Scot Graden – Superintendent of Saline Area Schools
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 28th, 2009
If you have not had a chance yet – I encourage you to read the Thomas Friedman Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today. He argues that for the American economy to truly turn around, we need to “build” a well-educated population. While I may be a bit biased, I could not agree more. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 23rd, 2009
I recently had the opportunity to meet with Jack Bidlack, the Director of “The B Side” at Eastern Michigan University. For those of you who have not heard of it – and I assume that is true for the vast majority of the people who read this blog – it is a program that connects [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 17th, 2009
Some of you may have heard the term Project-based learning over the last few years and wondered what exactly does it mean? Project-based learning is defined as a comprehensive instructional approach to engage students in sustained, cooperative investigation. The project starts with a driving question or problem that serves to organize and drive activities, which [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 12th, 2009
Yesterday, along with our High School and Middle School faculty, I had the opportunity to listen to presentation from Dr. Punya Mishra, the Director of the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. Dr. Mishra discussed a variety of topics related to embracing technology as a tool to engage 21st Century [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 10th, 2009
According to noted creativity expert Peter Facione, “Creative or innovative thinking is the kind of thinking that leads to new insights, novel approaches, fresh perspectives, whole new ways of understanding and conceiving of things”. But…. how do you teach creativity? Thankfully, we have programs where students can experience opportunities to explore their creative side. One [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 8th, 2009
As I think about my summer reading list – I want to be inspired. For example, Michael Port’s book The Think Big Manifesto sounds pretty good. Here is a quote: The time has come. We cannot wait anymore. For years, we have hidden behind our own small thoughts or let ourselves be held back by [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 7th, 2009
On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend and present at the Foundation for Saline Area Schools retreat. The session kicked off with Bill Lavery providing a history of the organization. The Foundation started in the late 80′s in response to the increasing needs of the district to maintain a high quality education for all [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 5th, 2009
Many of you are aware that we have some of the finest facilities in the Midwest. This includes the athletic facilities on our High School campus. Over our 5 years at the new campus, many have asked about adding a scoreboard at the north end of the stadium to complement the one on the south [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 4th, 2009
I apologize that the last couple months I have not been posting much here on this blog. I have been able to continue to post information (much of which is provided to me) on the News and Notes blog, but I have not made the time to post here. I will work to make June [...]