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| Chyrel Oates Joins Reaching Heights |
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 Reaching Heights is proud to welcome Chyrel Oates as the new Coordinator of our Many Villages volunteer-based academic tutoring program. The program marshals parents and community volunteers to provide tutoring in all seven CH-UH elementary schools, Wiley Middle School and the Mosaic small school at Heights High.
Chyrel will work with principals and teachers, recruit community partners, develop and run orientation programs for tutors, facilitate sharing of knowledge among schools, and lead ongoing efforts to measure and improve the program's effectiveness.
She brings a rich combination of professional, volunteer, and education background to the position. Most recently, she served as a program manager with Antioch Development Corp. in Cleveland, working with at-risk youth to keep them in school and train them for the world of work. She holds an MBA from the Weatherhead School at Case Western Reserve University and completed a Treu-Mart Youth Development Fellowship at the Mandel Center for Non-Profit Management. Chyrel is the parent of CH-UH students, has served as a PTA president at Noble Elementary School and as a Many Villages volunteer at Monticello Middle School.
She succeeds Dennis Osgood, who took a leave from the Reaching Heights Board of Trustees to launch the Many Villages program. We're delighted to welcome Chyrel on board and welcome Dennis back on our Board.
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| Music Lesson Scholarships Awarded |
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Congratulations to 32 CH-UH elementary and middle school students, this year's recipients of Patti Family Music Lesson Scholarship. The program, in its third year, honors the memory of longtime Heights instrumental music teacher Vince Patti. Students receive scholarships to help defray the cost of 20 private music lessons. The program contributes to the Heights tradition of musical excellence by helping young musicians develop the foundation skills for long-term participation, enjoyment and success in music. This year's scholars were recognized at a kickoff event December 2 at the McGregor Home. |
| Join Us at the School House December 9 |
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 All Reaching Heights members and friends are invited to join trustees for our Annual Meeting on December 9, 7 p.m. at the Cleveland Heights Historic Center at the Superior School House at the corner of Superior and Euclid Heights Boulevard. We'll look back on the year, nominate and elect Trustees and Officers, and honor teachers who have been recognized as part of our Thank-A-Teacher program. The Canterbury Inclusion Team will give a short presentation on their innovative collaborative teaching that includes special education and regular education teachers and students for the benefit of all. |
| Nothing Trivial About This Gift |
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.jpg) Who says game shows lack social value? Judge Lynn Toler provided a wonderful example to the contrary - for which Reaching Heights is deeply grateful - when she was a contestant on Trivial Pursuit-America Plays last month. She donated her winning of $13,750 to Reaching Heights! Lynn was a Cleveland Heights municipal judge before heading west a few years ago. She now presides over Divorce Court on daytime TV. Lynn served as a Reaching Heights volunteer and trustee. She also put her judicial background to good use as a judge at the Reaching Heights Community Spelling Bee.
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| Reaching Heights Grants Support Classroom Innovation |
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Reaching Heights awarded 11 teams of teachers $10,000 in School Team Grant for projects that address student achievement. Earlier in the year, our Teacher Support Committee approved $8,780 to fund seven projects. Reaching Heights raises funds for the grants, first awarded in 1990, from the community through the Adult Community Spelling Bee, Thank-A-Teacher contributions, and from donations by the Cleveland Heights and University Heights Teachers, Retired and the DiGeronimo Family Foundation. School Team Grants support teacher innovation and leadership and make a difference to students, teachers and learning. They contribute to the school district's culture of innovation and problem-solving. The committee also approved three $250 Community Connection Grants aimed at connecting the community with the schools. Roxboro Middle School counselor David Peake's grant will support the second annual CH-UH African Male Conference. Other Coommunity Connection grants will support a Neighborhood Tea Party at Roxboro Elementary and a dinner theater for "Grandpersons" at Roxboro Middle School. |
| Support Excellent Public Education - Give to Our Annual Fund |
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Our members are generous community members whose contributions to our Annual Fund. make our programming possible. With this wide base of support, we can continue to mobilize community resources to support excellent public education in the Heights for every child. Please join us in that effort and donate to this year's Annual Find Drive.
Mail your check, payable to Reaching Heights, 1991 Lee Rd., Ste. 106, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118. | |
| Scholarship to Honor Deb Delisle |
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The Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Foundation and Reaching Heights are working together to raise funds for the Deb Delisle Scholarship Fund. This scholarship honors Deb's achievements as Superintendant of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, with gratitude for all she's meant for our community. The scholarship will be awarded to a graduating Heights High senior who is a first-generation college student, as Deb was.
Donations, payable to CHHS Alumni Foundation, with DDSF on the memo line, can be sent to the CHHS Alumni Foundation, 2155 Miramar Blvd., University Hts., OH 44118 |
| How Student Progress Informs Teaching |
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By Lisa Manzari, Roxboro parent
Success in the classroom depends as much on how students learn as on what teachers teach or how they teach it. Malik Daniels, a first grade teacher, and Sue Miracle, a fourth grade teacher, use formative assessments to adapt their teaching so each child learns.
Mr. Daniels describes formative assessments as "windows or snapshots into whether a child has made a connection to specific material." Providing immediate feedback, these assessments can take the form of a short quiz or an open-ended question-and-answer dialogue. "These are great informal assessments that allow me to listen to the children's thought process," he adds. "If there's a disconnect, I know exactly where I can make necessary adjustments."
Data collected from assessments help direct each student along their particular continuum of learning. For students not making progress, teachers can adjust how they teach and create small intervention groups for more targeted instruction.
Mrs. Miracle uses similar tools with her fourth graders. "I love using short-cycle assessments for very specific skills," she says. "Using only four or five questions, I can quickly tell who's getting it and who isn't." She can then group students who need more instruction, re-teach, re-assess and move on.
From the Roxboro Register, published by Reaching Heights |
| West Side Story a Huge Success |
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Four performances of West Side Story, supported by a Reaching Heights music grant, delighted near sell-out crowds on November 6-9 at Heights High. "The 400 elementary, middle, and high school student performers were fantastic," said Heights High Vocal Music teacher and the show's producer, Craig McGaughey. He was especially happy with the progress made by our middle school students. He credits much of that progress to the high school students who coached and mentored the younger students. Several of the high school students recorded CDs of the music, demonstrating uniform tempo, counting, and vowel shaping. Each middle school student received a CD to use as a training tool. Mr. McGaughey especially appreciates the parents who volunteered to make the show a reality, and is grateful to the many staff who went above and beyond to support student performance. |
| Heights High Students Caught Harmonizing |
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Rushing my daughter to the high school to catch a bus for an away volleyball game, I witnessed a special moment that reminded me of the power of music and of the amazing students who attend Heights High. As we pulled up behind the team bus on Washington Blvd., a group of 5 young men near the back of the bus began singing to the girls through the open windows of the bus. They serenaded with passion - arms spread dramatically, several dropping to one knee for added effect. I rolled down the window to hear them sing. These young men have beautiful trained voices - they were harmonizing! The girls clapped and thanked the boys as the bus slowly moved away. The boys kept singing as they ran alongside the bus, eventually sprinting before losing the bus and stopping in a fit of laughter. This likely wasn't an entirely spontaneous display of affection and support. Some planning assured the presence of a bass, baritone and tenor. Still, the girls looked surprised and very pleased. I'm lucky to have witnessed that moment and to live in a community with a high school that nurtures students, athletes, artists, musicians and singers.
-Krista Hawthorne, Reaching Heights
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| Fowler-Mack Named Interim Superintendant |
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| Christine Fowler-Mack will serve as interim superintendent of the CH-UH schools for the rest of this school year. The CH-UH Board of Education approved Fowler-Mack for the position on Dec. 2. She has been the district's assistant superintendent since 2004, and has worked in the district since 1999, when she was hired as Oxford Elementary School principal.
Christine also is a parent in the district, with a child at Gearity She replaces Deborah Delisle, who left last week to become state superintendent of public instruction.
Read more about this story at the school district's web site: http://chuh.org/news/news_12_03_2008.shtml; and in the Sun Press: http://blog.cleveland.com/sunpress/2008/12/university_hts_fowlermack_name.html |
| Celebrate the Holidays at the Cedar-Lee Shops |
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Visit participating Cedar-Lee merchants by December 16 and enter to win an Ice Skating party for 30 at Cleveland Heights Community Center, including admission and skate rentals; a gift certificate package from Cedar Lee Merchants; or a toboggan ride for 4 adults and 4 children at Cleveland Metroparks MillStream Run Refrigerated chutes.
Your chance to win is as close as a visit to Phoenix Coffee, Seitz-Agin Hardware, Simply Charming, US Bank, Dewey's Pizza, or Zagara's Marketplace. |
| Help on Being Better Parents |
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Heights Parent Center's Family-School Connection program is holding workshops for parents of elementary school children that are open to all CH-UH parents and include a light meal and childcare. Events are scheduled through April at Fairfax and Noble Elementary Schools. Topics include Helping the Angry and Troubled Child, Getting Out of Debt, and Positive Behavior Strategies for Home.
For more information and to register, call 216-321-0079.
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| Teaching - and Assessing - 21st Century Skills a Challenge |
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Skills that really matter for the 21st century-the ability to think creatively and to evaluate and analyze information-can be measured accurately and in a common and comparable way. These complex thinking skills can be measured at the same time that we measure students' mastery of core content or basic skills and knowledge. There's no need for more tests, just better tests that measure more of the skills students need to succeed today. So argues Elena Silva, an analyst with the Washington-based think tank Education Sector, in a new report, Measuring Skills for the 21st Century. Read the report at http://www.educationsector.org/usr_doc/MeasuringSkills.pdf
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