CINDY NYARKO: Join the Beauty is Diversity Campaign (with video)

By Cindy Nyarko

I am the founder of the #BeautyisDiversity campaign.

Currently a junior attending Truman High School, I started this campaign in 2016 as a project for Michigan’s 2016-2017 DECA State competition. 

With the help from the Taylor Truman DECA chapter, I have been able to raise awareness about my campaign’s message – a message to integrate more women of color in American media, thereby making the ideal of beauty more inclusive of women of color.

Currently, the American beauty standard has failed to be as inclusive of women of color as it could be. We live in a country where a little more than 35 percent of women are of color and the number is predicted to grow substantially by 2050.

Bearing this mind, I hope that America’s standard of beauty accurately represents the diversity of the people.

America has always advertised itself as a country that embraces and celebrates diversity. However, on multiple occasions, it has failed to keep those promises. Embodying that failed promise is our American media.

Media plays a large role in the lives of many young people today. Taking this idea into consideration, it is no surprise that it has great influence when molding our minds. Unfortunately, our media tends to favor those of a certain aesthetic, especially in regards to women. More often than naught, women with lighter skin, straighter hair, and paler eyes are considered the epitome of beauty.

This is one of the main reasons that I started the #BeautyisDiversity campaign. I hope to raise awareness of the unequal representation of women of color in modern American media. As an African woman of color, I want other young women of color to view the media and see women that look like they do. Although many women of lighter skin, straighter hair and paler eyes, are beautiful, that does not mean they are the only definition of beauty.

When I was younger, I grew up in a school where most of my classmates were white. At the time, I never really thought that I was that different until a Caucasian boy in my class asked me why my hair wasn't as soft as my friend's. The friend he was comparing me to happened to be a Caucasian girl.

It was then that I started to believe that I was different.

Unfortunately I equated my differences as inequalities and flaws. I hated my dark skin color and my curly hair. It wasn't until I saw actresses like Lupita Wyong'o (right), an actress of Kenyan descent, that I started understanding that the color of my skin or the straightness of my hair didn't determine the amount of beauty or worthiness I possessed.

Nyong’o looked like me. She was playing such a powerful and confident woman on the screen. When I saw Lupita, a woman who I could identify with, being as confident and beautiful as she was, I believed that I could also be just as beautiful and confident.

This is the kind of experience I want to share with others. One day, I hope our beauty is truly is found in our diversity. We must embrace and celebrate every skin color.

I intend to take my campaign to DECA's state competition and hopefully bring my campaign to nationals, which would allow it to gain national acclaim.

TOMMIE SAYLOR: A question of collaboration

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

Today’s question: Why should we collaborate?

When teachers work in collaborative teams schools are more likely to see gains in student achievement, find higher quality solutions to problems, promote increased confidence among staff, create an environment in which teachers support one another’s strengths and accommodate weaknesses, provide support for new teachers, and provide all staff with access to an expanded pool of ideas, materials, and methods (Little, 1990).

“The single most important factor for successful school restructuring and the first order of business for those interested in increasing the capacity of their schools is building a collaborative internal environment.” (Eastwood & Seashore Louis, 1992, p. 215)

Improving schools require a collaborative culture: “without collaborative skills and relationships it is not possible to learn and to continue to learn” (Fullan, 1993, p. 18).

When groups, rather than individuals, are seen as the main units for implementing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, they facilitate development of shared purpose for student learning and collective responsibility to achieve it (Newmann & Wehlage, 1995).

High-performing schools promote collaborative problem solving and support professional communities and exchanges among all staff.  Teachers and staff collaborate to remove barriers to student learning and communicate regularly with each other about effective teaching and learning strategies.  They have regularly scheduled time to learn from one another (National Education Association, 2003).

“[High-achieving schools] build a highly collaborative school environment where working together to solve problems and to learn from each other become cultural norms.” (WestEd, 2000, P. 12)

“It is imperative that professional learning be directed at improving the quality of collaborative work.” (National Staff Development Council, 2006)

“The key to ensuring that every child has a quality teacher is finding a way for school systems to organize the work of qualified teachers so they can collaborate with their colleagues in developing strong learning communities that will sustain them as they become more accomplished teachers.” (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 2003, P. 7)

“Collaboration and the ability to engage in collaborative action are becoming increasingly important to the survival of the public schools.  Indeed, without the ability to collaborate with others, the prospect of truly improving schools is not likely.”  (Schlechty, 2005, P. 22)

“It is time to end the practice of solo teaching in isolated classrooms.”  (Fulton, Yoon, & Lee, 2005)

“[Today’s teachers must] transform their personal knowledge into a collectively built widely shared and cohesive professional knowledge base.”  (Chokshi & Fernandez, 2004, cited in Fulton, Yoon, & Lee, 2005)

Teacher collaboration in strong professional learning communities improves the quality and equity of student learning, promotes discussions that are grounded in evidence and analysis rather than opinion, and foster collective responsibility for student success  (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006)

“Quality teaching is not an individual accomplishment, it is the result of a collaborative culture that empowers teachers to team up to improve student learning beyond what any one of them can achieve alone.”  (Carroll, 2009, P. 13)

High-performing, high-poverty schools build deep teacher collaboration that focuses on student learning into the culture of the school.  Structures and systems are set up to ensure teachers work together rather than in isolation, and “the point of their collaboration is to improve instruction and ensure all students learn”  (Chenoweth, 2009, p. 17)

“Collaboration builds teacher morale”  (Thomas W. Many, 2017)

The message is simple. The days of teaching in isolation, closing your door and doing what you do are gone. The key to success, the key to improving student learning and teacher performance is collaboration. PLCs, mentoring, common lunch and prep periods, co-teaching, and teacher coaches are the paths to the future of education.  We can either learn to ride this wave, or be cast upon the shoals.

Helping students to find their greatness. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL celebrates Dr. Seuss

McDowell Elementary School in March celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. Four first and second graders began the morning by sharing facts they had gathered while reading the biography of Dr. Seuss on morning announcements.

Then classrooms were invited to visit "The Cat in the Hat" to find out more about Seuss' life. Classes were also presented with Seuss-like ideas to expand the theme:

• Ask your teacher which Seuss book is their favorite
• Make a list of as many Seuss books as you think of
• Graph the favorite Seuss books of your class
• Or ask Ms. Borg to be your guest reader on this special Seuss day!

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Student enjoys building with magnetics and legos

Christopher Franks from McDowell Elementary School built an "Ultra House” using a magnetic set. Christopher really enjoys building with Magnetics and Legos.

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL goes into full-court press

Basketball season is in full swing for the elementary schools and here are the McDowell Elementary School Bulldogs at their finest – along with a few comments from the crowd!

• The cheerleaders rallied the crowd by coming into the stands. 
• The Bulldogs won, 17-15.
• Tristan shot a great free throw.
• AJ and Earron were good at dribbling the ball.
• Kywone also scored a point shooting a free throw.

The school looks forward to more exciting games!

MELISSA SKOPCZYNSKI: The latest Skope's Scoop (video)

HOLLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL pupils practice on new chrome books

Mrs. Silva's class at Holland Elementary School is using the new Chromebooks for the first time with Mr. K's help. A Chromebook is a laptop of a different breed. Instead of Windows 10 or Mac OS X, Chromebooks run Google's Chrome OS. The machines are designed to be used primarily while connected to the Internet, with most applications and documents living in the cloud.