This article was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on July 17, 2009.

Pilot program trains new teachers in Phila.

By Naomi Nix

Inquirer Staff Writer

A group of Philadelphia's newest teachers finished yesterday a new training program aimed at helping them succeed and easing their first-day jitters.

Brittney Stone, a recent graduate from Temple University, said she had wanted to be a teacher since she was a teenager. Her first day on the job is fast approaching.

"I'm very nervous. You don't know what to expect," Stone said at the end of a seven-day program in the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush on Knights Road in the Far Northeast.

Sandra Garner, a new teacher who is making the switch from the insurance industry, said the theory she learned in college was not the same as the skills she learned in the program.

"A lot of it was new," said Garner, who earned a master's degree in education.

She fits the profile of the kind of new teacher the Philadelphia School District hopes will want to stick around. But research says new teachers like her are the ones most in danger of quitting.

According to a 2006 study by the National Education Association, a teachers' union, nationwide, almost half of all teachers quit within their first five years on the job.

The numbers don't look too pretty for Philadelphia, either. Of the 831 teachers hired for the 2005-06 school year, almost 42 percent quit after three years, according to data supplied by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

"The system is literally bleeding teachers," said Jack Steinberg, who directs the union's health and welfare fund.

That loss inspired the union to develop the seven-day program in conjunction with the school district. The key is that newly hired teachers get the training before they step inside the classroom. Additional sessions will be held next week and in early August. The union expects to train from 400 to 500 new teachers.

In the past, state-mandated new-teacher training did not start until October, and teachers had up to six years to complete it, said Rosalind Jones-Johnson, director of education for the union's health and welfare fund.

"We want to make sure they have strong discipline strategies when they enter the classroom," she said.

Though Valda Woodson has been teaching for more than 30 years, she said the refresher course before the school year was helpful.

"By training early, you have time to go back into your binder, look through it, kind of swallow it all," she said.

The seven-day course, "Strong Beginnings," focuses on giving the teachers practical skills for the classroom, such as how to build an effective lesson plan, make and enforce rules, work with parents, form relationships with challenging students, and how to arrange a classroom. Jones-Johnson said the strategies are based on tested research.

Course material is taught through class discussion, PowerPoint presentations, and videos. The new teachers are required to sign a pledge saying they will implement the techniques in the classroom. They also have to submit reflection letters about how they are using the techniques. At schools with more than five new teachers, all new teachers will be assigned a teacher coach to check in on them and assist them in their first year on the job.

Jones-Johnson said any new teacher who was not assigned a teacher coach would work with her.

In Classroom 202, a dozen new teachers listened closely to trainers on how to deal with a "noncompliant" student.

"Teachers never win when they argue with their students," said Peggy Outing, a workshop leader.

Instead, she said, it's best to give them choices like this:

"John, you can stay after class and finish the assignment, or finish it now and not have to stay after class. It's your choice," Outing said.

Stone said the program "put her at ease." Garner agreed.

"I'm excited. I think it's going to be a good year," she said. "And now I have strategies."

Activists young and old protest closed city pools

This article was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on July 15, 2009.

Activists young and old protest closed city pools

By Naomi Nix

Inquirer Staff Writer

It wasn't the usual dress code for a meeting at City Hall.

But a bathing suit was appropriate attire for some children at a rally yesterday calling upon Mayor Nutter to open all 73 of the city's public pools this summer.

About 50 children and adult protesters stood behind an empty plastic pool, wearing floatation devices and towels and holding handmade signs, to draw attention to the 27 pools that will remain dry this summer because the city cannot afford to open them.

The group of children, parents, and community activists chanted slogans including "Mayor Nutter, Turn on the Water" and "Stop Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Our Children." The Coalition to Save the Libraries and nine other community groups organized the protest.

Tahkeam Williams, 9, of South Philadelphia, said he had a good reason to attend the 90-minute-long protest.

"It's not that much fun without the pool," he said. "We used to jump in it, play tag in the pool. We had a lot of fun in the pool."

For the adults, the loss of a pool means children have fewer places to cool off in their neighborhood on a hot day.

"The kids need somewhere to go, something to do besides be bad," said Jean Mills of Southwest Philadelphia.

Irene Russel, a parent leader with the community group ACORN, agreed.

"My kids want to swim," she said. "They want to swim today. They want to swim tomorrow when it's 80 degrees."

The protesters assembled at the northwest corner of City Hall and went to outside the mayor's office. Officials said Nutter was in Harrisburg, but his chief of staff, Clay Armbrister, spoke to the group.

"It is not a decision we wanted to make, but [it was] forced upon us" by the economic crisis," he said. "We are in a very, very dire economic situation."

Arbrister said the city initially had money only to open 10 pools, but additional funds and contributions made it possible to operate 46.

Susan Slawson, the city's recreation commissioner, said it takes about $60,000 to operate a pool for a season. Even if more money became available, there isn't enough time, she added.

"We are already two weeks into pool season," she said.

A plan for next summer, to be announced soon, would allow neighborhood residents to donate funds to keep specific pools open, she added.

Some protesters likened not reopening pools in certain areas of Philadelphia to the discrimination charges against the Valley Club as a result of the cancellation of the contract with the Creative Steps day camp.

"What the Valley swim club did to that day camp, the City of Philadelphia is doing to thousands of young people every day, and we will not stand for it," said Eric Braxton, an organizer with the Coalition to Save Libraries. His group first protested the closing of libraries announced last November.

Slawson said race and social class played no role in whether to open a pool.

"I don't know how anyone can come up with a comparison like that," Slawson said.

She said the decision to reopen a pool was based on a number of factors, including the average usage from last season, size, condition, location, and accessibility by foot.

But where the pools were opened was not evenly distributed across the city, said the protesters, who held rallies in five neighborhoods where pools remained closed.

For example, in the Northwest, nearly all of the pools were opened while in Fishtown and South Philadelphia, less than half of the pools were opened.

For Tahkeam, 9, next summer could not come soon enough.

"I'm going to protest out here until Mayor Nutter opens up our pool," he said.

"I won't," joked his twin brother, Markell.

This article was printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer on July 10, 2009

S. Phila. parents, youth demand pool be reopened
By Naomi Nix

Inquirer Staff Writer

Dozens of children and parents from South Philadelphia gathered yesterday in front of the Barry playground at 18th and Johnston Streets to protest a victim of the city's budget crisis: their local pool.

The crowd - mostly 15 and under - yelled and held handmade signs that said "No Pools No Fun" and "Outrage, Outrage, Outrage."

Parents said the city's decision not to reopen the Barry pool meant that their children could no longer take swimming lessons, compete in the city swim competition, or cool off in their neighborhood after a day at the playground. The closest pools to Barry are Vare, 1.7 miles and an estimated 33-minute walk away, and Ford, 1.3 miles and a 25-minute walk away.

"Being in the city, where else are you going to learn to swim except being in the pool?" asked Lauri Zanni, one of the parent organizers of the protest. "You are not going to learn in the sprinklers."

For Markera Tymes, 11, swimming lessons will be a think she will miss this summer.

"They taught us how to swim in deep water. They taught us how to float," she said.

Facing a fiscal crisis, the city said it could not afford to reopen 28 pools this year. In November, Mayor Nutter said the city only had the funds to open 10 pools. Through restoring money to the budget and fund-raising efforts through the city's three-year Splash and Summer FUNd campaign, there was enough money to open and staff 46 pools.

"We are cognizant that there are going to be more folks at our pools this year," said Alain Joinville, the public affairs and special projects coordinator of the Department of Recreation.

Joinville said the city would not open any additional pools this summer, even if more money is raised.

Some city residents are concerned about how the city selected which pools to reopen.

In some areas, such as in Northwest Philadelphia, nearly all of the pools were reopened. In four of the designated districts by the Department of Recreation, covering the Northeast, the Far Northeast, and sections of North and West Philadelphia, about half of the pools are open. In Fishtown and South Philadelphia, the number is less than half.

Joinville said the decision to reopen a pool was based on a number of factors, including the average usage from last season, size, condition, location, and accessibility by foot.

"We understand their frustration, it's not that we are oblivious to it. Because of the budget crisis, we couldn't open as many pools as we would have liked," he said.

Mike McCrae, the president of Philadelphia Recreation Advisory, which helps Philadelphia neighborhood groups, said that if the city had allowed potential donors to allocate their money for a specific pool, more funds might have been raised.

"We, as individuals, couldn't open up our own pool," McCrae said.

Joinville said the decision to raise money through a general fund drive instead of accepting donations to open specific pools was designed to give every neighborhood an equal chance at having an open pool this summer.

"We wanted the fund to be fair," Joinville said. "In Philadelphia, there are a number of neighborhoods that are very wealthy; they probably would have been able to raise the money easily. There are other neighborhoods that are not only not as affluent, but they wouldn't have been able to mobilize and organize their neighbors as easily."

The pool fight is not over.

With the help of organizations such as the Coalition for Essential Services and the Coalition to Save the Libraries, there will be a rally in front of City Hall on Tuesday to urge Nutter to open all of Philadelphia's pools this summer.

Looking for America, students check out Philadelphia

Printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer on July 9, 2009
Looking for America, students check out Philadelphia
By Naomi Nix

Inquirer Staff Writer

All the way from Nashville, 10 students and two professors hit the road this summer - rock-star style - to discover what people think it means to be an American.

Students from Belmont University took their sociology and writing courses to a grand laboratory - 40 U.S. cities - to ask what unites citizens. In a tour bus equipped with beds, wireless Internet access, and a quirky driver, the students yesterday made Philadelphia stop No. 28.

At each stop, students from the liberal-arts university start conversations with locals and tourists about what makes America tick. That issue was raised in part last fall when a town hall presidential debate took place at Belmont.

"Sometimes we get pretty simple answers, like freedom, and sometimes we get negative answers," said Emily Headrick, 22, the student coordinator of the Philadelphia leg of their trip. Each student is assigned three cities and is responsible for planning the day's activities. On completing the tour, students will write term papers.

They will crisscross 9,300 miles of America. They stopped at Memphis; Little Rock, Ark; New Orleans; San Antonio, Texas; Roswell, N.M.; the Grand Canyon; and other familiar places in the American West before hitting California and turning eastward. They will be in Washington today.

The Belmont students packed their only day in Philadelphia with visits to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, LOVE Park, and a tasty pause at the Reading Terminal Market. Dinner last night was with a representative from the nonprofit Mission Year.

Philadelphians weighed in freely.

"The opportunity to make my destiny is what it means to be an American to me," said Lelfteria Papavasclis, 27, who lives in Stratford and commutes to Philadelphia every day to work as a park ranger at the Liberty Bell building.

Students Chris Speed, 21, and Rashina Bhula, 20, asked her if inequities persisted in America.

"The bell is not perfect and that's OK, because society is not perfect," Papavasclis said, citing prejudice as one of the biggest obstacles to national unity.

For Ray Tamaqua Gishgu, who was dressed in the traditional garb of his Leni-Lenape tribe, his experience as a racial minority has affected how he sees America.

"I would like to see the United States make amends for what it has done" to American Indians, Gishgu said.

But Gishgu, who gave his age as "over 50," said the United States had come a long way along the path to racial reconciliation.

"If you had told me at 20 that someday the United States would elect a black president, I would have laughed at you," he said while laughing. "Where's the rest of the joke?"

Being on the road for so much time means students and their professors must get comfortable touring on the bus, showering sporadically, and having limited privacy.

"Some of the barriers between teacher and student kind of broke down early on," 21-year-old Heather Gillespie said.

When asked the first thing she would do when the trip was completed, Emma Shouse, 20, said proper hygiene would top the list.

"Take a bath," Shouse said. "I have come to appreciate the private shower." She didn't say much about returning to a comfortable bed at home.

Keeping up with students while on the road has not always been easy, but Ken Spring, 37, the chairman of the sociology department at Belmont, motioned with two fingers from his eyes toward the door, as if to say he was watching them. The professor and the students laughed.

"He claims he has eagle eyes, but what he really has is Elizabeth's GPS," Gillespie said.

Jokes aside, there is work to be done.

Students shoot video, take photographs, and compile notes to post daily blogs about the places and people they visit.

The three required papers will give each student credit for a sociology and a writing course. The trip cost them $7,400, which is $1,400 more than tuition for two summer courses they would take on campus.

In addition to their vast laboratory, students avail themselves of the stories of their bus driver, who has hauled some famous clients. The man they know as Rubin has driven tour buses for Li'l Wayne, Papa Roach, Madonna, Jamie Foxx, and Paramore, among others. He also gets to sleep in a hotel each night.

"He got a call from Li'l Wayne this morning," said Pierce Greenberg, 19.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090709_Looking_for_America__students_check_out_Philadelphia.html

This article was published on Sunday November 9, 2008 in the Trenton Times.

Princeton panel looks to what lies ahead for Obama

Sunday, November 09, 2008

BY NAOMI NIX

Special to the Times

Though acknowledging the historic achievement of President-elect Barack Obama, a panel at Princeton University warned that tremendous challenges remain for race relations, and domestic and foreign policy matters.

The roundtable discussion titled "Election '08: The Aftermath" was held before an audience of students, professors and community members Wednesday.

Valerie Smith, director of the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton, got a standing ovation when she reminded audience members that the two-year Democratic struggle to put Obama in the White House had finally come to a successful conclusion.

But some panelists said the election result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Obama helmed "an incredibly well-run campaign" whereas John McCain ran "one of the worst campaigns in recent history," said Jilian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs.

Zelizer said now the Republican Party faces a series of crises concerning leadership, mobilization, and division within their party.

"Their ideas have been discredited," Zelizer said. He continued to say that the financial crisis and the Middle East have challenged conservative Republican doctrine concerning economic and foreign policy matters.

But as the Republican Party attempts to rebuild itself, Democrats shouldn't get too comfortable with their majorities in Congress, said Zelizer.

"(Democrats) would do well to think of some of the problems that conservatives have faced," Zelizer said.

Although Obama has broken the ultimate glass ceiling, all the panelists said problems with race relations remain within the United States.

"I think on the issue of race, there will be a white backlash," said Cornel West, a professor of religion. You can't move into an era with a black president "without there being various forms of white backlash."

Although many whites voted for a black candidate, "that doesn't make you 'post-racial,' it just makes you less racist than your mama," said West, using an expression that some media forums have used to introduce the idea that racial barriers have diminished.

But all panelists said that Obama's election was a step in the right direction.

"We are not post-racial but I do believe that the next generation does think differently about these issues, said Anne Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.

Several panelists said only time will tell how Obama chooses to address issues concerning race in America.

Panelists said the international community was generally pleased that Obama was elected president, but that some may seek to undermine his presidency.

Slaughter warned that the U.S. is still engaged in two wars, and will continue to face threats to its national security.

"He is going to be tested," said Slaughter.

Slaughter said that Iran, al-Qaeda and Russia could try to provoke Obama to make an unpopular policy decision in the beginning of his presidency.

"He's got a tall order, but I have got to say that for me the 21st century begins today," said Slaughter

Panelists included Farah Jasmine Griffin, director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies. Eddie Glaude, the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies, moderated the discussion.

Cuban American Vote in Miami

This is a radio piece I did for WPRB about Cuban American voters in Miami. In the last two elections Bush has narrowly won Florida, a key state to winning the presidency. Cuban Americans in Miami have for more than a generation gone heavily republican. And this 2008 election the Cuban Americans may cast the deciding vote. But it may not be in the way that political junkies once thought.


I did all of the reporting, sound collection, and editing .

The Playwright's the thing at TCNJ

This article appeared in the Trenton Times on Friday October 3rd.

BY NAOMI NIX

Special to the Times

EWING -- Saluting his literary genius and Garden State connections, The College of New Jersey yesterday opened a three-day international conference on playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder.

The conference brings together 42 scholars from three continents in a bid to renew interest in the legacy of Wilder, who won three Pulitzer Prizes during a career that stretched from the 1920s until his death in 1975 at age 78.

Although he was born in Wisconsin, Wilder had an affinity for New Jersey, often setting parts of his works in the state. He taught French at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrence from 1921 to 1928, taking a few years off to earn a master's at Princeton University.

"The aim of the conference is to celebrate the work of Thornton Wilder and to expose people to his literature and his plays," said Cecilia Colbech, the program coordinator for TCNJ's English department.

The program, which will continue through tomorrow, features scholars and playwrights and performances of Wilder's works.

"It is a very, very rich three days of programs on various aspects on Thornton Wilder, with particular attention about why he remains relevant and important today in the 21st century," said Jane Brailove Rutkoff, executive director of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, which contributed $10,000 to help fund the conference.

Though many of the events require pre-registration and carry a fee, there are several offerings that are free and open to the public today.

These include a panel of playwrights discussing Wilder's work, featuring Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Tina Howe and Donald Margulies.

Following that, Tony Award- winning Marian Seldes will join Albee in reading selections from Wilder's works.

"They are not coming to Princeton, Harvard or Yale they are coming to The College of New Jersey," said Lincoln Konkle, an organizer of the event and the executive director of the Thornton Wilder Society, based on campus.

This afternoon, Emily Mann, artistic director at McCarter Theatre at Princeton University, will participate in a panel with other theater experts that is open to the public.

Registrants and members of the public can also see the Shakespeare 70 company's rendition of "The Skin of Our Teeth," a Wilder play set in New Jersey about one family's quest to overcome global catastrophes.

Thorton's full-length plays, "Our Town" and "The Skin of Our Teeth," both won Pulitzer Prizes, as did his novel, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."

He is the only writer who has won a Pulitzer in both drama and fiction.

Some of his other works include "The Matchmaker," which was adapted as the musical "Hello, Dolly!" and his novel "The Eighth Day," which won a National Book Award. The majority of his works take place in New Jersey.

"He finds New Jersey the perfect setting to represent American ideas and customs but also to be able to bring out universal themes as well," said Konkle.

Wilder wrote a one-act play, "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden," which depicts a family trip in their car from Newark to Camdem. Wilder famously has one of the characters say, "I'm glad I was born in New Jersey. I always said it was the best state in the union."