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| FHS music students who won MICCA awards |
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| students who achieved the State of MA Biliteracy certificates |
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| Agenda for the School Committee |
FM #1402 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1402 in the series.
This session shares my conversation with Dr. Tina Rogers, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching & Learning; Dr. Timothy Frazier, Director of Curriculum ELA & SS; and Eric Stark, Director of Curriculum STEM. We had our discussion in person in the Franklin Public Schools Central District offices on Thursday, March 6, 2025.
We cover
Middle School math curriculum changes
Universal design, and tiered support
Overall curriculum evaluation plan and processes
Excitement of synergies coming with the redistricting
The recording runs about 50 minutes, so let’s listen in. Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1402-franklin-public-schools-curriculum-disucssion-03-06-25/
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Teaching & Learning contact information
https://www.franklinps.net/page/teaching-and-learning
The Middle School math update presentation to the School Committee Jan 28, 2025
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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.
This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
How can you help?
If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like something here, please let me know
And if you have interest in reporting on meetings or events, please reach. We’ll share and show you what and how we do what we do
Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news
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!
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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
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| Discussion on curriculum, middle school math, and universal design for Franklin Schools (audio) |
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| School Committee gets details on middle school math curriculum changes, FY 2026 budget, & approves Parmenter release to the Town (video) |
"Two college freshmen who, during their final year of high school, found a new way to prove Pythagoras’s theorem by using trigonometry – which mathematicians for generations thought was impossible – have since uncovered multiple more such proofs, they revealed in a national interview on Sunday.“We found five, and then we found a general format that could potentially produce at least five additional proofs,” Calcea Johnson said on CBS’s 60 Minutes, a little more than a year after she and Ne’Kiya Jackson collaborated on an accomplishment that earned them international recognition.Nonetheless, in comments that stunned their interviewer, Bill Whitaker, the two graduates of St Mary’s Academy in New Orleans denied seeing themselves as math geniuses and dismissed any interest in pursuing careers in mathematics."
"If you look at the wake behind a duck, or a kayak, or a ship, you might notice two things: first, it’s a feathery, rippled pattern, and second, that pattern looks the same regardless of whether it’s made by a duck, kayak, or ship— even though they’re all moving at different speeds and the waves are different sizes.
How is this possible? Minutephysics digs into the Kelvin wake pattern."The 4+ minute video explains the math -> https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/kEQUGWqB?s=03#review
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| How are boat wakes related to duck wakes? |
Among the agenda items for the Franklin School Committee meeting Tuesday, Nov 23, 2021 is an update on the recent MCAS statistics for the Franklin School District.
You can view a copy of the report here or below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19XOmQtVz2_MPrymgtUgQkIclhH3xgqMy/view?usp=sharing
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| Franklin Public Schools: MCAS Presentation - 11/23/21 |
We’re soon going to have to make our own choices about social distancing, wearing masks and travel. When the legal enforcement of rules is lifted, the way in which each of us deals with the risk of Covid-19 will be down to personal judgment. But how well equipped are we to make these decisions?Graphs and data can help explain things, but what’s also needed is a deep understanding of how science works, and, perhaps most important of all, a sense of how to weigh up the odds of coming down with the disease and how it might affect us. Not in an abstract way, but in our day-to-day lives. And what many people don’t realise is that COVID-19 is just the start.
....
To equip us for all this, we need to reach a new level of public understanding about health, disease, risk and probability. Some of this should be taught in schools, colleges and universities, of course, but there needs to be more. During the pandemic, we have seen a huge increase in the number of scientists discussing their work in public. Now, as the UK government formally lifts restrictions, we must not retreat from this exposure. Rather, we must embrace science as a vital part of our culture even more than we do now. At stake is not just our health and wellbeing, but our sense of what it means to be human.
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| Progress in human biology is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, and there’s no sign of it slowing down.’ Photograph: Yuri_Arcurs/Getty Images |
Summary:
As with most meetings in this pandemic period, I took my notes via Twitter during the meeting reporting in real-time via the virtual session.
The Twitter hashtag can be found online #SchCom0922
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23schcom0922&src=typeahead_click
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| Superintendent Sara Ahern making a point during meeting 9/22/20 |
From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:
"In June, 104 employees – many of them teachers – at Franklin Public Schools received pink slips. This fall, 87 of them are returning, according to a recent comprehensive personnel update released by the district.
Only 15 positions of the 104 threatened with the chopping block back in June wound up being cut, according to a letter from the district signed by Superintendent Sara Ahern and Director of Human Resources Lisa O’Keefe-Trainor on Friday. "
Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200922/layoffs-in-franklin-schools-fewer-than-expected?rssfeed=true
Editor's note: Other than the quote from Superintendent Ahern, there is no new information in this article and the numbers still don't add up. This is elementary math and if turned in as a school report by a fourth or fifth grade student, it would be really interesting to see what the rubric would provide as a score. Lots of numbers, lots of info but it doesn't add up. They can start with either people or positions, there is a difference between them, I get that. But 104 (or 103) got notified, what happened to them? It should be as easy as 87 came back and 17 (or 16) didn't. There can be a variety of other categories, that really doesn't matter. Tallying to the total (either 104 or 103) does.
In the News: "The letter states that the numbers printed do not equal 104"
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| Franklin Public Schools: Summer Reading and Summer Math Information |
"As we wait for scientists and healthcare professionals to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, there is another, more readily available tool at our disposal.Continue reading online
Social distancing, defined as measures taken to reduce physical contact, is the first line of defense for containing an infectious disease like COVID-19. That’s because these infections spread when people cough, sneeze, or touch surfaces on which the virus resides.
To help us grasp the impact these measures can actually have, today’s infographic illustrates how a reduction in social exposure can theoretically contain the spread of infection."
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| The math behind social distancing |
"A national recycling center that has a presence in Franklin has moved to a larger location to meet increased demand in people recycling their old working refrigerators and freezers.
In June, Arca Recycling Inc moved from its approximately 15,000-square-foot facility at 40 Kenwood Circle to an approximately 22,000-square-foot facility at 20 Liberty Way, according to Regional Transportation Director Stefan Marszalek.
Many residents in the state are taking advantage of Mass Save’s appliance recycling program, which provides monetary incentives for eligible individuals who recycle their functional refrigerator and freezer. Mass Save is funded by the state’s major energy utilities, including Cape Light Compact, Eversource, National Grid and Unitil.
On Monday, the company hosted an open house at the Franklin location to give representatives from those utility companies a first-hand look at what goes on inside the facility, which includes taking apart and recycling the appliances."
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| Arca Recycling Inc |
"The state’s schools were the highest-ranked in both math and reading test scores, as well as the lowest percentage of threatened and injured high school students.
For the second year in a row, Massachusetts schools are tops in the nation.
At least that was the result of a recently released study from the personal finance website WalletHub.
The state’s schools were the highest-ranked in both math and reading test scores, as well as the lowest percentage of threatened and injured high school students. The state ranked in the top five in several other categories."
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| the highest-ranked in both math and reading test scores |
