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Shift Chattanooga: Looking Forward Thursday, September 15, 2011

Last week President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to propose the American Jobs Act. He spoke of the greatness of our country and the essential role that public education has in assuring the American Dream. “This is America. Every child deserves a great school -– and we can give it to them, if we act now,” he said. Regardless of political affiliation, most politicians agree that without marked change in our education system, we risk our future. As the Republican-lead House Education & the Workforce Committee website states, “Education is critical to the economic well-being of our country and the future prosperity of our children.” It quickly becomes easy, though, to become swept into angry division of how to make tomorrow better than today. But, as President Kennedy said, “Our problems are man-made -– therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.”

And we know that we can make Hamilton County’s public schools the best in the nation. Believing this, Shift began its first weekly educational ‘brief’ yesterday with links to several trending stories in the local and national conversation about education, important statistics concerning the growth of Hamilton County schools, and information about two upcoming events, free and open to the public. We believe that the weekly emails are a great way to keep you informed about education in Chattanooga and our nation. We’d like to invite you to join the list by visiting the Shift website.

Excerpts from the First Weekly Shift Brief

Featured Data
Hamilton County Enrollment Rising:
1st day student enrollment: 39,418
5th day student enrollment: 41,559
Current student enrollment: 42,248

More Students than Last Year:
271 more in elementary school
251 more in middle school
97 fewer in high school

Featured Local News Links
Superintendent Rick Smith tells Chamber of Commerce, “We’ve got to get busy” because East Hamilton schools are over capacity (almost 2,100 children in 6-12)

474 students have transferred out of the 17 ‘high priority schools’ (NCLB transfers)

Featured Shift Conversation
SHIFT CONVERSATIONS- Dan Challener from ShiftCha on Vimeo.
Teachers go into the profession, not to become wealthy, but to make a difference in the lives of children—Dan Challener, President of the Public Education Foundation.

To receive easily accessible education information through Shift’s weekly ‘brief’ visit the Shift website and sign up.

Posted by Dave Walker in Education
Democracy: A Search for Solutions

Jack Levine - The Arrest – 1983—oil on canvas— 24 ¼ x 24 ¼ inches—Gift of Ralph Shumacker in loving memory of his wife, Elizabeth Schumacker—Collection of the Hunter Museum of American Art, 1998.11 (Art © Estate of Hughie Lee-Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY; Art © Estate of Jack Levine /Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)

When discussing public policy, we tend to view the world through a monetary lens. Simply “throwing money” at a problem does not make it go away, and doing so often disregards the importance of socio-cultural variables - the people and social trends involved in the process. The best piece of legislation with a huge amount of financial backing will still fail if those working on it are not inspired and empowered to make it succeed.

Addressing crime is no different. We tend to forget that police officers are human, and we rarely see ourselves as part of the crime-prevention process. But in order to reduce crime, everyday citizens must be involved, police officers must be morally supported, and local government officials must consider how all political resource allocation affects the Police Department’s ability to do its job well.

Funding is definitely crucial, and the more police officers a city can hire, the better; but economic pressures are relentless, and there are specific ways we - the City of Chattanooga- can better utilize the resources we already have in place to reduce crime rates. The Police Department is already over-worked and under-funded; and so we must take responsibility for becoming more active.

Over the past 4.5 years, CreateHere’s work has proven two things about improving a community, through government oversight or grassroots organizations:

1. It takes catalysts, leaders unshakably committed to solving a problem.
2. It takes innovation, creative thinking to deploy new ideas when older soltuions aren’t working.

The unique skills and ideas of local residents - the ability for us to adapt old knowledge to new demands - are crucial to the future of America’s communities. Social networks and relationships are the fuel that power this system. Large organizations using traditional models of community maintenance are mostly keeping issues from getting out of control, but are rarely solving problems completely. Smaller citizen groups, driven by passion and rooted in social connectivity, can solve problems. This notion is the essence of true democracy.

The Broken Windows Brigade intends to unite the community to support the ongoing work of the Chattanooga Police Department and provide resources to help citizens develop true solutions to local issues concerning crime. While money is important and government intervention is necessary, the people are the way to true solutions.

Posted by Dave Walker in Arts in Economy in Culture
Michelle Rhee Lecture & Shift BreakOut Session II Monday, September 12, 2011

Several weeks ago, the Benwood Foundation announced the 2011-2012 George T. Hunter Lecture Series, beginning September 20th at 7 p.m. with speaker Michelle Rhee at the Tivoli Theater.

Ms. Rhee’s lecture is entitled Putting Students First in Public Education Reform and is free and open to the public. As the former Chancellor of DC Public Schools and founder of StudentsFirst, Ms. Rhee is a fierce and sometimes controversial advocate for reform, improvement and innovation in public education. At the core of Rhee’s mission is the belief that all students can achieve at high levels and that teachers are the most powerful force behind student achievement in our schools. To find out more about Ms. Rhee’s lecture, click here.

Coinciding with Ms. Rhee’s lecture, Shift plans to host its second Shift BreakOut Session on September 27th. During the first Shift BreakOut Session, citizens expressed their concerns and questions about education from cradle to career. We’re taking these questions to education experts across Hamilton County and asking them to attend this session to share the answers that they have, and to further generate conversations emphasizing the importance of strong school systems in Chattanooga and beyond. To find out more about the second Shift BreakOut Session, click here.

Michelle Rhee speaks on CBS’s The Talk about StudentsFirst’s “Save Great Teachers” Campaign

We are proud to be partnered with the Benwood Foundation, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies in the engaging and thoughtful George T. Hunter lecture series, and we look forward to seeing you at the Tivoli Theater on September 20th.

Posted by Dave Walker in Education
Take Part in Chattanooga Tree History, Friday, September 09, 2011

The first Citizen Forester workshop is kicking off at the Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center this Saturday at noon. There are still five spaces open for this workshop, so sign up now, and show up on Saturday! The workshops not only allow you to get hands on training in tree planting and care, but we will be making Chattanooga tree planting history this weekend by planting a dawn redwood, or Metasequoia.

Photograph of a dawn redwood, Metasequoia, hosted by About-Garden.com

The dawn redwood is one of only a few deciduous conifers. That means, it is a needle tree like most evergreens, but the dawn redwood is special because it actually loses its needles in the fall, and sprouts new needles in the spring. Dawn redwood is considered a “living fossil”. It dates from prehistoric times, and was thought to be extinct. However, it was discovered in China in 1941. Seeds were brought to North America, where it now grows again.

Be a part of this historic tree planting as dawn redwoods are reintroduced to Chattanooga, or if you can’t make it this Saturday, be sure to check out the workshop schedule and sign up for a time and place that are convenient for you this fall.

Posted by Dave Walker in Environment
Tennessee Arts Commission Workshops Thursday, September 08, 2011

On Thursday October 6th, CreateHere will host the Tennessee Arts Commission’s annual workshop for Tennessee teachers and teaching artists, and Performing Arts workshops for artists and organizations. We’re delighted that TAC will hold its Chattanooga area workshop at 55 Main Street, one of nine locations across Tennessee where the classes will be held this fall. There will be two types of classes offered by TAC on the afternoon of October 6: Arts Education, geared toward teachers and teaching artists, and Performing Arts, open to organizations and individual artists.

Arts Education
TAC will host two different Arts Education workshops: an overview of Arts Education grants and programs and an informational session about applying to the Teaching Artist Roster. The workshops will follow consecutively beginning at 4 PM and conclude at 6 PM, lasting an hour each. These workshops are informational meetings workshops for Tennessee teachers and teaching artists and are mandatory for new teaching artists who are interested in applying to the Commission’s Teaching Artist Roster. The workshops will provide participants with information on: the Artist-in-Residence Handbook; AE grant opportunities; the grant application process; applying to the roster; and AE programs including Arts360°, Poetry Out Loud, and ArtistCorps TN.

For more information about the Arts Education workshops, please contact Ann Brown at ann.brown [at] tn.gov or (615) 532-5939 to register for a workshop.

To find out more information about the Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Education initiatives, click here.

Performing Arts
There will be three different Performing Arts workshops: an overview of new Individual Artist Fellowship application requirements, an informational session about applying to the Tennessee Performing Arts Presenter (TPAP) roster and a Performing Arts Overview of existing Touring Arts (TOUR) grants, and a Performing Arts Overview for for new and existing Performing Arts constituents who have questions about existing programs and grant processes. The workshops will follow consecutively beginning at 3 PM and conclude at 6 PM, lasting an hour each. These workshops are informational meetings for performing arts presenting organizations interested in applying to the Tennessee Performing Arts Presenter (TPAP) roster, individual artists from the disciplines of dance, music and theater interested in learning about new fellowship requirements and how they affect the application process, and new or existing constituents who have questions about existing programs and grant processes.

The 4 PM to 5 PM session: Applying to the Tennessee Performing Arts Presenter (TPAP) roster is specifically for Tennessee presenting organizations who want to apply to the TPAP roster and those organizations that currently are included on the roster and would like assistance in building their profile. An overview of existing Touring Arts (TOUR) grants will be included in this session.

Please contact Hal Partlow at hal.partlow [at] tn.gov or (615) 532-9801 for information on Performing Arts workshops.

To find out more information about the Tennessee Arts Commission Performing Arts initiatives, click here.

Posted by Dave Walker in Arts in Culture