Milken Award presentation at the Board of Ed: Dan Adler

Adler says he'll miss Riley's snow days tweets
appreciates that the Milken is not a lifetime achievement award, believes his students have not yet seen his best work yet
"obligation to serve all children of the Commonwealth...and we can do better"
excited about the changes in accountability, changes in ELL, and in teacher development
"identity of the singing science teacher"
singing with gestures is "total physical response" as a learning technique
"I'd rather have recognition for serving our language learners" rather than singing in science
teacher leadership brings out the best in staff
encourage districts in developing and evaluating endorsement programs in EL programs
parents advisory for EL programs; "could we have a similar program for teachers?"
calls for continued and increased involvement of teachers
Riley: professional learning communities and sharing best practices
"teaching can often be an isolating profession"
allow time for teachers to work together and learn from each other

McKenna: keeping students still in the classroom is such an old fashioned view
"we need to listen and involve teachers more"
speaks of the support needed for teachers who are coming into the classroom

Moriarty: contrasting Pekarcik's entry with Adler's; asks how much that has to do with the turnaround
Adler: perspective on time
develop new interventions, pilot them, and share with staff and students
Riley: teacher leader cabinet
"Many schools have this set up" in Lawrence; teacher leadership teams at the school level
"enlistment" rather than compliance
"getting people involved" is the best way to bring about change
peer observations and peer evaluation

in response to Q from Fernandez: school places a huge emphasis on family engagement
"we push really hard every quarter to have 100% of our families come in for conferences; if they don't come in, we come find them"
call ten families every week is a requirement
"it is a huge priority...and it is something we're even thinking about doing more of next year"

Trimarchi: you use the word 'scholars' to describe your students; what difference does that make?
Adler: the role the students have in their own education
"when I say 'scholar,' I'm empowering them to decide...I think of their role in empowering their education"
and their ambitions and how far they can go