Seattle Schools Community Forum

Reason #10 on why I hate the SPS website - the main calendar does NOT reflect all the meetings. Sitting at the Curriculum&Instruction meeting yesterday,  I learned of a regional Sped meeting with district staff that will be held tonight at West Seattle High from 6-7 pm for parents. It's important for parents/public to be able to have ONE place to know about any and all meetings that they may want/need to attend.  I'm not sure I get why this cannot happen.  There are a couple of moms who have started a Facebook page - The Thirteen Thousand Dollar Question - about what their school could do with Superintendent Nyland's proposed raise.  They are looking for letters to him explaining the needs out there (see example).  They will be on display at the next Board meeting where the Board will vote on the raise/contract extension.  #‎nylandsraise‬   ‪#‎donateitall‬    ‪#‎letters2larry‬ teacher.retention.advocates@gmail.com Gre...

A number of news stories have crossed my path this month about boys and girls.  This thread is about issues that happen to kids outside of school. One heads up I wanted to give parents of girls is the movie, Spring Breakers .  Now, you don't have to get too worried because it's rated R so I would hope most of your students could not just go to see it. Spring Breakers is about a group of college girls who want a spring break, have no money, rob a restaurant and they're off and running.   However, you should be warned for a couple of reasons. One, this is NOT a comedy.  It's pretty serious stuff.  Trailer . Two, it stars some very familiar (to young tweens and teens) actors like Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Selena Gomez (Disney Channel) and Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars).    I read an article in the NY Times and for most of these young actresses, this is a breaking-away-from-type movie for them and their careers....

A couple of good parenting ideas have come across my desk. One is an article from Parent Map on how to get your children to do their homework .  This mom made a "homework hour" for the entire family.  (I assume she got out her bills, etc. to work on while they did schoolwork.) Any thoughts/tips from you about how you handle homework?  Do you feel like your child is getting too much/too little/not effective homework or is it just right? The other story is from a mom's blog - Janel Burley Hofmann about an iPhone contract with her 13-year old son.   It is an 18-point contract full of some good stuff.    What I like is that she is blunt - about how he might use it and consequences to doing some of those things, how she expects him to use it, outcomes if it is lost or damaged, school use, etc.  I do disagree a little with her saying she "owns" it if she gave it as a gift.  (However, if she and her husband are paying for the service - as I...