This year a record number of Saline Area School staff have chosen to retire. To date, 39 staff have notified us they plan to retire between the end of school and August 31st. While from a financial & staffing standpoint, this saves money and allows us to recall more staff from layoff status – it also changes the feel of our district. The 39 retirees represent almost 1,000 years of combined service to the Saline Area School District!!
They leave us with a firm foundation focused on excellence and a commitment to continuous improvement. They will be missed!
First, thank you to all of you who have been diligently voting (and reminding others) everyday for our $25,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant. We are in the top 10 right now, but it will take a significant community effort to maintain our spot in the winner’s circle.
Second, I want to remind the community why we are pursing Project Lead the Way in the first place. Recently, I had the opportunity to read about some of the research related to using a project-based instructional approach. An article in Better Evidence-Based Education, by Christopher Harris and University of Arizona professor Ronald Marx describe Project-Based Science, an inquiry-based approach designed to improve motivation and learning. The idea is for students to investigate a “driving question” that frames important science content, connects to their interests and curiosity, and guides them through several weeks of collaborative investigations, weighing of evidence, writing explanations, and discussing and presenting their findings. This is the basic model used in Project Lead the Way.
The authors noted 5 keys to this type of instruction:
• Make it relevant. Students are more likely to learn science content if it is linked to need-to-know situations – for example, learning about force and motion by exploring the difference that wearing a helmet makes when a bicycle rider or skateboarder wipes out. • Activate prior knowledge. People use what they already know to make sense of new information – but what if prior knowledge is incomplete or inaccurate? “Research tells us that these fledgling ideas can actually serve as productive starting points for building more sophisticated science understandings,” say Harris and Marx. • Support reasoning and explanation. “Scientists advance in their understanding not simply by describing the natural world, but by explaining it,” say Harris and Marx. “…Similarly, students can advance in their own understanding by weighing evidence, interpreting results, evaluating claims, and sharing and critiquing explanations of their own and others.” • Focus on learning goals. It’s easy for students to lose sight of the central point of a curriculum unit when they are immersed in a series of activities over several days or weeks. That’s why it’s important for us to clearly state the main learning goals, essential questions and organize instruction around them. • Attend to student thinking. The best approach is to get students to make their thinking visible – getting them talking about their observations, hypotheses, and findings, listening carefully to gauge their level of understanding, and prompting when necessary to move students toward a deep understanding of the concepts.
In the end, project-based instructional strategies are what “good teaching” demonstrates. The issue we have found with this approach is finding the time to incorporate these strategies into the fast pace of the current model. Covering the State of Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations tend to drive process vs. being student driven. It might be time to change the model….
Last week I had the opportunity to visit Houghton School for their annual field day. The day was a fun and active celebration of what the students have learned throughout the year in their physical education class. This year the event had special meaning – with the closing of Houghton at the end of the school year, this was likely the last field day at Houghton for the foreseeable future. Congratulations to Ms. Chris DeFant and the entire Houghton School staff on putting together a great event.
If you have been reading this blog, you have read about Project-Based Learning in the past. Here is a quick video highlighted on one of the many great project-based, collaborative learning opportunities for our students. The project was funded by a Redies Foundation grant that was written by Ms. Mary Ledford. Thank you to Mr. Steve Sartori and Ms. Trina Bell for their support of this project.
On Thursday, the Foundation for Saline Area Schools held their annual Recognition Reception. This year the event was held at Stonebridge Golf Club. The event was a wonderful opportunity to recognize some of the grant recipients and to honor many of the donors who generously support the Foundation and our students. For more information about the Foundation for Saline Area Schools or to donate check out their website at www.supportfsas.org.
SHS Band members provided entertainment
Ms. Mary Ledford and Mr. Steve Sartori highlight their FSAS Grant
(l-r) Geoff Crosbie, Ellen Ewing, Kim Van Hoek
(l-r) Gretchen Driskell, Mary Laidlaw, David Laidlaw
On Wednesday, I attended the Highest Honors with Distinction banquet where we were able to honor the top 5% of the class of 2010 based on cumulative GPA. At the event each student was able to select an educator that made a significant impact of their education. It was great to hear the stories from the students about how the educators had motivated these students to work hard to achieve their dreams.
Here is the list of staff that were honored:
Trisca Beasley
Deb Budnik
Ben Culver
Russ Ernest
John Fox
Thomas Frederick
Rebecca Groeb-Driskell
Brian Heslip
Mike Hill
Lila Howard
Joyce Jonik
Nate Lampman
Jacqueline Majestic
Jeff Pike
Richard Schlanderer
One of the key issues for Saline Area Schools as we develop and define how we accomplish our mission is to instill in our students a desire for lifelong learning. This is related to bringing innovation to our curriculum and instructional practices. Is the call for innovation compatible with testing and accountability?
State and Federal education policy has the same issue. As a State we are competing for Race to the Top funds. The plans have called for “reimagining” public education, while at the same time, using the MEAP tests and other standardized assessments to determine annual yearly progress. The message to staff is “try new approaches, integrate curriculum, take risks, etc.” is often met (justifiably) with it doesn’t fit our State mandated curriculum.
In developing new programs or evaluating existing programs, we often ask the question, what does the data say? We want to create creative and resourceful thinkers who are effective problem solvers, but the focus on short term data analysis for justification of success or failure flies in the face of this goal.
Reform in public education is not for the faint of heart. We are faced with difficult choices. Our concern is to provide a learning environment for our students and at the same time we are forced to comply with policies that may not fit with the desires of our community.
Saline Area Schools Community,
These are exciting and challenging times for Saline Area Schools. Over the past several months I have had the opportunity to get feedback from many people, often in community meetings where I have set the agenda or topic. During these meetings, I have learned a great deal about how many of you see our district and it has helped guide me, along with the Board of Education, as we move toward a bright future. However, I am still interested in having conversations about the topics the community wants to discuss.
In an effort to continue these community conversations, I will be making time available on Monday, May 24th from 9:15am- 11:00am at My Favorite Cafe, 101 S. Ann Arbor St. Please stop by, say hello and bring any thoughts about the district you feel I should know.
There is a lot of buzz right now in the educational community regarding the availability and use of digital textbooks. In Saline, the conversation initited with questions about saving our limited resources and looking at digital materials to replace purchasing expensive textbooks, but it has led to conversations about how would our students access the information. (Yes, a few students and staff have volunteered to try iPads…) The large scale use of digital materials still involves limitations before it we can say that we are a proclaim we will never purchase textbooks again.
However, the conversation has shifted. It’s no longer a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Many of us are now very comfortable reading on a screen, something that our students take for granted. The large publishing companies are starting to shift their business model, but as you can imagine holding onto a $7 billion a year textbook market makes shifting less than motivating for many of the big companies.
The direction is to focus on digital content, but with an eye on “open source” instructional materials. This would mean we do not purchase digital textbooks, we simply use the internet to gather free resources. The downside with this model is that it can be time consuming (labor intensive) to develop effective lessons to meet the State mandated standards, however, it would eliminate the initial content costs.
The bottomline – we are in the midst of a significant shift and deciding how to use our limited resources. The process will be difficult at best.
Coming into this position I knew it would be challenging. Many staff and community members have asked me if I “like” my job as superintendent. My response has been being a superintendent is the best and worst job in a school district – often in the same day. Last week, I heard that one of our 7th grade students, Jacob Tanner, took first place in the state Geographic Bee competition and will go on to compete in the National Geographic Bee in Washington D.C. in May. In the same time span, I was also preparing to notify 63 faculty members that due to the financial condition of the district we are not sure we will be able to offer them employment for the 2010-2011 school year.
It’s hard to look at the educational landscape in Michigan and across the nation and not feel uncomfortable and even somewhat depressed. We are facing historic shifts in funding, along with the ever changing State and Federal mandates. However, even in this unstable environment there are tremendous successes being accomplished by our students and staff. I encourage the community to remember and celebrate these achievements.
During the next several weeks there will be classroom performances, concerts, sporting events, and numerous other student and classroom activities for the parents, families and friends to witness. On June 6th, at 6:00 pm we will have the privilege of celebrating the graduation of the Saline High School Class of 2010. Come share in these Saline Area School special events.
