for retirement but

looking to refocus her

career in a different
direction,
having
El Reno
Tribune
recently completed her
bachelors degree.
Two candidates have
announced their intent

Grant

to run for sheriff, including current Undersheriff

Chris West and Joshua
Moore, a former
04/03/2016
Canadian County deputy
and sheriff candidate.
Sherry Murray,
who has worked for the

county the past 14 years, period will be held

to 5 p.m., with no
the last six in the
Wednesday, April 13
exceptions after 5 p.m.
county clerks office
through Friday, April 15, Friday, April 15.
as purchasing
agent,
said
Wanda
Armold,
Candidates
for state
Copy Reduced to 68% from original to fit
letter page
has announced she
county election board
offices must file with
will pursue the role of
secretary.
the state election board
county clerk.
Each day, filings will
located in Oklahoma
Candidate filing
be accepted from 8 a.m.
City. Rep. Dan Fisher has

said he will seek reelection, while Matt Von

Tungeln has said he will
attempt to unseat Fisher.
For more electionrelated information,
visit www.elections.
ok.gov.

She called it bringing

relevance to real-life
situations.
Some 90 students
in grades 9-12 are
currently enrolled in
areas considered innovative, and Owens said
that number could swell
to 200.
She said El Reno is
looking to add more
education tools to an
innovation umbrella
that already boasts
such resources as the
Learning Center,
Redlands Community
College, the Blue STEM
Agri Learning Center at
Fort Reno and Canadian
Valley Technology
Center.
McVay described
meeting two students
enrolled in an innovative program at Springdale, Ark. He and other
El Reno educators
toured a school there
that was awarded a
multimillion-dollar
grant designed to
develop more hands-on
learning methods for atrisk students.
McVay said the two
students were autistic,
and at the same
time brilliant. That
combination did not
make it easy for them to
adjust to the traditional
classroom setting.
I said to the one
young man, I bet you
are a wonderful student
and he said, No, Im
not. The teen told

their efforts to expand

the school of innovation will continue.
Weve identified
other doors we can
knock on and we will,
McVay said.

From Page 1A

inside the new Jeff

Mills STEM Center, explaining how education,
parental encouragement, motivation and an
openness to working
with people pushed him
to succeed in business
as well as life.
Patels words had
Superintendent Craig
McVay as well as math
department head Julie
Owens and Indian
Education coordinator
Rodger Roblyer excited
about the possibility of
EHS landing a $500,000
grant from AT&T.
If it materalizes, the
grant would help the
district continue its
march to creating a
school of innovation.
El Reno was recently
notified that it is one of
50 finalists nationwide
competing for the AT&T
Aspire Initiative.
The grant was applied
for through the
El Reno Public Schools
Foundation, and Dr.
Kristy Ehlers led the
team in creating the
local application, McVay
said.
El Reno will know
sometime in May if it is
a grant winner.
Owens said the grant
would help El Reno
continue to create and
expand a learning environment for students
that is project-based
and hands-on. Owens
said many students, for
whatever reason, are

not motivated to learn

in a traditonal classroom setting.
Education today is
embracing students
more as individuals
who are encouraged to
explore, develop and
celebrate their specific
gifts and talents, all
while learning skills
and gaining knowledge
that is intended to help
them succeed.
The El Reno Learning
Center is an example of
creating an environment
where students can
learn at their own pace
and are motivated to do
so, because as Roblyer
puts it, Were trying to
get away from the sage
on the stage traditional
way of education.
McVay said when
he was growing up,
education was about
what the teacher knew
and not what the
student knew. He said
innovative instructors
today are able to serve
as a resource for their
students, helping to
guide them rather
than force-feeding them
information they often
find useless.
Owens said that same
information can still be
conveyed, but allowing
students to tackle it
by using their own
creativity and talents
can help keep at-risk
students in school and
lead them to a more
promising future.

McVay he didnt like

doing the classwork
assigned, probably
because it was boring.
I asked what he
intended to become
when he was older and

Schooling

From Page 1A

comprehension from
fourth- and eighth-graders
for the first time since 1990.
If you want to know
how effective schools are,
ask a teenager, Bogert
says.
Why do smart kids who
enjoy reading and learning
find school boring? We
dont need to make people
learn, we need to free them
to learn.
Bogert, author of
Learning Chaos:
How Disorder Can Save
Education, (www.
learningchaos.net), and
president of AZA Learning, which encourages an
open-learning process for
all participants, says our
educational system is outdated.
He proposes new
methods parents can use to
resurrect a love of learning from their kids.
X Ban rote learning.
When preparing to teach
within a traditional framework, we arent stimulating a childs curiosity.
Rather, were serving the
framework of control.
This sort of top-down,
listen-without-interrupting
teaching is limiting and

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he said a pediatrician,
I have no doubt that he
will, McVay said.
While El Reno school
leaders are hopeful of
landing the AT&T
Aspire grant, they said

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alienates many types of

learning personalities.
Instead, foster engagement, which means an
open environment where
kids feel free to participate.
X Encourage children to
sound off. Ever see an interesting news discussion
on television? If no one
is saying what you want
to say, you can become
frustrated to the point
of turning off the
conversation. Students
who are shy or otherwise
discouraged from engaging
can shut down in a similar
way. But when theyre
included and encouraged
to participate in a lesson,
their minds stay focused.
They feel they have a stake
in the lesson.
XTake a cue from the
Internet. Were not starved
for information; were
starved for stories, which
have lessons embedded
within them. Simply
sharing a story invites
learning.
Thats why you should
allow a childs narrative
of inquiry to be more
democratic than
controlled. Allow him or
her to pursue a line of

thought wherever it may

go, rather than controlled,
assigned resources.
Ideally, your child will
be a participant within a
hotbed of ideas, rather
than a passive listener in
an intellectually sterile
environment, Bogert says.
That may not always be
possible at school, but this
kind of encouragement at
home will help them later
in life.
Mac Bogert founded
AZA Learning to
encourage teachers and
students to become equal
partners in the learning
process, which he details in
his book Learning Chaos:
How Disorder Can Save
Education. He served as
education coordinator at
Maryland Hall for the
Creative Arts and is still
active in the arts for his
community.

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Spring & Summer 2012

El Reno

Living


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Summer
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with fun, festivals

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Festivities
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