RickScheibner.net

From the Register-Guard in Eugene:

The State Board of Education has made modest improvements in the way that high school athletic leagues will be restructured in the future. But the board failed to make the bold changes necessary to fix the current six-tier plan that imposes unnecessary hardships on schools in three of the state’s largest communities - and to prevent similarly flawed plans in the future.

Last Thursday, the board unanimously adopted an administrative rule change that will require the Oregon School Activities Association to “consider and address” student safety, loss of class time and costs to school districts the next time it reshuffles athletic leagues.

I just don’t get it. It’s ok for Pendleton to travel to Bend on a regular basis for athletic events, but it’s not ok for McNary to travel to Redmond for the same purpose? Can somebody please explain the logic of all of this to me? And please be careful not to use big words. I live in Eastern Oregon, you know.

The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

Technorati Tags: OSAA, high school athletics, Oregon, education, activities

Here are some random notes from our newest class, on our Saturday morning discussion.

Attendance is important!  Several students have conflicts, which we all have from time to time.  I’m thankful to be able to do this program relatively close to where I live.

Integrity:  We have several readings to work through, one of which is the Corporate Mystic.  We previously read this leadership book in another EDAD class, and it spoke a lot to the intangible issues of integrity.  How does this show up in the education setting?  Brad brought up the issue of trying to write grant proposals for programs that don’t necessarily fit the correct parameters.  Integrity is driven from within, not from without. 

“If you get an internal sense that something is wrong, check your integrity.  You can use that to gauge where you’re at.”

Integrity promotes a sense of predictability.  That is very important in an unpredictable field such as education.

Side note:  Eastern Oregon University, the campus where this class is being held, has apparently closed off their wireless internet connection to people who aren’t students or faculty.  That means no searching, tagging, etc… while we’re here.  I found a wall line to plug into in order to get on the internet, but that’s just during lunch time. 

Small group summary statement:  The predictability of a leader with integrity allows for schools and educational organizations to have something to anchor to in times of uncertainty.

How does integrity figure into your role as an educational leader?

My next class is quickly approaching this weekend: EDAD 612, Instructional Leadership. At the heart of school administration is teacher growth and development. A good, honest look at my own developmental needs as an administrator tells me that this topic, along with curriculum, are my two highest areas of needed growth. Certainly, my own learning in these two areas will take place both in this course and through my own educational pursuits.

I’ve already picked up and have begun reading through the two required books:

• Charlotte Danielson, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework For Teaching, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Instruction, 1996.
• Sally J. Zepeda, The Principal As Instructional Leader, New York: Eye on Education, 2003.

I am quickly finding that the Danielson book especially is considered THE basis for effective teacher evaluation and retention in our schools today. And for good reason. She is able to break down the art/science of teaching into definable, empirically-derived components, and transform them into a practical, collaborative method of professional development. Good stuff.

A look through the syllabus tells me we’re going to be doing plenty of hands-on activities in order to achieve our course objectives. And that’s just fine by me. As I get older, I tend to learn less in the sit-and-get model, and more in the sit-and-discuss, stand-and-practice model. This is a 3-credit class, so I’m going to assume that the workload will be quite a bit more than our previous 1-credit classes.

My goal is to have both books read and digested, and have a good grasp of syllabus concepts before we hit our first session on Friday. I’ll post more as we go along.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, Instructional Leadership, school administration, teacher evaluation, professional growth, developement

Will Richardson has some thought-provoking comments on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, which is currently beginning in some countries.  If you haven’t heard, the OLPC initiative is a program in which durable, child-friendly laptops that just cost $100 apiece are being distributed in third world countries.  These machines run open source software and are completely web-enabled. 

Richardson points to some photos of children in Nigeria who are just beginning to use the laptops.  He goes on to wonder what it’s going to take to get a similar initiative in our own country:

I don’t want to look at these pictures as a call to arms…it’s a celebration. It’s no doubt an important moment. But it should give us all pause. In a society that is more concerned with the father of Anna Nicole’s baby, one that spent almost $14 billion on Easter stuff, (the equivalent of 140 million laptops, btw) what’s it going to take before we understand what No Child Left Behind really means?

I would add this:  Many of the kids in my own district go home where there simply isn’t the money for technology.  Admittedly, in many cases the technology priorities in those homes are for videogames, but we’ll save that for a different post.  Their more affluent peers are MySpace-ing and IM’ing all the time, but they’re also getting a leg up by getting some research done and keeping up on the news going on around them.   Their connection is giving them an advantage that many of the other kids just don’t have.  It would be nice to get that playing field a little more level.  Here’s the link to Will’s original post:

Link to Weblogg-ed » One Laptop Per Child Begins…$14 Billion on Easter

Although this blog is only a few months old, I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now. I’ve picked up some tips along the way that have helped me out from time to time. I’ve written a new page on here called “Blogging tips” that you will hopefully find helpful as you continue to develop and improve upon your own blog. The link is at the top of the page, right next to the “Home” tab. There’s some advice here for writing, attracting readers, commenting, and hosting. I don’t consider myself an expert in this field, but these things have worked for me. And hey, if you’re 180 degrees away from me on a given point, or if you particularly agree with me on something, leave me a comment to let me know. I’d love to hear what you have to say about it.

Technorati Tags: blogging

I’ve been asked to plan and organize the counselor’s sessions for the upcoming InterMountain Educator’s Forum June 11-13.  Even though this event is a couple of months away, I’m excited about the sessions I’ve been able to pull together so far for the three days. 

For starters, we’ve got Dr. James Mason from Oregon DHS coming to present to us on Monday morning.  Dr. Mason has done extensive work applying cultural competency models to schools and other organizations.  I heard him speak last year at the Violence Prevention Summer Institute in Corvallis, and was very impressed by the ideas he had to share with us.  When I found out I was going to be organizing this gig, his was the first name on my list for guest speakers. 

Also on the agenda, we have our school resource officer coming in to give us a presentation on drugs/gangs identification and awareness and issues in school safety.    I’m also working on presenters for the following topics:

• Sexual predator issues for k-12 students
• Signs of child abuse/neglect at all age levels
• Grief counseling
• Student behavior management
• Experiential education
• School counseling and guidance curriculum

It should be a great three days.  I will post more information as it gets closer to the date. 

On a tech note, I’m experimenting with Google Docs to put the agenda and the flier together.  That way, I have the same document to print out to give as a hard copy, as well as retrieved via the web.  I’ll let you know how it works, but so far so good. 

cbs5.com - ‘Candy’ Meth Emerges In Bay Area

If you live or work in an area affected by methamphetamines, you might want to take a close look at this story.

Apparently, a new brand of meth is out on the streets now that is more like candy and less like addictive, illegal drugs.  Labeled “candy meth”, it comes in a variety of fun, colorful flavors that have the potential of appealing to younger kids.  It’s only been around since the beginning of the year, and teenagers are already beginning to show up in the emergency rooms after overdosing on the drug.  At least one kid wasn’t aware that it was even a drug; he was told it was Red Bull energy drink in a solidified form.  This article quotes drug counselor Dr. Alex Stalcup as saying: “This is clearly a drug designed to be introduced to children.”  The article continues:

The usual concern with meth is long-term addiction, but Stalcup said the problem with flavored meth is much more urgent: young users are much more likely to overdose, which means they could quickly end up in the emergency room.

“Just a pinch could be a fatal dose,” Stalcup said.

Scary.  I’ve had enough meth-addicted parents and drug-affected kids come through my office to know first hand how nasty this stuff is.  This is where drug prevention and education can go a long ways.  Show your local DARE officer this article and encourage him to make sure the word gets out.

Technorati Tags: drugs, methamphetamines, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, DARE