Thanks for student artists

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, we should recognize how much we have to be grateful for. When Gallery 218 opened its doors last Tuesday for the K-12 exhibit on Portraits, the crowd was impressive. I was able to get some photos, chat with Art Director Mike Caple, Art Teacher Jane Hogan, and then head over to the School Committee meeting.



According to Jane, twelve teachers had about 10-15 students each with pieces in the show. Across the district, K-12 that calculates to about 150 students represented.



These are portraits. The students could have done them of themselves or of someone else.



A portrait represents a point of view of the world.



A portrait raises questions about the point of view.



When you recognize and accept different points of view, you can begin to talk.



As I walked down the corridor to leave Franklin High, a family was coming in. I overheard the gentleman saying "I haven't been in this place in 32 years!"

I think we can be thankful that art helped to bring this gentleman back into FHS.

The Portrait show at Gallery 218 will be open until January 15. Take some time to view the students work. You will be glad you did.

Note: as a practicing photographer, my own viewpoint is imposed upon the viewer by my taking these photos. Art is really meant to be experienced in person. I hope you do take the time to go.

In the News: stimulus, Seniors

Stimulus money comes to Fire Depts, including 135,537 for Franklin.

Area fire departments get a boost from federal stimulus dollars

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Abby Jordan/Daily News staff

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Oak St students meet with Seniors

Talking 'bout our generations

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

thanks for the holiday decorations

Thanks to the Franklin Downtown Partnership for the holiday decorations throughout downtown

Franklin Express Line

The new Express Line is now available. If you have not already subscribed to receive this directly via email, I would encourage you to do so.

The subscription form is available on the Town website here

To see what this new Express line looks like, here it is:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

For Franklin Matters email subscribers you will need to click through to the web site to view this document.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

Franklin, MA

Open Space/Recreation Plan Update

The Open Space & Recreation Plan presentation document was added to the Town Council notes for Wednesday's meeting. To save you going back to look, it is also here:

Franklin Open Space Summary Presentation

View more documents from Steve Sherlock.

Curriki - collaborative open source curriculum

For the education community amongst us, this site I recently found seems to be quite good. It's about page tells us:

Curriki is more than your average website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.

Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible.

Curriki is built on the XWiki platform, an open source development platform and "Next Generation Wiki" application developed in Java and released the LGPL open source license.

Curriki is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Go explore Curriki here

Links to share

I have some catching up to do with so much happening around so I'll tease you with a quote and a link to follow.

1 - Instant messaging in the classroom:

Every single upper junior class that I have taught has loved instant messaging (IM). It is probably the most popular use of technology at home. But does that mean it needs to be used in the classroom? It falls into the same category as console gaming does and seems to spark differing reactions from people in education. I believe it can engage learners and much more.

 Read the full article here

2 - Free options to publish to the web

In the course of a school year, most teachers will have students produce written content that they think should be shared with other readers. Other times teachers create writing projects with the goal of having students share their work publicly. The web offers many ways to publish written work, the following are six of my favorite free options.

Read the full article here

3 - Guide to talk with your kids about being online

On Guard Online offers a fifty-four page PDF guide to talking with kids about being online. Net Cetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online offers numerous suggestions for having conversations with students about online behaviors. The guide offers differentiated suggestions based upon the age of the children with which you're talking.

Read the full article here

4 -What you should know about the flu.

This week Commissioner Auerbach and DPH Medical Director Dr. Lauren Smith appeared on a special addition of Hopkinton Community Television’s "Physician Focus" titled "The Flu: What You Should Know."

Commissioner Auerbach and Dr. Smith joined Erin Tracy, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Bruce Karlin, M.D., a primary care physician in Worcester and Vice Chair of the Medical Society’s Communications Committee to discuss important flu related topics including the difference between H1N1 (swine) flu and seasonal flu, vaccine safety and supply, how to protect against the infections, and what to do if you get sick.

"Physician Focus" is The Massachusetts Medical Society’s monthly educational program on health care. In addition to being distributed to local public access television stations across the Commonwealth, the program is available for viewing online at http://www.hcam.tv/series/physicianfocus/flu/index.shtml. This page also contains two public service announcements produced specifically for the show. The first contains messages about the flu for pregnant women and the second provides guidelines on when patients should go to the emergency room.

Click through to view the show on the web here. 

Franklin did a similar H1N1 update in September and you can view that here

5 - And finally, the Laughter Club meets on Monday

Relieve some of your holiday stress, attend The Let's Laugh Today monthly laughter club that meets at the First Universalist Society in Franklin Meetinghouse, 262 Chestnut St. in Franklin, on Monday, Nov. 23, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.

Additional details can be found on the Franklin Gazette here