Dec

24

On Common Ground

December 24, 2006 | 3 Comments

I woke up this morning, earlier than I wanted to, thinking about those 30 students who stayed after school to form a GSA, or Common Ground, or Acceptance and Tolerance, or whatever else they decide to call themselves group. I began to imagine a conversation with those who believe strongly that this group is wrong, [...]

Dec

22

Time to Stop Everything

December 22, 2006 | 1 Comment

It’s late on the last day before the Winter break and I’m so grateful that it’s late on the last day before break! There is something that happens to our buildings just before a break, and we seem to shift into a different mode. My first administrative job was as an assistant principal and my [...]

Dec

21

Follow Up on GSA

December 21, 2006 | 1 Comment

Previously, I posted about a student group in G-Town who is interested in starting a Gay/Straight Alliance. At that time, I had a lot of questions and I was looking for some clarity in my own thinking. Blogging about it brought several comments, and G-Town Readers helped me process the whole thing.  
Our students interested in [...]

Dec

19

Free, Equal Access to Excellence in Public Education

December 19, 2006 | 5 Comments

I’m not sure how I missed it, but I’m very glad I caught Will Richardson’s post from early November. Will writes a letter to his two children about a future college education and in it he says,
For most of your young lives, you’ve heard your mom and I occasionally talk about your futures by saying [...]

Dec

18

Court Consequences

December 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment

How did we reach the point where a student smoking marijuana in school is merely an appearance ticket in family court? We have the strictest of school consequences, a Superintendent’s Hearing, and the NYS Troopers do all the right things with us–only to result in a barely felt slap on the wrist.
Yeah, that’ll keep my [...]

Dec

16

G-Town Wrestlers Rock

December 16, 2006 | 1 Comment

For the last ten hours of this beautiful Saturday, I sat in the gym at Iroquois High School for a wrestling tournament and it was worth every minute of it. Wrestling is, by far, my favorite school sport. Granted, I went to school in Pennsylvania where every boy worth his salt at that time wrestled [...]

Dec

13

Acceptance & Tolerance/GSA?

December 13, 2006 | 12 Comments

At the beginning of this year, three students met with me about starting a group for gay students. We talked a lot about what they wanted out of the group, what they thought the purpose of the group would be, and what they needed from us. They weren’t really clear on all of those questions [...]

Dec

13

Pass It On

December 13, 2006 | 10 Comments

Our Building Improvement Team is made up of teachers, support staff, parents, community members, students, and me. We have a generosity drive each year, where our students and staff raise money to help make the holidays better for a few area families.
I received the coolest phone call ever from one of our families from last [...]

Dec

11

Spit It Out or Think and Defend?

December 11, 2006 | 4 Comments

We have a recurring theme here in G-Town surrounding our students and academic achievement. As our teachers analyze data and discuss new literacy strategies, I keep hearing the same thing. Our students don’t want to think.
It seems that they really prefer assignments that are specifically spelled out and require only regurgitation of facts. When we [...]

Dec

7

Student Member on the Board

December 7, 2006 | 1 Comment

G-Town Board of Education gave the oath of office to it’s first student board member, Jeremiah Davis, last night. How cool is it that we have a superintendent and a school board who value what our students think so much that they’ve adopted policy to include a representative on the Board?

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