Costco Connection - August 2007

MEMBERconnection
goes back to school
Top of
her class
Thinking
outside the
(lunch) box

WHEN ANDREA PETERSON, a music teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Granite Falls, Washington, learned she had been named the nation’s Teacher of the Year, she was shocked. “I have never been that surprised in my whole life,” says Peterson, a Costco member.

The award, however, didn’t shock Peterson’s peers. They say that since she began teaching a decade ago, Peterson has built the 2,200-student district’s music program, which consisted of just 18 recorders in an empty classroom, into an integral part of the curriculum.

Peterson, who was chosen by a 14-member committee, including representatives from many major education organizations, plays nearly every instrument in the

JOSHUA ROBER TS

President Bush and Andrea Peterson at White House Rose Garden.

orchestra, sings, composes and writes lyrics. She has focused her talent to develop a curriculum that reinforces topics her students study in other classes.

Her goal has been to break down learning into small, sequential pieces that students can handle, and then let them use what they’ve learned creatively. For example, each year she asks her

students to create a play based on one of the books they have read in another class. The class collaborates to create an adaptation that it later performs for the community of Granite Falls.

Peterson will be on paid leave for the entire 2007–2008 school year to travel around the country as an ambassador for the teaching profession.—Will Fifield

Something to sing about

FOR YEARS NOW, Tim Bedley, a Costco member and teacher at Wildomar Elementary School, near Temecula, California, has used a very simple tool to help his students retain the concepts he covers in class. Singing.

Bedley crafted educational lyrics to familiar tunes; “Plural Y and F,” at right, is sung to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Oh when a word
Ends with a Y
Oh when a word ends with a Y
And you want to make it a plural
Change the Y to I and add E-S

When his students began singing the songs in class, they locked into class lessons and test scores began to climb.

Because his idea works so well in his classes, Bedley recorded “Singin’ the Standards,” a collection of 21 songs. The songs focus on topics such as types of angles, good writing habits, measurements and conversion, how to write quotes, the meaning of prefixes and basic geometry concepts. He sells copies of the CD for $15 on his Web site, www. timbedley.com.—WF

Adam@Home by Brian Basset

SPECIAL TO THE CONNECTION. ADAM IS © BY BRIAN BASSET, UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

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TYPICALLY, THE METHOD high school students use to raise money is the ubiquitous bake sale or car wash. Something this ordinary was not going to do for the students at Westwind Preparatory Academy in Phoenix.

“I told the kids, ‘Come up with something creative,’ ” says Costco member Kristin Tualla, a teacher and Student Council adviser at Westwind (www.west windacademy.org). Five years ago, that’s exactly what she and her students did, establishing a lunch program staffed and run by students, selling food purchased from their local Costco.

“Every Friday, I load three or four students into a school van and we drive to Costco to restock our kitchen and Snack Shack for the next week,” says Tualla, who also teaches classes on entrepreneurship. “The students are responsible for making lists for the next week and managing the store.”

In addition to earning school credit, she says, students get a lot of hands-on experience: “They really learn about budgeting and supply and demand.”

The students have also learned about the benefits of their labors, as the money earned has funded school events and programs, purchased athletic equipment, even provided money for small scholarships.

“Last year, we used our Executive Member 2% Reward to buy a 32-inch TV for the classroom,” says Tualla. “This year, we’re investing in a digital camera and photo-editing software for the school Web site.”