D.C. teacher incorporates learning with movement
By Robin Gould, Leon Harris | Wednesday, January 20, 2016
WASHINGTON (ABC7) -- At the William E. Dior Junior Public Charter School for the Performing Arts, students in Demetrius Lancaster's fourth grade Language Arts class are practicing spelling. But to an observer outside the classroom, it might be hard to tell as students can be seen jumping up and down.
In every lesson, Lancaster incorporates movement, from jumping jacks while spelling the word "peers," to jabs as they shout the letters for the word "habit."
Lancaster discovered the power of movement when he first taught younger students.
"If students are engaged the entire time, they're completely focused on the task at hand," and that increases retention, Lancaster says.
Students say it also makes them excited to learn.
"It like gets my arms moving and stuff so I can write," explains Jesiah Cook.
Fellow student Treasure Jenkins says, "He makes reading fun."
Jamar Israel-Sinclair adds, "I usually don't laugh in school but he makes us laugh, and when I laugh I'm happy at school and I feel better about doing my work."
Lancaster also sets high goals for his students with going to college at the top of that list.
"I believe that when we set high expectations for our students and give them rigorous opportunities to learn, they rise to the occasion every single time," he states.
Principal Demetria Gartrell sees the positive impact that Lancaster's teaching practices are having and calls it a model for other teachers to follow.
"Because he's so intentional, we know that we're getting closer to our goal."
The chief operating officer of the national NAACP told a crowd gathered at Capital Ale House on Saturday that people must remain vigilant in the fight for equality.
“We have an African-American president, but we have situations that are very reminiscent of post-Civil War reconstruction,” said Withers, 62, of Washington, D.C. “We had disenfranchisement. We had lynchings. We had discrimination. We had exclusion — the same things are happening now as was the case when the NAACP was founded in 1909.”
Withers, who’s also the sister of James Madison University football coach Everett Withers, spoke to about 70 people at Saturday’s forum, hosted by the NAACP Harrisonburg branch and JMU’s Beta Delta Delta chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
City Mayor Chris Jones, president of the local NAACP branch, said the purpose of the event was to connect representatives from the national organization with community members and leaders.
“This was about the community, Omega Psi Phi and the NAACP partnering together,” he said.
Withers encouraged those attending to vote in the upcoming presidential election and to get involved in organizations, such as the local NAACP chapter.
“We’re at a time when people of color and progressive folks are doing really great things,” she said, “but we’ve had to have people remind us that black lives matter.”
Recent controversial incidents involving the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers have sparked a nationwide debate on police use of force and race relations.
Activist movements, such as Black Lives Matter, have blossomed from the debate and campaigned against police brutality against blacks.
Activism goes beyond social media, said Gabriel Driver, citing the movement’s #blacklivesmatter tag on Twitter.
“It doesn’t stop with a hashtag, and it started before a hashtag,” Driver, 24, a JMU junior and member of Omega Psi Phi, said after the forum. “Action needs to continue to happen.”
Contact Ryan Cornell at 574-6286 or rcornell@dnronline.com
