Teacher and Students Embrace Motto and Succeed
An open house held in October for Milwaukee teacher Lisa Sanford was filled with people on hand to meet the person who coined the phrase “I can! I will! I must!” that she uses daily in her classroom.
In fact, the phrase caught the attention of best selling Freedom Writers Dairy author Erin Gruwell who invited Sanford to write about the phrase and herself in Gruwell’s recently released book Teaching Hope.
“I had 10 seconds to tell Erin about my motto. She had tears in her eyes and she hugged me and said ‘You really get it,’” Sanford told about 35 people at the open house.
The event kicked off the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association’s month-long celebration of American Education Week festivities. American Education Week is November 15-21.
Why did Sanford, who is a Special Education Transition Coordinator at Northwest Secondary School, create this motto for her class?
She writes in the book, “My kids, like a lot of other students, carry personal doubts and fears. I quickly learned that a few of them didn’t believe in themselves or in their abilities to complete class work on any level...Even fewer thought they would ever graduate from high school.”
“I’m not special. I’m just me,” Sanford said before the event, hosted by MTEA and the University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee School of Education at the university’s Hefter Center. But it was obvious the crowd gathered thought she was.
“I work with special education students who always say, ‘I can’t do this.’” Sanford said. “I told them, I’m done being negative and we have a new motto and club. To join the club you have to repeat the motto: I can do the work. I will do the work. I must graduate from high school.”
She said the first volunteer to repeat the motto was a shy youth named Anthony. In fact, after a little encouragement, Anthony repeated the mantra with more confidence. Other students followed, one by one, until the entire class was standing with her after having recited their new class motto.
That was the start of a transformation in Sanford’s classroom that seemed to permeate the entire school. She said she heard students repeating the motto to one another when they were working on assignments, and in the hallways as they passed her during the day.
The class motto was her way of “challenging fate.”
She and her students embraced the spirit of the motto and despite the normal challenges and struggles teens face – teenage pregnancy, fights, jail time - every student in Sanford’s class improved their performance in school and graduated from high school. Even more extraordinary is that her students have special education needs.
Each of her students had to overcome significant academic and behavioral challenges to reach their dream of graduating, she said.
Sanford is the only Wisconsin teacher featured in the book.
“I am honored to be selected to have a journal entry. It’s confidential, but I will tell you right now that I am entry one hundred thirty-two,” Sanford said, which elicited chuckles from the crowd.
Sanford writes about her work in the classroom as a teacher in Teaching Hope, which is compilation of 150 essays written by teachers throughout the United States and Canada who were trained by Erin Gruwell in the Freedom Writers method.
Also on hand for the open house was Maria Reyes, who was one of Gruwell’s students. She was featured on the cover of the Freedom Writers Diary, and is portrayed in the film as main character “Eva.”
“The Freedom Writers Diary” was a #1 New York Times best-seller and was made into a motion picture feature film, starring Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell. Gruwell, after spending years in her L.A. classroom honing her techniques, started the Freedom Writers Foundation, which trains teachers on the unique journaling method and other innovative strategies.
Sanford was part of the first group of teachers trained in these methods and she has used the techniques she learned at the institute to great success in her classroom.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of Lisa Sanford and other teachers,” Reyes said.
“Education allowed me to open doors where only walls stood before,” she said. “At the age of 18 I was the first in my family to wear a cap and gown. I knew when I walked across the stage my life would never be the same. Education is truly the greatest equalizer. Thank you to every teacher in this room.”
Stories of great teaching -- like Sanford’s -- will be featured each week during the MTEA Celebration of Teaching campaign. Educators and members of the public are invited to join the campaign by submitting personal stories of experiences with great teaching in MPS at mtea.org.
The campaign culminated with American Education Week.
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Chanda Wells and children
Student parents succeeding at UWM
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Life Impact Program, which provides financial and academic support for student parents, is making a difference in many lives.
For Yeni Salgado, the Life Impact scholarship provided the money to finish her engineering education when she didn’t know how she’d be able to afford to continue her schooling.
For Rhandi Roberson, Life Impact staff were key to helping her navigate the social services system so she could get the childcare assistance from the county that she needed to stay in school and complete her nursing degree.
For Chanda Wells, the laptop computer she got through the program came just in time -- she was sharing an old computer with her two children who also needed it for schoolwork.
For Jesse Waukau, now a graduate accounting student in UWM’s Sheldon B.Lubar School of Business, it was the support and encouragement the program offered that helped him earn his bachelor’s degree.
For Ann Gieschen Salazar, who’s completing her degree in nursing and has a nursing job waiting, the Life Impact program was vital as she prepared for a new career to support her family after a divorce.
They are among the students who are or who have been helped by UWM’s Life Impact program. This unique UWM program is designed to assist low-income students who are parents -- particularly single parents -- start and finish college. The six-year pilot, established in 2005 through a grant from the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation, will eventually provide more than 200 scholarships. . One of the major goals is to demonstrate that, with help and support, low-income parents can overcome significant obstacles, complete college and move into family-supporting careers. Life Impact provides a renewable scholarship to cover tuition, but also offers a wide variety of support services to help students who are raising children, going to college and often holding down a job or internship.
Yeni Salgado, who was a single mother when she started school, was facing serious financial stresses at the end of the lst school year. “It was such a huge relief,” says the engineering senior of the Life Impact scholarship she received for 2009-10.
Life Impact scholars also receive a laptop computer from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guarantee Corporation. Being able to work from home makes a huge difference in busy lives. “It was a wonderful help,” says Chanda Wells, who raised a younger brother and sister after her mother’s death and chose college to provide a better life for her own two children. She’s scheduled to graduate in May 2010 with a degree in Health Sciences and a minor in healthcare administration.
The support of the Life Impact staff and encouragement from other parents is a vital part of the program. Jesse Waukau, then a single father, was among the first Life Impact scholars. When he ran into personal and academic problems, the staff encouraged him and helped him find a career he loves. “They never said ‘If you don’t shape up, we’ll drop you from the program,’” he says. “[Instead] they asked, ‘What can we do to help you get through this?’” He now is married and working on his master’s degree. His wife will start college this winter.
The Life Impact Program is now accepting applications for the 2010-11 academic year. At least 10 applicants will be selected to enter the program for the upcoming year. The program is open to first-time freshmen, new undergraduate transfer students and continuing UWM undergraduate students who are parents and have a demonstrated financial need. Priority deadline is March 1, 2010.
For more information on the program and requirements, contact Life Coach/Coordinator 414-229-4431 or mycoach@uwm.edu, www.lifeimpact.uwm.edu. Requirements and an application form are also available online.
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