The Iowa City Community Schools (ICCSD) decided to hold school on the Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday this year.  The Coalition for Racial Justice strongly opposed this decision and asked the school board to honor the MLK Holiday and cancel school on Monday, January 20.  The school board decided not to cancel school in 2014; instead, they passed a resolution that ICCSD should not hold school on the holiday in 2015 and beyond. The board also appointed liaisons to the Coalition for Racial Justice and the Center for Worker Justice to improve communication and community representation in future decisions.  Continue reading “Honoring MLK in Iowa City and Beyond”

I watched and listened to much of the event honoring the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I have a dream speech.”

It was inspiring and prompted me to watch the entirety of Dr. King’s speech again. We hear the sound bytes from the speech often enough, but listening, really listening, to his entire message was well worth my time. It is a reminder of the obstacles that had to be overcome, an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made, and a reminder there is much to do still today.

“I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28th, 1963

My son graduated from high school last Friday and I said I would write a blog post about it. As I started thinking about what to write I looked back at what I wrote when my colleagues and I posted back in the fall about our kids starting the school year. Here’s what I said:

My youngest started his Senior year and will graduate early, so in six short months our lives will change in ways I have long planned for but still can hardly imagine. Both of my boys will be up and out in the world and all of us will find new freedoms and challenges to chase. Braydon’s school life has not always been a positive experience. Seeing him here, having navigated this stretch, makes me proud, relieved, and excited about his future plans and the possibilities that lie ahead for him.

Continue reading “High School Graduation Means beginning of Endless Possibilities”

The Dallas Center-Grimes Community school district in Iowa is making strides in reaching important district and building goals by having collaborative teams of teachers learn together about how to conduct formative assessments of student learning. The entire district leadership and teaching force is focused on this effort and four years into the commitment, this focus appears to be improving teacher practice, and in turn, improving learning outcomes for students.

Read about the process, challenges, and benefits of the district’s work in All Aboard! published in the April edition of Learning Forward’s Journal of Staff Development (JSD), Co-authored by Deb Hansen, senior policy analyst at West Wind.

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage month. We were in the midst of our customary recognition of cultural heritage months, which we hold every month, when we ran into a wrinkle that we just couldn’t smooth out on our own and we’d like your help.

At West Wind we honor each cultural heritage month recognized by presidential proclamation. We do so in a couple of ways, one of which is to create a special banner each month for our website. In deciding the design of the banners we always look at a variety of images that could represent the group and deliberate which images to use. We take this seriously and really wrestle with the task. Our discussions invariably include the following points of consternation: Continue reading “May 2013 Cultural Heritage Recognition”

In recognition of the day, some of us at West Wind want to share about teachers from our K-12 years who we remember and appreciate.

BY DEB HANSEN—I have been thinking lately about my High School German teacher, Frau (Mrs.) Chua. At the time I thought she was very strict, and I was a bit intimidated by her, but now that I am an educator, I realize she used great instructional practices. She provided theory, always demonstrated what she wanted us to learn, gave us daily time to practice, and coached us on our usage. As a teenager, I thought we had a lot of quizzes and assignments, but I suspect she using formative assessment to inform her instruction. Surely, my German teacher is long since retired, but maybe not — when you are 15 everybody over 25 looks old. She would have been pleased to hear me speaking German, as I traveled through Austria last summer. Of course, I was rusty, but a bit of review with audio tapes refreshed my skills enough that I could chat with new friends in Viennese cafés. Continue reading “May 7, 2013 Teacher Appreciation Day”

In 2012 we observed each of the national cultural heritage months recognized by Presidential proclamation. In doing so, we wanted the actions of the observation to be sincere and to be part of our professional development at West Wind. We decided that for each cultural heritage month we would have a brown bag lunch during which we would explore each culture with a discussion including such things as: identity and naming of the groups in the culture being observed; counter-stories to the stereotypes of the culture; and what are some of the issues children and families face in the educational system. These brown bags have been a great source of learning, debate, and growth for us. Continue reading “Cultural Heritage Banner Compilation”