Making New York City Connections

Welcome to NYC Team!

The Riverton Street Charter School community welcomes Linda Caine-Smith, Dr. Gloria McDaniel-Hall and select NHA Principals, Deans and Teachers to NYC for two days of collaborative study. On Wednesday, June 19^th, we will be afforded an opportunity to expand our professional learning network as we visit two high-performing NYCDOE school (both receiving a progress report grade of A last year). The first school is the Renaissance Leadership Academy, a 6^th-8^th grade Middle School located in Harlem, NY.  The second school we will be visiting is the Lennox Academy k-8^th grade community located in Brooklyn, NY.    

One of the practices introduced to school leaders and teachers during the implementation of NYC's Children's First Intensive was the concept of "interdependence" citing that our ability to increase student achievement hinges on our willingness to share promising practices, resources, mind power, etc. This experience is about collaborative practice and as such it is plan to expand our learning beyond the boundaries of this particular study group. We therefore encourage you to use this virtual space to share insights, questions, new understandings, etc.  

Below you will find your agendas for both days as well as live links that will provide comprehensive data about the communities we will visit.  
Day 1

7:00 am Travel from hotel to Riverton Street Charter School
(Riverton Street Charter School, 118-34 Riverton Street, Saint Albans, NY 11412)

7:20 am
Riverton Arrival

7:30 am
Travel to Renaissance Leadership Academy (509 West 129^th Street, New York, NY 10027)

9:00 am – 11:00 am (Renaissance Leadership Academy/Contact: Principal Qadir Dixon)
We will spend approximately two hours at RLA.  While on campus, we will focus on the school’s Common Core curricular and instructional practices, adolescent development supports and of course, your particular interests. Time will be allotted for us to tour classrooms, speak with staff members, students and the school’s Parent Coordinator. Feel free to view the attached links prior to our visit to better inform your visit.

Link #1:

http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2011-12/Progress_Report_2012_EMS_M286.pdf

Link #2:

http://www.rlascholars.com/

Link #3:

http://commoncorelabmedia.org/  (User Name: RLA/Password: alr8Mnop)

11:15 – 12:15 pm
Lunch at Red Rooster (feel free to peruse the site) http://redroosterharlem.com/about/ 
12:15 am
Travel from Red Rooster to Lennox Academy, 100-01Flatlands Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11236

1:30 pm (Lennox Academy/Contact: Joe Giamportone)

We will arrive at the school at 1:30 pm at which time we will proceed to spend one hour touring the school community and speaking with teachers about their curricular/instructional approach to facilitating the development of healthy mental models in their students (Growth vs. Fixed).  Unfortunately at this point in the school year the school’s 8th graders will have graduation rehearsal and many of the teachers will be scoring regents/proficiency exams, so classroom engagement will not be a possibility. As such is the case, I strongly urge you to review the school’s third link in order to learn as much as you can about the school’s commitment to the development of “Healthy Habits of Mind”.  Since we will only be together for an hour, my thinking is that our pre-visit preparation will enable us to walk away with deeper understandings and a greater sense of possibilities for our own schools.

Link 1:

http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2011-12/Progress_Report_2012_EMS_K235.pdf

Link 2:

http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2011-12/Survey_2012_K235.pdf

Link 3:

http://community.mindsetworks.com/blog-page/home-blogs/entry/a-growth-mindset-year-at-lenox-academy

2:30 pm

Travel back to Riverton (Linda will update you as to your “next steps).  Enjoy your evening!

Day 2

7:00 am Travel from hotel to Riverton Street Charter School
(Riverton Street Charter School, 118-34 Riverton Street, Saint Albans, NY 11412)

7:30 am
Breakfast in the Professional Learning Center

8:00 am
Moral Focus Assembly
8:30 am- 10:30 am
Classroom Visits (Upper Grades)

11:00 am
Feedback/Discussion

Riverton Abroad: Finnish lessons

As the former Coordinator of Middle School Initiatives for the City of New York, much of my work revolved around addressing the low 4 year graduation rates of our H.S. students by strategically targeting the quality of “middle level schooling”. Today in NYC, “achievement/access gap data” continues to reflect low level outcomes in addition to disproportionate numbers relative to high school graduation and college readiness.

This week I will travel with a cohort of eight colleagues to Finland to spend time with Pasi Sahlberg, faculty from the University of Helsinki, school leaders, teachers, students and parents.  My overarching objective is to gain a glimpse into the systemic practices that have enabled Finland to so effectively transform the face of education throughout the country.  The PISA report of 2006 concluded that the success of Finish education occurred largely due to “effective teacher education” and a systemic model of design that employs the following:

• Flexibility and Diversity relative to school-based curriculum development informed and supported by relevant data (quantitative and qualitative)

• Emphasis on Broad Knowledge placing an equal degree of emphasis across developmental pathways considerate of the acquisition of knowledge, skills, creativity, personality, morality, etc.
 
• Trust through Professionalism creating and maintaining a practice of belief that teachers and administrators are professional practitioners with requisite skills and a clear sense of mission to effectively teach/lead.

 

During my time abroad, I intend to specifically explore and better understand the emphasis Finland places on the facilitation of “Broad Knowledge Learning” and how the country’s policies, practices and protocols facilitate a holistic approach to student development.  Although time will be limited (seven days), I intend to forge a focus within my focus looking at student diversity and the manner in which Finland explicitly/implicitly addresses diversity (considering curricular and instructional implications). The question to which I would want to find answers would be; what strategies/approaches can we as educators educating in a system of significant diversity employ to more effectively facilitate learning across racial, socio-economic, gender and special learner lines?

Officially, my contribution to this collective University of Pennsylvania study will offer insight into the broad based and school level curricular/instructional practices within the context of the country’s diverse population of learners. On a more personal note, I am interested in chronicling curricular and pedagogical practice throughout middle level grades. It has always been my contention that much of our focus on learning in the middle grades should be informed by deeper understandings of curricular designs focused on early adolescent developmental needs. Finland’s emphasis on “Broad Knowledge” offers a promising perspective by which we can forge (in some cases revisit) “a learner centered conversation”.

I invite you to join me as I set out on this odyssey.  My invitation to you is not a request for passive reading.  Quite the contrary, I am requesting that you actively engage in this study by sharing relevant thoughts, ideas and personal experiences.   If you elect to join in, prior to posting, I encourage you to take twenty minutes to view the Pasi Sahlberg TED.com presentation.  Simply click onto the copy of the book to the left of this post where you will be redirected to our cohort’s itinerary postings.  If you find yourself wanting to learn more about Finnish education, feel free to acquire a copy of Sahlberg’s “Finnish Lessons”.  Welcome to what I believe will be a productive experience and a rare opportunity to engage in relevant and transformative discourse.