Denair teachers schooled by classroom expert

High school instructor Griselda Valencia already knew how to teach, but emerging from a four-hour workshop provided by the Denair Unified School District, she felt inspired.

Gesturing to pages of scribbled notes and titled squares, Valencia said, “I’m getting my to-do list ready.”

What she took away from a classroom-management presentation by experts Harry and Rosemary Wong was a how-to plan to help kids through her English class.

Top takeaway?

“Be consistent and predictable, so students know what to expect,” she said. Her favorite tidbit, she added, was to think of grades as cupcakes. “An ‘A’ is a cupcake with sprinkles,” she said, going down the list to the burned batch – an “F.”

Such practical, kid-friendly advice came fast and heavy during the session attended by about 100 Denair Unified teachers and staff members Tuesday. Denair schools opened Thursday.

“Can’t” stands for Completely Admit (I’m) Not Trying was another nugget. But between the quips and tips, the Wongs told of their proudest moments as teachers and urged the crowd to take great pride in the craft.

“I guess teachers need to be aware of how important they are in the educational process,” said Denair High School special education teacher Jodi Lee. “It really got back to basics. You get lost in so many programs; we’re rolling this out. We’re rolling that out.”

Standing beside her, high school counselor Cherie Gresham said she learned a lot about how classrooms run.

“A lot of it made a lot of sense, based on feedback I get from students,” she said.

Speaking after the talk, Harry Wong laid out no-nonsense rules. To learn, kids need two things, he said, “Every lesson needs an objective. Second, you have to check for understanding. You have to know they caught what you taught.”

If those sound suspiciously like trendy Common Core maxims, you get a cupcake with sprinkles. But the Wongs have been teaching those two key concepts for decades, they stressed – the research, and therefore the trends, are just catching up.

“In America we keep jumping from one program to the next program, thinking that will be the magic one,” Harry Wong said. “We spend billions. Stop spending money on computer stuff – train your teachers!”

Their first book, “The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher,” has sold nearly 4 million copies since it was published 28 years ago. A companion volume, “The Classroom Management Book,” was published in paperback in 2014 and focuses on structuring the classroom environment.

“Classroom management has absolutely nothing to do with discipline,” Wong said. It all comes down to organizing. “The reason (students) are distracted and disruptive is your classroom is unorganized – don’t blame them!” he said, his resolute teacher’s voice rising.

Softening a bit, he added, “Many of these kids come from (difficult lives). What they want more than anything else is a classroom that is organized and is safe and they’re loved.”

It took two years to work Denair into the Wongs’ schedule, but they and Denair Superintendent Aaron Rosander go way back.

“His picture’s in our first edition (of ‘First Days’),” Harry Wong said. Rosander was a second-year teacher in Hollister then.

“We deeply believe in investing into our employees. One such important way to do this is through training and professional development,” Rosander said via email. “Dr. Wong is the pre-eminent teacher trainer in our nation. His book, ‘The First Days of School,’ is a staple in university teacher training programs and is used by more teachers across the nation than any other resource.”

The morning session, which included copies of the Wongs’ book, cost the district $6,500 and was free to teachers, Rosander said.

“We are all quite excited to have Dr. Wong in our school district,” he added.

For Jorge Ruelas, the morning was a chance to meet an icon.

“He’s always been an inspiration to me. I was just rereading his book,” said Ruelas, a veteran high school teacher starting his first year with the district.

Ruelas is one of a dozen teachers out of 70 – 17 percent of the faculty – who are new faces. Every school has a new principal.

Brian LaFountain, the most recent change announced in July, will run Denair Charter Academy, an independent-study charter serving mostly struggling high schoolers. In May, Kelly Beard took the reins at Denair Middle School, Lucy Zamora was named to lead Denair Elementary Charter Academy and Kara Backman was tapped to head Denair High School.

Backman, formerly with local Aspire charter schools, becomes the third principal in three years at Denair High.

“There have been changes in leadership at the high school the past couple of years and that can be a challenge,” Backman said in the May announcement. “What I told them was this: ‘I’m not leaving. All three of my children will graduate from Denair High. I’m here for the long haul.’ ”

The tiny campus has battled steadily declining enrollment, falling from a high of 452 in 2000-01 to 269 in 2015-16, a 40 percent drop. The dropping numbers districtwide shrunk attendance-based funding, leading to some rough financial years and pay cuts.

This week, however, first-day-of-school numbers released by the district were up by 10 at the high school, with 279 teens in classes. Denair Middle, Denair Charter Academy and Denair Elementary Charter Academy all beat expectations.

In all, the district had 1,306 students settling into school routines Thursday, up from 1,276 in 2015-16 – a rise especially striking considering the district expected enrollment to drop. Its early projection used for the 2016-17 budget predicted a drop of 27 to 1,249, a figure based on years of overall decline.

The good news added to an already upbeat mood Tuesday, based on teacher feedback.

“We’re building,” Ruelas said, adding that the program helped bring everyone to the same page. “It’s setting the consistency, the culture,” he said.

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Denair teachers schooled by classroom expert."