Brighton's Hope

The New Table

Brighton School is under the state's mandatory School Improvement program for the fifth consecutive year, based on our test scores. Even though we made great gains last year, our school still qualifies for a State Peer Assistant. This year we a have a Peer Assistant who has been in the business of improving schools for eight years. Linda Hatton has been a godsend as she has patiently walked me through the process of school improvement.

From the moment Linda arrived at Brighton, she began talking to me about the need to get someone to donate a conference table for our grade level meetings. I will be honest, I just did not see how this was going to make a difference. I generally dismissed her with a nod as she continually brought this to my attention. I felt our narrow student table and set of rickety chairs sufficed for our weekly hour-long grade level meetings. After all, weren't we as teachers used to making do?

In October, I was speaking to the Birmingham Leadership Cohort at a dinner meeting. The meeting took place in the elegant offices of a prominent local law firm. As I looked around the room at this prestigious and affluent group, Linda's request surfaced in my mind. In my speech, I mentioned that our school needed a conference table for our grade level meetings, and I described the table and chairs we currently used. Somewhat to my surprise, I received several offers to donate a table and chairs. In addition, David Donaldson of Vulcan Materials said his company would adopt our school. I was in awe!

Numerous employees of Vulcan Materials have since visited our school They have started a volunteer reading program in our Kindergarten and Third Grade Classes, provided a catfish/chicken dinner for our faculty and staff on our teacher workday, and worked on our playground on one cold Saturday (they plan to help us completely renovate the playground). They are also sponsoring a field trip for our third-graders at one of their plants.

In December, a beautiful cherry conference table with ten plush chairs was delivered to our school, compliments of Baptist Princeton Hospital. When the teachers saw the new table, they were thrilled. Comments were made that they were "real" professionals now! In fact, the men who delivered the table were so astonished by the joy displayed by teachers for the new table, that their company is now donating two elegant teacher's desks with chairs. I was stunned by how the new table had such an immediate impact on teacher attitudes. I am sure I looked bewildered as I caught Linda giving me a big smile and the "I told you so" look!

Since that day, I have thought often about why I did not see the value in this new table for our teachers. The only explanation I can come up with is that I still have the mindset of many classroom teachers who believe our job is about sacrifice. Teacher professionalism is one of my constant themes, something I talk about often in speeches. However, I have been so focused on professional conduct and performance that I did not take time to think about how we are treated. Linda, who has worked for years in many low performing schools across our state with great success, knew this was where we had to start. When teachers are treated like professionals, their self-image begins to change.

I am embarrassed about this blind spot in my own vision of teacher professionalism. I hope never again will I miss the opportunity to speak up for the needs of teachers who give so much. This will become a standard practice for me in any community or corporate speeches I have the opportunity to give.

Every Wednesday, I hope you will picture Brighton teachers sitting around a beautiful cherry conference table in very comfortable chairs, discussing our work and our students in a very professional manner.

Keeping a Rich Curriculum Balance

As I start the new year at Brighton, my resolution is to consistently work toward a balanced curriculum. It is so easy to get caught up in the ongoing effort to make "Adequate Yearly Progress" and let the mandates of No Child Left Behind, control everything we do.

My first experience with this was during my term as State Teacher of the Year. I went one day every other week to help at the elementary school in our state with the lowest test scores. This was about an hour and a half drive from my home. Always during my drive back, I was overcome with a sense of dismay at what I saw happening in this school. The whole day appeared to be devoted to preparing for "the test." The curriculum was insubstantial and the school was a dull, lifeless place for children.

It reminded me of what a middle school student in my own county had created on his state assessment test. This student filled in the bubbles to spell out the words, Jesus save me! My reaction was similar as I observed in this school. I feel very strongly about the vital importance of an enriched curriculum in high-poverty schools. As a veteran Title I teacher I became aware long ago that it was part of my job to bring the world to children who often had very few outside experiences.

Now I am in a school that has been in School Improvement for seven out of eight years. Working under pressure to make AYP is a way of life for Brighton. I have written often about the sense of academic urgency that consumes me. However, I have to try to keep this in perspective and not forget about the big picture of giving Brighton children an enriched and well-rounded education to prepare them to compete in (and enjoy) the world.

In order to achieve this for our children, it has to be a conscious effort. Brighton is very fortunate to be part of a local school program called Better Basics. This program not only provides one-on-one tutoring by retired teachers and a volunteer reading program, it includes an enrichment package. The creator of this program, Sue Seay, shared with me how she became committed to bringing enrichment experiences to schools like Brighton.

Sue's children attend the most affluent schools in our state (which are located only about 15 minutes from Brighton). One day, as she picked up her son from school, he was bubbling over about a guest speaker he had just heard. On the drive home, she had a revelation. What her children experienced in their school and community was a major difference between affluent schools and poverty schools. Sue was determined to act on her insight. As a result of her hard work and the Better Basics organization, this year Brighton's children have experienced the Opera of Hansel and Gretel, shared time with author Jim Arnosky, and will see a performance by Poetry Alive this week. We have also been a part of the Peace Corps World Map Project.

In addition, our school system has an outstanding Fine Arts department, and they have arranged for our Third Grade students to be part of a month-long dance course titled Quilts, taught by a professional dance company. Our Fifth Grade students were a part of a writing grant sponsored by the Alabama School of Fine Arts, which made it possible for juniors at the Fine Arts School to come to Brighton bimonthly to write with our kids.

On our own staff, we have a great Fine Arts Team with outstanding full time art and music teachers. Plus, two other teachers on our staff graduated form the Alabama School of Fine Arts and our new first grade teacher is a graduate of Florida's state School of Performance. She has performed at Disney Tokyo and Disney Orlando. This creative team is organizing our first spring performing arts production. Not only is this important for our students, but this also allows us to truly make use of all the talents of our teachers.

If you've read the book No Excuses, which tells the stories of nearly two dozen successful high-poverty schools, you may have noticed that a number of the schools point to their strong fine arts programs as part of the reason they've engaged students and raised achievement.

We have a Fine Arts section in our School Improvement Plan. We believed it was vital for us to include these goals to ensure that this became a reality for Brighton children. We have to not only give the students this exposure, but the opportunity to develop their own talents as writers, artist, musicians, and actors. One day soon I hope our school logo will read:

Brighton School
Jefferson County's Brightest Star
A Fine Arts Integrated Curriculum School