Building Strong Foundations for Math Instruction

AWARDEE: Erin Bassham
SCHOOL: Syringa Middle School
LOCATION: Caldwell, Idaho
INNOVATION: Hands-on application of math concepts by building scale models of houses

Erin Bassham is a believer in giving her middle school math students a strong foundation in such critical concepts as fractions, ratios and proportions. To do just that, she came up with a hands-on construction project that uses craft-store materials to build three-dimensional scale models.

"I've done scale activities on paper," says Bassham, a teacher at Syringa Middle School in Caldwell, Idaho. "But I thought it would be really neat if we could actually build something."

So Bassham devised an activity to strengthen her students' skills by having them build a three-dimensional house out of the colored sheets of foam found at any craft store. Following a set of directions created by the teacher, students use their knowledge of fractions, measuring lengths and angles, and computing fractional problems to build the house to specific proportions. Once finished, they then work in groups to create a replica that's half the size of the original model, applying their understanding of ratios and scale.

Bassham notes that materials for an entire class are relatively inexpensive, despite the hands-on nature of the project. The project also can be easily modified for students of all ages, she says. Elementary school students construct simpler, two-dimensional homes, while middle school students calculate the surface area or volume of their homes and high schoolers are challenged with more complex scale problems. "It's very adaptable," she says.

Bassham, who has taught in California and Idaho, discovered C2i through a link on Facebook.  "More teachers need to use the C2i initiative, because it's an undiscovered gem," she says. "Everyone has such great ideas. It's a great opportunity to collaborate."

Helping New Teachers Hear Students’ Voices

AWARDEE: Scott D. Farver
SCHOOL: Indian Hills Elementary School
LOCATION: Gallup, N.M.
INNOVATION: New-teacher orientation materials created through student focus groups

Scott D. Farver learned firsthand the challenges of learning about a new school building and a new culture when he came to Indian Hills Elementary School in Gallup, N.M. After putting up motivational posters featuring owls in his 5th grade classroom, he discovered that the owl is a symbol of bad luck for the Navajo people, who make up the preponderance of the school’s students.

"It was an example of a time we felt culturally out of touch," says Farver, who, along with his wife, is a Peace Corps Fellow at the school—part of a high-turnover district staffed by a large number of first-time teachers from programs such as Teach for America and the Peace Corps. "A lot of teachers who don't have a lot of experience in the classroom are young and enthusiastic and want to help kids. It's important for them to know what kids want and need from teachers."

This project emerged from Farver’s desire to improve his own practice. To make himself a better teacher, he sought his students’ input and genuinely listened to their feedback.  Immediately recognizing the value of both the process and product, Farver then asked his students to help shape orientation materials for new teachers in his district, in part by participating in focus groups that helped him learn more about their needs. Their input, along with materials the students will create themselves, will be bound into a book to be distributed during new-teacher orientation in August. The same students will also hold small-group Q&As with incoming teachers during the orientation.

"We are identifying what students wished teachers knew about them, what interests them and what kinds of activities they enjoy doing at and after school," says Farver, who has taught for seven years, three of them in elementary education, and believes that the C2i initiative can help teachers share ideas and ask questions about "what is working in the classroom and what is not."

"Student voices are important," Farver says. "Students can be agents of change."

Blabberizing Books

AWARDEE: Ouita Bingham
SCHOOL: Manor Middle School
LOCATION: Manor, Texas
INNOVATION: Librarian-led book club/technology roundup

Most librarians would be a bit concerned about a group of students blabbering in their library. Not Ouita Bingham.

As the librarian at Manor Middle School in Manor, Texas, Bingham leads a combined book club/technology roundup, during which students discuss the books they are reading, and then create multimedia presentations about what they’ve learned using tools such as Movie Maker, Animoto, Wordle—and yes, Blabberize, a site that allows users to add audio to images to create a picture that really can say a thousand words. Their work, displayed on video screens in the library, can serve as advertisements to entice other students to try the books they’ve read.

“The minute they hit the computer, they’re engaged,” Bingham says. “It’s a way to do project-based work that’s meaningful to them.”

Along with reinforcing core literacy concepts such as main ideas, characters, and vocabulary, Bingham also focuses on digital literacy, steering students away from downloading copyrighted images for their projects and explaining how concepts such as plagiarism and originality still have relevance in a Google-heavy world.

Bingham, who has worked in different library settings for more than three decades and in schools for seven years, discovered C2i after applying for a grant from the NEA Foundation. She says the roundup provides a way for class teachers to tap the expertise of librarians while reinforcing core subjects. In part because of the demands of teaching to high-stakes tests, “it’s hard for teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum,” she says. The groups also help students “see that librarians are not just checking in and checking out books, but supporting the things they are doing in the classroom and taking them further.”

A Different Kind of Dialogue

AWARDEE: Jae Goodwin
SCHOOL:  Charlotte A. Dunning School
LOCATION: Framingham, Mass.
INNOVATION: “Dialogue journals” to prompt discussion of reading between students and parents

For Jae Goodwin, a conversation during a conference sparked a different kind of dialogue with parents. Now, her 5th grade students at the Charlotte A. Dunning School in Framingham, Mass., write journal entries about what they are reading to their parents, who respond with questions and insights of their own.

“The experience has been really wonderful for parents,” says Goodwin, the 2010 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. “The more they can be partners in education, the better for our students.”

The dialogues, which are written weekly by students in journals dedicated specifically to that purpose, focus on what they think about what they are reading, rather than a rote summary of plot and characters. “That forces the kids to think deeply,” Goodwin says. Parents then write responses with additional questions in the journal. The resulting conversation generates “a much more intimate window into their child’s thinking than what’s discussed on the fly on the way to soccer practice,” Goodwin says.

A career-changer in her 12th year of teaching, Goodwin points to a student using the written dialogue to explain why she liked fantasy novels to a skeptical parent. “She convinced her mother to pick up and read the book, and the next book they read together,” she says.

Unlike situations where parents can be intimidated by new approaches to solving half-forgotten math problems, “reading is universal,” Goodwin says. Students and parents can write to each other in whatever language is spoken at home, or use tape recorders if literacy is an issue.

Goodwin finds the focus on parental involvement in C2i compelling. “It’s something I believe in and feel passionately about,” she says. “Teachers have to find more ways to help kids develop into critical thinkers. You don’t realize how profound their conversations can be.”