Snow Days and Tech Toys

Aha!

All the tech toys and teacher training we've seen over the past several years in Montgomery County Public Schools finally makes sense.

Our students and parents will no longer fear the snow.  Why?

Because we have technology and can teach via the internet.  

To read more about it, see this article:

Virtual schools are coming to an android near you.

Just tweet those lessons in.  Just be sure they pass the cybercivility test.

Students, say goodbye to snow days -- and say hello to school at home

(CNN) -- Earlier this month, Zak Terzini roused himself about five minutes before his English class began and didn't panic. Instead, the high school sophomore grabbed his iPod and checked on a class discussion of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" without even getting out of bed.

A snowstorm -- another one -- had canceled classes in the Pascack Valley Regional High School District in northern New Jersey, but educators and students wouldn't be taking a day off. Before the snow fell, even before the official school cancellation call, teachers were prepped, parents were warned and students had received enough assignments to fill a snow day.

continue reading here.  http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/23/living/snow-days-virtual-schools/index.html

Joshua Starr and Leading by Example

Clearly, our Montgomery County Superintendent of Schools, Joshua Starr, follows the leadership model of extraordinary contradictions. 

His latest?  Josh has been cyberbullied about his decision whether to close schools earlier this week. 

He READ all the tweets, some were cute, some were offensive, and some - well, he may have referred them because they appeared to be threatening to him personally and his family.  According to News 4, MCPS staff tracked down all the tweets, referred them to the schools and perhaps law enforcement officials.  And he sent out a letter to the families of all 150,000 plus MPCS students.

You can read for yourself in the NBC4 story, with video.

The Superintendent's Letter is here

Remember, this is from the Superintendent of Twitter.  Josh is known for his twittering habits, and frequently twitters from Board Meetings and on his travels.    At the end of his letter, he encourages people to contact him on his (gasp) twitter account (@mcpssuper).

This mom of the MCPS educated and tech savvy generation has some advice to Josh.

1.  Lead by example.  Stop encouraging folks to contact you by twitter.  You can't control the message but you can control how you communicate.  Twitter unfortunately, has become your preferred mode of communication.  Do the taxpayers of MoCo get information about your travels from other media?  Nope, not from the BOE, from public disclosures of your travels, or any type of report of what occurred when you meet with folks, both in MoCo and outside of Maryland.  Can we get some information about common core and math standards? Many of us feel like cybersleuths trying to track down how you spend our money.  

2.  Turn off your device.  Do not use it in meetings, especially MoCo Board of Education meetings and other meetings with county officials.  This is simply rude, and shows you are not paying attention. 

3.  Be realistic about kids using technology.   Yes, parents and teachers will have discussions about the proper use of technology, but saying that younger kids will not use twitter just because their parents don't allow it in their homes is unrealistic.  I bet your kids know more about tech than you do, I know my children did when they were very young.  Asking parents to know their kids passwords and keep the computer in a public place in the home doesn't insure that everything will be parent approved and safe.  Parents need to work continuously to instill their values in their children - and these values may not always be yours.  Banning something at home doesn't mean that they won't see it elsewhere - at school or at friends homes.  Some elementary schools and teachers use twitter as a classroom add on.  Really? 

4.  Be the grownup here.  Did you really feel threatened by these kids with twitter messages?  We have bigger problems in MoCo, and need better solutions.  How many teachers in the past few weeks have been subject to charges of molesting minors?  What about Rock Terrace and the theft of moneys from special ed kids?  Those are real problems in need of real solutions. 

and finally.

5.  Use taxpayer resources wisely.  I admit that I sometimes look at twitter, but I don't post or tweet and generally find this particular tool of social media not worth my time.  Is this worth your time personally and professionally?  How much time and money do you spend on Twitter and social media?  How much time and money did you spend on your "investigation" of this one cyberbullying episode?  How much is the task force going to cost?  Is this worthwhile?  Do you think this solved the problem?

Weast's revelation: "Our kids are all on Facebook"

Lisa Gartner writes about a startling discovery by Dr. Weast in today's DC Examiner.

Children of Montgomery County Public Schools: Your superintendent knows how much you kids like that Book of Face that you're always signing into.

And in fact, Jerry Weast has some ideas for the social networking site.

"I've talked to Google, and our kids are all on Facebook — they've got profiles," Weast said at an Education Week panel on graduation rates. "There should be an icon with some jobs you ought to think about, or some futures you need to think about."

Weast is a recognized authority on the use of technology in education, having won the eSchoolNews Tech Savvy Superintendent Award in 2008.

PG Superintendent E-mails Parents!

The Washington Post reports that Prince George's County Public Schools has a real Tech-Savvy Superintendent! 

The Washington Post: For Hite and Prince George's schools, a smooth year, for a change

...Hite has also worked to be accessible to students and parents. He carries a BlackBerry and tries to respond to every parent who e-mails him -- usually about 50 a day, he said...

A far cry from MCPS where the Superintendent doesn't even give parents access to his e-mail address.  Instead the MCPS website shows his assistant's e-mail address. 


MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast only makes his personal e-mail address known to other superintendents.

Any MCPS parents ever received an e-mail from Superintendent Weast in the last 11 years?