Learning Continues!
I was pleased to see this in the News Sentinel today. I was just in a meeting with people from the media, and they said that many viewers and listeners don't seem to be interested in education stories in the summer because they're out of place. But summer is not a time to stop learning...it's where the learning continues in different ways. The Knox County Library gets it...
Leads me to another point...
-TEACHERS don't stop learning.
Summer is often a time for teachers to catch up on what's called "professional development" (basically, a term for the process where teachers can learn about the best strategies for helping their students learn--they learn about best practices and techniques that are effective in helping students learn).
I've talked to quite a few teachers, and many of them plan on taking classes, doing internships, reading, and talking with other teachers about how to improve. For example....
One teacher at Pond Gap Elementary is organizing a book study with 5 other teachers over a 4-week period.
The Niswonger Foundation is hosting a day-long conference in June that features teachers who have proven to be effective in the classroom. They get a chance to teach other teachers about what they do.
Some teachers in the area will act as researchers through a program run by Siemens.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE TEACHERS ARE DOING OVER THE SUMMER? Please leave comments.
- STUDENTS don't stop learning.
Plenty of students will be doing various things (jobs, sports teams, summer school, reading groups, etc.) to keep learning. In fact, I just learned about one program today run by Knox County Schools called "Schooled for Success." A 2-day internship for students with businesses! Girl Scouts are doing more than you might think. The Baker Center has a 2-week high school internship. Lots of community organizations do things in the summer to keep kids learning, but as parents and community members, we should try and make them see the connections with what they've been learning all year in the classroom.
Stuff I've learned
Honestly, there's too much to list. But I will say that KUB's program in place to help students get practical experience are really impressive--TeenWork. It's at Austin East HS. Something for area businesses to consider as they think about getting involved with education.
TVA has a CadNet program at Gibbs High School that engages students in real-world problem-solving environments where they learn about CAD--Computer-Aided Drafting.
Thanks to Ahnna Estes at the Knoxville Chamber for pointing out these resources.
Happy summer, everyone.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Roane County Talks Education
Roane County Proclaims that "Education Matters"
One thing was clear at the Roane County Education Summit held on Wednesday, May 12 at Roane State Community College:
EDUCATION MATTERS TO EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING. But in particular, it impacts:
- Quality of life (personal wealth, how long you live, standard of living)
- Economy (economic stability, the vitality of businesses, employment levels)
Roane County's summit talked about the various reasons why Roane County citizens should care about education (publications like Education Crossroads have tried to convince citizens about the importance of education in the past).
Knoxville's Great Schools Partnership Chair Buzz Thomas (offered the keynote) said that Roane County (and all counties in Tennessee) should do 3 things to raise the bar in education:
(1) Measure standards and scores against the US and the world (not just your neighbors like Knox, Blount, Jefferson county)
(2) Make sure every student in Roane County can seek some story of post-secondary education (fancy word for education AFTER high school)
(3) We've got to get entrepreneurial! Our government will NEVER fund education at the level that it should. Businesses, people, and other institutions must get involved because education matters to everyone.
He pointed to the KnoxAchieves (privately funded) program (that's being replicated in Blount County) that allows students to get a mentor and financial assistance to attend community college.
Race to the Top Updates
More school systems are rolling out their plans for how to spend their part of the $250 million that will be given out to school districts. A lot of it seems to be focused on teacher and school leadership plans, academic coaches, funding to start more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and specific projects to improve student performance in areas where schools aren't currently doing as well in.
Greene County's school board approved their plan.
Knox County's plan can be found here.
Just as a reminder, here's HOW MUCH MONEY EACH DISTRICT WILL RECEIVE.
Some interesting things I came across this week:
Vols4STEM: Joe Carson (from the Department of Energy) has been working through STEM professional societies to coordinate involvement in the schools. What's going on in the schools? FIND OUT HERE. If you know anyone who can help with this, POINT THEM HERE.
A Miracle Grassy Fork Elementary School?: Located in Cocke County, Grassy Fork Elementary School went through a transformation after getting a $350 per year per student investment from the Niswonger Foundation. It was a failing school. High poverty. It couldn't be saved. Sound familiar? The doom and gloom story ends with an on-going happy story. Now, it's one of the highest performing schools in the state. They were recently recognized for the 3rd highest value-added scores in K-8 institutions in East Tennessee by the Education Consumer's Foundation.
One thing was clear at the Roane County Education Summit held on Wednesday, May 12 at Roane State Community College:
EDUCATION MATTERS TO EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING. But in particular, it impacts:
- Quality of life (personal wealth, how long you live, standard of living)
- Economy (economic stability, the vitality of businesses, employment levels)
Roane County's summit talked about the various reasons why Roane County citizens should care about education (publications like Education Crossroads have tried to convince citizens about the importance of education in the past).
Knoxville's Great Schools Partnership Chair Buzz Thomas (offered the keynote) said that Roane County (and all counties in Tennessee) should do 3 things to raise the bar in education:
(1) Measure standards and scores against the US and the world (not just your neighbors like Knox, Blount, Jefferson county)
(2) Make sure every student in Roane County can seek some story of post-secondary education (fancy word for education AFTER high school)
(3) We've got to get entrepreneurial! Our government will NEVER fund education at the level that it should. Businesses, people, and other institutions must get involved because education matters to everyone.
He pointed to the KnoxAchieves (privately funded) program (that's being replicated in Blount County) that allows students to get a mentor and financial assistance to attend community college.
Race to the Top Updates
More school systems are rolling out their plans for how to spend their part of the $250 million that will be given out to school districts. A lot of it seems to be focused on teacher and school leadership plans, academic coaches, funding to start more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and specific projects to improve student performance in areas where schools aren't currently doing as well in.
Greene County's school board approved their plan.
Knox County's plan can be found here.
Just as a reminder, here's HOW MUCH MONEY EACH DISTRICT WILL RECEIVE.
Some interesting things I came across this week:
Vols4STEM: Joe Carson (from the Department of Energy) has been working through STEM professional societies to coordinate involvement in the schools. What's going on in the schools? FIND OUT HERE. If you know anyone who can help with this, POINT THEM HERE.
A Miracle Grassy Fork Elementary School?: Located in Cocke County, Grassy Fork Elementary School went through a transformation after getting a $350 per year per student investment from the Niswonger Foundation. It was a failing school. High poverty. It couldn't be saved. Sound familiar? The doom and gloom story ends with an on-going happy story. Now, it's one of the highest performing schools in the state. They were recently recognized for the 3rd highest value-added scores in K-8 institutions in East Tennessee by the Education Consumer's Foundation.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Knox County Recognized by TN PTA
Knox County and Knoxville were recognized at the PTA's state meeting from April 30 - May 2 in Nashville. Among the award winners...
Dr. Jim McIntyre, Outstanding Superintendent of the Year
Sallee Reynolds, Outstanding Principal of the Year
Cedar Bluff PTSA, Outstanding Middle School PTA
Hardin Valley Academy, Outstanding High School PTA
Knox County Council of PTAs, Outstanding PTA Chapter
More information on how you can get involved in PTA (and NO you don't have to be a parent to join) can be found HERE!
Dr. Jim McIntyre, Outstanding Superintendent of the Year
Sallee Reynolds, Outstanding Principal of the Year
Cedar Bluff PTSA, Outstanding Middle School PTA
Hardin Valley Academy, Outstanding High School PTA
Knox County Council of PTAs, Outstanding PTA Chapter
More information on how you can get involved in PTA (and NO you don't have to be a parent to join) can be found HERE!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Food For Thought...
Getting into the education scene means a lot of reading through news stories, blogs, etc. I try to keep them fairly local so that people in East Tennessee care about the content I deliver.
But there are 2 things that have come across my e-mail from people in the community that might be worth considering.
High Scores Don't Always Mean High Achievement. This point was brought up at a collaboration meeting I was privy to earlier this week. Some teachers commented, "This student performed well on this test, but I know they're not my top-performing student. But the test shows it, so I can't get them extra help." Rock and a hard place...
Gifted Children Are Sometimes Left Behind in School Reform. I've heard from some people that they feel like education reform is about the lowest-performing students, but what about the high-achieving students? Programs exist to encourage honors students, but some say it doesn't go far enough. When some groups protest adding honors classes, you quickly see how political it gets. Is that to say that the NAACP hates honors classes? No. But they want to see more done to close the achievement gap, given their stance in that case.
Hopefully the United Way can be a platform for these sticky issues to get worked out on a regional level.
But there are 2 things that have come across my e-mail from people in the community that might be worth considering.
High Scores Don't Always Mean High Achievement. This point was brought up at a collaboration meeting I was privy to earlier this week. Some teachers commented, "This student performed well on this test, but I know they're not my top-performing student. But the test shows it, so I can't get them extra help." Rock and a hard place...
Gifted Children Are Sometimes Left Behind in School Reform. I've heard from some people that they feel like education reform is about the lowest-performing students, but what about the high-achieving students? Programs exist to encourage honors students, but some say it doesn't go far enough. When some groups protest adding honors classes, you quickly see how political it gets. Is that to say that the NAACP hates honors classes? No. But they want to see more done to close the achievement gap, given their stance in that case.
Hopefully the United Way can be a platform for these sticky issues to get worked out on a regional level.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Race to the Top Money; Teacher Thoughts
Race to the Top Updates
The TN Board of Education is really gearing up for a lot of changes, among them building a longitudinal database to give a "360-view" of a child, creating a "district" for chronically low-performing schools, figuring out how to get value-added data for Pre-K to 2nd grade, and so on.
One thing that some people are asking: How will school districts use the Race to the Top money that's coming to the states over 4 years?
Proposals are due to the state by next week, but some school districts are sharing this in an open way. Plus, they are spending it in 4 key areas:
- Standards and assessments
- Data systems
- Helping create and foster great teachers and leaders
- Turning around low-performing schools
A GREAT OVERVIEW of RTTT in TN IS AVAILABLE HERE. This presentation was given to directors of schools and superintendents...
Sullivan County's Board of Education just approved a plan for how the money will be spent. Do you know of any other school districts who are sharing their work? Please post comments about it...I don't know it all, trust me. I literally just heard this on the radio headed home yesterday from Tri-Cities.
Teacher Voices
Through this project, I want to make sure I meet with as many teachers and go to as many schools as possible. Teachers should be at the center of any conversation around education. My mom is a 30-year educator, so she makes sure I keep this in mind!
- TAP Program: A couple of weeks ago, I talked with a group of teachers in a Knox County elementary who work at a school where there is a program called "TAP" in place. It's basically a system that allows teachers to have constant feedback on their performance. There are also different levels of teachers who are constantly receiving high marks, by student performance and by performance as a professional. These teachers basically said that this teaching system allows them to have CONSTANT feedback on what they're doing well and what they need improvement on. It's an "environment of collaboration and communication." Knox County has plans through the Great Schools Partnership to expand this program in schools, along with other initiatives. It certainly seems like the teachers in that school had great things to say about it. Cheers to Great Schools and Knox County for this! Have you heard about this program? What have people been saying about it?
- Schools are an image of society: Talking to a group of middle school teachers yesterday in Kingsport, it came across loud and clear: A LOT IS CHANGING IN EDUCATION, but it's not only the laws that have changed. It's the students, too. Not surprisingly, students are more distracted by video games, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, X-Box, etc. Hopefully I'm not dipping into controversial waters here, but it's clear that our teachers have a lot more to deal with than just teaching and learning. Teachers often serve in many roles: dietitians (to combat obesity), counselors (to combat mental health issues and attention-deprived students), clothing police / enforcement (because the school system tells them to), school supplies supplier (because students sometimes aren't prepared, for whatever reason), parent (because the parent may be absent), mentor (because they may need a positive adult role model), values-builder, cell phone police, etc. There's just a lot more to the picture these days. Society changes. What we expect from our teachers evolves, yet the education system kind of stays the same. Hence, the RTTT call for innovation in education.
This is an on-going conversation, of course, but it's certainly all part of the picture. Nothing is ever as simple as it appears.
The TN Board of Education is really gearing up for a lot of changes, among them building a longitudinal database to give a "360-view" of a child, creating a "district" for chronically low-performing schools, figuring out how to get value-added data for Pre-K to 2nd grade, and so on.
One thing that some people are asking: How will school districts use the Race to the Top money that's coming to the states over 4 years?
Proposals are due to the state by next week, but some school districts are sharing this in an open way. Plus, they are spending it in 4 key areas:
- Standards and assessments
- Data systems
- Helping create and foster great teachers and leaders
- Turning around low-performing schools
A GREAT OVERVIEW of RTTT in TN IS AVAILABLE HERE. This presentation was given to directors of schools and superintendents...
Sullivan County's Board of Education just approved a plan for how the money will be spent. Do you know of any other school districts who are sharing their work? Please post comments about it...I don't know it all, trust me. I literally just heard this on the radio headed home yesterday from Tri-Cities.
Teacher Voices
Through this project, I want to make sure I meet with as many teachers and go to as many schools as possible. Teachers should be at the center of any conversation around education. My mom is a 30-year educator, so she makes sure I keep this in mind!
- TAP Program: A couple of weeks ago, I talked with a group of teachers in a Knox County elementary who work at a school where there is a program called "TAP" in place. It's basically a system that allows teachers to have constant feedback on their performance. There are also different levels of teachers who are constantly receiving high marks, by student performance and by performance as a professional. These teachers basically said that this teaching system allows them to have CONSTANT feedback on what they're doing well and what they need improvement on. It's an "environment of collaboration and communication." Knox County has plans through the Great Schools Partnership to expand this program in schools, along with other initiatives. It certainly seems like the teachers in that school had great things to say about it. Cheers to Great Schools and Knox County for this! Have you heard about this program? What have people been saying about it?
- Schools are an image of society: Talking to a group of middle school teachers yesterday in Kingsport, it came across loud and clear: A LOT IS CHANGING IN EDUCATION, but it's not only the laws that have changed. It's the students, too. Not surprisingly, students are more distracted by video games, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, X-Box, etc. Hopefully I'm not dipping into controversial waters here, but it's clear that our teachers have a lot more to deal with than just teaching and learning. Teachers often serve in many roles: dietitians (to combat obesity), counselors (to combat mental health issues and attention-deprived students), clothing police / enforcement (because the school system tells them to), school supplies supplier (because students sometimes aren't prepared, for whatever reason), parent (because the parent may be absent), mentor (because they may need a positive adult role model), values-builder, cell phone police, etc. There's just a lot more to the picture these days. Society changes. What we expect from our teachers evolves, yet the education system kind of stays the same. Hence, the RTTT call for innovation in education.
This is an on-going conversation, of course, but it's certainly all part of the picture. Nothing is ever as simple as it appears.
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