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Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:06 AM GMT •
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May 24, 2010 – Day #1
There is NO school tomorrow.
The Minister of Education has spoken.
Tomorrow is a day off.
Wednesday will be Day #2.
Dear Parents,
I wish I were more courageous. It isn’t my voice you read today. It isn’t even about elementary. The voice addresses middle school. Wouldn’t the call to action be even louder for us?
A New Jersey middle school principal is calling for parents to remove their children from all social-networking sites. Anthony Orsini sent an e-mail to the Benjamin Franklin Middle School community in Ridgewood, New Jersey, on Wednesday, urging parents to take down their children's online profiles on Facebook and elsewhere.
"There is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site!," he wrote. "Let me repeat that - there is absolutely, positively no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site!"
After issuing a rallying cry --"It is time for every single member of the [school] Community to take a stand!" -- Orsini enumerated the reasons he opposes social-networking by his students.
The main problem, he wrote, is that tweens do not have the resilience to withstand internet name-calling.
"They are simply not psychologically ready for the damage that one mean person online can cause," he said.
"The threat to your son or daughter from online adult predators is insignificant compared to the damage that children at this age constantly and repeatedly do to one another through social networking sites," he wrote.
His school's guidance counselors for years now have been mediating spats that originated online, Orsini said. The last straw for him was students' growing use of Formspring, a social-networking upstart where members ask and answer questions about one another.
Orsini singled out the site for scorn in his e-mail to Ben Franklin Middle School parents, calling it a "scourge" that exists "simply to post mean things about people anonymously."
A Facebook spokesman pointed out that many middle school-age children are formally barred from the site. "We prohibit children under the age of 13 from using Facebook both for safety reasons and to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," the spokesman said.
In recent years Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites have been blamed for the suicides of teenage girls in Missouri, Massachusetts and New York. Parents complained the girls were traumatized by nasty comments posted on the sites.
Orsini says that, on the whole, parental response to his e-mail has been overwhelmingly positive, and that parents as far away as Korea have e-mailed him to say, "thank you for saying something."
(Taken from The Committed Sardine Blog)
Yes, this is about middle school age children. ACS elementary children have Facebook accounts. Every reason cited for a middle schooler to be removed from social networking, the dangers of networking are dramatically increased for our little ones. Imagine – there are 7 year olds with accounts in our school.
The long idle days of summer are coming. How will your child be engaged? What is the supervision? What is the message of the home about wiling away hours on social networking sites? And we – the school - will not be present or our loud, clear message about their usage and our interventions when we are notified of bullying. You are on your own as parents. What will you do?
Are you courageous?
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
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Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:06 AM GMT •
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Dress Code
Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:05 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 121
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May 17, 2010 – Day #2
Dear Parents,
The opportunity is yours. Let your voice be heard! Get involved in the discussion.
I am going Century 21 with you, too. A digital conversation. Please think of this as your Digital Parent Coffee. No meeting where a few faithful come and talk to me. I want to hear from those who don’t or can’t come to meetings as well. So, everyone, please, open up that computer.
The topic is elementary dress code. The decision is mine, however, I want to take your thoughts into consideration. That means I have to hear (read) them.
You are invited to send a comment and to comment on others by following the link below. Teachers may also add their comments to this link so you can read their thoughts as well.
ES Online Discussions
http://teacherweb.com/Blog/LB/ACS/SchoolHomePage/1/default.aspx
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Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:05 AM GMT •
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Principled discipline
Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:03 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 106
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May 10, 2010 – Day #3
Dear Parents,
“I can treat everyone with
‘dignity and respect’ (values)
while not enslaving myself to treating
everyone
‘the same’ (system)”
– taken from Love and Logic by Fay and Funk
Is there such a thing as a character education approach to discipline? In my mind, yes, and in my mind the only discipline approach that treats children with dignity and respect when they are most vulnerable. Inappropriate behaviors are mistakes that children make that pave their way to strong emotional and social self-control and self-discipline. Mistakes are the building blocks of learning, and a child’s classmate’s mistakes are also a child’s building blocks.
“ ‘Fair’ is often not identical treatment,
But, rather, giving what is needed.”
-taken from Love and Logic
Differentiation governs our teaching approach. The child who struggles in math receives the instruction that is designed for his needs at that moment in his learning progression. The child who struggles with behavior receives the instruction that is designed for her needs at that moment in her learning progression.
“Some schools are run according to a ‘system,’ in which rules are established and staff are expected to take action when there are any violations. Punishments are determined for given infractions and consistency is required, administering these rules and punishments equally to all, regardless of whether or not they affect positive change in an individual student. Expectations are imposed uniformly on all staff, regardless of their comfort level with any specific element of the system.
Other schools (character education schools) are run according to a collection of ‘principle,’ or values, that govern the behavior of students and staff. As in a systems approach, rules are developed and made known to those in the school. Likewise, staff are expected to take action when any of these rules are violated. Discipline situations, however, are handled within an accepted set of principles, on an individual basis. Consistency is maintained by adhering to the set of values rather than necessarily treating everyone the same.” Love and Logic
I believe the choice of a principle-based discipline system is most consistent with the ACS mission and philosophy.
I invite you to compare the two approaches through this insert. It not only allows you to see the differences, I hope it will help you understand the discipline decisions we make. Ultimately, I feel, the principle approach best honors the dignity of children and adults.
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
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Article posted May 31, 2010 at 04:03 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 106
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Parent Letter - Performance
Article posted May 8, 2010 at 11:18 AM GMT •
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May 3, 2010 – Day #4
Dear Parents,
Performance Task Assessment – not a very spirited topic for my letter, you say..but read on. Many of you and I lived wonderful performance over 3 days at ACS this past week. And if grading were required – A+, A+, A+. You were proud, but more importantly, students were proud.
To reach this high level of achievement, students must aspire and be inspired. On stage does that. To showcase, to celebrate does that. And once students are motivated to perform, the learning is powered.
Let’s look at the Poetry Café performance. Everyone knows the poet sits on that stool alone in front of an audience sharing uniquely created poetry with high expectations for quality of writing and delivery. Children are energized to that extra push. They write for weeks enthusiastically incorporating the lessons on imagery, word choice, line breaks…They attentively listen to hundreds of poems as mentor text. They work on their presentation skills without complaint because they are preparing for something so exciting to them. The 30 seconds of a public delivery mask the weeks of learning that have preceded. With the prospect of a public performance, students work their hearts out on the learning that gets them ready.
The choir performances. Stunningly beautiful! Now think about the musical learning that children wanted, missed recess for, to acquire to perform at that level. The discipline and the beauty masked hours and weeks of learning.
Discipline – revealed in all the performance settings. Discipline to work long and hard. Discipline to practice, just one more time. Discipline to control behavior in public settings and on stage. Performance drives self-discipline, the highest form of personal social/emotional achievement.
I am describing a performance task. A highly motivating goal of performance or product that generates multiple layers of essential learning over time, and that culminates in public display. Recognized as one of the most power-driven means of inspiring learning, resulting in evaluation – either formative or summative, the performance task assessment is education at its best. We are working to push our assessments to a new level by reducing the reliance on memorized fact-based tests.
All those classroom celebrations? Those are performances that generated weeks of high level learning. Those are performance task assessments.
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
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Article posted May 8, 2010 at 11:18 AM GMT •
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Parent Letter - Curriculum 21
Article posted May 2, 2010 at 06:35 AM GMT •
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April 19, 2010 – Day #6
Dear Parents,
Sometimes it is the context.
I have read, heard about Curriculum 21 for awhile now. But it took my Bangkok Conference experience to capture my attention. It was like a “whack to the side of the head.” I sat in my Bangkok classes bombarded and surrounded with both the products and the tools of technology. Large screens projected not just the speakers, but their notes, videos, music, phone surveys, and links around the world. They were connected by iPods, Blackberries, notebooks – it was a digital feast. My colleagues sat in the learner seats equally wired. I came with paper and a pen.
I wasn’t embarrassed, I was shocked. I was shocked into deep listening to what has happened to me (or not happened to me) and what has happened in the world of education.
I hope to capture your attention over a few letters on this topic, perhaps spread intermittently across the remaining Monday Mail days that remain. Much of what follows will not be my words.
Your child is different from you in a significant way. His/her brain is different from yours. It is well documented through brain imaging, that the young folks have been altered by the context of their lives in a digital world. The adult world today, is not a product of technology from our earliest memories.
“Children today are different! But not just because they mature years earlier than children did even a couple of generations ago. Not just because of the clothes they wear or don’t wear. Not just beaus they dye their hair and style it differently than we did when we were their age. Not just because they seem to have more body parts than we did – which they seem to want to pierce, tattoo, and/or expose.
No, today’s Instant Messenger Generation has grown up in a new digital landscape. For most of them, there’s never been a time in their lies when computers, cell phones, video games, the Internet and all the other digital wonders that increasingly define their (and our) world haven’t surrounded them. Constant exposure to digital media has changed the way these Digital Natives process, interact and use information. As a result, DNs communicate in fundamentally different ways than any previous generation.
Meanwhile, many of us , the Digital Immigrants, struggle as we try to come to terms with the rapid change, powerful new technologies and change in thinking that are native to their world – a fundamentally different world than the one we grew up in.” Ian Jukes
The challenge to school people is momentous. How we learned in school and how we learned to teach, and do teach are all being severely challenged. As educators we have to understand how truly different our students are. We have to take the time to respect and honor where our children come from. We have to acknowledge their world and start to educate ourselves and our families about that world.
“Start asking kids the right questions – play videogames with them – explore their online world – open a MySpace account, create a wiki, write a blog, learn how to use IM or become a thumbster – and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’ve got lots of work to do. To truly understand them, we need to immerse ourselves in their world – in the new digital landscape.” Ian Jukes
I came back from Bangkok on fire, my personal and professional work outlined, a very steep mountain to climb. On last Thursday after school, our first Thursday back, the computer lab was filled with faculty and staff ready to begin the ascent in the 21st century.
(In closing, I want to acknowledge that our faculty stretches across the full continuum of technology usage – from the near beginner to the highly advanced. We will be differentiated in our learning.)
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
Please take a look at the video clip that is posted last week on my Monday Mail blog. It will make even more sense to you now.
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Article posted May 2, 2010 at 06:35 AM GMT •
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Poetry Cafe invitation/expectations
Article posted April 12, 2010 at 11:15 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 349
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April 12, 2010
Dear Parents,
Calling all poets and muses. Poetry Café is the event for you.
An evening of original poems read by the poets – mostly elementary student poets. Be amazed and thrilled by the imagery, beautiful words and expressive feelings of our children in this unique writing form. You would never have dreamed….
There are four cafes – each a room transformed into a beautiful theme space. Your poet will read in just one café, freeing you then to visit the other three rooms along with your poet to appreciate the talent of others. It hardly takes an hour of your time. I suggest you come and bring your student even if he doesn’t choose to participate as a performer.
Listening and appreciating is one choice. The real, complete experience comes with joining. Moms and dads are poets, too. Each year parents choose to be performers of their original poetry. Moms and dads who hadn’t dreamed they had poetry locked inside, until challenged to participate. Could you? You would be joining teachers, principals and the head master who also take the risk. Children are absolutely thrilled to have their parent take the poetry performance stool in front of the audience.
So let’s get imagining, dreaming, creating. And if no courage to perform, let’s mark our calendars to be there in the presence of our student poets who will inspire you with their beautiful words.
Thursday, April 29
6:00 – 7:00
In Poetry Cafes
(Come early to hear the live music performance.)
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
Announcements:
The Poetry Café form is included in today’s mailing. Please note the timelines and directions.
All students must attend the Cafes with parents. Nannies and older brothers and sisters are also welcome, but each family must include one parent who stays with the student during the hour of the cafes.
The following are the “rules” of the cafes. These are so important as honoring our performers with the highest respect. Be sure all family members who are attending know what is expected. These will appear again.
(Please note that I will be literally speaking about these on the parent blog letter. Tune in later today.)
• DO come early. You need to be settled in your Cafe of choice by 6:00 when the Cafe door is closed. Think of 5:50 as the arrival time, allowing yourself enough time to get where you need to be.
• DO use the published program – time and place – to preplan your evening as transition times are short. The program will come home to you on Wednesday, April 28.
• DO plan to remain in a Cafe until the set of 10 is done.
• DO plan to stay for the entire evening. Come early and stay to the end. This is a celebration of children. It will take an hour of your time.
• DO consider the age of brothers and sisters you might like to bring along. The program will have little appeal to very young children. KG2 may be the youngest that would find poetry interesting enough to sit throughout such an evening. Children must remain with their parents during the entire evening. Bathroom breaks are during the transition times. Children cannot come alone to the program – and please, not with nannies. Nannies are always welcome as a member of the family, in attendance with parents.
• DO expect to sit on the floor as an audience. Wear something very comfortable and casual. There is a carpet in each Cafe that will accommodate your sitting comfort. (Remember that you will be seated for the 10 minutes of the performance, and then have a 5 minute transition time where either you move onto another Cafe, get a cup of coffee, or simply stand and stretch.) A very few chairs will be placed at the back of each Café for older guests.
• DO honor the poets by “no talking” during the performances.
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Article posted April 12, 2010 at 11:15 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 349
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parent letter - differences
Article posted April 7, 2010 at 10:22 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 227
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March 22, 2010- Day #6
Dear Parents,
The slower, the faster, the angry, the sad – our children come to school every day with a complexity of social, emotional and academic differences. The struggling reader, the accelerated math student, the aggressive playmate, the quiet-remote child – all in a day’s work for an ACS teacher.
ACS is guided by a mission that dedicates us to the whole child. Most of you have chosen ACS because of this view. Most of you understand that it is a challenge every day to weigh the learning needs of a single child against the group. Most of you have children who require the single attention of a teacher along the way. And, thank you, ACS, it is given because we believe in the potential of every learner, be it math, reading or behavior.
You are very wise to recognize the value of all lessons to all children. Differentiated, of course. The struggling math lesson becomes a quick review for the ready. The fluent reader practices his skills as he helps his reading partner for the day. Interpersonal struggles become lessons in appropriate and helpful responses for others.
Let me stick this point. As an adult I face troubling other adult behaviors in and out of my personal and professional life. That’s because I live in a world of people. (War is the ultimate interpersonal struggle.) What I have learned is how to manage myself – at least, I try to use what I have learned – to act in response with responsibility and integrity. Reading and math pales to these lessons for your children.
Let me close with recognition – yes, there is a balance point. We have limited resources to help long-term and complex differences. Safety ultimately takes precedence for all the children. If this school can push to the edge of learning for all, without tipping the balance point; your child and every child will learn the social, emotional, and academic skills to live a quality life and contribute to a better world.
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
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Article posted April 7, 2010 at 10:22 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 227
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Article posted April 7, 2010 at 05:58 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 127
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Article posted April 7, 2010 at 05:58 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 127
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Parent letter - gratitude
Article posted March 19, 2010 at 04:58 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 270
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The following is a portion of a parent letter written by first grade teacher, Maysa Boubess, on the same topic.
March 15th, 2010
Dear Parents,
So what is it about Mother’s Day Celebration that makes it so significant?
Simply, it presents yet another opportunity to teach children to practice showing appreciation. No gift buying will measure up to sincerely taking the time to contemplate the meaning of the Celebration, taking the time to learn to say the right words and more often than not taking the time to consider the different ways to show gratitude.
These are big life lessons and children need to be taught these essential skills in order to grow up engaged with the world around them, so that they can become better citizens, friends and community members. Home and School then must provide numerous vehicles for such learning to take place but it must be explained, demonstrated and practiced.
“So we intervene. We intervene perceptively and creatively, attributing the best possible motive, and offering our help and our example in caring” – Nel Noddings, Caring
Do come to our Mother’s Day Celebration! Our classroom looked like a workshop last week with children working diligently to show their admiration and love for all that you do. We are expecting you. Again, we explain, we demonstrate, we practice!
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Article posted March 19, 2010 at 04:58 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 270
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Parent letter - math
Article posted February 28, 2010 at 08:13 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 386
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February 22, 2010 – Day #1
Dear Parents,
Revisiting Math as a letter topic this mid-school year point seems important to me today. Math remains a concentration goal of elementary this year. Book study parents are reading about Math for this discussion time and everyone has strong opinions about how it ought and ought not to be taught.
Thank goodness there are some definitive answers for Math educators these days.
Our efforts over this half year are the result of two serious turns. The first is the adoption of the AERO Math Standards K-8, and soon to be K-12. We have never been so clear about what each grade level student should learn. We have a teaching goal that each student master the “floor” level expectation of the grade which is clearly defined. This poses a real challenge in this first year working with the new standards as some children have entered our grade levels without the “floor” mastery of the previous year. We are urgently working through differentiation to correct these gaps.
The second change has come through the working patterns of grade level teachers. Called collaboration teams, each grade level set of teachers meets
weekly to plan the Math instruction, assessments, and homework based on the new standards. We also call it “cookie-cutter.” Your children across a grade level are receiving the same content. Conversations not only anchor what should be taught but explore best ways to teach all kids. Instructional improvement has been one of the most important benefits.
(Homework practice is almost exclusively on past Math learning. We find that students need continuous rehearsal on skills that were mastered earlier. Classroom work is moving children forward on a calendar.)
I would guess your Math instruction was very different from how we teach Math today. The goals of more traditional programs were very different. We were taught and drilled algorithms and “get right answers.” We don’t do that with your children. In fact, it is harmful for them to be drilled in the old way at home and faced with current instruction in the classroom. Memorizing interferes with understanding. Let me borrow the words of Lucy Calkins to describe the Math goals your children face every day at school.
“One big difference between the traditional way of teaching Math and the methods supported by the new Math and methods supported by the new Math standards is that more children today know there are many logical ways to go about solving any Math problem; and they are encouraged to use any method or combination of methods that work for them.”
We teach for understanding, for connections, for thinking and problem solving. Children, who are immersed in this style Math, come to algorithms naturally. Children who are drilled in algorithms first, find mathematical understanding very difficult.
It is important to note that Math students along the path of understanding reach a point where memorization becomes critical. For example, there should be no 4th grade student by now who isn’t fluent in his multiplication tables. Memorization is the last thing we do, never the entrance point.
At risk of wishing time away, I am eager to learn in June the outcome of this highly productive year in Math change. The question remains unanswered at this half-way point. Will this hard teacher work, matter in student achievement?
Sincerely,
Geri Branch
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Article posted February 28, 2010 at 08:13 AM GMT •
comment • Reads 386
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My Classes & Students
About the Blogger
This is my 6th year as the principal of the elementary school at the American Community School at Beirut, Lebanon. It is my 41st year as an educator.
I call Beirut home, with summers being spent at my other home -- Seattle, Washington.
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