State education officials visit Hoover schools to view innovative programs (video)
State schools Superintendent Tommy Bice and several other officials with the Alabama Department of Education visited three Hoover schools today to take a look at innovative programs and practices so they can be shared with other school systems.
Bice and his entourage joined numerous Hoover school officials, Hoover Councilman Jack Wright and state Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, at Trace Crossings Elementary, Bumpus Middle and Hoover High.
At Trace Crossings, they visited the Maker Space studio that gives students hands-on applications of engineering and robotics skills. They also observed Alabama’s current Elementary Teacher of the Year, Minnette Wiggins, as she worked with students using multisensory literacy strategies.
At Bumpus Middle School, Hoover’s current Secondary Teacher of the Year, Vinny Chiaramonte, talked about how his students write computer programs to make Lego robots move the way they want them to. Most of the Lego robots were purchased with grant money from the Hoover City Schools Foundation, he said. The computer science students at Bumpus also use a Minecraft game where students can build almost anything to help learn computer programming skills.
State and local officials also observed a math intervention program at Bumpus that uses a combination of group instruction and adaptive software to monitor the progress of students who need remediation.
The tour then moved to Hoover High, where observers got to see biology teacher Paul McEwan working with students in a class that’s designed to get students discussing and applying science more than just reading and listening to a teacher talk about it.
The guests also visited Hoover High’s Engineering Academy, which has about 220 students working through curriculum designed to prepare them for college engineering classes.
Students in the Engineering Academy start out by getting the math and science classes they need as a base of knowledge and then expand into engineering classes designed to mirror the first two years of undergraduate college work, academy director Mark Conner said. That includes hands-on applications in a lab that allows students to do computer-controlled woodworking and metalworking so they can actually touch what they design on the computer, Conner said.
Upon leaving Hoover, Bice and state officials went to visit a Maker Space classroom at Irondale Middle School and another initiative at Irondale Community School.
Hoover was the 10th school district that state officials have visited as part of their Innovation Celebration tour this school year, Bice said. In all, state officials plan to visit at least 24 school districts that have innovative initiatives and then share those ideas with schools across the state and replicate them in places where they don’t exist.
“We’ve seen some remarkable things today at Hoover,” Bice said. “I think the most encouraging thing is how teachers have really embraced project-based learning. They’re functioning as facilitators of the learning, and students are owning their own learning.”
There are some deep, inquiry-based lessons happening, “and we want to share that with the rest of the state,” Bice said.
One common theme Bice said he noticed among the three Hoover schools he visited was the function of the teacher.
He did not visit a single classroom where the teacher was standing at the front of the room, delivering the information to students as they sat in rows of desks, he said. “I saw students doing real-world learning, applying it to real-world projects and the teacher going around and asking … probing questions to make those students think and defend whatever answers they came up with. That’s real powerful, and that’s real learning.”
Overcoming challenges
Bice asked Hoover principals to describe some of their biggest challenges, and all three principals talked about the influx of students from other school districts such as Birmingham and Jefferson County who are often behind students who grew up in the Hoover system.
Hoover High Principal Don Hulin said many choose to move into the Hoover district in the 11th or 12th grade and are lacking some of the skills they need at that level. Hoover teachers are committed to providing the resources the students need to be successful, no matter the skill level at which they enter, but it’s very challenging, Hulin said.
Bumpus Middle Principal Tamala Maddox said some students are coming to Hoover two to three grade levels behind in math, but the socioeconomic difference among some students is a bigger challenge than the academic differences.
It’s hard for people to believe, but Bumpus had to start a food pantry to help provide food for students to carry home on the weekends because some students’ families lacked the basic necessities, Maddox said.
And just getting some new students to understand the culture of Hoover schools is difficult, she said. Some don’t understand that they are actually expected to do the homework assignments given to them, and that has to be emphasized, she said.
Trace Crossings Principal Carol Barber said another challenge her teachers face is the diversity among students. It’s not unusual to have four to five different languages spoken in the same classroom, Barber said.
While diversity can be a plus, it also can be a handicap that requires a lot more differentiation of instruction to account for different needs, she said. Technology tools available to teachers in the Hoover district help deal with some of those issues, she said.
Hulin agreed and said technology is a game-changer. The fact that Hoover provides a Chromebook for every student in grades 3-12 helps level the playing field and opens new doors for families that previously didn’t have access to such technology, he said.
The first year Hoover High gave out electronic devices for each student to use, one student was in tears, Hulin said.
Bice said he and his staff at the state now can point teachers and school districts that deal with a lot of diversity to Trace Crossings as an example of a school with a diverse student body that is making significant progress with students.
Success stories like that are what he wants to share with the rest of the state, he said.