Memphis students’ creativity stands test of judgment day
Jurors Nicole Johnson (left) and Anita Davidson, with help from fifth-grader Tieranee Carr, 10, judge entries Thursday in ThinkShow! at Peabody Elementary. More than 7,000 jurors, including from the U.S. Department of Education, registered for the event.
Calvin Coolidge had on his Indian war bonnet and the portly William Taft was off for a round of golf.
They were among the handmade replicas of presidents greeting jurors in the foyer at Peabody Elementary on Thursday for ThinkShow! — Memphis City Schools’ antidote to “teaching to the test.”
This year’s event brought a record number of volunteer jurors into MCS — 7,099 had registered by Monday — including several from the U.S. Department of Education.
“Memphis has done a lot of phenomenal work in the last year to address the achievement gap and to reduce dropout rates,” said Alberto Retana, director of community outreach for the federal agency.
He was in town to congratulate MCS for being one of four U.S. school districts the department is honoring for increasing public perceptions of public education. The others are Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; and Oakland, Calif.
The thousands in Memphis who registered as project judges were a good example, Retana said, of what it will take to achieve President Barack Obama’s goal of achieving the world’s highest college completion rate by 2020. The U.S. has fallen from No. 1 to 12; Canada is now No. 1.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck strategy,” Retana said. “To get 7,000 volunteers to come into the schools and understand what is going on inside these walls is critical,” he said.
Peabody alone nearly doubled its juror count to 40.
Jurors signing in at the century-old Midtown landmark were greeted by replicas of presidents from 1910 to 2010 in honor of Peabody’s centennial.
Their bodies and clothing were soda bottles covered with black socks, a velvet cape (Truman) and, in LBJ’s case, a lanky man in tuxedo towering over a toy pony.
Each model was made by a first-grader and included a handwritten essay (requiring penmanship, research skills and critical thinking), providing visitors facts, for instance, that Taft was the last president to keep a cow at the White House, along with a brief reference to his size (330 pounds).
“I could go to school board meetings, and I sometimes do, but this feels like I am helping one teacher and one classroom at a time,” said Anita Davidson, a three-year volunteer judge.
“If you go to Peabody and spend a few hours, it will change the way you see public education,” said Sue Hawkins, who drove in with Davidson from Bartlett.
The grades they gave each project, plus their comments, will be included in the students’ report cards this quarter.
ThinkShow! started in 2008, the brainchild of Deputy Supt. Irving Hamer, as a way to encourage creativity in the face of double doses of math and reading.
Jurors are asked to grade on creativity, analysis of the assignment and practical application.
If parent Charles Land got his way, the 1970s Jerry Garcia doll, done in another first-grade class, would get an “A.”
“Look at that tie-dyed shirt and the blue jeans and those little glasses. It’s just the coolest thing.”
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