11/7/06

Miami alum named a ‘Star’ teacher
 
“Life is too short.  Don’t read a book you don’t like.”

So says Kathleen (Allen) Cawrse, an eighth-grade English teacher and 1975 Miami University teacher education graduate, whose success in getting non-readers to read is one of the reasons she received an American Stars of Teaching Award from the U.S. Department of Education.  More than 4,000 teachers nationwide were nominated for the honor, but only 51—one from each state and the District of Columbia—were selected.

“All of us in Miami’s Teacher Education Department are proud that one of our graduates has received this kind of national recognition.  This is a teacher who is making a difference, and that’s what our program is all about,” said Jim Shiveley, chair of the teacher education department.

Cawrse teaches at an alternative school in Meridian, Idaho.  Many of her students are dealing with family problems—depression, divorce, drugs, alcohol abuse, incarceration.  Others, Cawrse calls them the “invisible kids,” just got lost in 35-student classrooms.  It wasn’t that they acted out, says Cawrse, it’s that they quietly failed to learn.

The goal of the aptly named Crossroads Middle School, where classrooms average only 15 students and one-on-one attention is the norm, is to turn such situations around. 

“Our kids are not readers. For a lot of them, it’s because they haven’t found a book they love,” she says.  Such students end up in a red chair, dubbed the hot seat, where they are quizzed about their interests until Cawrse selects a book tailor-made for their personality and reading level from her collection of 900 titles.

 “I ask them to try 20 to 25 pages,” she says.  Her students know that if they don’t like a book, she’ll find something else they will like, maybe another book, maybe a booklet on Idaho fishing or hunting regulations.

Cawrse believes her success in getting grants for an innovative, hugely successful after-school “Books and Buddies” reading program is also part of the reason she was selected for the Department of Education Star Award.

 Each student and her or his “buddy”— a parent or stepparent, grandparent, older sibling or family friend—select a book that interests them from several titles.  Each team gets two copies of the book and is asked to discuss it as they read it.  A month later, all the teams return to the school for group book discussions and a party.  “The clincher is the food,” says Cawrse.  “We have good food.”

A self-described “high energy teacher” Cawrse says her Miami professors influenced her style of teaching.  She realized as a college student that she learned a lot more from those professors whose classrooms were interactive and exciting and it’s a lesson she’s never forgotten.

Cawrse’s tips for prospective teachers:
--Be organized.  Anytime you use a handout, put an extra one in a folder for next year.
--Always plan more than you think you’ll have time for in your lesson plans.  It may not take your class nearly as long as you think to accomplish what you’ve outlined.
--Be prompt about returning paperwork and forms.  If you need to do a behavior check on a student, get it done and back to the office or it could come back to bite you.
--Have fun.  It’s about fun and energy.  Get students up and moving.
--Encourage students to work with each other, although you may sometimes want to choose the group.