Harvesting Local Experts

You know what I would like to see more of?  More of our local community experts in their career fields teaching in our schools.

Would it be great if we had, let’s say my good friend Maureen Halahan come in and teach a course on basic economic development or leadership…two things she excels at as CEO of the Orange County Partnership?  I’m not volunteering Maureen…but she’s an excellent example of expert talent that resides in Orange County that’s hardly asked to share it with students in public school.   Or what if we had a local artist come in to demonstrate his/her artistic method?  Or an orchard owner talk about fruit tree growth or the dynamics of the apple business?

What if Minisink Valley CSD created program that formally brings these community experts together?  Wow.  What a great way to support our teachers!  What a way to add a real dynamic to the learning process!  What a way for our community to play a role in our kids education!

A volunteer program that proactively reaches out into our community and harvests volunteers who periodically give lectures/demonstrations on their expertise related to what our kids are learning?

How about a author or journalist?  This list goes on.

Some of our teachers do take the time to reach out and bring in some outside talent.  Some would probably do it if there was a way to connect them to our community of experts!

What do you think?

Beware of LimeWire

Just the other day I was checking in on one of my kids as they were on the web.  I noticed he was downloading a movie.  So, I asked the question: what movie is that?  I’ll spare you the details but it was a recent movie that just hit the stores in DVD not long ago.  Here’s the catch: I found out it was through a very popular website called LimeWire.  At  this site, any one who signs up for the free service can illegally download music, movies. etc.

So, being the parent that I am, I went down to check this thing out.  After a short tour, I found out that you can not only download music and movies, but any kind of movie you can think of…think of Adult movies in this case.  Yes, think of any kind of adult movie (I’m mean ‘adult’!) they can make and it was listed.

Well, I can tell you the site has since been banned in my house.  And I told all the kids why.   Here’s the short version:  We don’t steal.  We don’t download dirty movies either.

Do your kids use the web?  Whether you have software to monitor their use (like I do) or not, you’d be wise to see if they are using LimeWire or any other kind of website like it.

As far as I can tell from my own investigation, no one downloaded any adult content movies.  But had I not stumbled upon it, it was only a matter of time.

What About the Super Smart Kids?

Time magazine recently had a front page article on the issue of what school systems do with kids are outside the norm for their IQ.  The front cover headline was: The Genius Problem.  These the super-smart kids who are beyond ‘honors’ or accelerated learning that is typically offered to those who are high achievers.

What do most school systems do?  Well, frankly, not much more than offer them accelerated learning opportunities.  Not bad but this doesn’t reach this particular group of students.  First, it’s sometimes difficult to identify them.  Sometimes their parents don’t even know their child is well above the norm in intellectual ability.

According to Time, “U.S. schools spend $8 billion on the mentally retarded and just 10% of that on the gifted.”

How are we identifying these students?  Do we need to provide a different educational experience for these students?  I don’t know but I’d surely like to hear from you and get your thoughts on it.

High School Goes Online

From one of my favorite magazines, Business 2.0, comes a very interesting article about a company called Insight Schools. Insight is a Portland Oregon based company that completed its first year of fully loaded secondary education…totally online.

According to Business 2.0, the Quillayute Valley School District educated 600 students last year with an entirely digital curriculum. The district originally had plans for enrolling only about 200 students but had to expand its program because nearly 3,000 applicants wanted in. The district pays Insight about $4500. per year for each student enrolled in the program.

This is both significant and an insightful look at the future of education. While colleges and universities have been aggressively pursuing online education beyond the traditional brick and mortar, secondary education lags far behind. Granted, it took the colleges a while to grasp the importance of creating another channel for distributing education, they are on to it now.

Online education isn’t for everyone but it can serve some important groups. A Gates Foundation study showed that nearly 5,000,000 high school-age students are not enrolled in school. It also estimates that about 80% never finish high school. And how about those adults in the district who never finished high school?

As a user of online education for many years now, I can attest to the effectiveness of well-designed online programs. I also know that intellectual slugs that have no discipline will not do well with online programs. You have to be very disciplined and capable of working on your own to a great degree.

The Apollo Group purchased Insight Schools in January of this year. You don’t know the Apollo Group? Have you heard of the University of Phoenix? Apollo is the parent company of the university. UP is the leading provider of online college education. I wonder what drove them to buy insight? Perhaps they see the day when you can enroll in a fully accredited high school program…entirely online…and anywhere you are.

Now that’s something to think about.

A New Day is Born in Blah Blah Land

I’m told that Ethel Crow is now President of the MV BOE and in tow is the new Vice-President, Gina Richichi. Congrats to both on assuming the leadership mantel of a very important team to our community.

There is nothing technically wrong with this leadership change. It’s just the next phase in the war to remove the current Superintendent, Dr. Martha Murray, from her leadership role. This is a brillantly executed plan by the Friends of Minisink and their union allies at Minisink. With breathtaking speed and and crisp execution, FOM has unleashed it’s blitzkrieg (I’m a history buff, especially on WWII). It’s been a very effective blitzkrieg.

Like I pointed out during the recent BOE campaign, there wasn’t a candidate that I heard that could articulate a platform for reform or change related to our childrens education. The old mantra is: We’re for our kids and providing them with the best. Like, duh? How profound.

The true test of this new leadership on the MV Board of Ed will be what platform will they articulate for educational improvement, district communication, community outreach, and employee morale?

During the campaign, I created at least four real strategies for improving our district in many of ways. Go to the earlier postings in April and May to see them. This while the other candidates preached the blah blah of ‘we are for our kids and teachers’. I’ve also learned that having a well thought-out campaign platform with real ideas for positive change does not win elections. Ouch.

Great. Anyone running for a leadership position on a board of education SHOULD care about our kids and our employees! For those of you who voted for these new additions to the MV BOE, what in the name of God, did they bring to the table?

Just more blah blah blah and good intentions. The world is full of people with great intentions and no ability to execute much of anything. Let’s hope that this is not case as we move into the new school year. Time will tell, won’t it?

Harvard Gets Practical and Models Minisink

From an academic curriculum point of view, Minisink Valley is way ahead of Harvard and has been for some time now. Yes, it’s true. I was looking through the March 5th issue of ‘Time’ magazine. I’m a little behind in my reading, OK? Here’s the gem: Harvard U. is about to introduce a major change to its core curriculumn to emphasize teaching applied knowledge.

According to Time, Harvard President Derek Bok said, “Students will be more motivated to learn if they see a connection with the kinds of problems, issues and questions they will encounter later in life.”

Imagine that. Instead studying knowledge for the sake of knowledge, Harvard has decided that it’s now important for students to study knowledge in an applied manner.

“Just as one doesn’t become a marathon runner by reading about the Boston Marathon, so, too, one doesn’t become a good problem solver by listening to lectures or reading about statistics”, said the Harvard committee that produced the report on applied knowledge.

If you look at how the Minisink Valley curriculumn is taught, you’ll find teacher after teacher in grade after grade, who has been teaching applied knowledge for years.

It just amazes me that a institution like Harvard, with all that brain power sitting around the campus, just realized that you have to engage students with knowledge in a way that relates to the real world! Fascinating!

Knowledge is not power. Applied knowledge is power. Until now, Minisink trumped Harvard on this issue. Now, the playing field is at least level!

Welcome aboard Harvard!

Friends of Minisink – Part 2

I just checked my stats on this blog and noted that hands down, without peer, the most visited posting is the “Friends of Minisink Rolls On” posting. I just wonder who is so interested in this group? Probably the FOM members but surely some interested folks in the district.

Who are these people, this Friends of Minisink (aka MV teachers union)? Well, when they “interviewed” me for their potential endorsement (I didn’t get it…surprise!), they gave me a sheet of paper entitled, “Who are the Friends of Minisink Valley?”.

Here’s what it said in full:

“Friends of Minisink Valley is a group initially established in 1994 and reactivated in 2006 by Gemma Lawler, a former Minisink Valley Board of Education president, and Ray Jorosz, a retired Minisink Valley teacher.

Friends of Minisink Valley encourages collaboration among community members, teachers, staff, administrators and Board of Education members.

Friends of Minisink Valley is dedicated to…

Supporting the educational needs of our children
Fostering a sense of community
Returning pride and respect to Minisink Valley
Setting high standards of governance

We are interviewing potential Board of Education candidates in hopes of endorsing people who share our vision.”

There, now you have it. After the interview the FOM, I knew from the steeled look and iron set jaw locked on Gemma Lawler’s face, that I didn’t stand a chance of getting their endorsement. As it turned out, they conducted their interviews before all candidates had submitted their letters of candidacy to the Board. It seems logical that they had already decided on their “candidates” well in advance. How I was chosen to ‘interview’ is a mystery to me. The outcome wasn’t a surprise. I wasn’t their man.

So what have the Friends of Minisink accomplished in their stated goals? Can anyone tell me or show me? Besides creating more political infighting, what have they materially done to improve the education of our kids?

We’ll find out now that they have their crew on the board. You might want to drop in on a few Board meetings when school resumes in the fall. I know I will. I want to see this group in action. I’m sure they will play nice in the sandbox. Whatever the outcome, the leaders of the Friends of Minisink will be watching them closely. I think I’m going to watch the Friends of Minisink closely too.

My note to the Friends of Minisink leaders: You feel good right about now, don’t you? Yes, victory is at hand. Your selected peeps are in. Surely they will come with verbal samuri sword and cut a swath in the name of your so called “high standards of governance”!

From what I’ve seen you do so far, I don’t think you should be throwing any rocks. They might just break through the glass house you live in. Stay tuned to Part 3 of this episode.

Summer Vacation: To be or not to be?

Ouch. Here goes a barnburner of a thought: Why does the American system of education provide kids with about 2.5 months on average of ’summer vacation’? Back in the day, way back when farming was THE key economic driver, kids has summers off so they could help work on the farm and in the fields. They didn’t go to DisneyWorld then or off to the Grand Canyon, or drive to WallyWorld. Back then, families needed the extra hands to make sure there was a good harvest. If they didn’t harvest or couldn’t harvest, it would be a lean and hungry winter.

Now, where am I going with this? Not sure. It’s death, if not clearly politically suicidal to even mention this subject in some places. What? Have kids attend school longer? We’ve all been conditioned to expect “summer vacation”. It’s almost unAmerican to suggest anything less!

But I wonder: What would be the result if we only gave kids…one month of vacation instead of 2.5 months? I know. Parents would be screaming. Kids would revolt. Teachers would…well, I don’t know what they’d do or say but it probably wouldn’t be nice.

I’m not suggesting we do this. What I am suggesting we should have a fact-based discussion on what are the positives and negatives of extending school year.

Granted, this is one discussion you rarely, if ever, hear from a board of education. Does that mean that we can’t discuss it? What can we learn from those that extend their school longer than our typical ’school year’?

You can’t be afraid of this stuff. We might discover that it’s a bad thing…or not. But we won’t know until we talk about it…get some facts on the table…and move from there.

Who wants to bet me that the next rumor will be that “Dirks Wants Kids and Teachers to Stay in School all Year”? Some knuckleheads will decide I’m a lunitic and spread the rumor gospel. You heard it here first: I’m for discussing the implications of it…the good and the bad…so we learn and do what’s best for our kids and community.

How to Evaluate A Board Of Ed Member, Part 1

What should you look for in a candidate or sitting board member?  Here are some of my perspectives on it…food for thought:

1.  How do they communicate with the public?  Remember, this is a publically elected position.  No different than your local state Senator or Congressional rep…they have to be sure they proactively reach out to their public.  I haven’t seen any sitting members really set up anything outside of the formal board meetings or catching someone on the fly.  Have you?

During the recent election, what did the candidates do outside of the normal school events, or public debates, to reach out to their public?  Little or nothing.  This blog is a testimony to the fact that I’m willing and able to reach out to people, whether they agree with me or not, and engage in a public dialogue on educational policy within the Minisink District.

 2.  Do they have any real ideas or proposals?  The ususal candidate drivel is “I’m for our kids”….or “I’m here to make education better for our district”…or blah…blah…blah.

Since I was clearly in the mix and attended the candidate meetings, I didn’t here much in the way of specific recommendations or at the least, some general ideas of exactly what they might do to “make things better”. 

One thing I wanted to be sure of, was that I brought some ideas to the table…real ideas.  Go back to some blog entries in this blog and you’ll find more than just a few.  You may agree or disagree with my ideas, but at least I have them!

 More on this later….

School Budget Passed But…

…but the margin was not as great as I thought it would be. The MVCSD 2007-08 school budget passed 1087 for and 824 against. I’m willing to bet that 90% (I’m probably generous here) of those who voted either “yes” or “no”, never even bothered to read the budget or attend a public budget meeting. Before the vote, I was talking to some folks at my daughter’s softball game. When the topic of school budget came up, the response was something like “our taxes are always going up with the school…why does it have to go up so much?”. When I asked if they had seen the budget, the answer was no. What a surprise!

Having been involved in the budget process, I was clearly a ‘yes’ vote for a budget that overall, made sense for our kids. Those 824 people that said ‘no’ to the budget, who or what told them to vote ‘no’?

My guess: probably the same people who voted NO to our kids having library access in some of our local towns (Greenville is one of them). How can you vote ‘no’ for the ability to provide kids in any town in the USA the ability to check out books to read? That’s insanity.

Look folks, it isn’t 1952 anymore. We can’t go back to the ‘good old days’…whatever they are. History teaches us that the ‘good old days’ are in the here and now.