Calumet High teachers 'cram' for opening

CALUMET TWP. | With two days left before school starts, Calumet High School teachers were busy Monday in professional development classes and touring new, redesigned classrooms.

Calumet, Lake Ridge Community Schools flagship school, will be the first school in Northwest Indiana to institute the New Tech model of school reform in its classrooms.

Calumet High School is among six schools in Lake County in its fifth year of probation. State Superintendent Tony Bennett has demanded that schools institute bold reform to improve student performance or face state takeover.

Lake Ridge school leaders chose the transformation model, concentrating on data and teacher evaluation, and instituted a New Tech high school for 320 freshmen and sophomores beginning this fall. It will be phased in over the next several years.

Calumet teachers were in training for a full week early in the summer, then met each Wednesday throughout the summer for additional training on the New Tech method.

Kris Williams, school development coach from the Napa, Calif.-based New Tech Network, has been assigned as the school's coach for the next three years. He provided additional training Monday at the school.

The New Tech method calls for every student to have a computer, the teacher to act as a facilitator rather than a lecturer and for students to achieve the state standards through project-based learning.

Professional development for teachers will be ongoing and focused on project-based learning instructional strategies.

Williams reviewed the Echo system, essentially an online classroom portal that allows teachers to maintain grades and provide for parent access. He also talked about how student projects combining disciplines had been successful at other New Tech schools.

Students will see changes in the high school building as well as the classroom structure. Contractors transformed the former shop and metal rooms into seven new classrooms, complete with new desks and chairs.

Classes will be taught in blocks of 72 minutes rather than the previous 47-minute long classes. Everyone is on the same 55-minute lunch hour, allowing time for students to get extra help as needed. Students will be assessed every three weeks.

Crystal Ham, who teaches art, will partner with algebra teacher Richard Good. As they walked around their new classroom, Ham said they already have begun developing projects to meet the state standards.

One of the projects is a Da Vinci bridge project using both disciplines. Another project will focus on color theory.

"I had to have him (Good) explain algebraic theories and the terms to me so we could apply it to art and develop our project ideas," Ham said.

Former shop teacher Marty Del Rio, who will teach industrial technology and partner with chemistry and physics teacher Frances Pathak, said the shop rooms look "totally different."

World history teacher Dori Downing was among a team of teachers who visited Arsenal Tech in Indianapolis.

"What I liked about New Tech then and what I like about it now is that it made us re-evaluate what we have been doing and what we need to change to catch up to the 21st century," she said.

Downing said none of the teachers was happy about being placed on probation through the end of the year, but she's decided to move forward with the New Tech plans. "I'm confident that by Dec. 31, I will have an administrator patting me on the back, telling me that I'm doing a good job," she said.