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Welcome to the Tuesday morning, February 27, 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.
Editor's note: The HML Board encourages the wider distribution of the
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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
"Saying gun control hurts our freedom is a false argument amounting to propaganda. Gun laws don't curtail freedom any more than speed limits or seat belts. You still get to drive your car and have guns, we're just trying to save lives as you do."
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Following the school shooting in Florida, students around the country are planning walkouts to protest school violence. Anticipating that this movement may come to Highline schools, we want to give you guidance about employee absences associated with student walkouts.
The priority we all share is student safety. In the event of a student walkout, please direct your staff as needed to ensure that students are safe and supervised. For example, you may direct some staff to accompany students off campus, while requiring other staff to stay on campus to supervise students who choose not to walk out.
This is consistent with the way we have responded to other recent events impacting some of our schools, such as the post-Super Bowl Seahawk parade and walkouts associated with immigrant rights.
(Learn more.)
Inspired by the courageous young people in Parkland, Florida and across the nation, our organizations are joining with schools and communities across the country on April 20, 2018 to take up the students' call of "No more."
No more children murdered in school. No more parents sending a child to school who never comes home. No more teachers, coaches, principals, librarians or any school staff standing between students and a gunman. No more.
We call on every school community in America to join us-in the way that makes sense for you-to demand that our leaders take real action to end gun violence.
On April 20, 2018, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine Massacre, we will stand together in our communities to demand that our elected leaders take meaningful action to stop the violence that is tearing apart our schools and our communities.
We know that this problem can be solved. America is one of the few nations where mass-shootings are commonplace. Mass murder in our schools is not a predetermined outcome-it is a consequence of decisions made by our elected leaders.
The problem extends beyond mass shootings. Gun violence affects the lives of our students far too often, inside and outside of schools. Too many youth, especially in communities of color, are affected by gun violence on a daily basis. It is far past time for our leaders to take real action when it comes to gun violence.Because they have not, we must.
Join us by organizing an event at your school, in your workplace, or in your community on April 20 to stand in solidarity across the country and demand action NOW. (Learn more.)
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The New York School Boards Assoiaton offered very cautious, sensible advice from a purely legal perspective. In short: policy should always be upheld in order to preserve order and prevent the danger of setting a precedent which might, in the future, be used by students to evade repercussions for other policy violations; and that school boards should not support such activities, because school districts have "no express authority to engage in political activities," but rather should always assume a position of neutrality. In addressing the issue of students' First Amendment rights, NYSSBA cited the U.S. Supreme Court case of
Tinker v. Des Moines, which states that schools can curb students' free speech rights when they cause a significant disruption to the learning environment.
"As a school board member, I could hardly disagree more with everything I read in this email. Public education has become a highly politicized environment. To say that school boards should remain neutral, even apolitical, is ridiculous. We are elected officials, and though our elections are nominally nonpartisan, we are individuals with viewpoints, we represent our voters' viewpoints, and have obligations to them and to students.
"As school officials, one of our first and most important duties is to ensure that our students, teachers, administrators and staff have a safe and welcoming place to learn, teach, and work, free from fear. We are facing an ongoing crisis in our schools, a repeating cycle of violence, followed by fear, then inaction, and finally complacency. Over the past 20 years, we have seen tragedy after tragedy unfold, from Columbine, to Newtown, and now to Parkland, each with its horrific, bloody, senseless deaths, each ultimately marked by the failure of leaders to take action.
Every generation seems to complain that children "these days" are so much more entitled and ungrateful than in years past. This time, they might be right. In today's selfie culture, which often rewards bragging and arrogance over kindness and humility, many people are noticing a drop-off in everyday expressions of gratitude.
In a 2012 national online poll of 2,000 adults, commissioned by the John Templeton Foundation, 59% of those surveyed thought that most people today are "less likely to have an attitude of gratitude than 10 or 20 years ago." The youngest group, 18- to 24-year-olds, were the least likely of any age group to report expressing gratitude regularly (only 35%) and the most likely to express gratitude for self-serving reasons ("it will encourage people to be kind or generous to me"). (
Learn more.)
1. Cue up a few ASMR videos to watch/listen to when you lie down.
2. Try limiting your alcohol intake after 9 p.m.
3. And turn the thermostat down a bit so you're sleeping in a cooler environment.
4. Practice the 4-7-8 breathing method.
5. Charge your phone somewhere AWAY from your bed.
6. Mist your pillow with lavender chamomile pillow spray.
7. Or dab tea tree oil or lavender oil on your wrists and neck.
8. Play a word game that takes your mind off the fact that you can't get to sleep.
9.
Use an eye mask to block out every single bit of light in your room.
10. Or try drinking Sleepytime tea around 30 minutes before going to bed.
11. Rub your entire body down with coconut or castor oil.
12. Only lie down or hang out in bed if you're ready to turn in for the night. (Learn more.)
Two researchers, Helen Ladd from Duke's
Sanford School of Public Policy, and John Singleton, from the
Economics Department, based their research "on detailed balance sheet information" for a sample of school districts in their own state of North Carolina, which saw significant charter entry when a statewide cap of 100 charters was lifted in 2011.
The project examined the fiscal impact on charter schools for one medium-sized urban and five non-urban districts. The effect varies, they wrote, based on multiple factors: the share of students lost to charters, the amount of flexibility the districts have to adjust their budgets, and the types of students that decide to enroll in the charter schools. As a result, the financial hit will also vary among districts. For example, the researchers wrote, "non-urban school districts, which tend to be smaller and lower density, may have more limited latitude for adjusting their spending when they lose enrollments to charter schools than urban districts." (
Learn more.)
As educators, we are constantly stating that we need to update our instructional practices and content delivery to best meet the diverse needs of learners. We often speak of the need for instructional technology, differentiation, dynamic delivery, and assessment and evaluation. However, all of that goes out the window when we meet with teacher teams and principals. Meetings tend to be several hours long with a myriad of non-related topics with different presenters dictating information or reading from power points. All of which could be sent in an email.
This leaves the audience feeling micromanaged, frustrated, and bored. Steve Jobs once stated that people who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint. We would never approve of these methods being used in the classroom, yet we continue to allow them in our own meetings.
Here's a concept for next year for everyone who plans school or district level meetings: Change up your meetings so that they are productive, informative and engaging.
TIP #1: Never have a meeting run more than an hour.
TIP #2: Turn your meetings into work sessions.
TIP #3: Try flipping your meeting.
TIP #4: Cancel your meeting if it is not needed. (
Learn more.)
Five Presentation Points by Jack McKay.
Five strong suggestions for your PowerPoint Presentations:
1. Keep eye contact with your audience - not the screen.
2. Never, ever read what is on the screen.
3. Use brief statement - no sentences unless a quote.
4. Usually, one idea or concept per slide.
5. 10-20-40 rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 40 pt. font or larger.
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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. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
President-elect:
Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen Schools, Kalispell, MT.
Vice President: Dr. Lisa Parady, Exec. Dir. Alaska Assoc. of School Admin., Juneau, AK
Past President:
Dr. Martha Bruckner, Exec.Dir., MOEC Collective Impact, Omaha, NE
Directors:
Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt.
of
Schools, (ret.) Weslaco, TX
Dr. David Berliner, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Talisa Dixon, Supt. of Schools, Cleveland Heights - University Heights, OH
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. Martin Brook, Executive Direcctor, Tri-State Consortium, Satuket, NY
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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