For information on the Democratic candidates:
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Senate Primary Tues Dec 8th
The primary election for US Senate to choose the replacement for the late Edward M Kennedy will be held Dec 8th. Polls will be open at the Franklin High School field house from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
For information on the Democratic candidates:
For information on the Democratic candidates:
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Davis Thayer Reading Challenge
Saw this sign out walking this morning:
Yea for reading!
Go Davis Thayer readers!
Yea for reading!
Go Davis Thayer readers!
You need Social Media awareness
You need to be social media aware. With a little time to enable, it is free and easy to monitor.
Why?
Wouldn't you like to know what is being said or written about you? You can be a company, an organization, or an individual. It doesn't really matter. The need is there, the risk of non-awareness or non-response depends upon the nature of what is being said and what you do.
What do you mean?
According to a recent news article, some student let school officials know about a Facebook group that threatened a middle school assistant principal. The article goes on to say that some students maybe suspended for their actions creating the group.
How can I be aware?
The simple way to start is to set up a Google Alert. The alert can be set up for a specific term or combination of words. It will send an email to you each day with a summary of what it found the prior day.
Here is a screen shot of the alerts I use:
If you would like to know some additional ways to listen, let me know.
Resources:
The Milford Daily News article can be found here
Dr Scott McLeod has the Eight Stages of Listening here
Chris Brogan has Five Tools I use for listening
Beth Kanter has listening tools on her social media wiki here
Why?
Wouldn't you like to know what is being said or written about you? You can be a company, an organization, or an individual. It doesn't really matter. The need is there, the risk of non-awareness or non-response depends upon the nature of what is being said and what you do.
What do you mean?
According to a recent news article, some student let school officials know about a Facebook group that threatened a middle school assistant principal. The article goes on to say that some students maybe suspended for their actions creating the group.
How can I be aware?
The simple way to start is to set up a Google Alert. The alert can be set up for a specific term or combination of words. It will send an email to you each day with a summary of what it found the prior day.
Here is a screen shot of the alerts I use:
If you would like to know some additional ways to listen, let me know.
Resources:
The Milford Daily News article can be found here
Dr Scott McLeod has the Eight Stages of Listening here
Chris Brogan has Five Tools I use for listening
Beth Kanter has listening tools on her social media wiki here
Recycle update
Attached is a complete list of the types of large rigid plastic that is accepted at the Beaver St. Recycling Center. This is a great program to take a lot of plastic out of the trash and recycle it. Please help us keep the container clean - NO TRASH, VINYL, BAGS, SIDING, PVC PIPE or anything not listed on the attached sheet.
Think - Rigid - Plastic!
Chris White
Solid Waste Coordinator
Franklin DPW
The attached sheet is here:
If you are not already subscribed to receive the recycling updates directly to your email, please consider doing so. You can subscribe on the Franklin website here
Note: For Franklin Matters email subscribers, you'll need to click through to the blog page to view the document attached.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Watch Know
The Internet is full of useful information, but it's disorganized and often unreliable. Despite its problems, the potential of the Internet for education is especially huge. Imagine tapping into that potential.Click through to view the WatchKnow site here
Imagine collecting all the best free educational videos made for children, and making them findable and watchable on one website. Then imagine creating many, many more such videos.
Just think: millions of great short videos, and other watchable media, explaining every topic taught in schools, in every major language on Earth.
Finally, imagine them all deeply and usefully categorized according to subject, education level, and placed in the order in which topics are typically taught.
WatchKnow—as in, "You watch, you know"—has started building this resource.
A sample video on photosynthesis from Bill Nye - The Science Guy:
The one key advantage is that all the videos are categorized according to topic and age appropriate for viewing.
Enjoy!
Pay for performance
Pay for performance sounds so good, it conveys images of comfort like motherhood and apple pie. The devil is in the details.
How do you measure the performance?
Whose performance is measured?
When you try to apply these to the educational environment, this becomes troublesome. There can be a rational approach to this problem and should be a consideration as the School Committee, School Administration, and the teachers sit down to begin to renegotiate their contract terms.
How do you measure the performance?
Whose performance is measured?
When you try to apply these to the educational environment, this becomes troublesome. There can be a rational approach to this problem and should be a consideration as the School Committee, School Administration, and the teachers sit down to begin to renegotiate their contract terms.
A much broader assessment of teacher performance was needed to capture the breadth of the teacher's role (Gratz, 2005). After four years and substantial effort, teachers and administrators collaborated to produce a new plan that the board, teachers, and voters ultimately approved. In the process, Denver expanded its definition of performance.
Denver's groundbreaking professional compensation plan replaces the traditional "steps and lanes" approach to compensation, in which teachers receive annual "step" increases as well as "lane" increases if they earn additional degrees. Only one of the new plan's four components directly addresses academic achievement goals—and that one is based significantly on teacher-set objectives, not just standardized test scores. In addition to student academic growth, the plan addresses teacher skill and knowledge, professional evaluation, and market incentives—compensating teachers who work in hard-to-serve schools or in hard-to-staff positions.
Note of caution: Since it took Denver four years to get to an agreement, I certainly would not expect any immediate agreement here. It would be nice to start the discussion and eventually get to something better than what exists.
In the News - Angel tree moved, Holiday Stroll
The Post Office finally realized they were breaking policy and the tree needed to be moved.
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Friends of Franklin move angel tree to Shaw's
from The Milford Daily News News RSS------
Organized by the Downtown Partnership, more than 100 people gathered in front of Dean Hall for a tree lighting ceremony before taking off to explore offerings at over 35 participating businesses.
"This is better than we ever expected," said Partnership Executive Director Lisa Piana. "I'm sure the weather has something to do with it."
Franklin Holiday Stroll a success
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