By Dr. Cody Lawson

In today’s world of high speed Internet, video games, and television, young adults need motivation and interests for reading to order to compete with today’s 21st century distractions. There is no dispute that young adults need to read, and students read more  when the books to which they are exposed are relevant to their lives. Realistic fiction can encourage and enhance students’ interests in reading. Fantasy and science fiction can bring escape to real life struggles. Poetry can bring expression of a student’s feelings. Teachers can use literature to teach important events and issues facing the world and students today. Discovering cultural similarities and global connections through literature can create inquisitive discussions and critical thinking, problem solving situations.

Getting Teachers Into the Community, and the Community Into Teachers

By Alex Kajitani

Last year, a visit to the Apple computer store led me to realize why Apple has, over the past 10 years, become the most progressive and powerful company in the world -- while our schools have remained relatively stagnant in how we operate.

Scene One:
As I walked the Apple store, I saw people sitting together at long tables, talking, playing with the latest techie products, and asking questions in a non-threatening atmosphere.  Some left with new goodies, some left with their current gadget fixed or upgraded, and some just wandered, looked and left empty-handed.  I felt a buzz of energy, curiosity and camaraderie among shoppers and staff.

Scene Two:
The next day, I went to a 3-hour professional development for teachers.  We were crammed into a drab a room that was too small for the number of teachers there, we listened to a trainer who lectured at us, and we weren’t given a break until one of the teachers in attendance spoke up and asked for it.  In addition, we were all told exactly what we were expected to do when we returned to our classrooms the next day.  There was barely any participation or connection.  I felt a vibe of frustration, boredom, stagnancy and isolation within the stuffy, crowded room.

A week later, I bumped into a colleague who was also at that training, and asked if she had implemented the changes.  “No,” she said.  “I was actually so uncomfortable that I couldn’t really pay attention, and I found it hard to concentrate.”  As we walked off, I noticed that were both busily looking at our i-Phone screens.  My mind flashed back to the excited atmosphere of learning that I had witnessed at the Apple store a week earlier.

Then, it hit me: how could we make the atmosphere of our professional development meetings feel more like the Apple store?  It was time for a change of scenery, a new environment and approach, to give our professional development a shot of energy, curiosity and camaraderie.  We needed to get out of the dreary staff room and connect in new places and ways.

by Alex Kajitani

When I signed on to be a full-time coach for teachers, my district administrators told me I’d be designing professional development, conducting sample lessons, and helping teachers plan and assess curriculum.  While I do all these things daily, what strikes me most is how often I’m called in to help coach a teacher on approaching a colleague who is being “difficult.”  

As teachers, part of our job is to help students learn to get along -- and yet I’m seeing how often teachers need lessons in managing conflict ourselves.

Rethinking Conflict

Conflict is not always a negative.  It can be a positive catalyst to push us into new growth.  For any successful organization, conflict is inextricably linked to those turning points that have led to success.

Unfortunately, for an organization that is flailing, inability to deal with conflict is usually at the root of the problems.  And for teachers of at-promise students, we can’t afford to let our own inability to handle conflict negatively affect our focus on the critical job at hand.  Our students come from many different walks of life, often entering our classrooms with the weight of the world on their shoulders.  The last thing they need is a teacher who is distracted by “adult conflict” instead of focused on being the best teacher he can be.

Strategies For Transforming Your Perception of Data To Help Your Students Succeed

By Alex Kajitani

What single factor ultimately determines whether a student is an at-promise student?  It’s not work ethic, as we all know students who don’t like to work hard, but are still bright enough to make it through high school and even college.  It’s not ethnicity, as we all know students of different ethnicities who are low, and high, achievers.  Nor is it gender, socioeconomics or the neighborhood they live in.

What ultimately determines whether a student is an at-promise student is the data we have collected on them.

Low test scores, year after year, have labeled more students “at-promise” than any other single factor.  In California, like in many states, students are labeled as “Far Below Basic, Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, or Advanced.”  A student who consistently scores in the “Far Below Basic” category is indicative of a student at risk for dropping out of school.  Of course, embedded in labels such as these are a multitude of complex factors such as work ethic, home life, socioeconomics and ethnicity.  But, at the end of the day, it is the test data that determines the label in official terms.