11 May 2009

On the table - four day school week

I know that everyone will have a "pro" and/or "con" on this one, but the bottom line is cash.

School districts are strapped for it, so out comes the "four day school week" option.

It's workable ..... some schools have been doing it for years.

But, it's out of da box and we all know that the big ship of education struggles with progressive ideas.

Here are my top three ideas for budget cuts in school districts....

1. reduce the number of staff at district headquarters
2. improve (revise) principal and assistant principals responsibilities to include more school fund raising ideas by networking with local business and community organizations, without pawning it off to teachers. NOTE: Imagine a world where principal and assistant principals managed the campus and teachers managed education in their classes using Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).
3. outsource critical district responsibilities to organizations at a fixed cost expense (aka standard business procedure)

BTW, here is a link to that news on the four day school week....
http://www.educationreporting.com/viewArticleDetails.php?id=634


Happy Monday! Jack
I have updated the directory resources on the front page http://www.educationreporting.com/
PS: tweet me: http://twitter.com/cathriving

10 May 2009

Celebrate Teaching & Learning

Neat web site I found today while updating my project lesson feed .....

Celebrate teaching and learning: the link below is to the blog section where one of the speakers is talking about future of classrooms and how technology will blowout "traditional" classrooms and instruction. He got me out of my box .... thinking computers will never reach all students in all places ....

http://thirteencelebration.org/blog/edblog/what-people-are-saying-about-the-celebration/1158/

Happy Mom Day, Jack

PS: here are links to both of my newly update feeds:

1. Learning with games
http://www.educationreporting.com/Education_Games.xml

2. Project learning resources
http://www.educationreporting.com/greenschool.xml

09 May 2009

Social media in primary school - seriously

BBC is reporting that twitter and blogs are replacing standard curriculum materials in UK.

http://www.educationreporting.com/viewArticleDetails.php?id=633

This kinds education news is refreshing! Jack

Check out my updated project learning resources: http://www.educationreporting.com/#project

21st century tutoring

Amazing true story of how this ordinary tutoring began and the success it's having. A video you can watch while you multi-task makes this an easy one to imbibe.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html

Happy Saturday! Jack

PS: I have updated my ed reports page: http://www.educationreporting.com/edreports.php