Wish List or Pipe Dream?

From the BCCT. Check out the implication of what Jack Buckman is saying: Talk all you want, but we do not have to listen.

Part of the reason for that is that there's not enough people talking. The Emperor can ignore everyone who doesn't show up.

Citizens group makes wish list
Morrisville residents are encouraged to attend the Monday’s meeting.
By MANASEE WAGH

The citizens of Morrisville want to see the district shape a master renovation strategy for its school district’s middle/senior high school and two elementary schools.

That’s one conclusion several residents reached after volunteering to help sketch out the future of the town’s 1,037 school children.

Anywhere from 10 to 35 borough residents calling themselves the Citizens Action Plan committee have met three times to discuss what they feel are key issues: finances, facilities and quality of education.

The committee’s goal is to function as a mouthpiece for the borough and formulate recommendations for the school board to consider.

JoAnn Perotti, the facilitator at meetings, said the committee would like to have a good working partnership with the school board. Perotti is the director of strategic planning for Bucks County Intermediate Unit No. 22, which supplies special education resources to Bucks schools.

To that end, at least one school board member and a minimum of one district administrator attend each meeting, bringing their own points of view and expertise to discussions.

The committee has made several suggestions, subject to modification, depending on how practical they turn out to be:

• Do not send students to other districts on a tuition basis. If the board decides to consider this option, let board members also consider the financial costs.
• Do not house all grades in one building.
• Study mechanical systems of all three school buildings.
• Ask the district to provide the committee with school information: floor plans, class size, which rooms are being utilized and a cost analysis of renovating or closing schools.
• Formulate a master plan to renovate the high school building, including a detailed facility study.
• Perform an analysis of both elementary schools to determine which is in better shape. Consider renovating it and selling the other one for needed funds. M. R. Reiter Elementary may be a better candidate for renovation, as it is more centrally located.
• Consider constructing a new elementary school on Reiter’s playground.
• Come up with a preventative maintenance plan to head off future problems.
• Replace school staff that have retired or left, and keep looking for quality administration applications.
• Keep increasing test scores.

School board member John Buckman, who attends the meetings, said structured dialogue among residents, board members and administrators is a step in the right direction.

However, the board may or may not be able to fulfill a community wish list, he warned.

“As a board member you have to look at those things realistically. How much is the board going to follow along with what the committee wants?” he said.

Residents should make their voices heard by actively participating, said resident Damon Miller. He has been attending the meetings, but the inconsistent turnout worries him, especially in light of how vociferously borough residents have made their opinions known in the past.

“I think it’s going well. We’re able to have actual conversations between board members and community members that attend. But not a lot of people show up. It’s important that the community comes together. To not see that happen now is disappointing,” he said.

Morrisville has seen much contention in the past two years relating to the previous board’s decision to take out loans for constructing a $30 million consolidated school building housing every grade. The decision brought deeply divided opinions to the forefront in a town that struggles financially to support students and keep taxes low.

The current board cancelled the construction plan. A few months ago, the board suggested looking into sending children to neighboring districts on a tuition basis, a suggestion met with disapproval by many. Throughout these events, residents have protested that the board fails to take their opinions seriously.

Perotti, who spent the last school year helping the district develop its six-year strategic plan, expressed confidence in the committee’s abilities to affect change.

“From a facilitator’s standpoint it’s been a very positive experience to see the dialogue between all the different groups. That it will be productive is the hope of the committee,” said Perotti.

Our Principal Teacher Will Be...

From Framingham (MA) MetroWest Daily News.

Dear Bill: Do more with less. I want to see three classes on your schedule ASAP. Everyone said at the last meeting how talented you are. Signed: William Hellmann, Emperor of Education.

P.S. Find four more people on the staff who can teach and get them in classrooms. Save money. Reduce headcount. Get it done!

Ashland High principal teaching English this year

By David Riley/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News, Posted Sep 30, 2008 @ 10:00 AM

ASHLAND —High school Principal Michael Tempesta's days are filled with much more than crunching budgets and supervising staff and students.

This fall, his responsibilities include explaining iambic pentameter, similes and stanzas, and a little bit of Kurt Vonnegut's prose.

Tempesta, a former English teacher, has stepped back into the classroom this year, co-teaching a level one English course for juniors with special education teacher Charlene Miller.

He said he took on the course largely because the class otherwise would have had nearly 30 students in it - far more than is ideal, especially for teens who need some extra attention from their teacher.

"Do you step in and take half of it, or you stick one teacher with this huge, really demanding class?" Tempesta said.

Although the course presents some scheduling challenges for the principal, the answer was clear. "The secret for our success is definitely the small class sizes," he said yesterday.

Tempesta said this is only one example of how high school staff is adapting to keep programs strong as resources shrink and enrollment grows. As of earlier this month, the high school had 18 more students than last year, with a total of nearly 750 teens.

Ashland High is still doing well, Tempesta said, and is proud to offer 15 Advanced Placement classes and a host of honors courses that he believes offer students a better chance of being accepted to competitive colleges.

"We've done incredibly well," he said, noting Ashland was named among the country's best high schools last year by U.S. News and World Report. "In fact, we're doing better."

But with tightening staff levels, Tempesta said he worries about how long his school can keep doing that.

During budget season, Tempesta had requested three additional teachers for the fall. As the district grappled with cuts and a deficit, the new positions were not approved. With some departures, the school lost the full-time equivalent of 1.8 teachers, Tempesta said.

The school cut a gym/wellness teacher position to free up hours for math and science, he said. Teacher Chris Beaton gave up managing the virtual high school program, through which students can take high-level courses online, to teach an additional class. Guidance Director Brian Garrigan has taken on coordinating virtual high school instead.

The school has restructured other positions and added responsibilities to existing ones, Tempesta said. Still, the school has more class sizes reaching 25 or 30 students, he said.

For now, some of the school's creative efforts to keep class sizes in check have their benefits. Getting in the classroom, Tempesta said, helps him connect with students and his staff.

An English teacher at Ashland High for about seven years before he left to become an assistant principal in Sharon, Tempesta developed some of the same materials he is teaching today. He returned to Ashland High five years later to take the helm.

Still, "I love to teach," he said.

There are more English sections than teachers this year, department Chairwoman Sue Bronstein said.

"I think he has enjoyed it," she said of Tempesta. "At the bottom line, the teachers will teach their best regardless of what they are given."

Students said yesterday having the principal teach about American literature is a little unusual, but they had no complaints, at least not to a reporter.

"If I'm getting the material, then he's doing pretty good," junior Naomi Ehrens said.

"It's different," said student Matt Bradshaw. "It's hard to slack off."

Although he is no fan of literature, "it's better than the other English classes I've had so far," Bradshaw said.

Through creative efforts, Tempesta said, "I think we have the most diverse course of study in Massachusetts for a school our size."

He hopes to keep it that way. "I feel a sense of responsibility," he said. "You do what you can administratively."

iPod Education

From the Inquirer.

Education attuned to times
Colleges make offerings available online through iTunes U.

By Elizabeth Fox Posted on Wed, Oct. 1, 2008

At the University of Michigan, Rachel Frank doesn't use her iPod only to listen to her latest rock music download. The junior and Mount Airy native also reviews recent lectures and participates in virtual review sessions. Her younger sister is getting firsthand knowledge about college admissions by listening to her MP3 player.

They both are taking advantage of the latest development in the merger of education and technology. To keep up with the growing presence of all things online, universities are now aiming to reach students, prospective students, and anyone else with a love of learning through a forum that is both popular and recognizable. In other words, they're looking to iTunes.

Conceived as a collaboration between Apple and various universities in 2004, iTunes U launched in the spring of 2006. Existing as one section of the iTunes store - generally known for television and, as of this past April, the No. 1 music retailer in the U.S. - iTunes U allows users to download free content from top-flight universities and museums, including Stanford, MIT and UC Berkeley. The offerings include lectures from faculty, remarks by visiting speakers, advice from admissions officers, and music, dance and theater performances.

The site, which began with only 16 institutions, has ballooned in recent months as more schools join up to post their content. Usage, too, is growing quickly. Villanova, which launched its iTunes U site almost eight months ago, already has about 70,000 individual subscriptions to its iTunes U podcasts.

Universities say it's a convenient way to boost their popularity and prestige, as well as rack up a few karma points for delivering education to the masses. For the general public, it's an easy way to sample the best of the best at many institutions.

Just a quick scroll through the iTunes U homepage will reveal the wide range of material available. A list of the most popular downloads includes a talk on the digital future by Apple's Steve Jobs at the Wharton School and the lectures given in MIT's freshman physics course. Lehigh University posted material from the Dalai Lama's summer visit, including videos of the making of a sand mandala and special faculty lectures on Tibet and Buddhism. And for those who weren't in California to hear Oprah deliver Stanford's commencement speech this June, you can hear her words of wisdom on your iPod.

Many schools also have posted promotional information to attract prospective students. Some offer traditional admission and financial aid information. Others, such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, showcase campus tour videos and student presentations on campus life. Still others encourage prospective students to listen to lectures to get a sense of the class environment and course material. Last semester, Villanova created a group of podcasts for incoming students, which included an interview with men's basketball coach Jay Wright.

"It shows what a tight-knit community we are, that our basketball coach is giving advice to new students," says Ashish Desai, iTunes U administrator at Villanova University.

Universities are dividing their iTunes U sites into two sections, one public and one private. The public section is open to everyone, but in order to access the private side, users need a student ID and password. It is in this section that professors post course material specifically for their students, including lecture recaps and virtual review sessions.

"The majority of what's on our site is private," says Cole Camplese, a professor and the director of education technology services at Pennsylvania State University. Last spring, the faculty there posted more than 3,000 podcasts for students.

This is what students want. In fact, 82 percent of undergraduates polled in a recent study by the University of Wisconsin E-Business Institute say they prefer courses that record and stream lectures online as opposed to courses that feature only in-room instruction.

For some professors, offering podcasts of content keeps everyone caught up on the course material. "Mine is a commuter campus, and I hate for students to be penalized every time there's an accident on the Blue Route or a bus is delayed," says Laura Guertin, associate professor of earth systems at Penn State Brandywine. "I audio-record my lectures so that students can download them and listen during their commutes. That way, if they miss a class, it's not the end of the world, and they can continue learning even after they leave the lecture."

The system also ends up helping athletes whose sports schedules may prevent them from attending class.

"These students are able to listen to class lectures on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and then step back into class on Monday without having only secondhand information," Desai says. The same is true for those students on medical leave or with a work conflict.

So much convenience might lead to abuses on the part of students. After all, with lectures so easily available online, won't students simply take the opportunity to sleep through class?

"That's a concern for everybody," says Ilena Key, instructional technology consultant at Lehigh University. "But I think schools are finding that students are happy to come to lectures knowing that they don't have to frantically take notes, and can review concepts outside of class."

Frank, for example, uses the online material to review information but is quick to point out that, "unless I were sick or had a serious conflict, I would go to the lecture."

Still, some professors are combating the threat by putting extra work into their class presentations. "I make an effort to keep my lectures engaging," Guertin says. "If the classroom experience is not interesting, then students will probably skip it."

"Those that aren't going to come to class aren't going to come to class anyway, no matter what you do," Desai says. "Most students still see a need for hearing the professor and interacting with other students. This is just a great tool to give students access to information wherever they are, whenever they want."