leadership in high schools

I am very excited at the thought of conducting a tour of our High School Special Education Programs which are aimed at three distinct student groups – 4 year College bound, Career & Technical College education with immediate entry into 2 year colleges or the work place and students who will need supportive living and job coaching.  Our programs currently consist of five 1:6:1 classrooms and two 1:8:1 classrooms.  We have not had this level of programming within our BOCES in Chautauqua County and have planned for  this over the past 5 years.   

Calls are coming in to tour of high school programs and a brochure is being developed so that high school Principals and Directors of Special Education can equally begin to plan their cohort graduation results four years before students enter high school.  Both these offices within a school share equal responsibility for planning, developing and investing in educational programs that benefit students and which will lead to 4 year graduations from high school.  School districts that are showing interest in our work at the Hewes Center include – Southwestern and Randolph.  Our goal is to reach all schools in the Southern Tier and to accomplish this teachers will be heavily involved with me in the crafting of our brochure so as to reflect the exciting instructional work being accomplished and the student learning taking place at the Hewes Center in our grade 9-12 programs.

Program Highlights: 

English:  Big Read America Project in colloaboration with area libraries and colleges – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. 

English:  Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Abraham Lincoln – reading of the Speeches at Gettysburg. 

Electives:  Marine Biology, Foundations of Music, Creative Writing, CPR training, Work Experience and Job shadowing.   

Field Trips:  Step Into Africa, an interactive Exhit at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Skating Rink, Illstyle:  a hip hop production staged at the Reg Lenna Civic Center/Theatre. 

Extra-Curricular:  HIgh Student newspaper written and published by students, Student Council, Popcorn and Pizza sales to promote student entreprenuership, student membership in NAMI – National Association for the Mentally Ill, donation to St. Susan’s Kitchen by students on behalf of NAMI.  Honor and Merit Roll. 

Monthly Guest Speaker Series:  To date Jim Tillotson, His Climb Up the Himalayas, Kelly Joslyn, How the Democrats took the White House. 

Last year we successfully collaborated with Das Puppenspiel and wrote a grant that was funded by the Arts Council of Chautauqua County an organization that manages the local capacity grants for New York State in support of the ARTS.  This collaboration resulted in the puppet production of Peter and the Wolf (a Russian Fable).  This school year 2008-2009 we have again submitted a grant proposal for consideration by the Arts Council.  We hope to make the cut this February 2009.  Many teachers are involved in this venture and have lent their full hearted support to this project which will allow us to work again with Das Puppenspiel and bring to production another excellent puppet show that will utilize and develop the skills and talents of our students at the Hewes Center grades K-12.

The Arts Council works in collaboration with Erie 2 CC BOCES which supports a cooperative service titled the Arts in Education.  Through this Cooperative Service (Co-Ser),  schools within the supervisory district of this BOCES can invest money in the Arts and allow for the funding of valuable resident artists like poets, sculptors, actors etc. who come into school and work directly with teachers and students to make the arts living, breathable ventures that are multi-disciplinary in approach and celebrate the highest level of Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, focus on multiple intelligences and teach/model creativity for all types of learners. 

On Friday, January 23rd, 2009 about 60 students, their teachers and support staff at the Hewes Center, will travel by bus to the Reg Lenna Civic Center to attend a Hip Hop production.  Hip Hop music and dance interpretations are the current craze amongst young people.  This student field trip will extend the boundaries of understanding for both students and adults.  American culture in flux and in the making will be discovered anew by different generations that all make up the fabric of learning activity at the Hewes Center – Baby Boomers and generation Y will have the opportunity to celebrate the Arts on stage.  Conversations and positive relations will be built between students and adults via this outing.  I am very excited that so many teachers and students have shown enthusiasm for this field trip.  Thank you Laurie Wilcox, Jamie Monaco, Amy Stormer, Dru Cole, Cindy Jackson and Jim Hedlund.  The latter two teachers teach a course on the Foundations of Music and will delight in the extension of this learning via the Hip Hop production.  Our teachers and students will have an opportunity to meet Mr. Len Barry, Program Coordinator  of the Arts Council and we, Erie 2 CC BOCES, hope that this relationship will grow the collaboration of our instructional programs  with the Arts Council.  The  bounty of this great gem in our local community together with the collective talents of people like Len Barry allow schools like Jamestown, Ripley, Clymer (that I know of) to bring exciting programs to the level of students in these school districts.  We must get the message out to more school districts in Chautauqua County so that they too can participate in these student centered community based programs that expand the visions of our school and promote the mission of education. 

New US President Barack Obama claims to be a  firm supporter of the arts in education.  Go to the link below to hear a speech he gave to a high school in Pennslvannia when he was on the campaign trail wherein he celebrates the fact that in even the poorest of schools when he grew up, they had music and art teachers.  Let us hope that his committment is real and that we shall see greater collaboration between school and institutions that promote the arts in education. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98931463

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/world/europe/05bulgaria.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Is the scenario described above so different in the developed world ?  This post drives my curiosity because I want to chase commentary from others who are involved with me in the work of NAMI – National Association for the Mentally Ill, Chautauqua County and in support of the dreams of students who are already plagued by the stigma of these maladies which affect the progress of young people in our schools.