Press Release

Needtobreathe, headed by brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart, have taken their southern-gentleman lyrics and boot-stomping banjo and guitar licks to a whole new level with their latest tour “Young and Far From Home.” Playing First Avenue’s Mainroom this last weekend, the brothers Rinehart, along with bandmates Joe Stillwell (drums) and Seth Bolt (bass) have toured once already since the release of their last album, The Outsiders, and this time around, the South Carolina natives repackaged themselves with an edgier attitude and playlist. The Outsiders combines layers of wistful piano, thoughtful percussion, tickling mandolin and banjo with the southern harmonica melodies and blues-like guitar playing of Needtobreathe’s previous albums. The weaving of various layers only serves to prove the growing song-writing and producing capabilities of this still little-known hometown band. 

Heading back to the studio this winter, Needtobreathe’s show seemed a last attempt for the band to play their hearts out on songs they’ve spent the last two years writing, recording and touring with. Their set list contained a few non-yet-recorded songs, but mostly consisted of crowd favorites that were less like the faded cowboy boots the group is known for and more like black biker boots.

Story #7

One teacher’s yellow brick road into teaching and inspiring students

Once upon a time is undoubtedly the most well-known beginning to a story. Thank you Grimm Brothers. And for English teachers out there, it is that fairy tale beginning, along with phrases like “quoth the raven,” “it was the best of times,” and “one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish” that were the hooks drawing us into the literary world, novels, words, analysis, books clubs, and imbued the passion of teaching into our bloodstream. For Patty Wheeler-Andrews, however, her yellow brick road into teaching was filled with many more twists and milestones. 

As the oldest daughter in a family of six, she remembers deciding at 9 years old and in to 4^th grade that she wanted to be a teacher. Tutoring all through high school, Wheeler-Andrews began college with the plan of being a math teacher, but “after a couple years of calculus classes, I thought ‘nope,’” she recalls. “Perhaps I could be a biology teacher?” was her next question, but after the competitiveness of one course with biomed majors, she finally landed in an English major. While taking education courses and completing student teaching, a “once upon a time” moment happened to Wheeler-Andrews, one of those defining beginnings or markers in a journey. She remembers her cooperating teacher being a stern man, who, while students were reading Great Expectations, told the class they were “too stupid to understand Dickens” and to at least just listen while he read them the book. Another villainous example that Wheeler-Andrews encountered during this time was a teacher who, with verbal reprimands so loud, had students crying and forced them to face a mirror to watch themselves as they cried. “‘I’m going to save these students’ I remember thinking at the time and knew I wanted to teach junior high. And I did teach 7^th and 9^th grade initially, but compassion is not a good enough reason to become a teacher,” advises Wheeler-Andrews. After teaching for a time, she returned to the University of Minnesota for a Master’s in Reading, which was a sign of the times, Wheeler-Andrews declares: “social justice was the ethos of the times, and reading and literacy fed righ tinto that.” after job cuts while working in the St. Paul school district, Wheeler-Andrews began working part-time at Anoka Ramsey Community College (ARCC), coordinating the tutoring center and teaching GED courses. 

Currently, she teaches 16 credits of level-one reading, which works on developmental reading and writing skills. In our conversation, I remarked at my surprise at the number of level-one classes: was the need actually that high? Apparently it is. 50% of incoming ARCC students are below college-level reading, 40% are below college-level writing, and 80% below in math. “A lot of my students have never read a book in their lives. I mean, look at all the distractions there are to keep students from reading: t.v. time per day, cell phones, video games,” Wheeler-Andrews notes. However, when I asked her about the greatest challenge in her current position, it had nothing to do with alarming statistics or concerning trends. “Right now the greatest challenge isin one class...[having] students from Mexico, Nepal, China, Cambodia, Hmong, Liberia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Somalia, and some other countries, plus [students] from Hann Lake, Brooklyn Center. There is an enormous range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. There are highly motivated people but whose language skills are developing, and there are some with really low motivation.” With complete seriousness, Wheeler-Andrews describes her classes as rewarding, because students are so eager even as they are working towards a goal that is a long way off. “They’re coming to this safe environment, without bullets and body parts in the streets; there is an amazing range of backgrounds,” and teaching students with these complicated and lives that are “exponentially harder” than students of 20 years ago is the greatest reward, according to Wheeler-Andrews. 

As I asked Wheeler-Andrews for some teaching advice, being a new teacher myself, I could feel that our conversation was going to be one of those milestones, twists in the brick road that will mark my teaching story. “In my teaching, one of the realizations i’ve had is that I cannot deliver motivation for [students]. I cannot transform.” However, as a teacher, she goes on, we have a great ability to empower without enabling students, to let them show what they can do, to build their internal motivation system. I left our meeting fully motivated and inspired myself. Paired with “once upon a time” is the quintessential ending to a story - “and they lived happily ever after.” And though Wheeler-Andrews is happily continuing to teach and do significant work with faculty development both at ARCC and the MNSCU system, she would be the first to say that her story is far from “ever after.” 

Story #5

Prairie View Elementary hosts World Cafe

Originally, I intended to attend as a mere observer, a gatherer of information, an outsider, at Prairie View Elementary’s World Cafe event, which was held last Thursday evening. Arriving first, it was assumed I was a student parent, and I was quickly drawn in to the evening’s discussion. Our attention was called to the first speaker, Cafe Committee member, Julie Weeden, who explained that the inspiration for the evening was the book The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter. Prairie View decided to attempt this community-building activity after visiting other area schools, such as Forest Lake Elementary, who first attempted this discussion format last school year but with mixed results. The World Cafe is a discussion format where community members, such as school parents, staff, and students are invited to meet together and discuss topics of interest. The intent is simply for community members to get to know each other, and through the fostering of community, it is assumed that the school environment will strengthen and the students’ educational success will thrive. 

This was Prairie View’s first attempt at the World Cafe, and with about 25 various parents, school staff, and outsiders like myself in attendance, the evening was filled with discussion around the evening’s topic: What was a meaningful learning experience in your life? Ishmael Robinson, Eden Prairie School’s Director of Assessment and Testing, kickstarted the evening by sharing his own journey of learning with the story of his high school social studies teacher who “treated [him] and held [him] to the level of an adult.” “I wanted to go back and thank her,” Robinson declares, “unfortunately, she died of cancer before I could, so I tell this story as a thank you to her.”

 Surrounded by hundreds of children’s library books, the primers of student learning, we divided ourselves around five tables, five or six to a table, introduced ourselves, and proceeded to each share a story or event that was critical to our learning, whether it be a school teacher that influenced us for the better, family tragedy or adventure that changed the course of of our learning or life, or a simple lesson learned. After a few minutes discussion, table members rotated in both directions to a new table, to new faces, to new stories. Even though we continued to have the same topic of discussion, the content, variety, and level of personalness that was shared astounded me. In attendance were several mothers of Eden Prairie’s growing Somali population. The life stories of these women, of travel, of familes still left across an ocean, and differences between the American and Somali education systems astounded me. 

Each time I rotated to a new table, I found myself able to share a different experience regarding learning, and as I listened to the stories of others I noticed a singular commonality. No one shared stories of a impactful lesson or subject from school, a favorite book read, speech that eas heard. Each meaningful learning experience had to do with people, places, life. Therein lies the point of the World Cafe: the stories vary but are also extremely similar, and recognizing those commonalities draws humanity together. Prarie View is holding two additional World Cafe sessions throughout the school year. 

Biographic Obituary

Erin Elizabeth Weides, a life-long student and almost a teacher, died Friday at the age of 26. Weides, a graduate of Northwestern College and a current student at Bethel University and Anoka-Ramsey Community College, was three months away from completing her Master’s in Teaching and reaching her life-long goal of becoming a high school English teacher. Weides, having just completed her student teaching experience at Central High School in St. Paul, MN, was described by her cooperating teacher, Megan King, as “one of the strongest student teachers I have encountered in my 14 years of teraching.” 

A former preschool teacher, Weides is survived by her parents, Robert and Elizabeth and her two brothers, Timothy and Daniel Weides. A worship service and funeral will be held at Crosstown Covenant Church next Saturday at 10am. Memorials should be made to the Minnesota Literacy Council. 

Faculty Interview #1

As Dean of Educational Services at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC), Luanne Kane has her hands in many pots. Some of her current responsibilities include overseeing the business department, the biomedical division, computer networking, and the professional training center. Such diversity in responsibilities may seem unrelated, but when asked about the varied nature of her work, Kane insists that “being a dean is less about the knowledge of the area, and more about leadership, program review, and helping departments with their budgets” and not necessarily about the direct knowledge of that specific department. Dividing her time between both the Coon Rapids and Cambridge campuses, Kane’s job is never dull.

Kane’s own education began with a Bachelor’s in communications and was then followed by a  Master’s in college administration. Her history of employment at ARCC has been a winding road through several departments and certainly adds to her knowledge of college administration. “I actually started out for ARCC in grant writing and was soon asked to be the executive director of the college foundation. After that I was involved with Phi Beta Kapp, which is the national honor’s society.” Her twisty way then included becoming Athletic Director and Dean of the Wellness Division as well as being responsible for both campuses’ libraries. 

As if these areas combined weren’t enough, Kane is also one of the contacts for ARCC’s study abroad program. This was where I first encountered her name, while I was researching the locations included in the study aborad program. Two of the more related areas of Kane’s job are Dean of Foreign Languages and International Education, of which the study aborad program fall into nicely. Among ARCC’s three abroad locations include a spring semester session in Costa Rica and a fall semester tour at Oxford, England, although there has been little to no interest these last few years. The third location, and the one Kane is most connected with is the Zhaoqing, China location. Although no ARCC students have studied here recently, the relationship between ARCC and their Chinese university  counterpart is maintained through visiting Chinese students studying at ARCC and a rotating faculty postion, a visiting scholar. Currently the position is held by Profession Xia, who teaches Chinese at ARCC. 

Although Kane has “not visited [Zhaoqing], it’s been talked about many times before, but with the economies and current budgets, it doesn’t seem like a possibility any time soon.” Despite personally never visiting China, Kane has observed that the Chinese educational system is much more structured. Being involved in international studies and so varied anumber of departments has not blinded Kane to both the challenges and rewards to working within the American educational system. “I think the greatest reward is the success of our students, seeing the differences we make. I hear stories daily of student successes.” When asked about the the greatest challenges of her postions, Kane answered with budgets and asking faculty to take on more responsibilities with less money, resources, and more students in the classroom. On the upside, however, “we have and extremely commited faculty,” and that makes all the difference no matter the department.