St. Paul Academy / Groves Academy - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Life has slowed down a bit for us while in Minneapolis. During the last two weeks since my last blog entry, Carolynn and I have visited two schools (that I'll get to soon), done a lot of reading, gone on a few bicycle rides, gone on a run every other day, and have shared meals with friends and family. The weather here has remained very mild with temperatures above normal (by Minneapolis standards … not MY standards). Although the temperatures have ranged from the mid 20s to the low 50s, I'm still waiting for the first real snowfall (coming as early as tomorrow). The Canadian geese are still hanging around getting fat and making a lot of noise before they head further south. Carolynn and I spent an entire afternoon raking all the leaves that have fallen off the trees in her mom's yard and bagged them up. I've been told that even though it is a lot of work to rake leaves, shoveling snow is worse … I guess I'll find out soon enough. My guess is that back home in Honolulu, it is pretty muggy (typical of October/November), my colleagues at school are in the midst of the long process of report cards, and that the North Shore surf will be rolling in soon.
Before I get to the school visitations, I have to tell you that CC and I had a wonderful lunch with Jot and Mary Turner. Jot is a '72 graduate of Punahou, a fellow choir member at Central Union Church, and older brother to good friend, David Turner (Punahou '75). I don’t think that I've seen Jot since high school (except for possible Punahou reunion). It was truly great to see Jot and Mary. He says that he loves wintery weather … something that is difficult for some to understand. Other than living now in Minneapolis, he has lived in Colorado and North Dakota. He seems to be in his element!
Carolynn and I visited two interesting schools in the last week, Groves Academy and St. Paul Academy. Here are some things we observed at each of the two schools:
Groves Academy is a school specifically for students with learning differences (L.D.). It does fabulous things for students that need support in their learning and in social settings. They consider themselves a transitional school providing students with coping and adapting skills before they move back into a traditional school. The class size is no bigger than 8 students with each student in the upper and middle schools each having their own PC laptop. Groves Academy has a very unique post-secondary program (grades 13 and 14) for some of their High School graduates to help support them in their community college courses and to provide a work internship. In addition, Groves Academy does a tremendous job in creating an outreach program for non-Groves students with L.D. and their families. Their head of school, John Alexander, has done a very impressive job increasing their endowment three-fold in the last several years and has just finished one phase of capital improvements to the physical plant. Groves is a very impressive school with terrific support for students with various forms of L.D.

St. Paul Academy (St. Paul, Minnesota), like Punahou, has a fairly new Middle School. It was converted to a 6 – 8 Middle School in 2000 with about 230 students (about 80 at each grade level, average class size = 15). I spent a significant amount of time with the Middle School technology coordinator, the Middle School head, and their lead science teacher. Here are some things that I learned about St. Paul Academy:
1. The centerpiece to their advisory (and their core subjects) is a program called 'Developmental Designs.' This is a program developed by a local organization called 'Origins.' The foundation to 'Developmental Designs' seems to adhere to the idea that for middle school students, relationship skills are equally important as the academics. This student-centered program that involves a form of communication between students and teachers provides a balance of freedom and responsibility, along with high academic expectations. Because there is much more involved in this program and that I see some possibilities for Case Middle School, here is an attachment that is an article that provides the six principles of 'Developmental Designs' (and the research behind it)
and a link to 'Origins,' the local Minneapolis non-profit organization that developed this program (www.originsonline.org/dd_index.php). For our Middle School administrators and interested teachers, it's certainly worth a good look!
2. All middle school students have the use of their own laptops called 'Netbook' (Nobi) and use the application called 'One Note' that is part of the PC Microsoft Office bundle) in all of their classes. Their technology coordinator is one of Apple's Distinguished Educators and was the person who, interestingly enough, convinced the administration to adopt these computers. With this technology, most of the work is done electronically and submitted to teachers without a drop box (a push of a button instead). Students can also instantly download all handouts/worksheets, teacher's class notes, and power point presentations. I saw this at work in a math class and was very impressed.

3. St. Paul, like Punahou, works off of a six-day schedule that has a 30-minute advisory built in every day (and up to 50-minutes if they decide to use their break/recess time). Assemblies, community service, studying, free reading, etc. are all built into this advisory time. Three of the days of advisory per week are designed activities to help build 'community' within the school.
4. The science curriculum in their Middle School includes a study of 'Science Method and Exploration' in the 6th grade; Life Science in the 7th grade, and Introductory to Physical Science (IPS) at the 8th grade level. The IPS curriculum is their adaptation of the old IPS program of the 70's and 80's. I was given the entire 8th grade curriculum (and their self made textbook) to share when I return.
5. Miscellaneous: All teachers have a desk/cubbyhole out in the team gathering space where students can easily get in touch with them. In Math class, all students sit on a huge 'gymnastic ball' as their chair (with a certain understanding of how they are treated). On the students 2nd trimester report card, instead of teachers writing the comments, students write a reflection and teachers quickly comment on the reflections. Teachers have weekly team meetings for Kidtalk.


St. Paul Academy is a terrific school where kids truly enjoy each other, enjoy and respect their teachers, and seem to take ownership of their own learning. Most of this seems to be due to the 'Developmental Designs' program.
Friends and family have asked repeatedly whether I'm homesick or not as they know I have a hard time being away from Hawaii for any more that a two-week vacation. I DO miss being at home, my family, my cat, the beach, the day-to-day teaching (that my colleagues will remind me of when I'm in the middle of report cards again), and the warm weather. But … I'm not ready to come home yet as there is much more to look forward to on this amazing trip. Seeing more of the US by car, the east coast experience, more schools to visit, the 'Baseball Hall of Fame' in Cooperstown (I had to slip that in), etc. There is just much more to see and do! Aloha for now.