Making sure kids play chess

Chess in classrooms: strategic move works
March 5, 2009

I want to introduce you to two innovative Oswego educators who are doing creative, exciting lesson plans with their students.

What is so extraordinary about these two teachers and the lesson plans they hatched? Well, they took a single lesson plan, modified it for two diverse student populations and basically switched roles for two days.

Mr. Smith visited Ms. Lullo’s class, and Ms. Lullo took over Mr. Smith’s teaching duties for two days. What did they learn? Their preconceptions didn’t match the engaging students they had taught in a short time span. What else did they learn? By swapping classrooms, both teachers were given the opportunity to look at their organizational styles and to consider what new techniques they could employ.

Lisha Lullo is a 10-year veteran in the English Department. She works on the Alpha Team and teaches two sections of freshman honors students and two sections of regular education freshmen. She also is the faculty yearbook advisor. Lullo has taught computer classes on layout specifically designed for putting together the yearbook. There would be no yearbook without her, as she is heavily invested in our children and their futures.

Brad Smith is a special educator at East High. An eight-year veteran, he is also the coach for the East High Chess Club. He is an inspiring teacher who truly believes that each of his students is unique and diverse and destined for something great. He insures this by putting in outrageous hours at school and making sure his kids get to play chess, a game not normally associated with special education students. He is a myth-blaster in this regard.

Here is the full article.