View from the Observation Deck: Dee Dickinson

Summer is a great time for reflection . . . this month Dee's column focuses on looking back while planning ahead. Dee also brings you background on this issue's articles, what's up at New Horizons for Learning, what's happening now and what's being planned for the Building.

Portraits of Inclusion through the eyes of children, families, and educators Susan Janko and Alice Porter, with Kristen Anderson, Carolyn Cottam, Shouming Li, and Joan Lieber.

Through the presentation of ten key policy issues and ten companion case studies, Portraits of Inclusion focuses on how educational policies affect inclusive education and on how they affect children, their teachers, and their families. This report was prepared under the auspices of ECRII, Early Childhood Research Institute on Inclusion, by a consortium of researchers from the University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University, the University of Maryland, San Francisco State University, Washington State University, and the University of Washington.

Language Learning Impairment: Intregrating Research and Remediation Paula Tallal

A computer game program called Fast ForWord™ has been shown to significantly improve the central auditory processing and speech and language skills of language learning impaired children. This novel remediation technique grew out of a collaboration between Dr. Paula Tallal and Dr. Michael Merzenich. Their research show that improvements are replicable and continue over time and are achieved in a relatively short, intensive program. The article contains an annotated bibliography and a link to an article at MIT's website.

WHAT are you Learning...WHY are you learning it?...How will you use it? to connect with your life... Shoreline Public Schools

Students, teachers, and administrators live by these words every day in the Shoreline School District in Washington State. Students and parents are encouraged to think about learning and how it connects with their goals. Shoreline schools are actively participating in testing and development of Washington State's essential learnings, as described in the next article.

Commission on Student Learning Report Marlene Holayter

A report by Marlene C. Holayter on the progress being made by the Commission on Student Learning in Washington State. The Commission is part of a grass-roots effort coordinating business, parents, students, teachers, and school administrators. The goal is to create a school system in which all students can achieve to their maximum capacity and where teachers can focus on the important knowledge and skills students need to know and be able to do. An example of guidelines being prepared for students has just been posted in the Inclusive Schools: Inclusion of Students With Special Needs area of the Building.

Guidelines for Inclusion Accommodations for Special Populations on State-Level Assessments Commission on Student Learning

Guidelines for inclusion accommodations for special populations on state-level assessments prepared by the Commission on Student Learning in Washington State.

Less is More-- Learning Environments for the Next Century Steven Bingler

Would you like to attend a school located in a museum or an aquarium? Steven Bingler of Concordia, Architecture for Understanding, describes innovative partnerships forged among schools and community groups to share facilities. The result is exciting; the projects are involving students in dynamic, meaningful environments and community members are reaping big benefits. Concordia works with organizations like Project Zero and Anne Taylor Associates, both of which will be familiar to New Horizons members.

Enabling Children to Map Out a More Equitable Society Sharon E. Sutton, FAIA

Sharon Sutton describes a model of environmental learning that was conceived in response to the diminishing sense of community in post-industrial society, and to the conflicts that result from increasing socioeconomic differences. This three-factor paradigm specifies the values, content, and teaching methods that can enable children to understand their capacity to shape a just and peaceful global environment. It is centered around a creative enterprise that is akin to a quilting bee. This model has the potential to involve children in a powerful discourse on environmental justice.

Weaving the Urban Network Sharon E. Sutton, FAIA

An innovative curriculum package, called the Urban Network, provides teachers and principals with a guide to the process of using the built environment, urban elementary schools, to stimulate community participation in the schools. Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders study their school environment, plan a project for enhancing their neighborhood, and then get others involved to help them carry out their plans. The article describes a group's experiences using the curriculum.

The Art of Learning Sharon E. Sutton, FAIA

Sharon Sutton presents her perspective on actively engaging children and their teachers in a new kind of learning that engages their imaginations in an exploration of their surroundings. In the process participants discover what it means to define and build community, and rethink what their neighborhoods can become.

Creating a Safe Space in Which to Grow Sharon E. Sutton, FAIA

What effect does a constant state of emergency and stress have on communities and the children who live in them? What can we do when overload causes so many of us to turn away from problems? Sharon Sutton is concerned with how children develop as caring, responsible citizens in an environment that seems out of control, and how they develop a collective identity that is powerful enough to combat the destructiveness of drugs and poverty. Her work has led her to the conclusion that a transformation of prevailing concepts of schooling is imperative and she presents suggestions for how architects can participate in such a transformation.

Class Size: Does It Really Matter? Robert J. Rios

Robert J. Rios writes about overcrowded classrooms from his perspective as an educator at an alternative school in New York City. Research shows that smaller classes make a difference for at risk students, and that the cost of reducing class size is minimal when contrasted to the cost of building prisons and other interventions for at risk adults. Teachers who are dealing with the ramifications of putting money ahead of sound education principles must stand up and fight for the mental and academic health of their students and for respect and good working conditions for themselves.

Read about Another Way: The Montlake Project in the Online Journal archives. LaVaun Dennett was principal of Montlake Elementary School in Seattle, Washington when she and her staff decided to restructure their school to better meet the needs of their at-risk students. Part of their efforts included reducing class size and combining age groups in basic skills classes that best met the learning needs of individual students.

Waldorf Approach Offers Hope in Schools for Juvenile Offenders Arline Monks

Arline Monks describes an experimental program for juvenile offenders in Yuba County, California utilizing Waldorf methods and curricula in two schools, T.E. Mathews Community School, a school for twelve-to-eighteen year-old offenders who are under a court order to attend and The Garden Court School in Juvenile Hall, a lock-up facility. Waldorf methods have had a dramatic affect on teachers and students, and principal Ruth Mikkelson is looking to apply the approach in other schools that serve at-risk youth.

T'ai Chi for the Differently-Abled Robert S. Dickinson, L.Ac.

Robert Dickinson gives some basic guidelines to working with physical challenges and overcoming "difficulty at the beginning" to persevere and experience daily progress toward your goals. Knowing your own body will help you modify the exercises where needed and help you design your own program. In Exercises for Those in a Wheelchair , he describes some simple exercises that can be done with benefit, even in a wheelchair, while sitting or lying down. Robert experienced a traumatic head injury that left his body physically challenged, but his years of practice, teaching, and study in T'ai Chi, Chi Kung, other martial arts, massage, acupuncture, and various branches of Oriental Medicine have helped him enormously in his own rehabilitation.

GIRAFFE OF THE MONTH

We asked the folks at The Giraffe Project to let us share stories about some of the heroes they've discovered quietly sticking their necks out to make the world a better place. This month The Giraffe Project shares the story of Dan Bassill of Chicago's Cabrini Connections. When he volunteered to tutor a fourth grader Dan never dreamed that it would change his life. Today he is responsible for helping kids all over the city through Cabrini Connections, a nonprofit organization. Companies concerned about diversity training can do nothing better than get their employees tutoring kids from different backgrounds, Dan says. "We need working people out in the community, seeing what kids' lives are really like, working on solutions."

• Website: Bibliomania
  Classic books online! Searchable text, great links.

• Website: Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE),
  FREE offers dozens of resources from more than 35 federal agencies for teaching and learning.

• Website: Cabrini Connections
  Cabrini Connections is a program set up to connect at-risk children with tutor/mentor adults. The founder of Cabrini Connections, Dan Bassill, is our Giraffe of the Month in this issue of the Newsletter. Of particular interest at this website is the Tutor/Mentor Connection, a marketing plan which any city, or organization can adopt to help connect children with quality learning opportunities.

• Website: KidsCampaigns
  The Benton Foundation hosts a searchable website listing volunteer opportunities throughout the United States. If Dan Bassill's story inspires you to be a Giraffe, you can start looking for places to make a difference in your own community here. Look for a special section of help-wanted opportunities and their book 101 Things You Can Do For Our Children's Future, which is posted there in its entirety.