Warroad Middle School hosts educators conference

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

June 27, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

Middle School Principal Charles Woolcock beams when he talks about his school. He beams even more when he talks about the conference that the school hosts every year.

Last week, Warroad Middle School hosted the 2nd Annual Warroad Middle Level Educators Conference last Wednesday through Friday.

Woolcock said there were about 30 participants from around the state that attended.

The conference generally encompasses teachers from grades 5-8, Woolcock said. "We discuss most of the hallmarks of middle school education," which he said includes everything that makes a middle school different than a high school.

There were two keynote speakers that were invited, Martin Tadlock, who is a professor of elementary education at Utah State University, and David Braun y Harycki, who is seeking his doctoral degree in middle level education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Woolcock said that the conference went from 8 a.m. to noon for three days. The conference operates in half days so that the guests "can take advantage of Warroad's recreational opportunities."

Woolcock said that is also one of the key goals in hosting this conference: to promote Warroad's recreational opportunities. He also said that he likes to host the conference because it promotes middle school education and it promotes the Warroad Middle School.

"I'd probably walk here if I had to because I believe in what they are doing here," Tadlock said about the Warroad conference.

He said that the Warroad Middle School was "doing good things," and that "there probably will be a higher success rate among kids here than other schools."

Tadlock said that one reason Warroad's Middle School is better than other Minnesota schools is that it is treated like a different school than the high school. It isn't run like a mini-high school.

"I've been in schools that are teaching the exact same way they did as when I was in school," Tadlock said. "What worked 30 years ago just does not meet kids' needs today."

He said that schools are just now beginning to do what big business knew a while ago, and that is the concept of teams. He said that corporations have already learned that they work better when they work in teams and when the individual workers is given a lot of authority over the product they make.

"Schools don't have to make a profit, so it has taken them a while to adopt these concepts," Tadlock said.

"I don't think Marvin Windows would be in business if they didn't adapt," Tadlock said, "schools should learn to follow business' lead."

"The people of Warroad should be very happy with their middle school," Tadlock said. "It's a nice facility, but it isn't the facility that counts. It's the people who use it."