools aren’t able to see clearly what they most need to change first and fast.
• Leaders buy solutions instead of leading systemic change that delivers equitable outcomes for all learners.

So instead of holding children back at the end of third grade and giving them more of the same to catch up, we need to change the system so they don’t get to the end of the third grade and fail.

We need to know by the end of the first few months at school if students are struggling to read and support them then with extra and different reading programs. We need to have a curriculum where the children can relate to it and can see relevance in it. We need to provide professional development to our teachers so they can teach children who are not like themselves, who have a multitude of levels of achievement within one class and assess for learning as they go.

To develop system wide capability we do not recommend specific programs are pre-mandated for every school to use. Districts and schools should prioritize what is required for the groups of students who need specialized teaching and learning by evaluating their students’ needs and then determining what professional development programs for teachers are required to support students and on-going assessments tools are required to raise and accelerate achievement.

Programs such as Powerful Schools, which have proven effectiveness for students, would be one that would be used when schools need 1:1 reading support for young K-2 students who are struggling to read.

The Bill ‘band-aids’ the problem yet again by trying to address the severe problem of children failing to learn to read by the end of the third grade by buying solutions and “fixing” children after the prime learning time for literacy in the early years is over. We must start earlier by prioritizing how we are teaching our children from the early childhood years before they get into the third grade and put our efforts there.

This year Powerful Schools is bringing Integrated Arts programming to five of its partner schools in the Seattle School District.  During the school day, through multi-week residencies, Powerful Schools Teaching Artists will be working with students and classroom teachers to integrate arts learning with other subject areas.  Here are some highlights!

At South Shore K-8, 3^rd graders are putting Math in Motion.  In this residency with teaching artist Lin Lucas, students are empowered to think about their learning in new and creative ways- choreographing their own dances based on mathematical division concepts.

In The History Mystery Project, Hawthorne students in Mr.Meraki’s 1^st/2^nd grade class are exploring portraiture with visual artist Jeanne Dodds.  Emphasizing subject, setting, and artifact, they are learning how to represent themselves and historical figures both literally and symbolically.

Third grade students at John Muir are about to Speak Up and Speak Out!  With teaching artist Toyia Taylor, they are learning the art of communication through public speaking skills and performing art.  Creating personal and dramatic narratives based on their interpretation of stories in their Greek Mythology unit- they are diving into the art of storytelling, exploring their voices, and developing stage presence and communication skills.

Need proof?

Below, Powerful Schools’ Education Director, Jeannie Collins-Brandon, shares what many of our Reading Tutors are doing with their free time these days:

Books are important to Powerful Schools’ staff. 
We teach kids how to read them, write them, and love them—and we’re big readers ourselves.  So it’s not surprising that books come up at meetings.  And when not one but two tutors, Bev DeCook and Amy Gray, mentioned Paul Tough’s new book, How Children Succeed, at our all-tutor meeting this fall, a bunch of us decided we had to read it.  Powerful Schools offered to purchase the book for anyone interested in reading it — and to host discussion groups — and our first book club was born!

Twenty-two of our 29 tutors read the book — so many that we had to offer two discussion groups to accommodate them all — and we held our first meetings in late November.  They were terrific.  The conversations were rich and so relevant to the work we do.  We examined and redefined, for ourselves, student “success,” and how failure is key to success — yet students are trained to avoid it and we, as adults, often abet that avoidance.  We talked about risk taking, grit, and perseverance — and how we can better support the development of these in our students.   We discussed poverty and language barriers, testing and dropout rates, college readiness and vocational training.  And through all this, despite the fact that many of us have been working alongside each other for several years, we got to know each other much better.  And what strikes me most is a deep sense of gratitude for the tutors who work with our students each day. Most of our team has been with us for several years — several of them over ten years, and one fifteen!  And while some might expect passion to wane over the years, nothing could be further from the truth for our tutors.  Each one is an advocate for children, passionate about education and issues of equity, and committed to doing what it takes to support our students — including reading books and talking about books, on their own time, that offer new tools and broader understandings.  I feel so lucky to be part of this group!  Can’t wait for the next book and conversation … titles are being “voted” upon as I write this.

-Jeannie Collins-Brandon, Education Director

Did you know that all young students experience “summer learning loss”?

About two-thirds of the achievement gap between low and high income youth can be attributed to summer learning loss. Many students do not have access to educational experiences and adequate adult supervision once the school year ends. Powerful Schools believes that in school and life, children need ongoing opportunities to practice essential skills as well as explore new and exciting things. To help reduce the summer learning loss and the subsequent achievement/opportunity gap, we offer programs providing educational and enrichment opportunities throughout the summer months.

This summer we offered three summer camps, including a fantastic Learning Camp in partnership with John Muir Elementary. From July 9th to August 10th, 90 students attended this five week, full-day camp aimed at improving reading and math skills in preparation for the upcoming school year. Students spent half of their day working on these essential skills while the afternoon was dedicated to enrichment activities such as drama, art and basketball!

“My son did NOT want to go to camp, but I signed him up because I thought it would be good for him. You provided a safe, fun, atmosphere and after the first day he acted like it was HIS idea to go! He learned a lot and had a really good time!”

We also offered week-long Summer Exploration Camps at John Muir Elementary and Graham Hill Elementary, providing K-5 students with fun learning experiences in topics such as art, singing, circus and gardening.  In addition, each Wednesday night between June and August, we helped parents choose books for their child’s reading level and hosted family word-game nights as part of our Just Right Summer Reading Program at Rainier Beach Branch Public Library.  By continuing to provide programs like these, Powerful Schools helps to not only combat learning loss but also ensure that our students are participating in educational and FUN activities over the summer!

“Fabulous (summer) camp! My kids LOVED it! The combo of cooking, drama, art, and circus, were perfect!”

 Click here to learn more about our Summer and After-school Programs!

We all know kids are curious. In fact, Powerful Schools’ most popular after-school classes are often STEM themed. Some of these include: Wacky Science, Herbal Potions and How Airplanes Fly and Boats Float. We LOVE that moment when a student makes a discovery.  You can practically see the light bulb go off and their imaginations open to even bigger and deeper questions.

With the support of Washington STEM, Powerful Schools aims to harness the power of this curiosity and continue building upon it during the impressionable 4^th and 5^th grade years.  We believe, with this project, we will help change the whole school’s perception around STEM. Through student driven activities, that make STEM fun, and with students also having mentoring from STEM professionals that look like them, they will vastly increase their interest in STEM related study and future fields of study.

Over the last couple of years, Powerful Schools has had more and more conversations with many of our school partners about how we can support their interest and efforts to increase STEM participation and achievement among their students …

Keep reading the post at Washington STEM: http://washingtonstem.org/blog/2012/08/28/2771/

THANK YOU South Shore Sea Dragons! We love working with your amazing students.

“One night I went to see this year’s YouthSpeaks Poetry Slam Preliminary performances.  I’ve been going to these Slams since last April, because the kids and their poems are always so moving.  At this particular event, I noticed a young woman there giving her time as the emcee of the event.  She was beautiful, brilliant, strong, funny, charming, early 20′s, and held the entire evening together, making the kids and the audience alike feel included in every part of the 3-1/2 hour evening.  As I listened to her I found out that she had helped start the Seattle chapter of YouthSpeaks, was herself a poet who performed when she was in the same age group, and was a supporter of all the upcoming youth poets as they find their way and their voice.  All in all, she was amazing.

I saw her again at another Poetry Slam months later, and this time she was filming the performance.  I was going to find my seat and didn’t want to walk in front of the video camera, so I walked behind, and there she was.  She reached out her hand and stopped me, and said, “Excuse me, but did you ever teach poetry classes at John Muir Elementary School?”

I told her that yes, I have, and that I was teaching there now.

“No, I mean a long time ago,” she said.

I answered, “Yes, I’ve been lucky enough to write with kids there on and off for probably about 10 or 12 years.”

That’s when she smiled said, “You came to my class when I was there and wrote poems with us, and you’re the reason I became a poet.”

Well, I actually had to gulp a few times to keep from crying.  It had been a challenging day and week, and suddenly everything in the universe was okay, and even beautiful.

We smiled and talked for a few minutes, I found out that it was about 11 years ago, when she was in 5th grade at John Muir Elementary that I did a Powerful Schools Poetry Residency in her class. She told me she still had a poem she wrote in one of the classes and had recently shared it at an event as one of her first poems.  When she described it I recognized it as one of the prompts I gave during the “Who Am I” Repetition lesson, after an exercise in similes and imagery.

I needed to take my seat for the show, but when it was over I went to her again.  The woman’s name was Rose McAleese. Rose had become a prominent figure in the local spoken word platform and was even part of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. I told her that I would be working a poetry residency at John Muir Elementary for another couple of weeks, and asked her if she would consider coming to the school and reading her piece to the class.

Rose did come in with me to a class a couple of weeks later.  She didn’t bring the poem she wrote when she was younger, but she spoke with the kids and gave them writing ideas as well.

As Rose and I were walking up the stairs to present to the 5th graders, she pointed out her second grade classroom.  At that moment I remembered her.

I said, “Wait a minute – you sat on the left side of the room facing inward, had bobbed brown hair, sweet little round framed glasses, and you wrote a poem about your feelings being in a locked box at the bottom of the ocean, right?”

She nodded and said, “Yes!”

I realized I had first met her in that classroom when she was eight years old, not 11.  She made an impact on me then just as she had now.

I wanted to share this story because without Powerful Schools, our talented teachers at John Muir­ and all the others who support and make possible the work we all do­ I would never have gotten to meet this young woman.  The words are small but my heart is full with them. I feel so grateful that poetry can be this thread that connects us through our truths through so many years.”