Decided to start an admin program. I know, moving to the other side was a hard choice. Don't know exactly if it is something I want to do but the program is 16 credits and I need 15 to renew my certificate. More later,

Have a good friend who is taking the year off teaching. Strange feeling he says, especially when school started.

Check him out at:

http://vatermelon.blogspot.com

I wish I had more time to post and since they are few and far between I'm posting an entire article:

Concord, N.H. -
The state Department of Education has released a document intended to develop "a new high school delivery model," in which learning is tailored around students' interests and teachers mentor instead of instruct.

"This is the next step in moving forward with school redesign," said Fred Bramante, a member of the state Board of Education. "If we do this right, why would any kid drop out of high school?


Among the changes were a provision that would allow high schools to maintain a school year of 990 hours instead of 180 days and a mandate that by the 2008-09 school year, students must have the option to earn credits by demonstrating mastery of a subject instead of taking a course in that subject.

Bramante described the vision document as a link to the minimum standards that "articulates the vision, spirit and intent behind the rules."
"My fundamental hope is that it will inspire high schools across the state to take advantage of the increased flexibility" of the revised minimum standards, state board member Daphne Kenyon said.

Six "guiding principles" for redesigning high schools are outlined in the document:

• Students should feel a personal connection to their high school experience. School guidance programs are important, as are internships and lessons customized to each student's learning style.
• All students should be held to high academic and personal standards.
• Students must believe that what they learn is relevant to their lives; students should be able to personalize their learning.
• Teachers should be facilitators, mentors and coaches.
• Each student's learning should be monitored and documented.
• Data about that learning should be used to tweak the system to make it better.

Education officials say some schools already emphasize personalized learning. For example, Merrimack Valley High School offers online courses and internships, and its staff members are developing a charter school that would assess students based on their demonstrated abilities. The CSI Charter School would "profile" students and then adapt the curriculum to fit their needs.

Merrimack Valley Principal Mike Jette said he hopes to pilot the concept of awarding credit for "real-world learning," as outlined in the revised minimum standards, at the charter school next year and then bring it to the high school in 2008-09.

I like it because it's different.

Finally some common sense -

Since the system was installed eight years ago, he says, the statewide writing scores on average have lined up "almost perfectly" with results on both math and reading proficiency tests. "Ours is a bottom-up model," Christensen says. "It begins in the classroom with instruction that's aligned to our standards and extends to assessments developed locally that are tied to how well students apply concepts and problem solve, rather than simply memorize facts and figures and dates that they can't remember 10 minutes later."

Somewhere John Dewey is smiling:

No assignments. No tests. No grades. It's "no problem" for Bothell school.

The music room sits empty on a recent gray morning at Clearwater School in Bothell. Four girls play cards in the "play" room nearby, and a half-dozen teenagers hang out in the "quiet" room across the way.

The crowd is in the computer room, where 20 students — about a third of this small, private school — are engrossed in strategy and shoot-'em-up video games.

Sounds good, but there are critics:

Even Alfie Kohn, a well-known author and harsh critic of public education, says Sudbury Valley is too radical for his taste. He prefers the Sudbury approach over what he considers public schools' "enormously counterproductive practices like grades and standardized tests." But he doesn't think students learn best left entirely on their own.

"There's a role for teachers to initiate possible avenues of inquiry, to spark interests that kids might not have had before. To coach and guide and observe," he said. "I don't take the view that the kids have to take the lead all the time. I think we miss a lot that way."

This is the future for classroom funding. Not district or school but classroom funding. How cool.

This is what happens in the Northwest when we get a little snow:

Snoqualmie Valley School District's School Board voted to reverse its decision to cancel mid-winter break after one-third of the teaching staff reported that they would not be able to show up for work, according to a district news release today.

Snoqualmie Valley had eight school days to make up due to weather, and district officials will continue to discuss when they will be scheduled, the release said.

The winter break is back on for Feb. 20-23. The district has a 300-member teaching staff, but not enough substitute teachers available to make up for those who said they could not work that week, according to the district.

Teachers of the world unite!!!