Did You Know?

November 5 is an election day and Saline Area Schools has a proposal on the ballot to renew our operating millage. This is not a new tax, Saline Area Schools has been collecting the same 18 mills since 1994 and passing this millage renewal will allow the District to continue to do so until 2023. In addition, the millage renewal has NO COST IMPACT TO HOMEOWNERS as the millage is not levied against an individual's principal residence.

If the millage is not renewed the district will lose approximately $7.9 million in annual revenue or 15.75% of our annual budget. To put this in real terms, that equates to the approximate cost to operate two of our elementary buildings, (supplies, utilities, teachers, support staff, administrators, etc.).

For further information, including the actual ballot language, please visit the Saline Finance Blog. 

Video Game Classrooms

I had an opportunity to hear Preston Swincher, an acclaimed speaker on Gen Y talk today and one particular strand of his talk really struck a chord with me. He recited the quote “Teens who play 5 hours or more of video games per day have difficulty focusing on tasks for long periods of time.” While the audience laughed, he repeated the statement to allow it to sink in, “Teens who play 5 hours or more of video games per day have difficulty focusing on tasks for long periods of time.” Whoever uttered those words surely failed to recognize the irony of that statement.

As educators we should ask ourselves why a teen that can’t sit still for 5 minutes in a classroom can sit in a quiet room for hours at a time without taking time to use the restroom or eat? The answers lie within the design of the games. Here are a few thoughts Preston brought up:

• Video games tend to be self-paced – players progress from level to level on their own.
• When a player achieves the objective of each level within a video game, they are rewarded with the next level of the game being unlocked.
• Should a player fail to achieve the objective of a particular level within a video game, no big deal, they simply play that level again.
• As players get better at the game, each level gets tougher and tougher.

What if schools could utilize those video game strategies in the classroom? Can we:

• Create more self-paced educational opportunities for students.
• Allow achievement and skill mastery rather than a calendar to unlock the next level of education.
• Allow students to continue trying to master a skill before bulldozing on to the next lesson without them.
• Challenge students with increased rigor as their skills progress.

If we could find a way to utilize these strategies on a large scale, (and I believe project based learning encompasses many of the required elements) we may just create schools where teens can focus on difficult tasks for long periods of time.            

30 Years... Where Has The Time Gone?

This Friday night, as part of the 2013 Homecoming activities, Saline High School will be welcoming back members of the 1983 Hornet Varsity Football Team. The '83 team finished the regular season 9-0, won the SEC title, earned the program's first trip to the MHSAA Playoffs and outscored their opponents an astonishing 257-32. To this day, the 1983 team remains the #1 ranked scoring defense in Saline football history.

As a junior on that squad, much has changed for my teammates and me over the past 30 years. We have gotten married, had children, seen our hairlines recede and waistlines grow. Some of have stayed near Saline while others have scattered around the globe. Many have experienced tremendous successes, some have been challenged with difficult circumstances. What remains constant for all of us are the shared experiences and memories created at Camp Killarney, during practice and especially on those magical Friday nights we got to play in front of the Hornet faithful on what is now called Crabtree Field.

In 1983 we were teenage boys living in the moment, soaking up all that an undefeated season could offer. This Friday, thirty years after we played our last game together, we will have one more opportunity to take the field together as a TEAM on a Homecoming Friday night. Once a Hornet - Always a Hornet!

Courage, Faith and Love

I recently had the opportunity to read a letter Nelba Marquez-Greene wrote to the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary prior to the start of this school year. Marquez-Green's six-year old daughter Ana Grace was one of 20 first-graders killed along with six staff members on December 14, 2012. While waiting to receive word about Ana on that fateful day, Marquez-Greene said that she and her husband made a promise to "face the future with courage, faith and love."

In her letter, she wished the the teachers returning to school those same virtues - courage,  faith and love. Courage to support students who are left out and overlooked. Faith to know that the hard work is having a profound impact on students and a deep love for teaching.

Marquez-Greene concluded her letter to the teachers with the following, "As you begin your school year,  remember Ana Grace. Walk with courage, with faith and with love..."


The complete text of Marquez-Greene's letter to the teachers can be found at: http://bit.ly/13HrnBF

The Voice of the Turtle - Saline Style

For, lo, the winter is past, 

The rain is over and gone; 

The flowers appear on the earth; 

The time of the singing birds has come, 

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 

Solomon 2:11-12

As a young boy growing up in Michigan, I always looked forward to Ernie Harwell's rendition of the Voice of the Turtle as it signaled not only the end of winter, but more importantly to me, the start of Tigers baseball.

On Tuesday, September 3, more than 6.000 students, teachers, paraeducators, bus drivers, food service employees, buildings and grounds employees, clerical employees, technology employees and administrators will begin a 175 day journey together. Much like the start of baseball season, I hope everyone feels the same sense of excitement and anticipation as I do.

The Voice of School - Saline style:

For, lo, the summer is past, 

The heat and humidity will soon be over and gone; 

Fall colors will transform the landscape; 

The hum of excitement fills the air, 

And the voices of children will be heard in our land. 

Enjoy the 2013-14 school year!
 

The Not-So Secret Ingredient

During the summer months we are fortunate to have time to reflect upon who we are and what we do, develop and refine strategic plans and create action steps to help us achieve our goals. During these discussions we often try to identify key indicators of success - secret ingredients if you will.

In addition, when screening, interviewing and ultimately hiring new TEAM members, (whether bus drivers, cooks, custodians, para educators, teachers, administrators, etc.) we spend a tremendous amount of time trying to identify candidates who will succeed in our organization.

In both strategic planning and hiring, attitude counts. Frankly, attitude counts quite a bit. As Tracey Bates Leone said, "People are either positive or negative, there is no in-between. The in-between people are categorized as negative."

Be positive!

Make The Right Call

January 28, 1986 was like any other day in the life of a college freshman. I had attended class that morning and had returned to my dorm room when I heard that the Space Shuttle Challenger had blown up just after it lifted off in Cape Canaveral. It was one of those moments that is forever etched in my memory - where I was, who I was with, what I was doing, etc. all quickly come to mind when I remember that fateful morning.

In the days and months that followed the Challenger explosion, it became increasingly clear that the engineers from Thiokol who had designed the solid rocket boosters had strongly recommended that NASA delay the launch because they feared the unusually cold temperature could cause the synthetic rubber O-rings to fail. If the engineers who designed the rockets were fearful of failure because of the weather conditions, why did NASA launch the Challenger anyway? While there were a great many factors, it appears that external pressure, (both within Thiokol and NASA itself) was the primary driver of the decision to launch that morning.

Ask yourself, what have we learned from the Challenger disaster that we can apply to education today? Do we rush into ill-fated decisions because of external pressure? Does the need to cut cost and generate profit supersede the need to make good, educated decisions? Are experts driving the decisions or are others doing so?

As you may recall, one of the astronauts on that particular Challenger mission was Christa McAuliffe who was to become the first teacher in space. Now, almost 30 years after she lost her life on that mission, perhaps Christa McAuliffe still has some lessons to teach.