It started with a "what if..." question.

 

"We had all heard student voices complain that they are always in the same math group," said Mark DeYoung, one of four fifth grade math teachers at Countryside Elementary. "And they would refer to them as the 'smart' group or the 'dumb' group," said colleague Katie Sweeney. No one is sure who on the math team spoke the words, but someone said, "What if we let the students choose their own math group based on how they like to learn."

"You are not singers, you are singing athletes," Tesfa Wondemagegnehu (won-dih-MAWG-nee-you) said to a group of ninth grade boys choir students at South View Middle School.

Wondemagegnehu, manager of Classical Minnesota Public Radio's (MPR) choral works initiative, worked with South View's eighth grade girls', seventh and ninth grade boys' and sixth grade mixed choirs. However, no group's experience was the same. "He read the room and adjusted what he wanted to work on," said Amy Cherner, choral and vocal music instructor at South View. "He related to each of them through stories and metaphors that were applicable to each group." Read more