NOTE: Photos available online at www.abpc21.org.

Trussville City Schools

System shows how 'top-to-bottom' support boosts innovative teaching, learning

If you want to see a school system that is serious about preparing students for the future, you should check out Trussville City Schools. You will find 10-year-olds anchoring live daily newscasts, a principal blogging about professional development and a multimedia Web site about the history of schools in the community.

These examples come from different schools, and they illustrate a thread that runs throughout the system. Trussville is changing the way students are taught in order to deepen their learning. Schools across Alabama and the United States are making this shift because the world changes all the time, and today's students will need more than the basics to succeed when they grow up.

“The world where our students are going to work and live as adults is quite different than it was 20 years ago," says Superintendent Suzanne Freeman. "Now we have to prepare kids to be responsible self-starters who can organize and complete tasks. More and more, companies are turning to employees and simply saying ‘you and your team get this done.’”

Trussville is profiled in the latest issue of the Working Toward Excellence journal because the system uses effective teaching strategies to prepare their students to be successful students and productive citizens in an ever-changing world of tomorrow.

Because of Trussville’s use of effective teaching strategies to prepare their students to be successful students and productive citizens in an ever-changing world of tomorrow the system is profiled in the latest issue of the Working Toward Excellence journal.

“Trussville’s commitment to providing teachers and students with the latest tools and professional development is exciting, and educators in Alabama and across the country are watching, said Cathy Gassenheimer, president of the Alabama Best Practices Center. "The changes made over the past several years are strategically designed to boost student engagement, enrich learning and give students opportunities to apply what they have learned."

Working Toward Excellence, the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, is published in print and online formats to help professional educators adopt the best ways to teach. The latest edition, "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace," focuses on Alabama teachers who are changing the way they teach to better prepare their students to succeed in life and the digital economy.

Find the online version of "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace" at www.abpc21.org.

Trussville participated in the Alabama Best Practices Center’s 21st Century Learning Project, underwritten by Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. This project does two things for teachers: helps them understand what students need to know to be successful in our ever-changing world, and provides them with the skills and tools to effectively engage their students.

April Chamberlain, Trussville's technology integration specialist, served in a leadership role for the statewide project, and Hewitt-Trussville Middle School was one of 40 schools participating. Teachers Joy Young, Erin McGuyer, Niki Lincoln, Janelle Adams and Connie Hambey made up the HTMS team.

Erin McGuyer's students are developing a Web site called Voices from the Schoolhouse (http://voicesfromtheschoolhouse.wikispaces.com/) to collect photos, videos and audio files documenting the education history in the community. Students have interviewed graduates from at least five generations. Students often take more care with their work when they have a real public audience, and the project can strengthen the students' understanding of history.

At Paine Intermediate School, fourth-grade teacher Jennifer McLaughlin chose an article about malaria in Africa for a reading comprehension exercise. When students learned that other children were dying because they did not have mosquito nets, they started raising money to help. They wound up doing a live Internet interview with a Peace Corps volunteer working in Senegal.

These are just two examples that show how inquiry-based teaching can deepen the learning process. "When children get excited about what they are learning, they're much more likely to remember the new knowledge and skills," Gassenheimer says. "And retention is even stronger when there's a real-world connection. Both Voices from the Schoolhouse and the Africa project show how new technologies used the right way can enhance teaching and learning, which is always the ultimate goal."

The A+ Education Foundation in Montgomery is home of the Alabama Best Practices Center, which receives major support from Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. Since 1991, A+ has advanced policies, programs and initiatives that result in high achievement by every child in Alabama's K-12 education system. A+ believes Alabama's economic future depends on strong public schools.

KEY LINKS

Voices from the Schoolhouse http://voicesfromtheschoolhouse.wikispaces.com/
Calling Africa http://abpc.wikispaces.com/April+Chamberlain

Digital version, Working Toward Excellence journal: www.abpc21.org

FIND IT FAST
These journal articles focus on Trussville schools:
http://www.abpc21.org/building.html
http://www.abpc21.org/beattheclock.html
http://www.abpc21.org/principalsblog.html
http://www.abpc21.org/broadcasting.html
http://www.abpc21.org/freeman.html
http://www.abpc21.org/outofafrica.html

PDF (449 Kb) of the Working Toward Excellence journal's 16-page print edition, www.bestpracticescenter.org

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