Teacher Education
Alumni in Action
School of Education, Health, and Society
Brian Schultz, who got his undergraduate degree in psychology at Miami in ‘97 and his MAT in 1999, is now a professor in the College of Education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.
His recent book, “Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom” is an account of a year he spent teaching at a dilapidated school in the infamous Chicago housing project Cabrini Green.
Schultz advocates a democratic curriculum where students and their teacher together theorize and develop an integrated curriculum. “We teach about democracy, but we don’t actively engage in our democracy. I want my students to learn how to be purposeful participants promoting change,” he says.
” Schultz asked his fifth grade students to identify a problem in the community that they wanted to solve. After 89 initial ideas, the students narrowed their focus to working toward replacing their school building.
Instead of teaching spelling at 10 a.m. and math at 11 a.m., Schultz integrated all subject areas into a customized curriculum that centered around the steps to be taken toward solving their community problem. For example, reading and writing skills were developed through letter writing and the creation of a website. Math skills were gained through surveying and data analysis.
While the students did not succeed in getting a new school building, they learned to follow a passion to reach for something better. Schultz said that his students had nearly perfect attendance and improved test scores after the project began. (2008)