Congratulations to Dianna Biancheria

Another alumnus of Adams Street School has made the news in a positive way and made all of her former teachers proud of her I am sure. She is Dianna Biancheria and she was one of my students when I taught at that school. I taught everything there from Grade 6 through Grade 8 and was also the Assistant Principal. Dianna was just elected to the Worcester,Massachusetts School Committee in her first attempt at public office. I am absolutely thrilled for her! Another distinguished graduate of Adams Street School, Vincent Pedone (who was also in one of my classes) currently serves as a STATE REPRESENTATIVE in the state legislature. (I put that in capital letters because the last time I wrote about Vinny I called him a senator.
Adams Street School has had many graduates to be proud of I am sure. I am going to brag here a little about some in my era. In 1983 and 1984 I took two groups of students from the school through the rigors of the Massachusetts History Day contest and won it both years and through the generosity of the neighborhood groups was able to take them on to the National History Day Contest which was held at the University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland. I attribute the success of those two teaching years to a philosophy of teaching and a teaching experiment that I tried. A woman came to Adams Street School one day. Her name was Carol Baldassarri and she was both a lady carpenter and classroom management expert. She was connected with Leslie College and sold me (after long discussions!!) on the idea of a new teaching philosophy. The idea was to do away with the "egg crate" classroom where the children were lined up in rows looking at the child in front of him. We changed everything and included the children in the makeover. We built a loft in the middle of the room. We built "Learning Centers" around the room. We had a math center, a social studies center, a science center, a reading center, an art center. The Loft was the central place and had a ladder to get to the place to do quiet reading. Every day we had a "20 minute reading time" at which time everybody including the teacher read a book.....However, the most important part of the whole concept was it operated on the idea of TRUST WITH RESPONSIBILITY! In other words, those kids got it thorugh their head that I as their teacher was not going to stand over them like a drill sergeant. I was going to TRUST that they would do the right thing, but they had to be RESPONSIBLE. If they had to go to the bathroom, they did not raise their hand and interrupt me while I might be working with another group, they just signed their name on the board and walked out....TRUST.. After awhile it works, but it takes time. After awhile kids respect that trust and will take responsibility.
I think it is this work I did that got me that SIRS/NERC Award at the Boston Sheraton Hotel in 1984. I am really bragging now, but what the hell, the next person to get it from Worcester was Superintendent Caradonio in 1999 and that was it. Nobody else from around here as far as I know.....Well, back to Adams Street School and enough of that....So we Have Vinny, Dianna, ...as famous now...and oh we can't forget Marisa Fusaro up in Canada...read about her in some previous blogs...I hope she gets her play she wrote in my class on television.....Now lets see...who else????....There must be some more famous people.....I can't think right now, but there must be more and I apologize to them for forgetting, but when I remember, I will write about them........Oh, one more thing: Back when I taught at Adams Street School, I wrote a History of the school. Someone told me that that history is now in the Worcester Historical Society Library. I know I don't have a copy of it here at home. I have one copy of "Togetherness", the book we published with Vinny Pedone and Marisa Fusaro's class, but the history of Adams Street School????....I will have to go find it myself..........I didn't intend for this to be so long!...I hope Dianna sees this........