Making Time for Homework- and For Fun! by Jason Isaacs What does your teen enjoy doing when he or she is not doing homework?  I often hear “sports” or “video games.”  What would your teen say if you presented the following challenge, “You know-  you are not spending enough time playing sports?”  Would his jaw [...]

PEF Teacher Spotlight By “Frances Haman-Prewitt, Communications Director for the Public Education Foundation.” Photo credit: Hunter Middle School Readers’ and Writers’ Workshops In a world filled with electronics and busy schedules, kids just don’t read anymore. But thanks to Readers’ and Writers’ Workshops, students at Hunter Middle School are so eager to read that they’re [...]

Helping teachers hone skills By Frances Haman-Prewitt Photo courtesy PEF Foundation “Jennifer Whitlock is a part of a middle school reform effort working as an instructional coach with Ooltewah Middle School students.” Ooltewah Middle principal Brent Eller hopes that he always has Jennifer Whitlock – or someone like her – on his faculty. Whitlock is [...]

An Excellent Conference Room By Frances Haman-Prewitt It changes education from something that’s being done TO students to something that they seek for themselves.” An Excellent Conference Room Something big is happening at East Lake Academy.  And it has to do with EXPLORE. EXPLORE is an 8th grade exam created by ACT – the folks [...]

Teacher Spotlight by Frances Haman-Prewitt There are excellent teachers in every school in Hamilton County.  Even in struggling schools, we always find at least one – and usually several – outstanding teachers who are engaging, dynamic, and great at inspiring students to learn. This important revelation has become the basis of much of the Public [...]

Bright Futures:  College Advisors Make It Happen by Heather Hughes High energy and relaxation might not seem to go together, but Stacy Lightfoot brings both to the students and staff at Center for Creative Arts.  Lightfoot serves as college advisor at CCA – a position provided for every high school through a partnership between the [...]

Teaching team a win-win formula By Heather Hughes “More homework problems!” “Stay awake!” “Challenge yourself!” “Get higher test scores!” These are words you expect to hear from a teacher. In Jamie Bassham and Christopher Morris’ Tyner Academy math class, these are the students’ words. The TEACH/Here Program has partnered resident teacher Morris with experienced mentor [...]

Michelle Lowe’s Excellent Classroom By Frances Haman-Prewitt If you love to teach science, but you’re scheduled to teach reading, you can solve the dilemma by teaching your students to read about science. That’s what Michelle Lowe does in her second-grade class at Wallace A. Smith Elementary school. Ongoing science projects fill every available space in [...]

Hands to mouths By Frances Haman-Prewitt   Kids used to get in trouble for talking in class. Not so if one’s teacher is Erica Schmidt. Schmidt’s math students at Tyner Middle Academy can frequently be found talking to their neighbors—though there’s no time for idle gossip. “I set up mathematical dyads (pairs of students),” Schmidt [...]

The work of plays By Frances Haman-Prewitt Allan Ledford decided to become a teacher because he loved high school. And now, he’s passed that on. His students love high school, too—more than any other students I’ve ever seen. As I sat in Ledford’s musical theatre class at Center for Creative Arts, I watched the faces [...]