Kristin Waugh-Hempel has been working at The Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center (the Met) since 1998. After serving as an advisor for four years, she focused her energy on the school’s Learning Through Interests (LTI) program and now serves as its director, overseeing the LTI process for all six Providence, Rhode Island Met schools and, through the Big Picture
Deborah Meier began her teaching career as a kindergarten and Head Start teacher in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City. She was the founder and teacher-director of a network of highly successful public elementary schools in East Harlem. In 1985, she opened Central Park East Secondary School, one of the founding members of the Coalition of Essential Schools. She was
Eagle Rock School, located in Estes Park, Colorado, is two schools in one: a school for high school age students and a professional development center for adults, particularly educators. Year-round, residential and full-scholarship for high school students, Eagle Rock enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative, nationally recognized learning program. With a capacity of
Schools The Center for Technical Education 122 Granite Street Leominster, Massachusetts 01453 phone: 978/534-7735 www.leominster.mec.edu/cte.htm Central Park East Secondary School 73 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10029 phone: 212/860-5929 www.nycboe.net/OurSchools/Region9/M555/default.htm Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center Post Office Box 1770, 2750 Notaiah Road Estes Park, Colorado 80517 phone: 970/586-0600 www.eaglerockschool.org The Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center (the
Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son by Kevin Jennings (Beacon Press, 288 pages, $24.95) Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son gives us a glimpse of the familiar worlds of family and school told from a different perspective. Kevin Jennings starts his memoir in the rural south, an unplanned child in an already struggling family. He feels his outsider status early: told that his birth
On evenings and weekends, I’m often immersed in my own service-learning projects. I’m part of the PTO of my son’s elementary school. I’m active in a group working for improved public schools in my city, and—not education-related but definitely community-building—I’m creating a community garden with neighbors. Added to work and family time, all of these commitments sometimes seem maddening. Where
By most measures, the Center for Technical Education in Leominster, Massachusetts and the Wildwood Secondary School in Los Angeles seem to be vastly different sorts of schools: public, East coast, working-class and decades-old versus private, West coast, generally wealthy and newly founded. In many ways, they define the maxim “no two good schools are alike.” Yet these two small schools
The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker by Mike Rose (Penguin, 288 pages, $15.00) In The Mind at Work, Mike Rose examines the connection between the body and the mind through careful study of professions involving physical labor. Rose’s observations provide educators with a view of the skills, attitudes and habits of mind people need to
I had no idea when I started this experience how much real learning I would actually do. So much of the understanding of something is not found in a book or classroom experience. It was only when I could actually experience the learning that it held true understanding and meaning for me. –Excerpt from a Quest student’s reflection. In 2000,
The Giraffe Heroes Project “Giraffe Heroes are people who stick their necks out for the common good,” says the Giraffe Heroes Project website, meaning that people whom the project designates as heroes are those who have undertaken real risks to accomplish their work. Over the years, some have been young people; many are adults. All serve as good examples for