Letters May 2007

Families first
In response to your story about Tower Street School ("Family, Extended," November/December 2006), we received many e-mails from educators around the country looking for ideas on how to improve or begin a Family Engagement program in their own schools. We had lots of local feedback as well, including a news broadcast and coverage in several newspapers. All the publicity has made the participation numbers in our Family Engagement program increase even further!
Mary Lou Almonte
Westerly, RI

Greetings from Ghana
I am currently volunteering in a school in Labadi, Ghana. I have a few of your magazines here with me that I picked up from a middle school back in the United States. Reading through them, I was inspired by some of the teaching methods and ideas from fellow teachers. I have no past teaching experience so they've been very helpful to me. I also couldn't help but notice the contrast between the photos of the classrooms in your articles and my combined fifth- and sixth-grade classroom here. There is only so much we can do here with literally almost nothing. A lot of the children share pencils and pens among them, as well as textbooks that are long outdated. We've put together a website, www.makingprogressinlabadi.org, that your readers and their students might be interested in visiting. The site provides a history of the school as well as photos and more information about our current projects.
Michelle Lavallee
via e-mail

Making math stick
I am a graduate student working toward a Masters of Arts in Special Education. I recently read Mary Ellen Bafumo's article about math ("The Learning Equation," January 2007). I wholeheartedly agree with her statements about making math relevant to a student's everyday life. Her philosophy about "hooking" the students' attention to motivate an interest in learning is really a great technique. Thank you for such an informative article.
Stephen Duckworth
via e-mail

One magazine, so many uses
I teach Children's Literature and Storytelling at a community college, and I use Teaching K-8 with my students. I also have two daughters in their first year of teaching – third grade and fifth grade. I share with them the many very relevant and useful articles from your magazine.
LynnAnn Wojciechowicz
Tempe, AZ

Correction: In our April 2007 issue (page 23), we listed the dates of National Wildlife Week as April 8-14. The correct dates are April 21-29.

May, 2007, Vol.37, No.8