Dee Smith

Reform opened a new world for Piccolo teacher Dee Smith.

Dee Smithteacher leader at PiccoloCATALYST , February 2000 :   Reform opened a new world for teacher Dee Smith - page 1

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Fifth-grade teacher Dee Smith was inspired to switch from basal readers to novels to teach her students reading.

Dee Smith lifts her slight frame onto a high , blue-padded stool and addresses her 5th-graders at Piccolo Specialty School in West Humboldt Park.Holding a dog-eared copy of C. S. Lewis's The Lion , The Witch and The Wardrobe , Smith asks her students to compare two characters in the book-Aslan , the lion-protagonist , and the witch.

Both characters engage in magic , several youngsters offer , and both want to lead the mythical kingdom of Narnia.But what are they to each other?.inquires Smith , peering over the rims of her purple half-glasses.Enemies!.shouts the class in unison.

So they don't want the same goals?.wonders Smith on this December morning.A girl pipes up : Aslan wants to have goodness , and the witch wants evil , and the two qualities don't go together..Smith compliments the girl on her word choice ( Qualities-I like that ) and then asks the class to describe the points of view of two other characters.

At Piccolo , Smith is known for her reliance on novels to teach reading.While her youngsters consume The Lion , The Witch and the Wardrobe at , she is reading another novel out loud in class.Every book-plus units in social studies and writing-come with handouts she has compiled that detail the classwork and homework day by day.

Smith didn't operate this way when she began at Piccolo in the mid-1980s.Teachers followed Board of Education manuals , she recalls , and didn't work much with each other , either.People closed the doors to their classrooms and did their own thing.You taught your grade.Teachers didn't work together..

But after school reform dawned in 1989 , Piccolo experimented with several routes to better teaching , and Smith was led to follow one of them-the small-schools approach.With the backing of a new principal , she and several colleagues created Connections , a school-within-a-school where Smith is now the lead teacher.

Though sometimes rocky , Smith's journey as a teacher has re-energized her.I found a whole new way of teaching , not by the book but through more creative means , says the 62-year-old teacher.Learning became more fun , not so tedious.My kids are more successful now..

So , seemingly , is Smith , who teaches reading , writing and social studies to 4th- and 5th-graders and has a 5th-grade home room.
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One of four daughters born to a salesman and a housewife , Smith grew up in Albany Park and Rogers Park.My father had had some college , and he felt it was very important that his daughters get a college education.There weren't a lot of fields open to women-it's not like it is today-so I studied to be a teacher..

A 1959 graduate of Chicago Teachers College-the Northwest Side branch she attended developed into Northeastern Illinois University's education department-Smith substitute-taught while her five sons were small , hiring on full time at Piccolo in 1984 , when her youngest entered junior high.

When the Chicago School Reform Act law was passed , Smith paid little attention at first.I didn't really know what it was , she says.It was put in the newspaper , and so I read about it , and that was it..But she soon noticed that Sienkiewicz , chosen in 1990 by a newly elected local school council , was proceeding differently than her predecessors had.Everything before had been done by the principal , Smith says.
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After school and during summers , Smith helped hammer together a school improvement plan , which Chicago principals must prepare for approval by their local school councils.