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The magic of the 4K Community Approach is it is a win-win-win-win program,
at least potentially, for everyone. For kids, for parents, for families,
for teachers, for school districts, for communities, for the state,
and ultimately, the entire world.
My wife, Caroline, and I, for the past six months, have been
interviewing people like yourselves who have been working in
4K Community Approach programs throughout Wisconsin.
You have a smashingly wonderful and important program
that you are developing here in Wisconsin.
You should be patting yourselves on the back, and you should be giving --
being given millions and trillions of dollars by our government [laughter]
to support your work!
[ Applause ]
There are three things I’d like to accomplish with you this morning.
One is, I want to get your brains percolating about all the ways
you could use the things that Jill and her compatriots are working on with the
website and articulate -- and Benson’s videos --
all that material is now going to be at your fingertips for you to use.
So I want to get you thinking about, how can you take advantage of
very specific ways that we have articulated your programs
are benefiting everybody.
That’s the first part.
Second part is, I want to share with you three creative
problem-solving techniques that can be applied to any problem.
Because regardless of what area of education that you’re working in,
you can never have too many problem-solving techniques.
And the way I’m going to approach that is I’m going to share
the three techniques with you, and then I’m going to
break you up into groups of three people.
In your group of three people, you’re each going to be
applying those techniques to a problem that each person
in your group has identified as one they would like to solve.
So while I’m going through the first part of the presentation,
I want you to think about this.
If there was one problem in your life you would like to walk out of this room
having a better idea how to solve it, what would that problem be?
It doesn't have to be related to your education or
4K Community Approach program -- anything.
I want to have you do that for three reasons.
One, it’s getting -- you’re going to be able to practice the techniques
that I share with you on a real, live problem that you've identified
as important to you.
Second thing, having done this workshop for more than 20 years,
I know that most of you, in fact, are going to come out of here
with more than one good idea for actually how to solve that problem
that you’re concerned about.
And the third thing will be a good reminder about the
advantages of doing problem-solving collaboratively.
Because when you leave here today, if you've got a problem,
and you can't figure it out yourself, talk to someone.
Find someone to do it with.
It invariably will help you solve the problem.
In the third part of the session, then, we’re going to take those creative
problem-solving techniques that you've already practiced,
and we’re going to now apply it to, in a sense, using the benefits.
And you've got a thumbnail sketch of those 54 benefits in your handout.
We’re going to have you actually take those techniques and apply them
to communicating to somebody the impact that 4K Community Approach has.
In other words, if you wanted to convince somebody that this is a
smashingly good program, even one piece of it, or the whole thing,
who would you try and convince, and how would you go about doing it?
It could be a parent. It could be a teacher.
It could be an administrator. It could be a school board.
It could be the state legislature. It could be the governor.
It could be one particular legislator.
You choose who it is, and then you'll apply those techniques
to try and convince them.
And I’ll explain more about that a little bit later.
So the 54 benefits that you have in the handout --
in fact, it’s a little bit erroneous. Yes, Jill?
- The handout’s in your folder.
- The handout is in your -- don't go get it now. Just know that it’s there.
There's a list of 54 benefits that Caroline and I identified
by talking to people in the state working on the program.
But this is a thumbnail sketch.
On the website, what you’re going to find are these 54 benefits,
but you’re going to find a full page, in many cases, of stories from
people in the field talking about how this is beneficial in their communities.
And within those 54 stories, there are going to embedded, in fact,
many more benefits.
So I’d say, minimally, we identified 100 benefits.
And Caroline and I came from outside of this world.
We knew nothing about the 4K Community Approach
before we started doing the research.
This evolved from the stories that people told us.
This is a grassroots synthesis of the benefits of the program.
So what does that mean for you, at least in my opinion,
to get your brain starting to percolate about it?
Well, if you are somebody who is exploring the possibility of having a
4K Community Approach program in your community -- in other words,
you haven't started, you haven't even decided if you want it --
this is going to give you probably 100 reasons why you should
seriously consider adopting it from people who are actually doing it and
saying, this is what’s great about it in our community.
If you've already bought in, and you've already started a program,
it’s got many, many advantages and uses for you as well.
One is if you simply want to appreciate the value and importance of
what you’re doing, and perhaps have been doing for many years,
check out those benefits.
You'll get reinforced for things you’re already doing.
You'll probably get new ideas, in fact, for the impact that you’re having
in ways that you haven't even been able to anticipate.
Also, this is going to enable you to articulate why it is it’s important
about what you are doing.
And as somebody -- I began teaching in 1975.
I always worked with kids with learning and behavior problems,
and I always tried to use the most innovative practices
I could to try and reach those kids.
I was over the edge in terms of my educational practices.
And I was able to do that because I always made sure I could articulate
why I was doing and what --
why I was doing what I was doing and why it was important.
I had to defend myself.
And the way I could do it is to be able to say this is why I’m doing --
what I’m doing has educational value. I had a rationale for what I was doing.
If you want to have a rationale for the value of your program,
you have at least 54 rationales in that -- I’ll call it a website -- as well.
If you're already doing a program, and you want to get new ideas
for different ways that you could improve or enhance your program,
check out those 54 benefits.
Because you’re going to get stories, which I think of as best practices,
from people in the field.
I was thinking today, 30 years ago, I was on the faculty at
UW-Stevens Point, and I was in the education department.
I was training teachers.
And I was thinking, if I was talking both to my undergraduates or the
graduate students that I was teaching back then about the
4K Community Approach program, what would I -- what would I share
with them that I think is important to them?
And one of the things I thought is, I’d have them look at these benefits
and just, in a sense, have their minds blown by the diversity and
innovation people in the 4K Community Approach program
have taken in their communities.
And I would have them think about, if you’re going to construct a
program in your community, which elements might you pull
from here, from there, from there.
And the diversity and the innovation and the effectiveness is
mind-boggling to me, as somebody who came from outside but has been
in the world of education for 38 years.
For example, in Chippewa Falls, they have a bus program.
Now, we rarely think about school buses as part of educational programs.
But when I heard this story, it reminded me of two educational
stories I’ll share with you, which is, there’s a gym teacher
in Marshall, Wisconsin. If the kids were coming to the door,
and the door was right over there, and they were waiting for him,
as soon as the first kid was at the door and they were all ready,
he would go like this.
And then he’d go --
And all the kids had to get that posture.
And they all had to move the same way that he did.
From the moment he saw those kids, they were ready,
and he had them ready for learning. Similarly, at Red Apple
Elementary School in Racine, I was observing a music teacher.
Kids are talking before the class began.
All the sudden, the music teacher goes like this -- repeat after me.
[ Clapping in patterns with audience responding with same patterns ]
As soon as she wanted to start the class, she got their attention,
and she was ready to rock and roll.
Well, the bus program in Chippewa Falls, to me, is analogous.
They have discrete buses for four-year-olds to make it more
hospitable and friendly for them.
They have bus drivers who are trained in child development.
They're even -- they're even trained in -- I’m going to get this one --
the pyramid model for developing social and emotional intelligence.
[ Applause ] Woo!
[ Applause ]
The moment those kids hit the bus, their educational and care experience
is started because the bus drivers are ready.
What a phenomenal -- what an insightful way to start getting ready
to have those kids on their way to their 4K programs.
Similarly -- I’m not going to say it again -- but also in Chippewa Falls,
that social/emotional development program, they have now trickled it
down to the preschool. Even before you’re four years old,
you start getting trained in social and emotional programming.
And then you have continuity because they continue it
all the way through high school in that school district.
In Manitowoc, the YMCA is an integral part of their
4K Community Approach program.
There is a discrete program in the YMCA, but the benefits have
trickled out throughout the community.
One example would be, if you have a 4K student anywhere in Manitowoc,
it’s likely you can get a free pass to avail yourself of the services of the Y.
In Kenosha, the Head Start program, the special ed program, and the
4K program have all been integrated in multiple sites throughout the city.
If you have a child who qualifies for one of those services, there’s a
good chance you could go to your neighborhood school and
avail yourself of those services.
If you’re in Stevens Point, there’s a family night at the Lowe
home improvement store where you can go with your family,
and you can build stuff out of clay or other materials if you’re
part of the 4K community.
Also, having been on the faculty at 4K -- at Steven Point, I thought it was
very inspired that they have a 4K program as part of the university
at UW-Stevens Point.
If I was in any community in Wisconsin that had either a UW school or a
community college, I would try and figure out a way to do just what they
did in Stevens Point, which would be to link it -- link it together.
Those are just a couple of examples.
It’s what I would think of as being the tip of the iceberg for the great variety
of ways people have incorporated the 4K Community Approach
in their communities.
And, if you've already been doing it, and you simply want to get a
spark for new ideas, check out all the stories from those benefits.
Because invariably, if you’re somebody who’s seeking good ideas, new ideas,
you will find them there.
When I began teaching in 1975, if I wanted to show a film
to my students, I couldn't pop the DVD or the video into the machine.
That technology didn't exist back then.
I had to take my film.
I had to manually thread it through the projector, turn on the projector,
and watch the projector chew up my film [laughter].
Aaaaa!
What am I going to do? I’m a brand-new teacher.
It did me a tremendous service in my life.
I had to assume the film projector was going to chew up my film [laughter].
I had to have plan B.
And ever since then, whether I’ve been teaching or performing or
doing presentations, I'm always over-prepared.
I could be with you for six hours today. I have enough material [laughter].
Might be good, might be bad [laughter].
It does several important things for me, one of which I want to get to with you.
One is, it makes me a tremendously energetic presenter
because I’m trying to squeeze in too much information into
not enough -- not enough time.
But more importantly for your purposes, and for our purposes today,
what it’s meant is that, since 1975, I have been a collector of ideas.
Even if I don't have a specific purpose for it, particularly since I've
taught everything from preschool through college graduate,
anything particularly that I think I might use educationally that’s a
good idea, I’ll save it. And I’ll store it in the back of my mind or in my home.
Because I never know when I’ll find the right opportunity to use that idea.
These 54 benefits are a vast, rich repository of ideas for you.
In the short term, if there is anybody in your life that you need
to convince about the impact and value of the program, you can find it,
10-fold, 54-fold, 100-fold, in those benefits.
And even if everything is hunky-dory rosy in your world right now,
and you don't need to convince anybody about the impact of 4K
because everybody’s on board with you, things change.
In the long term, the kids are going to change,
the parents are going to change, and the families will change.
The teachers will change.
The administrators in your program will change.
The school district and their administrators will change.
The school board will change. The state legislature will change.
And the governor will change.
So even if things are rolling along smoothly right now, and I hope for
everybody they are, you don't know if they are going to be in the future.
This is going to give you -- I hate to use the word these days,
so excuse me -- this will give you ammunition.
This will give you grist for the mill that you could use to convince
anybody of the value of the work that you’re doing.
If you want to talk to a parent, you'll find embedded in there
things that it offers for parents who have children who have difficulties with
transitions, which of course, is probably every preschooler in the world.
If parents have kids who have special needs, if they're
English-language learners, if they need therapy,
or if parents simply want to have a maximum amount of choices for
where to place their child educationally, or for child care, or geographically
because it fits their family needs, you'll find benefits amongst those 54 benefits.
If you have a preschooler at a childcare program and you want to
have increased professional development opportunities,
you want to have increased access to the resources of the public schools,
if you want to have improved cooperation and collaboration
with other childcare centers and facilities and workers in your community,
if you want to have phenomenal -- if there was nothing else in
this program -- from somebody who came from outside -- if there's
nothing else but the financial benefits gained by childcare centers from
this program, it would be worth it just for that alone.
There are just extraordinary -- in one community, Head Start was
basically going to go under, and the 4K Community Approach
basically saved it from the ashes.
And if you want to have better visibility for your childcare program,
this program offers things for you.
If you are a school district and you want to have better,
smoother transitions for preschool children into kindergarten,
if you want to have more information about those four-year-olds from
childcare providers and teachers who might have known these kids from the
moment that they were born, you'll find that described amongst those benefits.
If you want to improve the image of your school district in the community
because you are cooperating with other members of the educational
community, then this program’s got something that benefits you.
If you want to show that you’re fiscally responsible and using
public dollars the most effective way possible,
you'll find benefits that address that.
And if you want to have your special services staff have
earlier access and better communication with young children and their families,
this program offers something for you.
Ultimately, this program is beneficial to the entire public.
Everything I’ve mentioned, of course, benefits all of us.
And in addition to that, we’ve got a stronger early childhood community.
We’ve got better connections with the business community.
And we’ve got better cooperation and coordination with
social service agencies that are working with young children.
That, in about 10 minutes, is a summary of about 50 to 100 pages
of descriptions of those benefits we came up with because of the
good work that you’re doing.
So give yourselves a round of applause like this.
[ Applause ]
Give yourselves a square of applause.
[ Applause ]
Give yourselves a chicken of applause [laughter].
Stop, it’s a "fowl" idea.