In another teacher’s words
In my last blog post I shared an e-mail from a teacher. Today I’ll share another.
Pam Blevins of Moore schools, who is also the regional museum educator for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, wrote to tell me about eight Oklahoma teachers who attended a regional workshop in Flagstaff, Ariz., last month.
The workshop was geared to teachers who had previously attended programs at the national memorial museum — but Blevins said more could have been eligible to go.
We weren’t (able) to get in touch with many of the Belfer and Belfer II participants in Oklahoma as their email addresses and/or phone numbers were inaccurate. There are currently close to 100 participants in Oklahoma as well as 5 Museum Teacher Fellows in Oklahoma. We would like to get in touch with as many as possible in preparation for another regional conference as well as a gathering in Oklahoma. They may contact me at pblevins@hotmail.com, putting Belfer as the subject.
Meanwhile, here’s a snapshot of those who went to Arizona.
From left: Nancy Pettus, Tulsa; Naomi Poindexter, Tulsa; Melinda Parks, Oklahoma City; Pam Blevins, Moore; Debra Hatler, Ketchum; Rhonda Snow, Moore; Kimberly Derby, Owasso; LouAnn Jones, Enid.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
The crown stays at home
I was looking at school supplies yesterday for my 5-year-old, who starts kindergarten next month. I didn’t have a list of required items, but was temped to buy her some Disney Princess notebooks. Instead I e-mailed her principal about what she’d need.
Turns out that most parents at this school opt to give the teachers a minimal amount to buy the school supplies needed for the class. That way, all the kids have what they need, and there’s no bickering over who has the coolest stuff.
I like this idea, and I’m warming up to the idea of a school dress code; in this case, the kids wear basic shirts, pants and skirts in navy, white and khaki colors.
My daughter will still be my “pink-loving little princess,” she’ll just do most of her costuming at home.
What do you think about rules regarding dress codes and school supplies? Does such conformity squash individuality, or does it allow kids to focus more on the important stuff — learning.
Comment here or e-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
A teacher’s plea for help
Seven Oklahoma schools are in a national running for a $10,000 grant from Big Lots. A teacher at one of those seven schools — third-grade teacher Dawn Dilley at Putnam City’s Apollo Elementary — sent me an e-mail about it.
She hopes the school will get the money so they can build a fitness track, and wrote an essay and put together a 90-second video with some of the school’s students as part of the application.
Twenty-five runners-up will get smaller amounts of money; there are 100 schools nationwide all trying to win.
The thing is, online voters choose the winner, and she wants some help. Here’s what she told me in an e-mail.
Apollo’s is very important because we are considered a 100% Title 1 school. All our kids qualify and get free lunch & breakfast through a federal program. Now, due the economic issues facing our students, we don’t have a lot of PTA funds or giant fundraiser budgets to draw money from. We are also aware that kids in poverty have a higher rate of obesity and a lower rate of overall health. Knowing this, we applied for this grant to get our school a walking track. This grant would allow us to easily motivate our kids to get in shape and help the regular classroom teachers at our school comply with the OK Legislature’s new longer PE times, since we will be taking on this burden.
What I need from you is your vote and possibly the vote of all the people who read your education blog, or anyone else you know who might vote. I would also like to get the word out to support all OK educators. This competition costs nothing but 5 minutes of time from now through July 22nd.
It would be great if we could win, but it would be even greater if all 7 Oklahoma schools won some money.
Here’s how to vote: Go to www.lots2give.com. Use the drop-down menu to select Oklahoma, and Apollo Elementary’s video as well as the others will appear. Vote by clicking the “Vote for this school” button. People can vote up to three times a day through July 22, and you don’t have to watch the video each time.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
A glimpse behind the reporter’s screen
One way I get story ideas is by reading education news from across the country and thinking about local implications.
But instead of visiting news sites for the papers in Washington, Boston, Atlanta and other cities individually, I get them all through RSS feeds via my Google Reader.
This blog also has an RSS feed you can subscribe to by entering this URL in your reader of choice: http://Blog.newsok.com/educationstation/feed (or click the “subscribe” button on the right-hand side of the homepage).
Also, here are some education blogs I check in on. Neither I nor The Oklahoman endorse any of the opinions expressed on the following pages.
Blogs by newspaper reporters:
Dallas ISD, Dallas Morning News
Get Schooled, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Gradebook, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
Get on the Bus, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
Meranda Writes, (Lafayette, Ind.) Journal & Courier
Organization-based blogs:
Education Election, Education Writers Association
Flypaper, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Roy’s Account, Oklahoma Education Association
There are also many blogs targeting particular interests at Education Week.
In the spirit of sharing, please use the comments section to share any education-related sites you like, and what you like or would like to see improved on the Education Station.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
School foundation gets a makeover
An education foundation in the metro area has just undergone a makeover of sorts.
The Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation is now The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, a.k.a. The Foundation.
The organization has a new logo to match.
“First, the logo reflects the hand of the community supporting our kids,” foundation chairman Stanley Hupfeld said in a news release. “Second, the logo shows a child growing into an adult with the support of the community.”
The nonprofit was created in 1984 to support the work of Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Lights, camera, education
Oklahoman editor Ed Kelley occasionally records videos that focus on education in the state for his “Oklahoma Matters” feature. One went online today in which he talks about the big job facing new Oklahoma City Superintendent Karl Springer.
Here are some other recent examples:
-Early education: The next Oklahoma City superintendent must be a champion of early childhood education if the district is ever going to improve.
-Dropout dilemma: Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor has intriguing things to say about Tulsa public schools, trying to put badly needed focus on the high number of teenagers who drop out.
If you haven’t been keeping up with them before, you can do so from now on at http://www.newsok.tv.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
New superintendent search turns up old photo
Court records, voter registration records and the Nexis database are a few of the tools I’ve been using to gather information about newly named Oklahoma City Superintendent Karl Springer.
And Google — who could forget Google?
The search engine turned up something that gave me a chuckle – a 22-year-old yearbook photo of Springer.
An alumni site has black-and-white pictures of the teachers and administrators at Norman High School in 1986, with updates about where they are now.
It made me wonder: Are any of my old yearbook photos on the Web for the world to see?
They’re not, but with the wide reach of the Internet I can imagine that one day some old photo of me will turn up on Google and give me a blast from the past.
But for now, it’s all about Springer, so it’s all about sharing his blast from the past.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Binge Drinking in College
Does just going to college make you more likely to binge drink?
A national study followed students from early adolescence through their mid-20s and found that compared to their peers that never attended college, current college students were less likely to have been binge drinkers prior to their college years but more likely to binge drink once they entered college.
The researchers say this is probably the result of the college environment. Living in an environment in which drinking behaviors are promoted may increase binge drinking. Also, college students with a greater genetic risk consumed more alcohol per drinking episode.
What do you think? Is getting drunk and sloppy on weekends still a “rite of passage” for college students? It’s not harmless fun if you consider the auto accidents and even death that result from drunk driving, or the impact on relationships and studies.
Post a comment here or e-mail me your thoughts at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Pizza, ice cream and security
Oklahoma City School Board members are in their executive session now, so it seems like a good time to share some things with you.
Among other action tonight, board members just approved a smorgasbord of contracts on a consent agenda, including one item worth up to $60,000 for food from Pizza Hut.
The list of consent items on tonight’s agenda is the longest I’ve seen yet — 135 items, compared to 34 at the board’s previous meeting. Board members approve all the items on the consent agenda with a single vote, unless someone wants to discuss a particular one separately.
Here’s a taste of the other types of contracts approved Tuesday:
- -BUILDINGS: Building leases and architectural contracts.
- -MAINTENANCE: Repair needs for electrical, roofing and other systems, and custodial services for daily upkeep.
- -SAFETY: School security services, asbestos and lead abatement, and fire extinguishers and alarm monitoring.
- -TEACHING TOOLS: Library media services, art supplies, software programs and truancy intervention programming.
- -MEMBERSHIPS: District memberships to various civic organizations.
- -LEGAL: Legal counsel.
The cheapest item is district membership to the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with a maximum price tag of $125. The priciest is a contract with ONEOK Energy for $3,403,939.82 for natural gas.
Someone also had the bright idea to include light bulbs on the list.
Still, my favorite just might be the $90,000-maximum contract for “ice cream/novelties” from Blue Bell Creameries, which is, as their commercials say, “The best ice cream in the country.”
No disagreement there. In fact, that sounds pretty good right about now.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Operation Clean Up
No butts about it, Operation Clean Up was a smashing success today at Oklahoma State University.
OSU kicked off its first day as a tobacco-free campus by asking students and employees to pick up cigarette butts littering the Stillwater campus.
Here are the results:
– Approximately 26,667 cigarette butts were collected in one hour (10 pounds)
– This number translates to 293,337 minutes of life lost on campus due to premature death caused by tobacco use (as per British Medical Journal – one cigarette reduces life by 11 minutes – http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/320/7226/53 )
– The “value” of the cigarettes $5,586.74 (average in Oklahoma is $4.19 per pack)
– Time spent smoking this number of cigarettes (assumes 7 minute average) = 186,669 minutes or 3111 hours
– The New York Times reports for each pack of cigarettes smoked, it costs the nation more than $7 in medical care and lost productivity. Based on this average, the number of butts collected today cost the nation $9331 in healthcare and lost productivity.
– Approximately 25 volunteers from across campus participated in the event.
Readers, make sure you check out our new blog by several OSUers trying to quit smoking. http://blog.newsok.com/quitting
Susan Simpson
