THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220442
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: KILL DEVIL HILLS
Educators from throughout northeast North Carolina discussed that challenge Tuesday during a three-day leadership conference attended by more than 200 public school administrators, teachers and board members.
{REST} The conference at First Flight Middle School, which wraps up today, is the first of its size to be held in the region, organizers said.
National and state experts have joined local leaders to explore the issues behind a fundamental restructuring of how students learn and teachers teach.
``We've got to prepare them for the jobs that are going to be out there,'' said Emmett Floyd, a professor at East Carolina University and director of the Eastern North Carolina Consortium for Assistance and Research in Education. ``It's a different ball game.''
Educators shared their efforts to discover what students will need to know in the new global economy and how best to get them there.
They discussed new forms of teaching, such as grouping children from different age levels; new forms of grading, such as evaluating a portfolio of work rather than day-to-day busy work; and new ways to interest students, such as creating real-life projects that generate enthusiasm.
``No kid ever learned from an activity that he or she didn't do,'' said Marty Vowels, vice president of the Center for Leadership in School Reform in Louisville, Ky. ``Our primary business is to design work that our customers, kids, will buy.''
But with new ways of looking at schools comes the hurdle of explaining the changes to anxious parents, educators said.
Matt Wood, a Board of Education member for the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools, described to a small group how the staff at his daughter's school worked to persuade parents that new classroom organization would help their children.
``Teachers need some skills in handling that dialogue,'' Wood said. ``We're asking them not only to do all this teaching and all this new learning. We're also asking them to be the public relations department.''
Officials agreed that the key to successful school reform is inviting parents into the process, which many school districts are doing.
Throughout the conference, officials were able to trade ideas both in small sessions and during breaks. The opportunity to network was one of the best advantages of the event, Floyd said.
``We probably learn as much here from the breaks or at lunch as we do from the major presenters,'' Floyd said. ``This region, I think, is characterized by people who want to get better.'' by CNB