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Welcome to the Tuesday morning, February 6, 2018, edition of the HML Post. This weekly newsletter is a service to the members of the Horace Mann League of the USA.
More articles of interest are on the HML Flipboard site.
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HML Post. If you would like to have the
HML Post made available to your administrative team (or graduate students),
click here.
Donations to support the League's activities, like the HML Post, are always appreciated. The HML is a 501c3 non-profit association.
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Quote of the Week
It is easier to reach our potential when we learn the value of including others in our quest.
John Wooden
____________________
Horace Mann League's Annual Meeting
Showing your students that their opinions and suggestions matter gives a feeling of value and
empowerment and has been
shown
to produce a higher student satisfaction. Teachers using midterm evaluations can also enjoy up to 9% higher end-course evaluations score.
So what should you ask in these formative evaluations?
W
e've reviewed almost a hundred different question templates from universities and schools and found a clear pattern as to what feedback questions successful universities are recommending their educators to ask from students.
It all comes down to these three simple questions:
1. What should the teacher start doing?
2. What should the teacher stop doing?
3. What should the teacher continue doing? (Learn more.)
You have the right to have work that enriches and enlivens you, rather than diminishing you. This is my own personal declaration of human rights at work. It informs everything I do as a coach, management professor, and human being. Yet it's surprisingly controversial. Managers and employees in organizations around the world have bought into the assumption that pay and other contracted rewards are all you can expect to receive from work (and all that you owe your employees) and that it's unrealistic to hope for less-tangible benefits like trust, respect, autonomy, civility, and the opportunity to make a positive impact on others. This impoverished view of work plays out in workplace attitudes and behaviors that burn employees out. It also traps people in jobs that harm their well-being and sense of self. (Learn more.)
Some teachers hate them, others embrace them. But we should be cautious about anything that's known to be detrimental and addictive.
Teachers across the nation are grappling with the issue of smartphones and whether or not they should be banned in the classroom. Phones are a distraction for students, making it difficult to focus on learning. One survey found that 75 percent of K-12 teachers say students' ability to focus on educational tasks has decreased and the number of students who are negatively distracted by digital technologies in the classroom is growing.
Teachers have differing approaches. Some take a hard line, insisting that devices be kept out of the classroom. (
Learn more.)
Most superintendents fully understand the need and impact of an effective communication program for their districts. Yet some may need help starting a program as well as some direction for proving the value of the communication function to Board members, staff, and the community. That's why NSPRA leaders have now crafted this practical and brief resource to help you start and improve your communication efforts.
This E-Kit is designed as a quick read for busy superintendents. It contains 15 topics designed to give busy superintendents a jump-start in starting a communication program. (Learn more.)
Basically, it is a loose-knit panel of community opinion leaders who can shape perceptions of the public schools.
Its members are the people leading the discussions in the grocery checkout line, the civic club meetings, church social and dinner parties. When the network is kept informed it becomes your advocate in both good and bad times. (
Learn more.)
2018 Annual Meeting and Awards
NAEP, which issues assessments in multiple topics to students in grades 4, 8 and 12, defines "proficient" as "solid academic performance for each grade assessed. Students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter...." (
Learn more.)
As some openly fret about the strength of the nation's democracy, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor swooped into Seattle to talk to students, educators and others about the importance of teaching civics in Washington state's public schools.
Addressing a crowd gathered at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, Sotomayor said:
"No one is born a citizen. You have to be taught what that means."
As Sotomayor moved about the room, she touched people's shoulders, looked others directly in the eye. The crowd seemed mesmerized.
"Let's give kids the opportunity to change their own lives," she said, as many of those listening smiled at her. (
Learn more.)
A clear set of student performance goals can serve as the central driver of not only a state's accountability
system, but also the entire education system. Well-articulated goals serve numerous critical purposes, including clarifying the state's aspirations and priorities for its students, schools, and the future of the state more broadly; focusing policy, practice, and resources on the most effective strategies to achieve their goals; and signaling the need to adjust course along the way if a state is not meeting its trajectory. Goals can be
used by state leaders to rally support; bring stakeholders together for a common purpose; and communicate that what matters most is real, measurable improvement in student outcomes.
States have embraced the goal of gradua ng students prepared for their lives a er high school, recognizing that high school comple on is a signi cant marker of student readiness for career or college. (Learn more.)
In July 2016, Pennsylvania State University took over direct supervision of the Child Care Center at Hort Woods, an on-campus preschool and early learning center that had been run for the previous five years by an outside provider. But the challenge for those of us who work at Hort Woods wasn't just to adapt to new management; we also had to adopt a new mission.
The effort to learn about and implement a race-conscious, antibias approach to early childhood education got under way in the fall when we began meeting regularly to discuss our own experiences with race and diversity.
Taking our cue from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and other leaders in the field, we chose to adopt an antibias education framework comprising
four essential goals:
#1. To promote the development of children's positive social identities;
#2. To help children learn accurate language to describe human differences and develop caring, respectful relationships with others (including those who differ in terms of race, gender identity, family structure, religion, socioeconomic class, and ability);
#3. To recognize unfairness and understand that it is hurtful; and
#4. To empower children to respond to situations that are unfair.
by Stan Olson, retired Superintendent of the Boise (ID) School District.
Invocation
Will you please bow your heads with me.
Let us pray silently together, each one of us, according to our individual beliefs.
Let us offer thanks for our food and the blessings of the friendships and fellowship around us.
Let us be a source of hope and enlightenment for those we serve.
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The Education Cartoon of the Week.
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The Superintendent's Special topics:
(Please share your ideas. Contact Jack McKay
)
Sponsor a Professional Colleague for membership
in
the Horace Mann League.
Click here to download the "Sponsor a Colleague" form.
On the Art of Teaching by Horace Mann.
The book, On The Art of Teaching by Horace Mann has been presented to new teachers as a welcome gift by a number of
schools district
. For orders of 50 or more, the district's name is printed on the front cover.
Ordering Information
Cost per copy: $12.50
Orders of 50 to 99: $11.00
Orders of 100 or more: $10.00
Send orders to: (include name of district, P.O. #, and address)
The Horace Mann League of the USA
560 Rainier Lane
Port Ludlow, WA 98365
or
email: Jack McKay
FAX (866) 389 0740
About Us
The Horace Mann League of the USA is an honorary society that promotes the ideals of Horace Mann by advocating for public education as the cornerstone of our democracy.
Officers:
President: Dr. Martha Bruckner,
Exec.Dir., MOEC Collective Impact, Omaha, NE
President-elect:
Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Vice President: Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen School District, Kalispell, MT.
Past President:
Dr. Christine Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
Directors:
Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt.
of
Schools, (ret.) Weslaco, TX
Dr. David Berliner, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Mr. Jeffery Charbonneau, Science Coordinator, ESD 105 and Zillah HS, WA
Dr. Carol
Choye
, Instructor, (ret.) Superintendent, Scotch Plains Schools, NJ
Dr. Brent Clark, Executive Director, Illinois Assoc.
of
School Admin. IL
Dr. Ember Conley, Supt.
of
Schools, Park City, UT
Dr. Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Dr. James Harvey, Exec.
Dir
., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
Dr. Steven Ladd, Superintendent, (ret.) Elk Grove USD, Elk Grove, CA
Dr. Stan Olson, President, Silverback Learning, (former supt.
of
Boise Schools, ID)
Dr. Lisa Parady, Executive Director,
Alaska Council of School Administrators
Dr. Kevin Riley, Superintendent, Gretna Community Schools, NE
Executive Director:
Dr.
Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha,
560 Rainier Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 821 9877
To become a member of the HML,
click here to download an application.
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