A Visit to Ms. Brown and Ms. Sullivan’s Publishing Party for The Reading Zone
Who cares about a blizzard? It certainly didn’t stop Ms. Brown and Ms. Sullivan’s 20 students and their culminating publishing party. They were ready! Imagine students seated around tables pushed together in a large rectangle. Above the white board is a large word...
What teachers really need
A few weeks ago, The Boston Foundation (TBF) released a report entitled, “The Real Cost of the Contract.” The report gained a lot of press; the Boston Globe published a front-page article highlighting the report’s findings, and Richard Stutman, the BTU President,...
2011 ASCD Conference: Bold Actions for Complex Challenges
At the end of March, I will travel to San Francisco California to participate in the annual conference of ASCD, an educational leadership organization. This year’s theme is Bold Actions for Complex Challenges. While there I will join two other principals, Baruti...
What School Can Be
An important milestone in the life of a Boston Arts Academy dancer unfolded last week as 17 seniors presented their 2011 Senior Dance Concert (SDC). How significantly this embodies RICO, our habits of the graduate. Students work for months on invention and revision....
BAA and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Some of you may know that the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Education Resource Center (BSOERC) is housed in the BAA/Fenway High School Library. The BAA/Fenway Library and BSOERC won the 2004 American Association of School Librarians National School Library Media Program...
Ask the students
In a departure from blogging about the world outside of Boston Arts Academy, I am going to switch things up for the new year and return to life inside the school. While my travels over the past year and a half have taken me to many amazing schools and introduced me to...
A visit to the Boston Teachers Union School
I was so glad to finally visit the BTU Pilot School where my friends Betsy Drinan and Berta Berriz work. My first thought was that this school needs to give itself a "real" name; one that sings with the energy of the hallways! I kept thinking how much the students...
Giving thanks
With this being the season of giving thanks, I have been thinking a great deal about what I am grateful for, both personally and professionally. In my last post, I described my wonderful experience at the Coalition of Essential Schools’ Fall Forum. The Coalition is an...
Demanding Education that Matters: Notes from the CES Fall Forum
The 25th anniversary of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) Fall Forum opened with words from Nancy Sizer, Ted Sizer’s widow. Nancy spoke eloquently of Ted’s vision–the importance of conversations amongst friends and detractors from the ten common principles....
Milwaukee musings
What a whirlwind two-day trip to Milwaukee! I hadn't been there since 1977, when I studied at UW Madison and forgot how friendly people are in the Midwest. I visited Milwaukee at the invitation of Christina Ratatori, who is a dance teacher in the public schools and...