Tuesday Open Thread
Congrats to Ballard High's Robotics team! From GeekWire:A robotics team from Seattle’s Ballard High School accomplished what no program from the Pacific Northwest has ever done. The Viking Robotics team took home the world championship at at FIRST Robotics competition last month in Houston.
The event April 20-22 featured approximately 400 teams, including groups from Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Israel and China, according to a news release.
In case you missed it, the Legislature passed a bill so that parents may send sunscreen to school for their child to use on their own. Previously, teachers and others could not allow sunscreen because it was considered some kind of "medicine" that only a nurse could administer. It seems it's a pretty basic item now especially for field trips so seems like a good move. See the video of the woman whose children were badly sunburned on a field trip makes it pretty clear this is needed.
What's a bit unclear to me is whether one child can offer it for use by another. I'm thinking the district might have to make that call.
More skin news - the on-line retailer, Zappos, announced a section for clothes with fewer issues for those with sensory issues. I personally love Zappos for their wide selection of shoe sizes (I have little feet) and free shipping, both coming and going.
The retailer said recently that it is launching a special section on its site to highlight “functional and fashionable products designed to make life easier for those who have challenges getting dressed.”Mayor Murray has announced he will not be running for a second term. So now, except for former Mayor McGinn, I have a lot of mayoral candidates to interview about their thoughts about public education. Let me know what you think I should ask.
The new collection dubbed Zappos Adaptive features items that are reversible, pieces that are soft to the touch as well as clothing without tags, buttons and zippers, the company said.
The selection also includes slip-on shoes, those with easy-to-use fasteners and orthotic-friendly footwear.
What's on your mind?
Comments
HighRoadPlease
Here is an interesting piece about providing a better experience for teachers by actually connecting PD to the curriculum and producing better teaching of the curriculum and better use of instructional materials. ==>
Time to Connect Professional Development and Teacher Training to Curriculum
For professional learning to be optimally relevant and useful to teachers, it needs to build on the instructional materials teachers use in their classrooms. Separating the work of implementing standards-aligned curriculum from the ongoing professional learning in which teachers engage is not only inefficient but also incoherent; it undermines the success of both. System leaders have a responsibility to intentionally weave these work streams together. By making these two parts of a whole, they can accelerate and deepen progress to the benefit of teachers and their students. High-quality, standards-aligned curriculum and accompanying student tasks are rich enough to occupy many years of developing teachers’ professional expertise. As one teacher put it: “Teachers should not be expected to be the composers of the music as well as the conductors of the orchestra.” System leaders should respect the artistry and skill required to teach students for deep comprehension, and they should align systems to support teachers in meeting this goal.
It's the major news story that everyone is talking about but you.
Liberty
--CS
I think there was at least 25 students let into Whitman off the wait list, but I only know of one student that got into their choice school off the wait list. I got the number of 25 by comparing the first wait list to today's wait list.
Last year my child was second on the wait list and it never moved so they did not get in.
Admission confirmed there won't be much movement if any from this point forward.
Whitman Parent
Fix AL
Realist
I did a rough comparison of the wait list reports. Per the most recent report on the website posted Monday morning, there were 3,090 students on waitlist this week. That is compared to last week's of 3,020.
Other than 70 additional students, there were no meaningful changes.
@ Whitman Parent,
Did those 25 student get moved on Monday? If so that is a good hopeful sign. But there is more than enough room for all 74 that were waitlisted.
DisAPPointed
Whitman Parent
Here is the link to the waitlist that was updated yesterday morning.
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Admissions/School%20Choice/2017-18%20Waitlist%20Report/201718WaitlistSummary_0508.pdf
Lighten up
-SPSParent
Yes, please create a post outlining each director's work. It would also be interesting to contrast their work against their campaign rhetoric.
--Big Mama
-enough testing
Being on the board is hard work. There's no money, no staff support. People can and do get ground down. And when individual board members who are willing to fight see others decide "nah I don't want to fight alongside you" then it makes them less likely to want to stand and fight too. Nobody wants to take on the JSCEE staff alone.
I'm sympathetic, but ultimately we need board members to power through. They need to understand that the purpose of a democratically elected school board is to side with the public against the bureaucracy when needed, to ensure that the bureaucracy is reined in and that it serves the public. All bureaucracies will try and justify their own existence and protect their power even at the expense of the public good. So we elect board members to counteract and stop that tendency. We won't keep a democratically elected school board if that board isn't able to deliver. If things don't change, we may not be able to stop an appointed board from happening.
We have another round of school board elections coming up and one of the main things we need to ask potential board members is how resilient they are. Will they come in and clean house - and be willing to keep at it even when it gets hard and difficult and lonely? Will they pledge to not renew Nyland's contract, and what will they seek in a new superintendent? Will they slash Central Office, even when senior staff push back and come up with new excuses? Things like that.
HP
Make the best with what you have and be thankful if you are bless with abundance. Waste not want not. Are you listening SPS?
Cool Aid
Blah
Mag mom
“The City of Seattle is happy to contribute this funding to help the School District better serve our students and put them in a position to succeed,” said Mayor Ed Murray. “This use of Families and Education Levy resources will go to implementing a better bell schedule and helping our students get to and from school safely. These are our children and I am committed to ensure they have all the tools they need to get a great education.”
http://q13fox.com/2017/04/24/murray-calls-for-2-65m-for-additional-buses-proposes-going-back-to-2-start-times-for-seattle-schools/
The funding must be approved by the Family and Education Levy Committee, and city council. Murray should not have made an announcement until funding was approved.
More lies
Mr. Bigly, and you didn't?
Maybe he can find where SPS dumped all the math books he used while attending SPS, Burke said he was successful using those.
asdf
The monies need to be approved first by the Seattle City Council, and the Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee. The F & E Committee voted yesterday, 4 opposed and 3 for. Their vote is not binding, but it will be passed along to the City Council as a recommendation.
-StepJ
-sleeper
I'm asking because this has been the norm for at least 30 years everywhere else I've lived. I get that it's weird if you're not used to it, but I've honestly never heard of it being an issue. Maybe find out how other cities cope.
Incidentally, I also attended middle school from 9:15 to 3:50. Didn't impact social life, but it wasn't high school, either - we had those insane early starts.
-Pollyanna
Fix AL
I don't know who the 4 are. That detail wasn't included in what was passed on to me.
-StepJ
My fear with 1550 is that Seattle will think it has an opportunity to back fill the 25% reduction in county taxes with new city taxes.
PO
half daze
School funding model is a pivotal issue in the funding debate.
Per pupil funding will open the door to vouchers and will benefit charter schools. For the second time, this week, I am hearing about a hybrid model.
A Democrat had this to say:
"We are open to a per pupil funding model that is grounded in the prototypical funding model and does not supplant state funding with federal or local resources."
Will we get sold-out in the name of compromise?
PO
Heck, if we gave each family $99K (the cost of sending each child to pre-k)...these families could have been provided housing and food for an entire year!!
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/a-new-mayor-will-be-a-chance-for-a-fresh-start-for-seattle/
I am still waiting for Seattle Public Schools to provide a document indicating that the city is fully compensation the district for administrative fees, food etc.
I will just pickup my soda in shoreline when I'm there buying my tax free bullets! Ha Ha Ha
There was another wining tax and spend measure that didn't work. Woops we forgot about .22
StuDems
Jealous
No representation
That makes sense. Back in my childhood city, there weren't after-school care programs at the school in the first place.
I grew up pretty poor and went to at least one high FRL school, by I can't think of anyone I knew that was particularly affected by the issue of an early day (my elementary got out at 2:50, 1:50 on wed). What I mean is, either your parent was at home, in which case it didn't matter, or they worked a 9 to 5 type job, in which case you went to daycare and it didn't matter. Whatever setup you had for a normal day was much the same on Wed. There were also a lot more cases of kids going home with their friends, or going home alone as latchkey kids, than nowadays, I imagine.
That was some time ago. I'll have to ask my sister if this is an issue for parents at her kids' schools. She lives in another state from the one I grew up in, but they have the same early Wed schedule.
-Pollyanna
There are many opinions in the community, it is difficult for a PTA to represent every concern at a given school.
I will keep giving because I appreciate our added staff and enrichment programs, and I'm happy showing up for meetings, sending emails and making calls when I have an issue that matters to my student and falls outside the scope of PTA advocacy.
Huh?