Saturday, February 20, 2010

Two more links to share

Two more sites along the hitchhiking trail on the internet that are worth sharing:

1 - The Future of Education
http://www.futureofeducation.com/

This features interviews with leading folks on education. The archive is rich, the schedule outlook is also rich.

2 - ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/

This is more than education, it covers all aspects of the web in today's emerging environment. It makes multiple posts during the day (averaging 15 a day per my Google Reader statistics) so it will be quite busy to try and keep up with it.


Previous post:
Hitchhiking amongst Education Resources


Friday, February 19, 2010

Comments are back!

Updated - comments appear to be fixed now. The "fix" did result in loosing a couple of known ones. How many others there were, I don't know and couldn't tell.

My sincere apologies folks, I was not intentionally ignoring you. I wasn't aware that you made an effort to comment. The blog comment totals did not show any activity.

I'll leave the default Blogger comments enabled for the remainder of this week before implementing another comment service.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Steve

----------


I just discovered a few comments on some recent posts that I was not notified of.


My sincere apologies folks, I was not intentionally ignoring you. I wasn't aware that you made an effort to comment. The blog comment totals did not show any activity.


I need to research and fix the template to avoid this in the future.


In the meantime, if you would like to comment, please send me an email. I do get and respond to those.


I will let you know when the comments are "fixed"!


Thanks for your patience and understanding!


Doughboy playing at snowboy

The morning after the snow storm, the Town Common was freshly coated with snow glistening in the sunrise.



From the backside



In the News - Pulaski Blvd

The DPW announced today the Pulaski Boulevard reconstruction project continues to stay on course with the project bid being awarded to J.H. Lynch & Sons of Cumberland, R.I.
Last month, J.H. Lynch & Sons made an approximate $8.5 million bid on the project, well below the engineers’ estimate of $11 million.
According to the DPW, the construction plan from J.H. Lynch will likely come in at the end of February and the town will have the ability to make suggestions and modifications if needed.
The estimated two year project plans to rebuild 2.3 miles of Pulaski Boulevard, spanning from the Franklin town line to Orchard Street, including work at the Crooks Corner, Lake Street and Center Street intersections.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Pulaski Boulevard construction project on track






Thursday, February 18, 2010

In the News - stimulus money for solar

Franklin will receive around $99,000 in funding for a similar solar system at Parmenter Elementary School.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x925448837/Bellingham-Franklin-get-stimulus-money-for-energy-projects


In the News - Franklin Wrestling champs!

The Panthers won the Division 2 championship last year and moved up to Division 1 this year. The result was no different. Last night, Franklin claimed the Div. 1 championship with a 38-20 victory over Springfield Central at Marlborough High.
"It feels better than last year because (Division 1) is supposedly all the top teams," said senior Dan Telhada, who had a key pin at 145 pounds. "Now we're champs in both. It doesn't get any better."
"We have a great group of seniors that go out with a big bang winning Division 1 and Division 2 state titles in their careers," Franklin coach Carmine Colace said. "You couldn't ask for anything more."
 Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
http://www.milforddailynews.com/features/x590377987/Franklin-38-Springfield-Central-20-Double-take


Spilka and Vallee to Hold Office Hours in Franklin; Fri - Feb 19

Senator Karen Spilka to Hold Office Hours in Franklin

Join Senator Spilka and Puja Mehta, Senator Spilka's District and Constituent Services Director, for coffee and conversation.  They will update constituents on the latest news and events, and answer any questions you may have.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Franklin: Elizabeth's Bagels and More
10:00 a.m -11:00 a.m.
456 West Central Street, Franklin

----------

Rep. James Vallee, D-Franklin, will hold walk-in office hours on Feb. 19 in Medway and Franklin.

Vallee or a member of his staff will take visitors at the Medway Town Administrator's office on 155 Village St. from 9 to 10 a.m.

From 10:30-11:30 a.m., he or a staff member will be at his Franklin office at 4 West St.

He and his staff may be reached at 617-722-2600 or Rep.JamesVallee@hou.state.ma.us.


Harlem Wizards return to Franklin!

The Harlem Wizards, one of the greatest basketball show-team organizations to ever “lace it up and let’em fly”, will play our own Sullivan Rockets. This will be an entertaining night for kids of all ages (and adults too)!

From Franklin Matters

Did you miss their visit last year?



Don't miss it this year!

Date:  Friday, March 19th, 2010, 7:00 PM
Doors Open 6:00, Game Time 7:00

Location: Tri-County Regional High School
147 Pond St, Franklin MA

Tickets: Click here to print ticket order form

Contacts: ayotte_k@verizon.net or erinclong@comcast.net

Sponsored By: Annie Sullivan Middle School PCC




Ben Franklin Classical Charter School - Admission lottery Feb. 24

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:


via The Milford Daily News News RSS by Staff reports on 2/17/10

The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School will hold its admission lottery for grades K-8 on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 1 p.m., in the school library, 201 Main St.
New this year, the lottery will be shown live on www.ustream.tv. To see this site, visit the school's Web site www.bfccps.org for further instructions.
Applicants do not have to be present at the lottery. Letters to all applicants will be mailed on Feb. 28, indicating whether students have been accepted or wait-listed.
Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School was founded in 1995 and currently enrolls 415 kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The school is offers a challenging core knowledge curriculum with French in K-8 and Latin in grades 3-8, a strong fine arts program, and physical education twice per week.

Things you can do from here:

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hitchhiking amongst Education Resources

Jeff Roy had posted some education blogs worth reviewing a couple of week ago on the Franklin School Committee blog. In the spirit of traveling amongst good education sites this week, I have some of my favorite education sites to add to his listing. (Note: the order listed is simply following down the subscription listing in my RSS Reader and not any other scientific weighting or ranking.)

1 - David Warlick, a well traveled speaker and noted educational blogger. That his website is called 2 Cents helped catch my attention but he has mode than made it worthwhile to continue subscribing to it. His post on Monday referenced QR Code which coincidentally I had written about last week.


2 - Dr Scott McLeod is one of the authors of the "Did You Know" series of videos that has circulated amongst the web highlighting the problems with education. I have quoted from him frequently, and shared many of his posts. He actually has new post where he announces adding three blogs to his CASTLE collection. They are likely ones I add here but are so new to me at this time, we'll hold that off until later. (What is CASTLE? It is the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation's only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators.)


3 - Robert F. Bruner, Dean, Darden School of Business of the Univ of Virginia, writes at Dean's Blog. He doesn't post frequently but does post good thoughtful pieces. A recent piece on the recession has a graphic that is quite telling depicting the job losses from this period compared to all other recessions/depressions. It is a sobering graph!

4 - Free Technology for Teachers publishes frequently with lots of really good resources. I have shared many here but there are so many, I don't try to do them all. It would be overwhelming. 'Nuf said.


5 - Literacy is Priceless, a blog for reading teachers is a good resource. A recent posting on Personal Learning Networks features Will Richardson who coincidentally is also on my listing.


6 - Wesley Fryer writes at Moving at the Speed of Creativity. He has his daughter frequently contribute to explore the technology they use together. VoiceThread is one they posted about when visiting the St Louis Arch. I have used VoiceThread on the Joyful Jubilant Learning Blog

7 - Will Richardson, is an author and educational speaker. He writes at Webblogg-ed. He used to teach at Hunterdon Central High School, in Flemington, NJ. Had I not taken the opportunity to move to Franklin many years ago, the girls would likely have gone to this high school. As mentioned above, Will was interviewed on Personal Learning Networks and that video can be seen here:



These are just a few of the good educational resources available today. Have you found one to share?


Customer Ratings Appreciated

The Franklin Matters podcast is available via iTunes for free.

Yes, free. You can obtain the podcast for your listening pleasure via iTunes. An easy way to keep up to date on what is happening in Franklin, MA.

One thing I noticed in the iTunes page for Franklin Matters today was that there were not enough customer rating.
We have not received enough ratings to display an average for this podcast.
If you subscribe, please take a minute or two to provide a rating.

If you don't already subscribe, please consider doing so. Then after listening to a couple of episodes, if you like what you hear, please provide a rating and tell your friends and neighbors about it.

If you don't like what you hear, please tell me about it.

You can find the Franklin Matters iTunes page here. Or in the center column of the blog page, click on the iTunes icon.

Thanks!


"a coherent answer"

At first, the silence in the room was deafening. Then, gasps and questions came flying out. “Hey, Jason’s typing on MY screen.” Then, “Whoa. There’s a chat box. Are we ALLOWED to use that?!?!” After the first five minutes, the students figured out that they were supposed to work together to answer the question that I provided. I was amazed. I had not provided the students with a single verbal prompt or redirection, and they were using the tool to write a response together. Before I knew it, they had drafted a coherent answer to the question together. Their single response was much better than anything they had written individually all year.
How did this occur?
Etherpad is a free tool that allows users to collaborate in real real time. There’s no need to refresh your screen with Etherpad, it automatically updates every .5 seconds!
To read the full posting click through to
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/02/using-technology-to-find-students.html




Tuesday, February 16, 2010

FM Budget Workshop Part 9 (Final) 1/25/10

Franklin conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part nine and the last segment of the recording. Jeff Nutting provides some closing remarks, Scott Mason thanks Bob Richer (?), citizen at large, for participating. Bob provides some good feedback on the session.

Time: 15 minutes, 17 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:


Franklin conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part nine and the last segment of the recording. Jeff Nutting provides some closing remarks, Scott Mason thanks Bob Richer, citizen at large for participating. Bob provides some good feedback on the session.
I do pick up from the quote by Beth Fitzmaurice that I ended with in part 8: 
"Special ed is not in fact a sentence, it is an opportunity to provide some specialized education but there is a mechanism in the law to re-evaluate the child every three years, and to do a full battery of evaluation, to re-determine eligibility." 

I thought it quite appropriate to repeat this statement and then get into Jeff's closing, etc. 

There are no documents associated with this segment.
This completes the three hour budget workshop recording. If you do have additional questions, please reach out as Jeff Nutting indicated.

Thank you for listening.
-----

For additional information, please visit FranklinMAtters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.

-----

Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html

Parts 1-4 cover the Town budget with Susan Gagner, Jeff Nutting and Jim Dacey leading the discussion

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-2-12510.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html 

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html

Parts 5-8 cover the School budget with Maureen Sabolinski, Miriam Goodman, Sally Winslow, and Beth Fitzmaurice leading the discussion.

Part 5 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-5-12510.html

Part 6 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-6-12510.html

Part 7 of the workshop recording can be found here

Part 8 of the workshop recording can be found here

FM Budget Workshop Part 8 - 1/25/10

This is Part 8 of the Budget Workshop held in Franklin, MA on Jan 25th. This segment covers Beth Fitzmaurice, Director of Special Education, continuing to provide the details of Special Education for the Schools budget.

Time: 17 minutes, 26 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:


Franklin held conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part eight of the session recording. Beth Fitzmaurice, Director of Special Education, covers the details of providing Special Education for the students in the Franklin School District picking up from the transportation costs from the prior segment to cover the variables of budgetary impact including the circuit breaker reimbursement process and ending with a great statement:

"Special ed is not in fact a sentence, it is an opportunity to provide some specialized education but there is a mechanism in the law to re-evaluate the child every three years, and to do a full battery of evaluation, to re-determine eligibility."

Documents associated with this recording

FPS Understanding the Budget 1/25/2010 (Page 22 through 29 (end))




FPS Private School Tuition (a sample of tuitions from the State website - for out of district placements)

-----

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit FranklinMAtters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.
-----

Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-2-12510.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html 

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html

Part 5 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-5-12510.html

Part 6 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-6-12510.html

Part 7 of the workshop recording can be found here

FM Budget Workshop Part 7 - 1/25/10

This is part 7 of the budget workshop held in Franklin on Jan 25, 2010 with members of the Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee participating along with key administration folks from the Town and School Dept as well as some citizens.

Time: 18 minutes, 34 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:


Part 7

Franklin held conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part seven of the session recording. Beth Fitzmaurice, Director of Special Education, covers the details of providing Special Education for the students in the Franklin School District beginning with the number of students receiving special educations services as of Jan 15th, 2010 and closing this segment with discussion on special education transportation costs.


Documents associated with this recording segment

FPS Understanding the Budget 1/25/2010 (Page 18 through 22)


FPS Private School Tuition (a sample of tuitions from the State website)

------

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit FranklinMAtters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.

Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-2-12510.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html 

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html

Part 5 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-5-12510.html
Part 6 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-6-12510.html

FM Budget Workshop Part 6 - 1/25/10

This is Part 6 of the Budget Workshop held in Franklin, MA on Jan 25th. This segment covers Asst Superintendent Sally Winslow providing an overview on the nuances of Special Education for the Schools budget.

Time: 21 minutes, 55 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

Franklin held conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part six of the session recording. Asst. Superintendent Sally Winslow cover the nuances and requirements of providing Special Education for the Franklin Schools budget

Documents associated with this recording

FPS Understanding the Budget 1/25/2010 (Page 6 through 17)

FPS SPED Eligibility
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczNTQzMjYyMmMtZWQyZS00YmZiLTg4MDItY2NiYzU3ZGQ0MGRh&hl=en

FPS SPED Placement
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczZjRmYzgwYTctODY1NS00ZmU5LWEzYWItNTM2ZDE2MDdlMWVl&hl=en


------

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit FranklinMAtters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.

------



Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html 

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html

Part 5 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-5-12510.html




Jordan, UT: Jordan School District

With school vacation this week, many folks will be traveling. Let's travel a little ourselves via the web to find out what else is going on with local blogs, in particular those covering local government and education.


Current J - the blog for the Jordan School District
http://current.jordandistrict.org/


T4 is a resource for comprehensive school improvement plans:
http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/section/7/39/

T4  is a resource for teachers
http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/section/5/38/

The Flip over video page is a wealth of resource links on how to use the Flip video camera
http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/view/314/37/


In your travels, have your found a good blog to share?

Monday, February 15, 2010

FM Budget Workshop Part 5 - 1/25/10

This is Part 5 of the Budget Workshop held in Franklin, MA on Jan 25th. This segment covers the start for the discussion around the Schools budget.

Time: 25 minutes, 25 seconds



MP3 File


Session Notes:

Franklin held conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010. This is part five of the session recording. Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski and Finance Director Miriam Goodman, cover the overview of the Franklin Schools budget.

Documents associated with this recording


FPS Understanding the Budget 1/25/2010 (Page 1 through 5)




FPS Overview
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczZDc0MTI1ZjktMzRlNy00YjM3LWJmMjYtOWYyZTk3NWQ1YWJl&hl=en

FPS Teacher Salary Grid
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczZDVmYjBmZDgtNDJhNS00YmY2LTljOTQtNDNhNTk5NWY3N2Zk&hl=en

------

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit FranklinMAtters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission

I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.

Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html


The first four sessions cover the Town side of the budget

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html

Central Falls, RI in the news

At one time, Central Falls was the most densely populated square mile in the US. It is now in the news as the Superintendent is preparing to fire all the high school teachers.

Why? 

The school apparently is failing its students. The Superintendent wants to make changes. The Teacher Unions is hold its ground to make changes "upon negotiation".

Read the full article here

and more here


Franklin, MA: Skipping weekly review

I'll skip the weekly review (podcast) for this week. I will have one for the week ending Sunday the 21st.

If you missed one of the updates during the week, you can see them all here:






Sunday, February 14, 2010

Franklin Flatbread/Spruce Pond Creamery

As the girls were growing up, one of our family traditions was to walk to Spruce Pond Creamery on the last day of school to help celebrate. I've been known to go with a banana split for dinner. It does have multiple food groups, right (fruit, dairy, nuts, chocolate!) :-)



Good food with a quaint pond view setting. Now with a wine and malt license, there is an added incentive to visit for pizza or a panini.

Of course, sitting on the porch with your ice cream is not something you'd do often in winter.


Franklin Flatbread/Spruce Pond Creamery in a green and warmer view:


Stay warm!