Roughly Speaking

In the second of a five-part series of conversations with accomplished Baltimore principals, Dan’s guest is Kimberly Hill-Miller, who wrote and produced a music video to help her students prepare for the iReady assessments in math and language arts. Students duct-taped Hill-Miller to a wall in March as their reward for making gains in their reading and math scores. Her goal and reward-oriented motivation techniques are designed to make learning fun and inspire her students.Also in the series:-Part One, Episode 408: Matthew Hornbeck, Hampstead Hill Academy-Part Three, Episode 410: Emily Hunter, Arlington Elementary/Middle School-Part Four, Episode 411: Cindy Harcum, Baltimore City College High School -Part Five, Episode 412: Marc Martin, Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School

Kimberly Hill-Miller's motivation techniques are designed to make learning fun

In the first of a five-part series of conversations with accomplished Baltimore principals, Dan speaks with Matthew Hornbeck, now in his 15th year at Hampstead Hill Academy, a strong and diverse public charter school in southeast Baltimore. Hornbeck, from a family of educators, talks about the challenges of running a city school in the face of budget cuts, and he has a lot to say about Maryland's commitment to funding education.In the series:-Part Two, Episode 409: Kimberly Hill-Miller, Lockerman Bundy Elementary School-Part Three, Episode 410: Emily Hunter, Arlington Elementary/Middle School-Part Four, Episode 411: Cindy Harcum, Baltimore City College High School -Part Five, Episode 412: Marc Martin, Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School

The first of a five-part series of conversations with accomplished Baltimore principals.

Martha Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, has performed a great service -- dusting off records and throwing open the windows of the old Baltimore courthouse to show how, in the decades before the Civil War, free blacks used the law to gain a foothold as citizens. By the 1830s, Baltimore was home to the nation’s largest free-black community. While some 25,000 former slaves and free-born blacks lived and worked in the city, their rights were greatly restricted by so-called “black laws.” So they studied the laws, hired white attorneys to help them, and presented their everyday legal matters -- contract disputes, permit requests -- to judges. They found in the courthouse a way to conduct themselves as citizens and exercise fundamental rights. Extracting stories from 19th Century court records in the Maryland State Archives, Jones shows how, in the face of the 1857 Dred Scott decision, free blacks continued to assert what they saw as their birthright, the first steps on the way to the Fourteenth Amendment and citizenship.Martha Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of “Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America,---- published in June by Cambridge University Press.

Jeffrey Peck was an ----academically precocious---- kid who graduated from high school at 11, and from Towson University at 15. He was a profoundly gifted boy who seemed destined for a career in biological sciences. But, at 24, Peck drove to an abandoned elementary school north of Hunt Valley and killed himself with carbon monoxide. His devastated parents set out to learn why their only son had committed suicide. His mother, Dolores Peck, says her son was the victim of cyber-bullying during the last weeks of his life. She tells the story in a published memoir, and on the show today.Links:http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-05-11/news/0105110155_1_towson-beta-beta-dundalkhttps://www.facebook.com/agiftedlifecutshortthejeffreypeckstory/

Recordings of dispatchers, along with communications between officers and commanders, provide the minute-by-minute story of the quick response of police to the deadly shooting in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis last Thursday.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-quick-response-20180629-story.html

On this post-primary show, The Sun's Erin Cox and Luke Broadwater talk about Tuesday's election, starting with progressive Democrat Ben Jealous' decisive victory over five other gubernatorial candidates. Jealous will face incumbent Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in November's mid-term election. Also on the show: Commentary by Melissa Deckman, professor and chair in political science at Washington College. A look at the results from Baltimore County with Sun reporter Pamela Wood.

On the eve of Tuesday's primary election, Dan speaks with Sun reporters Erin Cox, Luke Broadwater and Pamela Wood about the campaigns for Maryland governor, Baltimore County executive, Baltimore State's Attorney and other offices.

Featured on today's show: A wide-ranging conversation with writer and activist Darnell L. Moore on Trump and immigrants, the Bible and politicians, and growing up black and gay.Book critic Paula Gallagher recommends a great summer beach read, ----The High Season,---- by Judy Blundell.Darnell Moore, a writer and editor and one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter, talks about the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants, the now-abandoned family separation policy, and the use of the Bible to defend public policy. Moore is the author of, ----No Ashes In The Fire,---- a memoir of his life as a black boy growing up in -- and surviving -- Camden, N.J.Links:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561515/the-high-season-by-judy-blundell/9780525508717/https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/darnell-l-moore/no-ashes-in-the-fire/9781549168727/