Note: some of these stories took place before the governor’s official closing of schools with education moving online. These are just some of the unique and interesting ways are teachers are working to bring creative ways to the classroom. For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
Dawt Khun focuses on letters (School News Network)
Kentwood: Fancy F’s and elegant L’s
Some have put cursive writing in the category of lost arts. Not true at Kentwood’s Crestwood Middle School, where language arts teacher Anne Brown is keeping the the flow of writing alive. For more, click here.
Dominic Russell and Quaa Doxie work together on their wheel
Kelloggsville: Working from concrete to abstract in Algebra 2
Kelloggsville High School Rick Jackson puts a new spin on trigonometry by having his students get hands on in the construction of a popsicle Ferris wheel. To learn more, click here.
Maggie Santos and Elijah Brown embellish the busts they’ve made. (School News Network)
Godwin Heights: A look in the mirror cures self-expression
Before the mandated school closure, the classroom was in the middle of a 10-week artist residency offered by Artists Creating Together (ACT). Each week Annalise Hammerlund, the artist-in-residence who worked with Lisa Kotarski’s Godwin Heights class, visited the classroom to lead students in an art lesson that challenged them to learn a bit more about themselves and to express themselves through art. To learn more about this program, click here.
From left, Craig Thompson, from the city of Grand Rapids, and Aleka C. Thrash, owner of Naturally ACT, talk to students during Student StartUp Day. (School News Network)
All District: Getting down to business
In the first-ever Student StartUp Day, which took place the week before the school shutdown, area students got a lesson in what it takes to start your own business and a chance to pitch ideas to area business leaders. To learn more, click here.
In U.S. History teacher Tyler Pettit’s class, ninth-graders formed arguments on the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. While students debated, others pulled up information on laptops to support their points and make counterpoints as to whether actions were justified. They sat in a “fish bowl” style, in a circular formation.
A new wide open space with lots of technology made the activity run smoothly, Pettit said. Students gathered in the Collaboration Center, a large wide-open space fully equipped with technology, such as large screens affixed to the walls, a huge screen on the wall of a stage and ample outlets, plus comfy furniture, moveable desks, and breakout rooms. It’s an optimal environment for group work, presentations, skits and instruction that requires movement and engagement, said teachers and students.
“It allows for students to learn how they want to learn. It allows for ownership really; that’s the biggest thing,” Pettit said.
Students say they love the open-space concept in the Collaboration Center at East Kentwood Freshman Campus
“Everything is very cutting edge,” added Principal Andy Kolzow. “It allows students to innovate. It allows teachers to be creative in their lesson planning and create more engaging lessons.
As the facility improvements made possible through a $64.8 million bond passed in November 2015 continue to take shape, the district is coming together – literally – in big, open spaces at all 16 schools and the Kentwood Administration Building, 5820 Eastern Ave. SE.
“One of the centerpieces of the bond was for each school have a Collaboration Center,” said Superintendent Mike Zoerhoff.
Collaboration Centers were built over the past two years at several schools including Valleywood and Crestwood middle schools, East Kentwood High School and Freshman Campus and Glenwood, Bowen and Explorer elementary schools. All will be built by 2021. At the elementary level, the centers serve as redesigned media centers blending features of a traditional library with the collaboration-center concept.
Zoerhoff said technology in the centers will be kept up to date, with bond money set aside to replenish equipment and devices.
Students are enjoying the spaces for many subjects and uses. “It’s not a classroom, and that helps because we are so used to being in a classroom seven hours a day,” said freshman Sylvia Shaver. “It’s nice to be in an open space with comfy seating.”
“I like being in here because it’s bigger and it’s not like being in a box,” added freshman Madison Rogers.
Tables, desk and other seating areas allow students to collaborate easily
A Community Hub
While students are using Collaboration Centers for academic purpose, a space under construction with plans to open in January at the Administration Building will bring together community groups. It will be a venue available for rent, with space for 50 to 100 people to meet, use technology, and have another connection to the schools.
“Kentwood Public Schools is a hub for the community and surrounding communities.
We love to have our facilities used because the taxpayers paid for them,” Zoerhoff said.
He envisions it as space for government and business partners to meet and as a professional development hub for teachers. “We appreciate the community support and want to make sure we are a community school and share these facilities with the surrounding community.”
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Editor’s Note: This is only the comments from students in the Wyoming and Kentwood area. For the complete story, click here.
It’s become an annual ritual. Each fall the state releases results of the M-STEP, the state-required standardized test taken by Michigan students to gauge their proficiency in reading, math, social studies and science. And each fall educators, parents and pundits wring their hands over why students aren’t doing better.
Rather than go back to the same hand-wringing sources, we decided to ask the people most directly affected by these tests: the students who take them. How do they feel about these tests, and how could the tests be improved?
Adults, listen up: Maybe they can teach you something.
Kelloggsville Middle School
Gianna Turnbull
Gianna Turnbull, sixth-grader
Gianna dreams of being a baker someday. She recalls taking the M-STEP last year.
“I was anxious,” she said. “Some of the questions on the math test were confusing. I felt like I was gonna fail.”
Gianna said she took the M-STEP “very seriously. I sat at a desk where nobody could distract me.”
She wasn’t sure how the test will help students, but suspects it could help predict what kinds of things they could do in the future. Despite not enjoying the experience, Gianna said, “I think students should take the test so the state knows what the school’s teaching you.”
Jonathan Mubake
Jonathan Mubake, sixth-grader
When he sat for the M-STEP, “I was messed up!” Jonathan said. “My brain was somewhere else. …. It was like two computers (were) connected to me! I was trying to read (the page) as fast as I can, but it’s 10 paragraphs long!”
He said social studies was the hardest topic for him.
“I was exhausted, my head hurt, and my feet were wobbly,” he said, from his foot shaking out of nervousness. “I was ready to eat my food and go outside and go play. I was just ready for that, until I had to go back into the room and do the whole thing over again.
Jonathan would like five weeks’ notice to prepare for future standardized tests.
“I would prepare mentally. I would eat a perfect breakfast in the morning, get ready for school, make sure I had the right clothing on — not uncomfortable — so it’s not too tight for me to do my thing. I would go to sleep at … I would say 8, so I get enough rest.”
Crestwood Middle School, Kentwood
Kamau Brame
Kamau Brame, seventh-grader
Kamau said M-STEP tests give students an idea of how they are doing in different subjects, but sometimes the process gets a bit complicated.
“I don’t particularly look forward to them, but I don’t mind doing them. They aren’t too tedious. The teachers know what you already know and what you need to go over more.”
Math is hardest for him. “I find some questions super-easy and some I have no idea what to start with. … Once you get a few questions right you start getting really hard ones, and you kind of stress out because you know you’re not getting those right.”
He sees testing as helpful for later grades, with the “big-test SAT and ACT and all that. It gets you used to having to prep for tests and taking them under pressure.” But he’d like to spend less time on setup. “I would change all the stuff you have to do before each test. … It’s like a long process signing in and all that.”
The atmosphere at school can be a bit tense during testing, he said. “Last year some other grades told us how bad it was. … The anticipation is the worst.”
Erna Kljaic-Dugalic
Erna Kljaic-Dugalic, seventh-grader
Erna said she mostly takes the testing in stride.
“I don’t mind the M-STEP, but I don’t get stressed out about it. I usually finish early because I don’t second-guess myself.”
But math can be a bit hard on her nerves, because it “starts easy and then gets harder and harder. It doesn’t really stress me out, but it makes me feel like I’m set up for failure. I also get really tired from looking at the screen.”
She looks at test results as a way to think about what kind of job she’d be good at. “I do think it does help with your career because it shows your strengths.”
That said, she would definitely change the length.
“I understand that it’s long for a reason, but I would like it if it was a little bit shorter, maybe like two days, because sometimes it can take up a week for some kids to finish it. I’d like it to be shorter so we have more time for other things at school.”
Alana Biley
Alana Biley, sixth-grader
Overall, M-STEP isn’t too bad, Alana says.
“I don’t mind it because it helps you to know what level you’re on and you won’t be on things that are too easy or too hard.”
However, it does make her nervous. “I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh!’ I get butterflies in my stomach like a week before.”
She’d feel better with more preparation.
“I would probably want a pre-test to get you ready for it.”
Eighth-grader Chandler Baillie pulled invasive weeds, preparing to plant native flowers in a swath of land bisecting the Steelcase parking lot, which she and classmates are transforming into green infrastructure.
“Stuff that gets into the water, when it goes into this (bioswale), it isn’t going to go into the storm drains and contaminate our water systems,” Chandler said.
Chandler Baillie clears brush from the green space
Crestwood Middle School students spent a recent sunny Friday creating a natural space that keeps neighboring waterways clean and free of sediment. They lifted rocks, filled in eroded areas, and planted purple coneflower, swamp milkweed, New England Aster, little bluestem and other flowers with long, strong root systems. They are creating an area where water runoff from the Kentwood-based company’s parking lot will be absorbed.
Fifty-five seventh- and eighth-graders from the school’s P.E.A.K.S. gifted and talented program are creating the bioswale, which includes landscape elements that stop the flow of debris and pollution to nearby waterways. The young conservationists are working in partnership with Groundswell, a program through the Grand Valley State University College of Education, which is funding the project over five years.
Emma Kovacevic clears debris
Sixth-graders in P.E.A.K.S. are also creating a rain garden in their schoolyard. Students harvested seeds from the rain garden to bring to Steelcase.
The school and Steelcase are located in the Buck Creek watershed, which flows to the Grand River and into Lake Michigan. Preserving the water from contaminants is key, students said. Groundswell works to create stewards of the Grand River watershed and Great Lakes by working with schools and companies on projects that protect the waterways.
“This is a place where waters coming from the parking lot and it’s filling into the ground,” said P.E.A.K.S teacher Bobbie Fletcher, noting that many people do not realize storm drains funnel water directly to creeks and streams.
“We are using native plants with deep roots and they can actually help filter out some of the pollutants from the river or our watershed,” said Rebecca Marquardt, landscape architect and place-based education consultant for Groundswell.
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
The three sisters, refugees from Rwanda, share experiences good and bad about getting used to life in America: Making friends was difficult; American food was hard to get used to; and being part of two cultures can be conflicting, they tell younger peers, for whom they tutor and provide translation.
They also tell them ways to have a successful future, like going to college, working hard and being respectful.
The girls, Jacqueline Uwimeza and Yvonne Uwimana, a freshman and junior at East Kentwood High School, respectively; and Chantal Uwimana, a seventh grader at Crestwood Middle School, devote their Monday evenings to volunteering at the Learning Café , a place where volunteers of all ages mentor African refugee children and adults at 235 Sheldon Blvd. SE, next to St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
They say they are giving back in ways others gave to them. Seven years ago, the girls arrived in the U.S. unable to speak English and unfamiliar with American culture.
From left, Jacqueline Uwimeza, Lucie Uwimbabz, Clemence Akimana and Chantal Uwimana have fun at the Learning Café
They now speak English fluently, are excelling in school, and tutoring, translating and interpreting for other refugee children who speak Kinyarwanda and go to schools in Grand Rapids, Kentwood and other districts.
“It gives you a feeling like you are important,” Jacqueline said. “It feels like you are giving back. A lot of people helped us, and sometimes you don’t feel like you are doing enough to help others, but with this, it makes you feel like you are paying back and paying it forward.”
The center bustles with laughter, singing and children chatting, busy with school work and academic activities. The sisters are there to help, and encourage the students to learn all they can in English and school, while holding onto their African culture. Devout Catholics, the girls also help tutor and translate for adults after church on Sundays.
Yvonne Uwimana helps Yvonne Mahoro
Home in Refugee Camp
The sisters remember life in a refugee camp in Rwanda, where they were born. They jumped rope, played with rocks, picked fruit from the forest, sang, danced, went to school and fetched wood and water. It was home.
“Because we were kids, we didn’t know about the conflict,” Jacqueline said. “It’s a different story for the parents. For us it was fun. It’s all we knew.”
“It was a good place,” added Yvonne.
The girls were shielded from the conflicts that led their family members to flee to the camp. They still have only general knowledge of the first Congo War and other conflicts that displaced people in the region.
Still, they couldn’t believe their luck seven years ago when they were chosen through an immigration lottery to move to the U.S. with their mother and grandmother.
“It was like paradise, to be honest,” Jacqueline said. “The refugees would always tell us about America, so it was a dream come true. We never thought it would happen to us, because it happens to very few people. But as we got older we started to miss where we came from.
From left, Florence Mukashyaka gets a little help from Yvonne Uwimana
A Knock at the Door
After arriving in the U.S., they moved into an apartment in Grand Rapids, and started the journey of becoming acclimated to the U.S., going to school and learning English. But it was intimidating and scary, they said, starting over in a whole new world.
“It was a challenge for our mom to learn how to drive and take care of all of us and work,” said Yvonne, who remembered her mother, Claudette Nyrasafari, would leave for work at 4:30 a.m., return in the evening and then attend English-language classes.
One winter day, someone knocked at their door, but they recalled being afraid to answer. The knock came again and again, until finally, the girls’ mother opened it to find Lisa McManus, co-founder of the Learning Café. She had learned about the family from neighbors.
McManus soon connected them with resources such as clothes, furniture, English tutoring and other help navigating life in Michigan.
Yvonne also needed medical attention. When she arrived in the U.S. she was deaf, due to an infection that had damaged her eardrums. She learned English by reading lips, and underwent several surgeries. She now hears well.
Chantal also has overcome speech difficulties.
The sisters have big dreams for the future: Yvonne hopes to become a surgeon. Jacqueline is interested in everything from medicine to law to public service. Chantal also wants to go into the medical field.
“I’m very proud of these girls. They are very smart girls,” McManus said. “They are wonderful role models because they were where the other kids are. They’ve done it. They’ve been able to be successful.”
She continued: “They have very strong belief in their the ability to do things, make things happen. They know how to work really hard. That is very good for the other kids to see. From a tutoring standpoint, they are able to communicate. It’s not just about speaking another language; it’s understanding what the other person needs because they’ve been in their shoes.”
Yvonne said she wants fellow refugees to be brave, to believe in themselves.
“I want to encourage the people who came from Africa to not be afraid,” she said. “If they need help, ask a teacher. Don’t be afraid of anything.”
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Figuring out who stole Jerrell’s iPad might not sound like a STEM activity. You’re wrong. It is.
Area middle school students took on the case at the “Falling in Love with STEM” annual event sponsored by The West Michigan chapter of the Association for Women in Science.
About 50 students recently took part in the event at Grand Rapids Community College and Grand Valley State University, giving students hands-on experience with projects related to science, technology, engineering and math.
To solve the make-believe theft problem, students tested pretzels, peanut butter, jelly, yogurt and beans for organic compounds to see which type of food residue was left on the device.
At a makeshift laboratory in a GRCC classroom, they put on lab goggles then went to work pouring iodine into beakers (testing for carbohydrates); rubbing food on brown pieces of test paper (testing for lipids); and adding 20 drops of Biuret reagent (whatever that is) into beakers (testing for proteins).
Their tests showed the substance on the book was peanut butter, so peanut-butter-loving Bruce was the one who pilfered Jerrell’s iPad in the make-believe scenario.
Other stations at the event taught students how to identify fossil hash, try a prosthetic claw, fly through space with the power of a telescope and do a magic trick. A scientist from Van Andel Institute was even there to answer any question they might have.
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Using glucose test strips, Thoovi Nguyen of Kentwood’s Crestwood Middle School, left, and Hannah Ngo from Walker Charter Academy learned iodine turns to a blue-black color if there is starch in a food
Mark Wood performs with the Kentwood Middle School Orchestras. (Photo from Electrify Your Strings)
An original member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Emmy Award-winning composer will perform with the Kentwood Public school students this week.
Mark Wood will perform with students in the Kentwood Middle School Orchestras at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at the East Kentwood Fine Arts Auditorium, located at the high school on 6230 Kalamazoo Ave. SE.
Wood, an international recording artist known as the creator for his revolutionary Viper electric violin, brought his groundbreaking music education program “Electrify Your Strings! (EYS)” to the district’s Crestwood, Valleywood, and Pinewood Middle Schools, turning the student musicians into a full-fledged rock orchestra.
“Mark Wood and the EYS program have taught my students the value of both playing music well and the importance of putting on a great performance,” said Kentwood Orchestra Director Ingrid Dykeman.
The EYS program – now in its 18t h year – is a music education experience. Wood and his team work directly with a school’s orchestra director to tailor-design a rock orchestra makeover complete with a public performance at the end of the experience. EYS builds on the strong foundation in traditional music provided by music teachers; creating a partnership with educators that inspires students and boosts their self-esteem and motivation on stage and off. EYS has been featured on “The Today Show,” “The CBS Evening News,” and many more.
Wood will be performing with the students on his handcrafted seven-string fretted electric Viper violin as part of the 2017-2018 Electrify Your Strings! “No Limits Tour.” The Friday performance will include some of Wood’s original material, as well as his arrangements of music by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and more.
Wood is the owner and operator of Wood Violins, the premier manufacturer of electric orchestra string instruments worldwide. He studied under Maestro Leonard Bernstein, is a Juilliard-trained violinist and Emmy-winning composer. In addition to his solo career and his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Wood has worked with Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Joel and others.
To prepare for this concert, Wood will be teaching the students improvisation, composition, and personal expression on their violins, violas, cellos and basses. Utilizing Wood’s music arrangements that were sent to the district prior to this visit, the Kentwood Middle School Orchestras will perform in a live concert alongside Wood. The concert is open to the public with all profits going to the school music programs.
Crestwood Middle School’s new Collaboration Center looks more like a modern professional meeting room than a place seventh-graders complete school work.
Tables are situated for group work; a huge projector screen stands next to walls that serve as whiteboards. An artistic panel serves as a partition for a living-room style area. Small white boards called huddle boards connect to tables for students to scrawl notes. Six TV screens hang on the walls to display what’s projected on the big screen. Everything is outfitted for technology.
“This will have the best up-to-date technology a district can have,” said Superintendent Mike Zoerhoff. “We are trying to give our kids space to be innovative and not be held back by the constraints of a room.”
Crestwood’s Collaboration Center opened a year and a half ago, serving as a pilot for centers in schools district-wide. East Kentwood High School and the Freshman Campus will have centers as well as Pinewood and Valleywood middle schools. Elementary schools, beginning with Bowen, Brookwood, Southwood and Townline, will have redesigned media centers that blend features of a traditional library with the Collaboration Center concept. Centers are modeled after spaces at Steelcase University Learning Center in Grand Rapids.
The projects are funded through the $64.8 million bond passed last November. The plan for technology is ongoing to keep up with district needs and ever-evolving tech innovations over the next 10 years, Zoerhoff said.
Seventh-grade student Madison Catching, while working in the Collaboration Center with her class, glanced at the TV screen above the table where she worked on on a laptop. On the TV was an example of a writing prompt related to her language-arts assignment. “If we are back here and we can’t see (the large screen) we can look up here to see,” Madison said.
Teacher Erika Vann books the room regularly for her class because she loves the learning environment.
“I like how large it is,” Vann said. “The kids can move around. I don’t have to say ‘Shhh.’ They can talk.”
They also are savvy with the technology, and working on it while working together comes naturally, Vann said. “I tell them, ‘You are going to be doing this all your life. Collaboration is a part of everything.'”
Principal Don Dahlquist said the center is perfect for cross-curricular learning and projects that take on a new level of innovation. Even physical education teachers use it. “It really allows the teaching staff to be creative,” he said.
Funding for Safety, Security and Technology
Since the bond issue’s approval the district has purchased eight new buses, eliminating double runs and adding video camera for increased safety and security. Twenty-eight buses will be replaced over 10 years.
Parking lots were resurfaced at Endeavor and Townline elementary schools and exterior lighting was replaced.
More than 750 laptop computers were purchased district-wide. The plan is to purchase more than 5,000 Chromebooks over 10 years.
Artificial turfs were replaced at Falcon Stadium and Pat Patterson Athletic Field.
Projects planned for summer 2017 include a site plan renovation at East Kentwood High School to improve traffic flow and entrances.
Be sure to check out School News Network for more stories about our great students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan!
This year, the City of Kentwood has made a few tweaks to its annual Fourth of July celebration – which will be observed on Monday, July 4 – in an effort to make the activities more centralized.
Kentwood’s Marketing and Events Coordinator Laura Barbarick said there was a move by city staff at the recommendation of Mayor Stephen Kepley to pull the events together in one place. So it was decided to have the Kentwood Community Church as the main spot for the morning events with all the evening activities remaining at Crestwood Middle School.
The celebration – which has been taking place for more than 35 years in Kentwood – will kick off like it always has with a pancake breakfast from 7 – 11 a.m. in a tent in the east parking lot of Kentwood Community Church, 1200 60th St. SE. Cost is $7/general, free/children 3 and under for pancakes, sausage and eggs.
Barbrick noted that because both the 5K race and the parade start and end at Kentwood Community Church, participants and visitors will need to vary their route to the church since 60th Street between Eastern Avenue and Ridgebrook Drive will be closed. The recommend route is to enter the Celebration! Cinema South drive off of Kalamazoo Avenue and follow until it dead ends into Eastport Drive. Turn right and follow Eastport until it dead ends into Ridgebrook Drive, turning right on Ridgebrook Drive to the church.
Because of the effort to centralize events both the Autocam 5K Race & Fun Walk and the parade routes are reverse from last year.
The 5K begins at 8:30 am. with racers traveling west towards Eastern, north on Eastern with a turn around near the front of CVS so they head south on Eastern and then east on 60th Street. Registration is open up to the day of the race with late registration and check in are at Kentwood Community Church. For more information, visit www.classicrace.com.
Immediately after the race will be the parade, set to start around 9:30 a.m. The parade starts at 60th Street and Ridgebrook in front of Kentwood Community Church and will travel west on 60th Street then north to the 52nd Street and Eastern Avenue intersection. Anyone interested in participating in this year’s parade should contact the Kentwood Parks and Recreation Department at 656-5270.
The Fourth of July celebration activities continue in the evening at 6 pm. with a carnival at Crestwood Middle School, 2674 44th St. SE., and concluding with fireworks at dusk. There will be a variety of games and rides for the whole family to enjoy. Concession and food trucks will be onsite until 10 p.m.
Volunteers are needed for all portions of the celebration. To volunteer or for more information about the event, visit the Kentwood Parks and Recreation Department’s website, www.yourkprd.org or call 656-5270.
Crestwood Middle School psychologist Kathy Lennon was feeling surly. She was not about to listen to social worker Cathy DeHaan lead a session at the EKConference 2015.
Lennon sat at her desk and picked loudly at the cardboard on her coffee cup. “How are you doing?” DeHaan asked as she approached Lennon to see what the problem was.
“Fine!” Lennon said.
“It looks like maybe you’re stressed out,” DeHaan said.
“It looks like maybe you’re stressed out, and you’ve got a class to teach so you might as well teach it!” answered Lennon.
The professionals were reenacting how a student escalates into defensiveness, and how best to respond to their behavior in the workshop titled, “Mental Health Issues in School and Verbal De-Escalation.” It focused on how a student’s mental health impacts success in school, touching on depression, anxiety, marijuana use and related behaviors.
Teachers match gender and sexual orientation terms to their definitions during the workshops, “Understanding and Supporting LGBTQ Students” (Courtesy of SNN)
Playing to their Strengths
The EKConference allowed DeHaan to share her knowledge with other East Kentwood High School and Crestwood Middle School teachers. Educators chose from 74 workshops spread over five sessions.
Co-created last year by teachers and academic coaches Luke Wilcox and Tracey Kooy, the purpose of the conference is for staff members to tap into one another’s knowledge. Sharing expertise ultimately leads to better teaching, they said, and educators are carrying what they learn into the classroom.
“It’s great for the teachers because we are learning from each other and we are able to hear from different areas of specialty,” Lennon said. “There are so many different subjects to hear about.”
Throughout the day, educators covered topics on technology, art, history, writing, leadership, special education, reading, test preparation, speech, fundraising, math, science, teaching, English-language learners and new teaching approaches.
Counselor Jennifer Bailey shakes a pop bottle, symbolizing growing stress which leads to an explosion during a workshop on mental health (Courtest of SNN)
Workshops were as diverse as exploring ways to use GoFit heart sensors in physical education, and how teenagers use American music and pop culture to establish voice, identity, craft and civic responsibility.
The goal is to give teachers a place where they can easily collaborate, follow up and feel comfortable doing so, said Kooy, an English teacher who has been involved in a research project with the University of Toronto for three years based on professional development needs. Traditional professional development sessions are led by visitors on a one-time basis.
“When teachers can choose their learning, they are more invested,” Kooy said. It’s not everyone learning the same thing, because that marginalizes learning and it doesn’t allow us to seek out where we have a weakness. If we can visit sessions where we feel we can learn the most, it’s empowering.”
Be sure to check out School News Network for more stories about our great students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan!
To some students, school can be quite the challenge, but imagine a program that makes school feel a little less academic and a little more like home. The ARCH Program in Kentwood Public Schools does just that.
ARCH stands for academics, recreation, community and health. It runs in 14 different Kentwood schools and allows students to focus on excelling in the classroom and connects learning to their everyday lives.
“We’ve talked about things that kids normally don’t get to talk about [in school],” Site Coordinator Brittany Bayne said. “Like gay marriage and huge things that are out in the society.”
ARCH caters to the bottom 30 percent of students in the school system and Bayne says they hold an open dialogue with both students and their parents.
“[You have to get parents] to believe in the program and you gotta get the kids to believe in the program,” Bayne explains.
Kids are also served lunch, snacks, and provided free transportation home if needed.
In order for students to reap the benefits of ARCH, Bayne said it relies upon several factors-one of which is creating a strong relationship between students and their leaders.
“You’re their teacher and they need to know that you’re there to be a support system,” Bayne said.
At an age where kids just want to fit in, one would think there would be little interest in hanging out at an after school program, but Bayne says otherwise, she explains that students often know they need the extra help and are willing to take it.
“Fair isn’t giving everybody the same thing, fair is giving kids what they need,” Bayne said.
Students at Crestwood Middle School say the program is helping them grow academically, socially and helping them reach goals they didn’t think were possible. Avionna McGehee, a student at Crestwood Middle School, said in sixth grade she struggled often, but as a seventh grader she’s now on the honor roll.
Even Bayne said she’s noticed students stepping up their game, “I just got the summer school list of kids that are failing and are going to be invited to summer school,” Bayne said. “And we only have 6 or 7 kids from ARCH are on there.”
Between the educational learning and personal growth, there is one more important piece of advice. “[The program] is all about getting [kids] comfortable and [them] knowing that they belong,” Bayne said.
