Learning to Grow
By Becky Rodia, Senior Editor

What does the National Football League have in common with a small K-6 school in Iowa City, IA? Two things, which is probably two things more than you might expect.

One is San Diego Chargers wide receiver Tim Dwight, who grew up in Iowa City, where he attended Mark Twain Elementary. The other is Twain third grade teacher Julie Busch, Tim's former teacher and – thanks to Tim's thoughtful recommendation – the 2003 NFL Teacher of the Year.

The spoils of Julie's victory included a trip to the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, HI, as well as cash awards for herself and her school.

"It's been an exciting year," Julie enthused, when we visited her in Iowa City this past spring. "I can't imagine anything this big happening to me again."

It became clear to us during our time in Julie's classroom, however, that big things happen in there every single day – the kinds of things that only a dedicated teacher like Julie can bring to life for third graders.

A sense of independence. From the moment the students entered Julie's classroom, they were engaged in learning. They settled into their cooperative learning groups, opened their journals, and began copying an unpunctuated sentence from the board. Julie punctuated the sentence with help from the students, re-stating the rules for punctuation as the activity progressed. When the sentence was at last punctuated properly, it read: "Ms. Broderick and Ms. Rodia, welcome to our classroom," said Mrs. Busch's students.

It was then time for the kids to work in their groups, checking each other's work on the sentence. Julie visited each group to monitor its progress and award it a number: three, four or five. As each group received its number, one member of the group dashed to the blackboard to write letters of the alphabet according to the number the group received. For example, if the first group was given the number three, its representative would write "A, B, C" on the board. If the next group was given the number four, its representative would continue with "D, E, F, G."

When we asked the kids what was going on, they told us, "Mrs. Busch comes around to see if we're doing a good job. She gives us a three, four or five depending on how good we do. We write the letters on the board, and she counts them at the end. When they add up a lot, we get to choose things like extra recess, or watching a video or getting a reward."

Not only did the students thoroughly understand the ins and outs of this management system, they had teamwork down as well – the class racked up enough points that day to stretch the alphabet all the way out to "CC!"

A pat on the back. And if that grammar/management combo wasn't impressive enough, Julie's next activity was also a two-in-one: reading comprehension/character education. After reading the class a short book, the kids got into their groups to work together on an informal comprehension assessment, in which they were asked to write short answers to questions about the book. Here's the character education "catch" – as they worked together, they had to compliment each other.

"I want to hear really nice, sincere compliments," Julie told them. "I'll be coming around to see how you're doing, and if I catch you giving somebody a compliment, your group will get points."

Once again, Julie's students responded with enthusiasm. As we walked around the room, we heard many compliments, such as "Good job on number four, James!" and "You have nice cursive handwriting, Alexis." Each group earned several points.

Peer mediation is power! Building kids' character is very important to Julie, who has a masters degree in elementary counseling. Though she had considered giving up the classroom to become a full-time counselor, the right opportunity never presented itself. Instead, Julie uses her counseling skills in her own classroom, on a daily basis.

"A small piece of paper with my phone number on it in the pocket of a child in need has sometimes been the reason I can go home and sleep at night," she said.

Julie also works with the Conflict Manager program at Twain, serving as the coordinator or co-coordinator since the program's inception in 1990. This peer mediation program encourages kids to resolve conflicts in a fair, respectful manner. Students in each classroom nominate students whom they feel would be fair when helping students in conflict using a peer mediation process. After a day of training, conflict managers are on duty once a week with a partner. Each month, three conflict managers whose hard work has been noticed by adult recess personnel or the conflict manager supervisors are awarded the honor of "Conflict Manager of the Month."

Students involved in a disagreement can (and frequently do) also seek out a conflict manager for help. Julie says the program has been very successful in getting kids to work out their differences on their own terms, without adult intervention.

Principal goals. Principal Brad Laures, who is beginning his third year at Mark Twain Elementary, is proud of the school's continuing improvement in student behavior.

"We want kids to leave this school as good citizens," he told us. "As people who, down the road, will be kind, polite and respectful."

Twain seems to be doing a terrific job. As we walked through the halls, we heard students using the magic phrases, "good morning," "thank you" and "excuse me." Brad told us that the day before our visit, there had been a district track meet at which the Twain kids congratulated other schools' teams when they won.

Brad stressed that it's important for the staff of Mark Twain Elementary to project these positive qualities as well. As a school with a high mobility rate (approximately 35%), Twain admits many new students each year, and often they're students who haven't had good experiences in their previous schools.

"Our job is to try to rebuild that positive relationship," Brad said. "We work hard to build relationships with parents, and to make sure a child's years at Twain are a good experience."

Science and salad. One undeniably good thing about the Twain Elementary experience is the school's salad garden, a.k.a. "Plant Paradise." This school-wide service learning project has produced up to 700 pounds of food in one growing season. Some of the vegetables from Plant Paradise are used for a salad luncheon at the end of the school year, some goes home to Twain families and some goes to food pantries around Iowa City.

Each classroom at Twain is responsible for six rows in the garden. On the day of our visit, Julie told her third graders that they were going to be working on other classes' rows in addition to their own.

Julie pointed out rows of tiny pea plants, and showed the kids how to identify them by the little tendrils on the tops of the plants.

"They don't look so good right now, do they?" Julie laughed. "So we're going to give them some help."

She then showed the class how to pound wooden stakes into the ground at either end of a row of peas, string twine between the two stakes and gently place the tendrils of the pea plant on the twine, so the plant could stand up. After Julie's class had staked every class' row of peas, the little plants looked a lot better, and the kids had learned something about gardening, too, in a practical, hands-on science lesson.

She's got heart. All of this and more is what makes Julie Busch a memorable teacher, even in the minds of a professional football player like Tim Dwight who, one might imagine, has much to think about other than his third-grade teacher.

"Tim is very much a celebrity," Julie told us. "But he doesn't call attention to himself. And he does so much for Iowa City. I keep telling him, 'I got the NFL award not because of what I did, but because of what you did. You took the time to remember me.' "

Julie's modesty comes from the heart. As Brad Laures said, "Julie has a heart for kids. You need that if you're going to be a teacher, and she's got it."

According to Iowa's "Rule of 88" (which states that teachers are eligible for retirement once their age and the number of years they have taught adds up to 88), Julie could have retired a year ago, but her "heart for kids" is still beating strong.

"I'm not ready to retire," she said. "I'm still having fun."

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August/September 2004, Vol.35, No.1