By Kayla Gahagan

Mike Kenton (director of support services at the Rapid City school district) was probably annoyed with how many times I called him last week to keep tabs on how the district was preparing for the storm.

While two days of classes were cancelled and students stayed at home warming their toes by the fire, Kenton’s crew was hard at work plowing, preparing buses, and de-icing.

The buses all got to their routes with no mishaps and the students were all in school safely Wednesday. Our hats go off to all the people who made that happen.

Â

By Barbara Soderlin

 

Here’s a story from the wire about what President Obama said this morning in an online news conference with the public (an interesting format other presidents haven’t tried).

Everyone has heard about the importance Obama’s mother put on her boy’s education, and now he wants other children to have the same opportunities. But no more summer break? What do you think?

I liked what they were doing in Wyoming’s schools when I left there two years ago. The extra money available allowed them to put on summer programming for children that was sort of school, but more of an optional enrichment program, with field trips and experiential learning for kids who would benefit, plus old-fashioned summer school classroom time for kids who needed to make up credits.

As a kid I always liked summer school – the relaxed atmosphere and attitude of the teachers made it more fun. Plus it was over by noon, so I could go out and enjoy the day. And it kept our minds engaged and got us out of bed in the morning.

 

By the Associated Press

 

President Barack Obama says the best way to improve the nation’s education system is with more money and more reform.

Answering questions at the first online town hall from the White House, Obama said Thursday that greater investment in early childhood education and rewarding talented teachers would significantly improve the system.

He said the current school system — with three months off at midyear — was designed for an agriculture society centuries ago.

Obama said the only reason he had been elected president was because of the education he received, in large part through scholarships and his family’s sacrifice. Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

By Barbara Soderlin

If you’re a teacher (or a sociologist) you’ve probably heard about the Iowa teacher and her famous blue eyes/brown eyes experiment. Jane Elliott, after the 1968 shooting of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., wanted to teacher her students what it felt like to be discriminated against for something they couldn’t help, like race, or in her case, eye color. So she started treating blue-eyed and brown-eyed children differently, with fascinating and painful results. The experiment has always been controversial, but it illustrates how children live up to our expectations for them.

Here’s an interesting story in which a girl who grew up in Iowa, an Asian girl adopted by white parents, tells how the experiment affected her, and interviews Elliott on her thoughts on race in light of the Obama presidency.

“Elliott was the first white person I ever heard who admitted to the privileges of whites, acknowledging that visible differences affect how the world perceives us,” wrote Corina Knoll in the L.A. Times. “Her words sparked a hunger in me for more.

“My first year in college, I took courses on race and ethnicity and Asian American history. Race, I learned, permeated everything, and it was OK to say so. I found myself with strong opinions and a circle of outspoken black and Asian friends with whom to share. The world felt bigger, and I felt empowered.

“Much of my decision to move to Los Angeles eight years ago was to answer a longing to live somewhere diverse. When I discovered Elliott quietly living nearby, it seemed fortuitous that I had become a reporter. I could interview the woman who unknowingly sent me in a new direction.”

By Kayla Gahagan

Was I smarter in high school than I am now?

When I was in high school, I fell in love with my English classes and grew to loathe my math classes. If I could have written essays all day and skipped four years of math equations, I would have done it. Yes, I was a writing nerd, even back then.

So, I was suprised, and a little embarrased when I spent some time in a Central High English class last week and read a vocabulary list students were studying from and it included: trousseau, obstreperous, guilelessness, apoplectic, philippic, and interdict - words that are familiar to me, but not enough that I could have passed a spelling or definition quiz on them.

So, in true writing geek form, I looked them up for you. I feel a little bit smarter already.

trousseau - a bride’s collection of clothing and personal items

obstreperous - uncontrollably noisy or defiant

guilelessness - without craftiness

apoplectic - of relating to, or causing a stroke

philippic - a discourse or declamation full of bitter condemnation

interdict - an ecclesiastical penalty which (temporarily) bars a specific person or group of people from receiving the sacraments

 

 

By Kayla Gahagan

A story I wrote last week about Custer School district superintendent Tim Creal retiring with the intention of applying for the same job next year is receiving a lot of traffic on our web site and I want to know what everyone thinks.

In that story, Creal said the common misconception about the retire/rehire system is that (if he is rehired) he would receive two paychecks from the district. When in fact, he would get a retirement paycheck from the system (which, he points out in the story, he’s earned) and a salary from the district.

My education editor, Barb, wrote a great piece about this issue a couple of months back, which sparked criticism of Board of Regents executive director Tad Perry who retired in 2005 and was rehired.

In that story, a Spearfish teacher said she retired and was rehired and hasn’t heard any criticism about it, which begs the question: are people bothered by it only when someone like Tad Perry (who makes $300,000-something a year) does it because he can afford to honestly retire and let someone else have the job and salary? Or are people genuinely bothered by the fact that a state employee can collect a salary and retirement, no matter who they are and how much they earn?

Creal said he was talking to someone last week who reminded him that there is no difference between him retiring and getting rehired, and military veterans who retire and then take a civilian job with the government. Why doesn’t anyone accuse them of “double dipping?”

I’m still thinking about this one, let me know what your take is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Barbara Soderlin

We’ve had a lot of science education news in the paper this week, thanks to our freelance writer Katie Aurand, a student at the School of Mines. Katie does a great job for us, and I wish she were planning to be a journalist, not an engineer, but oh well. She wrote about the High Plains Science Fair on Friday and today about a new rock swap event hosted by campus geology club and about a fun run put on to benefit chemical engineers, where everyone dresses up in costume and runs a 5k.

In more serious science education news, it’s good to see Arne Duncan say the Obama administration will bring attention to the need for trained math and science teachers in America’s classrooms. Here’s the story:

By the Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday he wants to launch a “new era” of science education in the United States, one that encourages students to ask tough, challenging questions and brings more specially trained science and math teachers into the classroom.

Duncan told the National Science Teachers Association during a visit to New Orleans that President Barack Obama sees a need for inventors and engineers along with poets and scholars and “will not allow scientific research to be held hostage to a political agenda.”

“Whether it’s global warming, evolution or stem cell research, science will be honored. It will be respected and supported by this administration,” he said.

The federal stimulus bill includes more than $100 billion in new education funding, with $650 million set aside for technology grants, he said. Duncan couldn’t say how much money would go specifically into science but pledged funds would be available to modernize labs.

He also said many of the teaching jobs saved with stimulus dollars would be in science labs. But the money must be used wisely, he said, not just on saving jobs but also on driving strong reforms.

Duncan also cited a $5-billion “race to the top fund” to provide incentives to states already doing innovative, reform-minded work. He said there’s been a “dumbing down of standards for political reasons” under the current system of states with their own benchmarks and standards. That system doesn’t make much sense, he said, drawing applause, and it isn’t doing students any favors in the global economy.

He said there’s a need for common, high standards that prepare students for college and the work force and for international benchmarks to compare U.S. students with their counterparts around the world. He said he’s working with state leaders who’ve taken a lead in school reforms and hopes to come up with a better system.

“I think in far too many states, meeting standards means you are at best barely qualified to graduate from high school, and you are woefully unprepared to go to college,” he said. “We have been lying to children, and we are setting them up for long-term failure. That has to stop.”

He said the country has a long way to go to improve science education. Sectors including engineering, health care, technology and green energy need more workers, and “a generalist,” too often, is teaching middle school kids, he said.

That’s been a problem for years, and the market needs to pay science and math teachers more, he said.

By Kayla Gahagan

The Alliance for Childhood released three new studies today that say time for play in most public kindergartens has dwindled to the vanishing point, replaced by lengthy lessons and standardized testing.

Classic play materials like blocks, sand and water tables, and props for dramatic play have largely disappeared from the 268 full-day kindergarten classrooms studied by researchers from U.C.L.A., Long Island University, and Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Their findings are documented in Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School (at www.allianceforchildhood.org).

The Alliance says numerous studies have shown that children who engage in complex socio-dramatic play develop higher levels of thinking, stronger language skills, better social skills, more empathy, and more imagination than children who do not play in this way. They are also less aggressive and show more self-control. Play also lowers stress levels in children.

With the ever-present need to get children on the right academic path, and meeting federally-mandated requirments, it’s no wonder kindergarten has become what some call a “one size smaller first grade.”

What role does play have in kindergarten classrooms? Tell us what you think.

By Barbara Soderlin

Michelle Obama today visited a public school in one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods to talk about how she became the first lady and how today’s girls, too, can succeed.

The questions the kids had (quoted in this story) were cute: Do you put on your own makeup? Do you put on your own clothes? Not always, and yes, were the answers. Obama described how with her mother’s help, she stayed focused on her education despite peer pressure.

“I wanted to be the person who had the right answer and I didn’t care whether it was cool,’’ Mrs. Obama said, as quoted in the story. “I remember there were kids around my neighborhood who would say, ‘Ooo, you talk like a white girl.’’ I heard that growing up my whole life. I was like, I don’t even know what that means. But you know what? I’m still getting my A’s.”

By Kayla Gahagan

The Rapid City School district business office says that eight or nine election packets have been picked up, but none have been turned back in.

The deadline for the petitions is March 31 - so candidates have about ten days to get their name in the hat for the June 2 election.

Seats are open in areas 1, 2 and 7 - which are currently filled by Sheryl Kirkeby, Doug Kinniburgh and Arnie Laubach. Arnie said he won’t run again, Sheryl has said she will and I don’t know about Doug yet.

If you have questions, call the business office at 394-4026.

 

By Barbara Soderlin

If you’ve ever wanted to manage a $700 million budget and be the boss of 5,600 people, now’s your chance. South Dakota’s biggest state department, the Board of Regents, is hiring a new director, after Tad Perry announced his departure from the board, which he has led for 15 years.

Here’s just part of what the board is looking for in a new hire:

“The Executive Director and CEO who utilizes imagination and creativity, exhibits nimbleness in thought and action, persuasively builds support within the body politic, and crafts incentives for transformational collaborations across the higher education system, will find the South Dakota Board of Regents system exciting to lead. The Board of Regents seeks an articulate, persuasive, technologically informed, politically astute Chief Executive Officer who takes the broader view, works deftly with change, can create a nimble higher education system, is a self starter, a master at working with the Governor and Legislature and who is deeply committed to the importance of higher education in shaping the future.”

Yikes. I probably won’t apply. If you want to see the whole want ad, here it is:

http://www.sdbor.edu/ExecutiveDirectorSearch/documents/DirectorSearchAd.pdf