Tuesday Open Thread
I attended (and spoke at) the City Council meeting yesterday where the two pre-K for all programs were discussed and voted on. Boy, you want to see a president of a group control the conversation, look at the master, Tim Burgess. I'll have a thread on this but it is astonishing the City did not work with pre-school teachers and their union on this issue. Both measures will be going before voters in the fall, not as complimentary measures on the same topic but competing ones. It's a pity.
Wow, big news out of Milwaukee. NPR is reporting that in order to boost attendance they are bringing back art, music and PE.
Milwaukee Public Schools is one of several school systems across the country — including Los Angeles, San Diego and Nashville, Tenn. — that are re-investing in subjects like art and physical education. The Milwaukee school district is hiring new specialty teachers with the hope of attracting more families and boosting academic achievement.
Want to show your kids a quick history lesson about the U.S.? Here's an interactive map from Slate showing the loss of land from Native Americans.
KOMO tv is reporting that a Seattle Schools mom wants Meatless Mondays. Megan Murphy gave the district 1500 signatures to the district towards this effort. This won't happen next year, according to SPS, but they will consider it in the future.
She pointed out that dozens of large cities across the country, including Bellevue, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are already doing it.
Apparently even Leonardo da Vinci had to have a resume. From Letters of Note:
Da Vinci's efforts paid off, and he was eventually employed. A decade later, it was Sforza who commissioned him to paint The Last Supper.
What's on your mind?
Wow, big news out of Milwaukee. NPR is reporting that in order to boost attendance they are bringing back art, music and PE.
Milwaukee Public Schools is one of several school systems across the country — including Los Angeles, San Diego and Nashville, Tenn. — that are re-investing in subjects like art and physical education. The Milwaukee school district is hiring new specialty teachers with the hope of attracting more families and boosting academic achievement.
Want to show your kids a quick history lesson about the U.S.? Here's an interactive map from Slate showing the loss of land from Native Americans.
KOMO tv is reporting that a Seattle Schools mom wants Meatless Mondays. Megan Murphy gave the district 1500 signatures to the district towards this effort. This won't happen next year, according to SPS, but they will consider it in the future.
She pointed out that dozens of large cities across the country, including Bellevue, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are already doing it.
Apparently even Leonardo da Vinci had to have a resume. From Letters of Note:
Da Vinci's efforts paid off, and he was eventually employed. A decade later, it was Sforza who commissioned him to paint The Last Supper.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Mom of 4
As we can see, this issue of having two pre-K issues on the ballot may end up being very confusing.
Glad I left
I am a fan of the Meatless Mondays campaign, which was started more than 10 years ago at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health as a public health awareness campaign. You can read all about it at meatlessmonday.com and you can even follow the campaign on Facebook (for weekly reminders, recipes, etc).
I'd love to see Meatless Mondays enacted in SPS as intended. It's not simply a way to get kids to try new things. It's about education, awareness, and reducing global consumption of meat to achieve health and environmental benefits.
Mom of 4 hits on a great point though about potential downside: do we trust mass-produced, vegetarian school lunches to be tasty and kid-friendly? I don't know. There would need to be real thought and effort put into it. I'd hate to see the campaign backfire and turn kids off to meat-free meals. But if there's a way to do it well, I'd support it.
Deficiencies in essential fats can have huge repercussions on intelligence and behaviour.
I wonder if their parents were among the 1500 who signed the petition (i.e. "no, my child who has the FRL designation should not have the option of eating meat on Mondays at school").
I would bet a halibut dinner at Ray's that the petition originator is not of a Free or Reduced Lunch household.
Fairness
HIMSmom
Freedom
Voting NO
HIMSmom
I've got a copy of the draft grant. Here's are a few of the things the district must ensure:
The district has a written HCP policy and procedures for Grades K-12 for:
Nomination (WAC 392-170-045)
Assessment Process (WAC 392-170-055)
System for the selection of the most highly capable (WAC 392-170-075)
Appealing the multidisciplinary selection committee’s decision (WAC 392-170-076)
The district conducts program evaluation and makes changes to the HCP as needed (WAC 392-170-030, 087, 090).
The district makes a variety of appropriate program services available to identified HCP students, which take into account such student’s unique needs and capabilities. Once services are started, a continuum of services is provided to the student from Grades K–12. Districts periodically review services for each student to ensure that the services are appropriate (WAC 392-170-078, 080).
The grant application - which may change after the final meeting(s) of the task force(a) - also indicates that the CogAT screener will be used in grades K-12. The CogAT and WISC will be used for grades K-8. A variety of services available in general ed classrooms is listed - plus there will be self-contained classrooms in grades 1-11.
Welcome to Seattle. I would try contacting the office and ask if they can connect you with someone from the PTA - that might be helpful. Here are a couple resources for you:
School Report Card
MLK Jr. website
Some people probably read or saw pics of how big agri's animal husbandry is done in this country - with cattle, chickens, pigs etc forced to stand in one place from birth till butchering, in stalls too small for them to turn around or even move, in piles of their own bodily wastes, pumped full of antibiotics - and believe it's better for all if less meat is consumed. Right, wrong, to each their own. Myself, I haven't eaten meat since highschool when I was shown a tube of blood from a patient that had big globs of white fat floating in it.
Pack your meats, problem solved. That is, until global warming turns every river into ditches. Take a look at the current level of the Colorado & Mississippi. Then no one will be eating any vegies or fruits.
We used to have salad bars in my admittedly prehistoric secondary schooldays when the dinos roamed. Is that no longer an option?
CCA
So kids who ordinarily are provided free meals at school can just "pack their meats?" It's my impression that they make up the majority of the children eating school lunches.
If your writing style were a little more understated, you might have had a chance to make a useful contribution to the discussion.
HIMS Mom, I will try to get that draft application up by the end of the week.
CarolChin, you can write to me off-line and I'm happy to try to answer your questions about this district. sss.westbrook@gmail.com
I believe there are some schools that still have salad bars. It seems weird that the district has all these stories about how great the food is becoming and yet we still hear from parents/students who say the food is not that good.
Totally agree with everything you said, and the image your words provoke are truly depressing. That being said, the (pathetically gross) lunches at school ARE the only food many kids get. They can't pack anything from home because there is nothing to pack. That's pretty depressing too.
Summer
Could the SSD make an effort to provide that?
Summer
type in your zip code or phone the information hotline #800-322-2588
https://resources.parenthelp123.org/services/summer-meals?
PSP
Should Principals Be Treated Like CEOs?
[rolls eyes]
Either that, or this particular piece was satire. Somehow I doubt it. Here's the link, if you want to check it out.
For anyone with a grain of sense, the old "teachers only work for 9 months" myth is easily busted by facts. But think tanks like that recycle & regurgitate-based "foundation" don't need facts when trolling for anti-union sentiment, which subsists within the readership of the Times.
The truth, as anyone even slightly involved in public education knows, is that the average teacher works as many, or more hours, than the average 50 week per year, full time worker. Some outwork such folks by days or weeks, in fact.
But you'll never hear the anti-union sentiment thrown at firemen, police, or bus drivers like its thrown at teachers & building staff.
Ah hell, it's the Times for crying out loud. What else would we expect to read there? WSDWG
If there's any other or "real" reason, then he isn't being forthright with us, which is a breach of loyalty and integrity, in which case, his position is untenable and indefensible.
I know I must be insane to expect those in public positions of power to be honest and forthright, but it makes me sick to see people making excuses for such people when they aren't. If someone like Banda doesn't like something about the Board, staff, or the public, he should have the integrity to say so. It reminds me of an important saying, which goes: "Tell the truth. Then you don't have to remember anything."
It's high time we get back to simple notions like truth-telling if we really want our SI to be successful, instead of playing politics, where everyone comfortably lies through their teeth, going along to get along, while delivering the opposite of what they promise, or worse.
So, is Banda being forthright, in which the Board is exonerated of any wrongdoing? Or is he keeping the "real reason" to himself and a few confidants, while deceiving and lying to the public? What a position to try to defend or support, huh?
WSDWG
summerluvin
Honesty and integrity are now juvenile and unprofessional. God Almighty, if that doesn't say it all!
WSDWG