Marcy Prager creates a Hopi-style clay pot with a student.

Marcy Prager: National Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year

On November 13, 2009, Brookline teacher Marcy Prager accepted the prestigious Elementary Teacher of the Year award at the annual National Council for Social Studies convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Prager is a thirty-six year veteran of teaching and is currently a first and second grade teacher at the Driscoll School. She has participated in many Brookline Education Foundation grants, including Responsive Classroom training; an examination of the Hopi people and culture; and study tours to China and Japan.

First of all, how did you hear that you had won the NCSS award?

This past August, I was in Xian, China conducting workshops demonstrating American teaching techniques to Chinese elementary and high school educators. At the end of one day, there was an email from the NCSS congratulating me as the winner of the award. It’s a great honor. 

Have you always had a passion for social studies?

Yes, when other kids were plastering their walls with posters of Janis Joplin, I was putting up maps! From a very young age, my grandparents instilled in me a curiosity about other cultures and also the opportunity to experience them first-hand.

How do your personal travel experiences influence how you teach social studies?

Thanks to grants from the Brookline Education Foundation and Primary Source, I have been able to go on work-study trips to many of the places studied in the first and second grade curriculums. I study a region before, during, and after a trip so that I can present it to my students in the most authentic way. Without personal experience, it is easy to oversimplify the characteristics of a culture, to the point of stereotyping. The most important thing that I do is to teach my students respect for people and their traditions.

What techniques do you use to teach young children about other cultures?

Before students learn about cultures around the world, they first have to know and experience their own neighborhoods and traditions. In the beginning of first grade, my classes explore our environs. We talk to local merchants and people in public service, asking them why they are there and whom do they serve. The students learn to appreciate oral history and why communities are planned in a certain way. Once children understand the neighborhoods around them, they have a frame of reference to consider how different social systems serve the needs of other cultures.

Most first and second graders are just beginning to read. How do they learn about social studies in a substantive way without relying on books?
There are other ways that I approach teaching social studies that don’t depend on reading textbooks. For every place I have traveled, I make a “visual text” comprised of photographs, slides, videos, and artifacts. They are chosen and created from the perspective of a young child. Whether it’s a Baskin-Robbins on a corner in China, or a playground in Japan, I take my students on a virtual tour of the places we study.

Another way to help students learn about different cultures is to have them participate in their traditions. We celebrate Chinese New Year, create cultural objects like Hopi-style clay pots, and have sent 1000 paper cranes to the Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan. My students also can learn from their peers. I feel fortunate that Driscoll students represent many different backgrounds, which gives us all the opportunity to learn about a culture directly from a classmate.

With the increasing demands in other subjects such as math and literacy, is it difficult to teach social studies in depth?

My particular expertise is in integrating social studies curriculum with other areas like math, English, and science. There isn’t a beginning and an end to social studies learning in my classroom. When you infuse the culture you are studying into all the other subjects, everything you are teaching that day makes sense.

Who inspires you and why?

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie inspires me. Her thesis is that you must tell the whole story in order for it to be authentic. To me that means studying a culture in depth and from various perspectives. My goal in teaching is to create opportunities for children to have global experiences that create genuine understanding of other cultures.

When the NCSS named you as Teacher of the Year, they praised your “commitment to democratic ideals and citizenry in the classroom and beyond." What does winning this award mean to you?

I am a lifelong learner and teacher. What’s the purpose of learning if you don’t teach, or teaching if you don’t learn?

Gene Thompson-Grove meets regularly with experienced Brookline educators who act as mentors to teachers in their second and third year of practice.

"Critical Friends” Groups Support New Educators

“All learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate.” This quote by famed educator John Dewey is posted prominently in the office of Gene Thompson-Grove, Director of Professional Development and Special Initiatives for the Public Schools of Brookline. With a grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, Thompson-Grove is challenging educators new to the teaching profession to move out of their comfort zones by examining their teaching practice and expanding their repertoire of teaching strategies. To accomplish this, she has established the 2nd and 3rd Year Teachers Initiative, in which 80 less-experienced Brookline educators are placed in peer groups with more experienced teacher mentors.

According to Brookline Superintendent of Schools William Lupini, “Quality mentoring programs, particularly those that stretch beyond the first year, really support new teachers. We have seen evidence that this program helps Brookline retain quality teachers.” In a recent conversation, Thompson-Grove describes these “Critical Friends Groups.”

Why is it important for new teachers to meet with their colleagues, as opposed to meeting one-on-one with a mentor or supervisor?

Cultural norms dictate that you are to be private about your teaching: “I’m going to go in my classroom and close the door.” We’re saying, “In Brookline, we make our practice public to each other.” We’re smarter together. Each one of us can do more together than on our best day alone.

Why are these called “Critical” Friends Groups?

“Critical” means urgent, not “to criticize.” Teachers say to each other, “This is what I’m working on and I need feedback and it’s critical.” There is also the chance to say, “Here’s the feedback I got, here’s what I learned, and here’s what happened.” Others in the group benefit from the feedback, as well.

One teacher participant said she has learned to accept her strengths and weaknesses and learned to self-reflect, even when she doesn’t like what she finds. How do you encourage educators to be reflective about their teaching?

We ask probing questions, like, “What’s the one thing about your practice that you want to get better at, that you don’t want anyone to know about?” Teachers also keep journals and do reflective writing.

Can you give an example of the type of feedback new teachers are seeking?

One teacher had trouble with classroom management last year and wanted to start this year off differently. She didn’t need more rules; she needed to become more authoritative without becoming authoritarian. The question was, “When you are authoritative, what do you look like?” 

She observed teachers who are authoritative and was videotaped so she could see herself as an educator. This feedback helped her in developing her persona as a teacher.

Are there any trends in what your teachers want to improve upon or want more information about?

There is concern about educational equity, teaching diverse learners, and knowing more about how to teach English to Second Language Learners. Teachers want to learn how to create a community of learners where all kids are working at high academic levels and are challenged just enough.

They also want to work effectively with parents, respectfully and with the child at the center of the conversation. And there are subject interests; one group is working on a new social studies curriculum, and issues around math are bubbling up. There is a critical mass wanting to work on math content.

What is the mentor’s role in this process?

Our job is to say, “So, what’s happening with your teaching, your kids, student work, and what do you need to focus on?” Our job is to support them with technique while we help the teacher in each one of these young people evolve.

At the end of the year, how do you assess a participant’s progress as an educator?

The teachers create portfolios about their learning and present them to each other. One mentor asked me if I would rather have a beautiful portfolio where everything looked perfect or one in which the teacher’s struggles were documented, including how the teacher overcame these challenges. I’d rather have the latter.

Is it difficult for the teachers to let go of the Critical Friends Group when the second year ends?

As groups want to stay together, my goal is to have fourth and fifth year teachers train to be coaches with their peer groups.

Brookline Educators Adopt New Approach to Teaching Science

If the earth were the size of an apple, its surface would be as thin as the apple’s skin. The fragility of the earth’s surface is something students must appreciate before they can understand how to protect the environment. To grasp this, they also need to comprehend that the surface of the earth is constantly moving, shifting, and changing form.

The intricacy of the earth’s surface is just one of many topics that a dynamic group of Brookline educators has been examining through the lens of “Understanding by Design,” a strategy for designing curriculum. Learning about this process has been the focus of a year-long collaborative grant funded by the Brookline Education Foundation. This team is led by the K–8 Science Coordinator Janet MacNeil, and includes science teachers from all Brookline elementary schools: Deb Allen, Randie Brisson, Mark Goldner, Oakley Hoerth, Maxine Hunter, Ryan Keser, Melissa London, Bob Miller, Yasameen Sharif, and Sue Zobel. This project is part of a multi-pronged approach to renewing science education in Brookline, as recommended through the Science Program Review.  

Devotion School’s Deb Allen speaks about this project with enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of teaching science.

Describe this program and how it fits with your work in revamping Brookline’s science curriculum.

Last summer, our group began learning how to use Understanding by Design to develop Earth Science curriculum utilizing the Earth Science by Design Handbook for Professional Developers. The big idea is to begin with the end in mind: start with what you want your students to know and be able to do, and work backwards from there.

This is a real shift in thinking about curriculum design. Lessons and activities all relate to the end point, and the end point is the first thing you determine. We developed a template for planning curriculum units based on this approach. We tailored it for Brookline, for the current Massachusetts Frameworks and for Project 2061, the most comprehensive national standards created by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Why did you begin your work with Earth Science?

In the past, Earth Science has been pushed to the side. Now, with renewed emphasis on the environment, Earth Science is gaining more prominence. If, for example, you want to understand climate change, you have to understand basic earth systems. We will be putting increased emphasis on geology, meteorology, and astronomy.

In this program, you “trained the trainers.” Your group was thoroughly grounded in this method and then guided other educators in its use.

We are working with both the science teachers in grades 6 to 8 and with interested teachers in grades K to 5. In meetings with the grade 6 to 8 science teachers, we have refined our approach, talked about how this process works in practice, and shared ideas about how to improve it.

The science teachers in Brookline are constantly in communication. We are a very collegial group. We meet frequently and we have developed a “wiki” (an internet sharing tool) so that all of us can benefit from each other’s work.

How do the principles of “Understanding by Design” fit with science instruction in Brookline?

Science in Brookline has always been based in inquiry. Understanding by Design gives us a very useful framework. It helps us to start with big ideas rather than a lesson plan. And it enables us to then create a road map for how to get there. It is a very thoughtful and reasoned approach. It gives us a common language and way of looking at our work.

Through the project, we developed a template for planning curriculum.  It starts with the desired results, or the overarching theme, and then goes on to specify curriculum topics and how this fits in with local, state, and national frameworks. We identify what we want students to know, essential questions students need to answer, and common misconceptions.

For example, students think of the earth’s surface as static. So, one of the things they need to experience is how its surface is constantly changing. Once we have these ideas in place, then we can actually think about lessons and activities.

You have been teaching in Brookline for 24 years. How has this work impacted your practice?

I have always believed in and practiced inquiry-based instruction, and over time I have developed the skills to work with more kinds of students.

I also mentor new teachers, and this approach is extremely helpful in that arena. When a new teacher is struggling with a unit of study, I encourage him or her to start by telling me what the students should know at the end of the unit. Then we work backwards in planning instruction.

For more information about the Brookline Education Foundation, go to www.BrooklineEducation.org.

Nao Rosenberg demonstrates to her Kindergarten class how to make flags from construction paper.

Institute Helps Teachers Find "Keys" to Integrated Classrooms

A visitor to Nao Rosenberg’s Kindergarten classroom sees cardboard tubes waiting to become rain sticks and tin cans that soon will be transformed into drums, all part of an instructional unit called “Sound and Music.” The classroom looks busy yet organized, which is in keeping with what the Lawrence School educator learned this summer while attending the Early Childhood Institute funded by the Brookline Education Foundation. Organized by Brookline Early Education Principal Vicki Milstein, and attended by 25 educators and classroom specialists, the Institute covered such topics as classroom organization and management, use of effective language, and teaching students with diagnoses such as Autism and Attention Deficit Disorder. Ms. Rosenberg talks about what she learned at the Institute, and about her continuing quest to meet the needs of all learners in her classroom.

What was it like to spend a week of your summer at the Early Childhood Institute?

It re-invigorated me and gave me a way of framing some questions about children and thinking about kids with more clarity. The workshops were full of information, but there was also time for the teachers to talk with each other and share ideas. I have been teaching for 23 years, but someone shared an organizational idea with me that was great and now I have incorporated it into my classroom. 

In your inclusive classroom, you teach children with identified needs as well as typically developing children. Did you find the workshops helpful for working with all types of children?
 
The underlying theme was that an inclusive classroom is designed to meet the needs of all the children. Each child is included as a full participant and every child is a fully contributing, valuable member of the classroom community. Modifications made with specific kids in mind or for kids with identified needs work for everybody.

What are some examples of techniques that help all of the children in your classroom?

The more independent children are, the more successful they can be. I provide structure and organization; materials are labeled with words and pictures, and there is a posted schedule with words and pictures. Routines are clear, so that children can independently start and complete an activity and move on to the next one. These are all skills you want to encourage in children before they move on to first grade.

As part of the Institute you worked with a variety of specialists, including an occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist, and experts in classroom management. What was an idea that you found useful?

The occupational therapist suggested having a place in the classroom for kids to take a sensory break. It’s a place where a child can go if he or she feels overwhelmed by the noise and stimulation of the classroom, without being targeted or stigmatized. They might need to be alone to calm down, or do something self-soothing that helps them to relax and eventually re-integrate into the setting.

There were also workshops on Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Aggression. Are these diagnoses that you typically see in your classroom?

For many children it’s a question of the degree of the behavior. These diagnoses are an extreme version of what many kids deal with. What are the best techniques to help those kids? These techniques work for everybody.

Has attending the Institute together affected the way that you and your colleagues work?

Being a teacher can be an isolating job. That collegial support is so inspiring and energizing. For the rest of the year you have a common knowledge base, a base of support within the school to continue the learning.

What was the most valuable thing you learned this summer?

There some are kids who are easygoing and learning comes easily. There are some kids who struggle more, and learning is more difficult. Then there are kids who fall somewhere in the middle. Early childhood educators are trained in a basic premise that you look at children as individuals and meet individual needs.

My personal philosophy is that there is a key for every child, and I’m trying to find the right key. For some, it’s their relationship with adults. For others, it’s visual clarity. For another, it’s humor. What I learned this summer greatly added to my repertoire of keys. It gave me even more tools to enable me to be successful.

Members of the Mathematical Transitions Grant team, from left to right: Craig Friedland, Meghan Kennedy-Justice, Lisa Redding, Danielle Rabina, Mark Veader and Josh Paris. Shoshanna Kostant is not pictured.

Addressing Transitions in Honors Math at BHS

Short, frequent assessments are now given in Honors math classes at Brookline High School, letting teachers know when students need extra support long before a major exam is given. This is one of the many innovative methods developed by a talented and highly energetic team of eight teachers to meet the challenge of increasing the number of students who remain in Honors math throughout high school. Three teachers on the team — Danielle Rabina, Betty Strong and Josh Paris — recently talked about their work together as part of a Brookline Education Foundation collaborative grant.

Your grant focuses on reducing the number of students who drop out of Honors math from year to year. How do you plan to address this issue, and how do you hope to make the transitions more seamless?

We looked at the students having difficulty in Honors math and identified students who seemed to be able to handle the content, but who needed help with study skills. We then developed a curriculum of breakout lessons around topics such as how to study for a test, how to take notes in class and how to correct homework. With the lengthening of the school day, each math class meets once a week for 20 extra minutes. In ninth and 10th grade, we use part of this time to teach math study skills.

We have also redesigned some of the content we teach. For example, grade 9 math focuses on geometry, while grade 10 math, Algebra 2, returns to concepts students learned in eighth grade. We are now integrating continued algebra into the grade 9 curriculum to support students in sustaining their algebraic knowledge. The first unit in grade 10 is a review of first-year algebra.

We now give frequent, short assessments so we can get students to the Math Center for extra support early on. There is a ninth-grade Math Center, staffed by two ninth-grade math teachers, that meets for 45 minutes a day before school. There is a second Math Center for students in grades 10-12, also staffed by two math teachers. Finally, we have developed a pool of “stretch problems” for 10th-grade students to prepare them for the kind of thinking required to be successful in 11th-grade Honors math.

Why is this a particular problem in math?

Math is cumulative. If students do not fully understand concepts taught in previous years, they will run into problems at the next level. Unlike other subjects where knowledge is added on in subsequent classes, math requires an increasing ability for abstract reasoning. Even if students have matured and developed good study habits, they will have difficulty if they missed previous content.

Students struggling in math already are being supported through the Math Center and the summer program for minority students. How will your work link with these efforts?

One issue is to get extra support for students before a large problem develops. The extra supports that we have put into place will provide students with immediate feedback, so they can get help right away, and in smaller chunks. Since our math teachers are working in these support programs, we will be able to coordinate our efforts more effectively.

What changes do you anticipate in the Honors curriculum as a result of your work?

We will maintain the level of rigor in the curriculum, but provide more explicit links from year to year. Including some algebra in ninth grade is an example of this. The goal is to deal with weaknesses in skills in a preventive way.

You indicated in the grant that you were looking at particular areas of strength and weakness. Are there areas where you found that the jump was a particular challenge for many students?

One of the biggest challenges was study skills — students knowing how to focus their work in a course that is challenging for them. In terms of content, one of the key problems was that students did not have enough recall of algebra in 10th grade.

Math placement is of concern to parents, particularly as their children enter ninth grade. What kind of student is most likely to succeed in Honors math?

First, parents should trust the recommendation of their child’s eighth-grade teacher, as that teacher knows where each child is developmentally. Parents should think carefully about the level of abstraction their child can handle, and how to nourish their child’s confidence in math. Some students flourish in an Honors program, but others are still developing the ability to think abstractly.

Danielle Halwick conducts Morning Meeting in her class at Runkle School.

Social and Emotional Issues in Brookline Classrooms

Runkle School educators are working together to create an environment that addresses students' social-emotional development along with their academic growth. As part of a two-year Brookline Education Foundation grant, over thirty Runkle School classroom teachers and specialists are receiving training in "Responsive Classroom," a social-competency program. Classroom teachers Danielle Halwick and Emily Leonard, librarian Teresa Gallo-Toth, and former vice-principal Emily Gaberman explain the Responsive Classroom philosophy.

Click here for full text of interview.

BHS Teachers Hold Seminar on J.M. Coetzee’s Novel Disgrace

Thanks to grants from the BHS PTO and the Brookline Education Foundation, on October 30, Brookline’s Professional Development Day, the BHS English teachers spent a day doing what they love—analyzing and discussing literature. Tufts professor Michael Downing led the department in an all-day seminar on Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, a book Downing calls “one of the best novels of the past twenty-five years.” The day was an enormous success in all respects. Not only were teachers rejuvenated by having the rare chance to discuss a provocative book with their colleagues, but they were inspired by Downing’s gifts as a teacher and discussion leader.

Click here for the full text of this article.

Media Matters in Middle School Years

BROOKLINE - Five years ago, Driscoll School art teacher Marianne Taylor and librarian Amy Neale noticed a disturbing trend in advertising: Corporations were increasingly marketing to children. Concerned with the effect that this advertising was having on their students, the two started an after-school class called Media Matters. The goal, according to Taylor, was to “get kids to be educated consumers and educated viewers of media.”

The course was so successful that it is now taught within the regular school day. With a grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, Neale, Taylor and computer specialist Bob Thomas developed a model for teaching Media Matters to middle school students. They shared this unit with Brookline librarians and teachers during a workshop last summer. Neale and Thomas describe the issues that have influenced this media literacy unit.

Click here for full text of interview.

Lincoln School teacher Erin Kelley and student meet in a small reading group in Kelley's first grade class.

The Life and Emotional Issues of Being an Adoptee

People are often surprised when they meet Lincoln School first grade teacher Erin Kelley for the first time. Erin was a Korean child adopted by an Irish family and her appearance doesn’t always match the image conjured by her name. Her experience as an adopted child prompted her to write an Adoption Resource Guide for Brookline educators. With a grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, Erin is developing a comprehensive guide that she hopes to distribute to teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators. She recently spoke about her experience as an adoptee and the unique developmental and emotional issues that adoptee students face.

Click here for full text of interview with Erin Kelley.