Why do I work in education?

-Book report posters that include real mouse poop in a zip loc baggie

-Lists of famous painters including DaVinci, Michealangelo, and Bob Ross

-Explanations such as, " I know the book's genre is fiction because an alien wouldn't wear braces."

I chose to work in education because opportunity for all children is at the heart of our work and because the English major I started out in got too irritating when my interpretation of the Dog poem (that it was about dogs) wasn't literary enough. 

I thought about a new career after six years in this work when I looked around at my noneducator friends who had no college degree who were buying airplane tickects, houses, cars, and clothes.  The newspaper advertised for an executive secretary who could write grammatically correct correspondence.  So after teaching a morning of spring break school to some fourth grade English language learners, I headed to an office building on the classy side of town for an interview.

"How glamourous,"  I thought, "to work in such an impressive looking building, to wear clothes and not be concerned about marker washability, wire notebook snags, or sticky hand prints."  Then I opened the doors.  No love poured out.  No laughter. No original artwork.  By the time I got to the office on the third floor, I was whispering "sucker" everytime I passed those sorry employees in the hall.  Afterall, I had just come from a morning of work where I had seen eyes light up over learning how to use a Spanish/English dictionary.  Who in this office knew the joy of discovering that burgers and mocos were the same thing? 

I went home proud to be in education and still broke.  As if business were really for me anyway.  Estimation is how I balance my check book, I am already looking forward to my tax return, and if the school children need something, I tell someone and they buy it. Besides, education is about kids learning, not money.  Right? 

Last week I went to a meeting of school "finance people." So what I think now is that I need to study up on school finance in addition to personal budgeting. 

To think that finance is separate from school improvement and curriculum is inadequate.  Without knowledge of school improvement and curriculum going into financial decisions, how can we be sure that our money and our teachers are working toward the same end?

Learning for all children is what our work is about whether our specialized knowledge is finance or school improvement and curriculum.

How exciting to be part of community blogging start up.

In a year from now when we look at our first day of blogging, I wonder what we will think and how we will have grown.

The Staff Development and Technology departments at ESU 13 have worked together to indentify resources that support implementing Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane Pollock, and technology tools that will support the strategies. There are a number of websites that are devoted to this topic.

The minutes of the PLACES meeting were sent out on March 5.  Many of your firewalls block longer emails, or those with attachments.If you did not get yours, let me know.  

Travis, Sandy, Maribeth, Jill, Tom (and who have I missed?)

We're putting together packets of the handouts from the meeting (you missed a good one!) Watch school mail!

 "Staff development needs more follow up."  Yes, it does.  Is your district prepared to make it happen?  Do you have...

1. Scheduled staff development time on school calendar spread out across the school year

2.  A consistent method and scheduled plan for being in classrooms to collect the data of what is happening in the instructional setting (doesn't have to be solely work of principal)

3. A regularly scheduled leadership meeting in which data from the instructional setting and student achievement data are analyzed and used as a springboard for planning staff development (could be the SIP team, should include principal(s), curriculum director, teacher leaders, possibly superintendent)

"Structure is the first step toward organizational maturity."  AdvancEd

Until a district has these structures in place, effective follow up will only be something we talk about.

 

I should not have done this, but since Julie is home sick today, I uploaded the meeting minutes for the March 4, 2008 PLACES meeting in the files section of this community. To view the minutes, click the "File Storage" link in the right column, click the "Meeting Minutes" folder, click the "Meeting 3-4-08" file to view the document.

I would like to thank Jim for sharing the evaluation form that he uploaded, and encourage everyone to contribute to the site. The value of this site grows as participants share information. 

When the STARS project entered our duties as "Curriculum People", it created a time crunch.  A poor non-choice on my part (meaning it just happened without a conscious decision being made), professional reading time was taken out of my daily schedule.  Prior to that, around an hour per day was devoted to reading one article or one chapter of a the book I was reading at the time, or a professional journal is I didn't have a book going.  I'm hoping to use blogging to reinstate some of that professional stimulation in another way, which provides for a new choice....and interesting dilemma.

Which blogs...which communities do we join?  The list of professional journals and books was at least finite, and I knew where to go to select those which would give me the most bang for my buck.  Blog choices, while not yet infinite, appear to be expanding exponentially, and I don't know how to choose the most effective ones for myself.

One thing I stumbled across was the World Cafe Blog (see link below)

http://www.theworldcafe.com/blog.htm

Seems to me the thinking would be cutting edge and creative, so I'll be checking that one out and letting you all know if it was worth the time or not.

Anyone else out there have great suggestions?

I should probably add this as a comment to Julie's previous post, but not sure how many people would see it there. One blog site that I am familiar with is LeaderTalk.

The following quote is taken from the "About" section of their homepage.

"LeaderTalk is the first group blog written by school leaders for school leaders. We hope that our insights and resources are beneficial to P-12 administrators and educational leadership preparation programs."

One link from the LeaderTalk page will take you to CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education). This is not a blog site, but does contain links to a few blogs in the left column.

These two sites alone provide access to enough information and links to additional resources to build a solid foundation of blog sites. 

The world of standars-assessment-accountability is not generally filled with much humor. I was at a training session in Lincoln last week and had the opportunity to view this video. Tom Chapin is the creator of the video.

As I glanced at your initial blogs and the meeting minutes I saw that people discussed having "user's group" sessions.  Some that may be of interest in our are are

1.  infinite campus,  2.  Reading programs, 3.  Curriculular models, 4. Math programs

Are these issues that can be handled at a PLACES meeting--or should small sessions be set up that would have specific focus?  COuld DL serve a role so that a very short meeting could be held and people could share issues and solutions and maybe plan together for shared resources?  For example,  the Infinite campus group could meet and one person knows how to do the more complex reports and can teach that to others.  The reading group could meet and could decide to share expenses to bring a trainer to the region. 

Our current structures haven't been able to give much time for this sort of specific needs.

Does anyone want to see that type of specific mini-meetings started?

From the Principal’s Perspective

By Travis Miller

 

Banner County School recently received a set of posters from the Peter Kiewit Foundation promoting the foundation’s “positive parenting” media campaign.  Several of these posters are currently displayed in the school cafeteria.  However, I realize that many of the readers of the Scratchin’ Post are not able to come to the school and see the messages, so the messages from the Peter Kiewit Foundation are listed below:

 

• ABC’s Before TV
• Help Them Achieve Their Dreams.  Kids Need 9 Hours of Sleep
• Kids Who Love Reading Live Happier Ever After
• There’s a Reason Pancakes are Always Smiling.  Kids Need Breakfast
• Participation Counts.  Get Involved in Your Kid’s Education
• Share More Than the Meatloaf.  Have Conversations for Dinner

 

Many of these phrases reflect recent research about the importance of family involvement in education.  For example, by having conversations at the dinner table about what students learned at school, families can help reinforce student learning.  As brain researcher Dr. Robert Sjolseth states, “Without reflection there is no learning, only exposure.”  When students have an opportunity to reflect on their studies and share that information with others, learning is solidified. 

Similarly, the other statements from the Kiewit Foundation correspond to research about student learning.  If you would like more information about any of these statements or would like to discuss how to use this information to support your child’s learning, please contact the school.  As always, if you would like to share success stories about Banner County School or if you have ideas about how we can work together to make our school even better, please call the school or email me at:  travis.miller@panesu.org.