Who are the Super Subs?

ROCKING SUPER SUBS TAKE OVER L.A. HIGH SCHOOL FOR ONE DAY.......

Movie directors, musicians, composers, computer programmers, storytellers, dancers, entertainers and journalists descended upon Animo Locke Tech Charter High School for a day of performing, storytelling and exciting technology projects on March 13. The upshot? An entire school community re-energized.

Teachers are heroes, serving students in tough conditions day in and day out. When you bring artists and musicians into their classrooms, releasing staff for a day of planning and collaboration, the results are startling. The visiting substitutes learn about the lives of students by engaging with them in curriculum-related arts and technology projects. The teachers gain a day of collaboration, as well as brief visits with some of the super subs. The students win big-time: a different workshop with each class rotation, multiple opportunities to perform and create, and a culminating concert at the end of the day. To document the day, three of the students themselves, led by a career journalist from Personal News Network, capture interviews, video, and still photographs of their friends in action.

Let's follow a student recently arrived from Mexico through her day last Thursday with the Super Subs. Denise began with a dance workshop led by two professional choreographers, then moved on to the computer lab, where she learned how to store her favorite CD tracks using a database called FileMaker. A professional storyteller held the class spellbound during third period, using gestures, mime and humor to bring his words to life. After lunch she participated in a class taught by two guitarists and the head of a recording studio, where she learned about the parallels between music and math and saw her classmates record an improvised birthday rap song. In a creative writing class she and her classmates constructed a poem using phrases they had created spontaneously after smelling different vials of scents. She capped off the day singing and dancing with Ron Knight and his Social Security band, backed up by Super Sub guitarists, and percussionists.


The idea of the Super Subs was conceived by Robert Barboza, as a solution to the perennial need to release teachers from the classroom so that they can collaborate on improving their craft. Barboza, a teacher, musician and educational software designer from Long Beach, California, works with Personal News Network (PNN), a website designed to capture peoples' life stories and launch them into cyberspace in a protected niche. His Kids Talk Radio, born of his work encouraging students to write and read for authentic purposes, is housed on the PNN website. Barboza drew upon a network of musicians, writers, storytellers, dancers, journalists and software engineers accumulated over the years of work in his various fields of interest and convinced them to share their talents with ninth grade students in a new charter high school in South Los Angeles. Principal Dinah Consuegra was only too happy to take him up on his offer: a day of release for her teachers, while her students engaged with professionals from a wide range of careers who used every opportunity to link their teaching to the academic standards addressed in the classroom. PNN CEO Lauren Elliott added his support by sending a software engineer, teacher consultant and journalist to help out in the classrooms. Among the Super Subs were a number of credentialed teachers and administrators, and the school's staff remained on site to assist in the event of an emergency. All free of charge.

After their resounding success last week, the Super Subs have been asked to repeat their performance in other schools. In the future, the Super Subs plan to incorporate different genres of writing into each of their workshops in order to assist schools in preparing their students for high-stakes testing1. Each participating student will carry along an eight-page "passport" in which to record URLs, dance steps, Venn diagrams for comparing and contrasting, narrative paragraphs, poetry, and story elements. Super Subs stamp their students' pages during class, and by the end of the day, students and their teacher have a written accounting of the day's learning.

Following are sketches of the visiting Super Subs:

Robert Wolin teaches guitar and mathematics. Among his former music students are the guitarists of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns and Roses. Robert is a graduate of UCLA with a degree in mathematics. He is currently playing in several bands, teaching guitar, math, and test preparation in the Los Angeles area.

Lauren Elliott is the founder and CEO of the Personal News Network. Considered one of the top educational software designers in the world, he is the creator of 26 award-winning software programs for the Broderbund Software Corporation. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado with a masters in Engineering and Architecture. He teaches students how to publish a website and post to a digital yearbook on PNN.

Bob Barboza is the founder and CEO of Kid's Talk Radio. Bob taught in the public schools for 30 years and is an educational consultant for the FileMaker Corporation. Bob is currently on tour presenting at local and national educational technology conferences. Bob created the Super Subs and has a Masters degree in special education.

James Valentine is a visual effects and animation expert who is created with working on more than 70 major motion picture credits. Yes, James Valentine does work in Hollywood, California. Mr. Valentine started his work in 1979. He credits include working on all three Spiderman features and he makes his own films. Mr. Valentine taught the Animo Watts students about the relationship of drawing to math. He wanted to expose students to the information that might help students to consider careers in the arts. Valentine works on a team that puts the animation magic behind the movies.

David Storrs is an electrical engineer, music producer, Los Angeles commercial realtor, and guitarist. David produced the rap artist Ice-T and has published numerous musical compositions for television and the radio.

Ronnie Ciago is the recording drummer with Bill Ward from the group Black Sabbath. He has been a featured drummer on the Sam Ash Musical Tour and is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Skip Spiro is a movie editor and trumpet player with his own group, Little Big Band. He graduated from UCLA as a film major and has worked for some of the major television studies in Hollywood.

Michael Morera is a jazz saxophonist and financial consultant who has designed a radio show to educate people about investing.

Michael McCarty is a professional storyteller who performs nationally and internationally.

Caren Singer, a Phi Betta Kappa, summa cum laud graduate from UCLA, is currently teaching language arts, writing, and test preparation in the Los Angeles area. She has worked as a production manager and assistant director for movie studios in Hollywood. She especially enjoyed working on the movie "Rock 'n' Roll High School."

SarahTuttle-Singer, a graduate of UC Berkeley, has been in the field of education for over ten years. She is currently a children's photographer in the Los Angeles area.

Boaz Hachlili, recently relocated from the San Francisco Bay area, works as a freelance photographer and bass player in the Los Angles area.

Isahi Hachlili, has recently arrived from Israel and is a computer specialist and a videographer. He did all of the professional video work on the Kid's Talk Radio Super Sub project.

Michael Vlatkovich is a professional composer and trombonist. He is featured in the March 2008 issue of Downbeat magazine. He speaks not only about the role of wind players in a band, but also about the art of improvisation.

Richard Rohner is a sales manager for the FileMaker Corporation. He worked for Apple Computer and is considered an expert in the field of computer technology. Richard demonstrates the importance of relational databases to students.

Donna Hyatt is the director of education for the PNN Personal News Network. She is a credentialed teacher and helps to coordinate the language arts programs for the Kids Talk Radio Super Subs.

Ron Knight is a professional Las Vegas entertainer and inspirational speaker. He teaches a class on the skills of composing, performing and being a DJ.

Del Leon is a professional dancer and choreographer trained at California State University, Long Beach. Del has worked with student dancers in the Paramount Unified School District after-school program.

Kimberley Sanders is a professional dancer and choreographer, specializing in hip-hop and street dance.

Richard Luther is the senior programmer for PNN.com, and is an expert on current web 2.0 technologies. Richard is responsible for the technology behind sharing all the day's multimedia content with the world via the World Wide Web.

Jaimie Martinez is the senior editorial journalist at PNN, and took charge of a student Locke Tech High School Kid's Talk Radio/PNN journalism team for the day.

For more information about the Super Subs, contact Bob Barboza, at 562/221-1780; e-mail: suprschool@aol.com


RESEARCH SUPPORTS THE SUPER SUBS

1Research validating the use of writing to prepare students for testing comes from Dr. Douglas B. Reeves, in More Writing in the Classroom: Essential Transformations for School Success, California Curriculum News Report, April 2001, pages 2-3.

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