Saturday, December 25, 2010

A winter break? Not for these students - Education - MiamiHerald.com

A winter break? Not for these students - Education - MiamiHerald.com

EDUCATION

A winter break? Not for these students

While everyone else is off for the winter break from schools, students at an Overtown charter school are hitting the books.

BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY

KMCGRORY@MIAMIHERALD.COM

School may be out for the winter holidays, but class is still in session at the Theodore R. and Thelma A. Gibson Charter School in Overtown.

Kids in the fourth and eighth grades are spending most of their winter break back in school sharpening their writing skills.

``It's better to be at school than at home watching TV,'' said 10-year-old Goevoune Kemp. ``I want to get good at writing so I can get a [perfect score] on the FCAT.''

The stakes are high.

The Gibson Charter school has received back-to-back failing grades from the state Department of Education. One more, and the school could be closed.

New Principal Fareed Khan hopes the extra days of schooling will help students boost their FCAT scores -- and get excited about writing.

``These kids are eager to learn,'' said Khan, who started at the school last month. ``They have extensive vocabularies. Structure is an issue, but they will definitely benefit from this camp.''

Gibson is a charter school, meaning it is funded by public dollars, but managed by a private company. It enrolls more than 270 children, nearly all of whom live at or below the poverty line.

Two years ago, the school moved from Coconut Grove into the building that previously housed St. Francis Xavier Catholic School, 1698 NW Fourth Ave.

Before Khan arrived this fall, school administrators were paying little attention to writing, he said.

``It wasn't really part of the culture,'' he said.

So Khan, a former teacher and administrator in Broward County, asked the charter school company Academica for help. Academica manages more than two dozen charter schools in South Florida, including Gibson.

TEAMS OF TEACHERS

The company linked Khan with two other Academica schools that were willing to help: Mater Academy Elementary and Mater Gardens Academy. Both assembled teams of expert writing teachers and crafted a curriculum for a six-day writing camp.

Teachers and administrators from Mater Academy International and Doral Academy helped in the effort, too. Academica provided grant money to pay the teachers.

Last week, the 10 guest teachers visited Gibson to check out the classrooms and finalize their lessons. They began teaching winter classes alongside Gibson faculty members on Monday.

Classes run through Wednesday, and resume the first three weekdays in January.

``Part of the holiday season is about giving back,'' said Mater Academy Elementary Principal Cecilia Telleria, who helped teach fourth grade at Gibson. ``We're happy to do whatever we can.''

The sessions were optional for students. But on the first day, more than 70 percent of the fourth-graders showed up.

``It is a blessing,'' said María José Valencia, the fourth-grade teacher at Gibson. ``These kids need so much attention.''

Students arrived at school this week bundled up in winter coats.

In the fourth-grade classroom, Mater Academy Elementary teacher Carolina Santalla urged students to write a paragraph somebody else would want to read.

`KEY WORDS'

She and the other teachers in the room also taught students how to approach different essay questions.

``They showed us how to pick out the key words in the question so we know what to do,'' said Kiyanna Greene, 10.

Upstairs, eighth-grade students brainstormed ways to describe doughnuts. Among their ideas: heavenly, decadent and blissful.

``The powder absorbed my attention,'' wrote Jada Hart, 14, earning praise from her teacher.

``You can't use baby words on the FCAT,'' Jada later said. ``They want words that are interesting.''

Vincent Williams, 13, didn't exactly want to go to school on a day his friends from other schools were staying home.

``I thought it was going to be boring,'' Vincent said.

``But I actually had fun. I learned things I didn't know before.''

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  • At lot of these kids dont have the support at home that they need to succeed in school so any extra help that they can get like this is amazing. Bravo Academica!!!
  • Bravo Academica!! Kids in overtown need this type of attention in the early years...
  • Nightstalker4848 Yesterday 03:13 AM
    It's funny, but isn't this the whole point of education? Finding out whats wrong with the student and giving him/her the support the student needs to succeed. Has it taken this long to see the common sense in this? The problem so long is that schools have been allowing kids to fall through the cracks and administrators and teachers didn't give a darn in low performing schools. Now that there is a focus on low performing students and schools now you will start seeing results.. These kids need more attention. It is as simple as that. The younger you catch them the easier it is to change their behavior and their work ethic..
  • Looks like a great job, as a private school then to public school student I saw the differences. At St. Patricks the Nuns had sticks as they walked the class room and you didn't mess with them. They were well respected and great teachers. In public school in Boca I was generally in the honors classes where most if not all the students were well behaved and there to learn. Some of the honor's class were small as were the ECE classes which were near by, these kids seems to be the trouble makers and slower learners. I thought it was a good way to do things because ussually the ECE classes had more individual attention available to the ones having the most trouble. My last couple of years in high school the non honors classes I took were somewhat of a animal house senario where the students ran wild and the learning was cut in half due to disruptions etc..
    Point being, removing the troublemakers and giving them special attention to get them up to speed is the way to go. Another idea is to allow retired people and or educated unemployed people getting checks to tutor / mentor the slower students a couple days a week.
    I watched the video of those boys fighting in math class the other day and the contrast to this charter school is stark.
  • Never underestimate the power of the stick. In my parochial school they had 18 inch rulers and used them daily.... That is how one nun without a college degree controlled 50 bratty kids 6 hours a day. Fear is a great motivational tool, so to speak.
  • Maybe YOU learn well being whacked with a stick,but that doesn't mean ALL children learn in this manner. Many times fear creates mental blocks where childrens minds shut down and you can whack them all you want and you will get nothing out of them. Maybe you should go back to school and take a course in Psychology.
  • considering that everyone of my classmates graduated HS and many of us graduated college, the stick worked pretty well for many. It taught respect for authority and the importance of discipline. Stick that in your psych book.
  • Tripletail has it right.


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