Focus on TUSD - April/May 2008

Drake Preps for AIMS in the Park
It may have looked like just another day at the park for Drake Alternative Middle School students on April 4, but it was serious business, along with the fun they had.

To prepare for the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test, Karan Stewart and Suzy Thomas took their 28 students to Reid Park, directing them among activities that tested their math and writing skills.

The groups, each with four to six members, had creative tasks. In a story-writing exercise, students chased Frisbees, which each had a word taped onto the surface. Once the Frisbees were retrieved, group members wrote a headline from the words, then supporting sentences to form a story. In one group, the words were "teen, suspect, crooked, smashes and singer," which students used to write "Teen suspect crashes crooked singer." They told the story of a teen who was framed for something he didn't do, but proved his innocence at the end.

Eighth-grader Tony Ontiveras, who led the group said his classmate, Ago Celaya, was a fast writer. "We're lucky to have him," Ontiveras said. "It's more fun to come here than sit in class."

In other groups, students wrote a poem or rap verse about each of their classmates, worked on math concepts, such as mean, median and mode, and honed their geometry concepts. Students visited each of the five stations for about 20 minutes, following instructions from their student leader at each site.

The most unusual activity may have been the pie-eating contest, where students devoured chocolate cream pie without using their hands, which were tied behind their backs. It was all geared toward finding the numbers at the bottom of the pie, which, of course, were pi=3.l4.

Eighth-grader Tamica Brumfild said she enjoyed being in groups where she could talk more to her friends. "Other kids should get this chance," she said. "I learn more in a small school because of one-on-one help from teachers and the other adults."

Other students have had this chance to learn in the park. This is the third year the Drake AIMS preparation has been at the park. Teachers checked last year's AIMS scores and paired them with the AIMS standards this year to determine the areas they wanted to improve. They decided to zero in on geometry, suffixes and prefixes, averaging, and writing a main idea and supporting ideas, Thomas said.

After a decade at Drake, Thomas has seen many successes, particularly in the students who return to visit. When students arrive at Drake, most are at the fifth- or sixth-grade level, but are ready for high school by the time they leave.

Nicole Azbell, who takes both seventh- and eighth-grade courses, said writing poems has helped her express feelings in a healthy way. "When we're in school, we have a teacher talk to us and we forget some of what we learn," she said. "But out here, we get to learn better because of the activities and we talk about our assignments. I like the small school and the one-on-one attention. I like the kids, too. I give them a hug when I see them. You really get to know all of them."

Vicki Inouye, who is president of the Inouye Foundation, which helped supply prizes for the day's event, came along to help. She's a familiar face at Drake, where she's a volunteer seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher four days a week.

"I absolutely love Drake," she said in a break between the math activities she supervised. "It's a unique, wonderful mix of high content and individual nurturing. Their emotional, academic and physical needs are met."

Family needs are met, as well. Sixth-grader Andrissa Mendible, is the third person in her family to attend Drake. As a measure of her success, she won the pie-eating contest.

"We know the families and their dynamics," Inouye said. "The big picture involves families. If we're to serve the students, we also need to serve the families."

In the midst of the group activities, Thomas and Stewart called a time out for lunch provided by Rental Service Corporation, a Tucson company that provides equipment for construction sites. The firm, which has supported the school for years,  has "made a lot things happen that wouldn't have happened right away," Thomas explained.

The teachers also got help from Omar Moreno, an instructional specialist and University of Arizona College of Education student, who shares the job with Marcus Williams, who was also at the park to help. Moreno's  brother, Uriel, home from serving in the military in Iraq, cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs for the students.

Margarita Rodriguez, an instructional specialist, was also on board. "The stimulation for them (the students) is positive," she explained. "It's overwhelming. I've been at Drake for 12 years and this is a brilliant idea that Suzy and Karan came up with. This is the best park day so far. We want to grab the momentum and build on it."

Tasha Morrison, a social work intern from Arizona State University, who has been at Drake all year as she works on her master's degree, said the park activities were a good way to motivate students and show them they're appreciated.

Stewart stressed that a small school environment helped kids succeed at Drake. "The kids' gifts shine though," she explained. "In a larger school, they do not have the opportunity to do that. We call all of them our diamonds in the rough."

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

Photos in the April issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the May Focus is Friday, May 16. The Focus will be published Tuesday, May 27. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.