Tuesday Open Thread
Better late than never.
Malia Obama has chosen Harvard for her college career. Not such a shocker but what is interesting is she is taking a gap year and going into Harvard in fall 2017. It makes sense given she would go in as the daughter of the ex-president and not a current one. Obama seems downright wistful at seeing his little girl go off to college - very sweet. The Obamas are also staying put for two years in D.C. for their other daughter, Sasha, to be able to finish high school where she started.
Good discussion on a gap year from NPR.
Troubling law signed by Tennessee governor that would allow therapists and counselors with "sincerely held principles" to refuse to help LGBTQ clients. It doesn't say it in the article but I would assume that means high school counselors as well. That could be devastating to so many teens who might not have any other adult to talk to.
Do we want Seattle Schools to help SPD monitor kids' social media activity? They are doing it in one school district in Orlando, Florida. From the Washington Post:
Malia Obama has chosen Harvard for her college career. Not such a shocker but what is interesting is she is taking a gap year and going into Harvard in fall 2017. It makes sense given she would go in as the daughter of the ex-president and not a current one. Obama seems downright wistful at seeing his little girl go off to college - very sweet. The Obamas are also staying put for two years in D.C. for their other daughter, Sasha, to be able to finish high school where she started.
Good discussion on a gap year from NPR.
Troubling law signed by Tennessee governor that would allow therapists and counselors with "sincerely held principles" to refuse to help LGBTQ clients. It doesn't say it in the article but I would assume that means high school counselors as well. That could be devastating to so many teens who might not have any other adult to talk to.
Do we want Seattle Schools to help SPD monitor kids' social media activity? They are doing it in one school district in Orlando, Florida. From the Washington Post:
The school district says it will pay about $18,000 annually for SnapTrends, the monitoring software used to check students' activity. It's the same software used by police in Racine, Wis., to track criminal activity and joins a slew of similar social media monitoring software used by law enforcement to keep an eye on the community.Interesting article from The Columbian about second graders at one elementary school asking the age-old Sesame Street question: who are the people in your neighborhood (and places?)
SnapTrends collects data from public posts on students' social media accounts by scanning for keywords that signify cases of cyberbullying, suicide threats, or criminal activity. School security staff then comb through flagged posts and alert police when they see fit.
Noting important elements such as schools, parks, streets, rivers, fire and police stations found on maps provided by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce, the children got to know their community better. At the same time, they learned how to spell local landmarks correctly and use quality handwriting as part of an activity where they crafted their own neighborhood maps.The Senate approved Diane Humetewa as a federal judge last week. She is the first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge last week,
Student Trevor King added, “It was fun to color the rivers and the school, and it looked like a regular map!”
Humetewa was confirmed 96-0 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. She is a former U.S. attorney in Arizona and a member of the Hopi tribe. She is now the only Native American serving on the federal bench and just the third Native American in history to do so.What's on your mind?
Comments
-MS parent
GHS Parent
While there are many, many worthy organizations in need of donations, I saw in the paper that Amazon is matching donations to Mary's Place, which is a wonderful organization whose mission is to "[empower] homeless women, children and families to reclaim their lives by providing shelter, nourishment, resources, healing and hope in a safe community."
With so many homeless students in SPS, this is a great opportunity to get more bang for your buck as you help them out.
The language immersion schools are in a pickle. They can't add students later because of the nature of the program. They can't add one extra classroom per grade in the early years because kids have to stay in the same language. They could:
choose to forego the class size reduction funds
request a waiver from the state to use the money to hire certificated teachers to provide small group instruction for those grades (this is possible if there is no physical space for added classrooms)
offer just one language per building to make it possible to funnel students from say four third grade classrooms into three fourth grade classrooms
merge the programs at McDonald and JSIS so that one provides K-3 and the other provides 4-5.
Any school with more than one self-contained program is going to have a problem with this.
HIMSmom
500 good?
-500 bad
RESMS and Cascadia will have cafetoriums which, frankly, are usually so acoustically bad that it makes any kind of performance less-than-great.
One person at SforT said, "Well, they could use Ingraham or Lincoln's auditorium" which is true (although Roosevelt is also close-by.) But if Lincoln's auditorium is that small, maybe RESMS might go to Roosevelt or Ingraham for big performances.
Are any Hamilton reps included in the planning?
-still reading
-still reading
-still reading
-still reading
Lincoln alum
-still reading
500 good?
-thoughts?
Ingraham has been on every single BEX and BTA. Someday I should add up all the dollars; I suspect it would have bought them a total renovation as most of the other high schools have had.
The Hamilton renovation was already underway when it was decided APP would be split and moved to HIMS, then the design was changed to add space for music rooms and the dead-end U shape of the upper floors was done to add classrooms. It was originally designed for full circulation. Is SPS capable of any forethought? Lincoln is right next to HIMS, which relies on the Lincoln auditorium. I can't believe they are wanting to downsize one of the few available performance spaces, after they have already decided to not have performance space at RESMS.
It's like watching a wreck in slow motion.
-unbelievable
-positive feedback
Both current options in play recommend retention of the theater in the East Wing for that purpose. The options do vary relative to space allocation and adjacencies. See slides 2 and 6 at the link below for more detail & context.
http://bex.seattleschools.org/assets/bulkUpload/Lincoln-SDAT-Mtg-5-DRAFT-OPTIONS.pdf
For reference the theater at Ballard HS seats about 500.
The NPR article mentions Global Citizen Year, which appears to cost as much as an extra year of college. I looked at the GCY website, and it mentions how participating students who reapply to college afterward are able to get into more selective schools.
If true, that means the gap year trend may already be further increasing the advantage of the affluent to get into selective schools. ("Didn't get into Harvard, Madison? No worries, we'll send you to Senegal for a year and you can try again!")
(That said, gap years are awesome. I ended up taking MANY of them.)
--JvA
Please do that math and then come tour Ingraham (I bet Principal Floe would walk you around personally.) Make sure you see the auditorium.
My understanding is that was tied into how no-pay-for-K was funded last year, but I am not sure if this years full day funding changes anything; and/or if this will now be district wide.
- MemoReader
I encourage everyone to come see NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT performed at Ingraham this weekend (Fri @7, Sat @2 and 7). Fantastic show! The students are incredibly talented and hardworking! But bring a cushion to sit on and make sure you sit about a quarter of the way back, center stage to stage left to make it easier to hear. (Oh, and I doubt it will sell out since the auditorium seats over 1000.)
K teach
K teach