James Nedock/FOR THE POST Ohio University professor Jim Scultz speaks to parents, teachers and community members at "Conversations about Middle School Reform" at Baker Center. He and Rosalie Romano, also an OU professor, led last night's meeting.

Parents, teachers, community members and Ohio University students discussed good middle school teaching practices last night in a meeting led by Rosalie Romano and Jim Schultz, both OU professors in the Teacher Education Program.

The meeting, entitled "Conversations about Middle School Reform" is just one of a series of meetings about teaching procedures. The program was co-sponsored by The Committee for Better Schools and The Institute for Democracy in Education.

Romano and Schultz outlined what they see as problems in the classroom and offered suggestions to correct them.

Schultz said much of what students learn in the classroom is not practically applied to "real world" situations. In addition, he said much of what students need to learn is not being taught in the classroom.

A way to get middle school students excited about education is to get them to communicate better, Schultz said. He also said projects, not worksheets, are the answer to helping students bridge the gap between classroom and life situations.

"The key is balance," Schultz said.

Romano echoed Schultz's theory and offered her own idea about helping middle school students learn: Better student-teacher relationships. One way to accomplish this is to keep students in small groups, she said. She mentioned numerous situations in which large school populations were divided into small teams so students could develop closer relationships with their teachers.

Susan Brady, a sixth grade teacher at Federal Hocking Middle School, said Romano's idea worked in her school. Instead of the large numbers of students seen a day by teachers in other schools, Brady said she sees about 65 students a day.

"It's difficult to leave them at the end of the year because you know them so well," she said.

Those in attendance raised some concern about how to develop programs such as these in their own schools.

Some teachers commented that just sending out surveys to parents usually did not work. They questioned whether parents even saw the surveys because students sometimes fail to give information to parents.

Sometimes all that is needed is a phone call, Schultz responded. In addition, it is important to have an organization of parents that bond together to become a voice, she said.

Joette Weber, a member of the Committee for Better Schools and a teacher in the Athens City School District said neither side trusts the other sometimes.

"The change is best when it comes from within," she said.