Want to see what’s possible in a classroom today?

Fair warning: when you see what these 2nd graders in a Northern California public elementary school do – you’ll want it for your kids.

A good friend of mine who’s passionate about education shared this amazing video with me and a couple of my friends. I won’t lie when I tell you that a couple of us got teary. It’s amazing.

Check out how these 2nd grade teachers and literacy coaches guide students through a meaningful learning experience using 21st century skills of ‘Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity and innovation’.  All beautifully wrapped up using today’s technology with iPads.

Desks & Goats

I can’t wait to hear about their garage sale and how many desks and goats they were able to provide other students around the world.

So? What did you think?

The post Desks, Goats & 21st Century Skills: What 2nd Grade CAN Look Like appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

We all need friends… We all need..

Coaches…

So my amazing friend shared this incredible video with me yesterday.  She happened on it via the Instructional Coach Chat Wiki as we continue on our shared quest to learn more about best practices in education.

If I lost you there… come back to me… this video is ah-may-zing.

Imagine a fantastically talented young singer charged with performing our National Anthem if front of hundreds and hundreds of people at a basketball game.

A little bit intimidating right?

She starts, she sings…it’s beautiful…

Then… Two stanzas in, it all starts to go horribly horribly wrong.

The lyrics get messed up and she chokes. She stops altogether. Her confidence is completely rattled.

From the sidelines enters one of the basketball coaches.
He walks up to her puts his arm around her and helps her find the words to get back on track.
She sings…
She gains confidence.
She belts out our national anthem and the crowd joins in on her heartfelt rendition.

It’s amazing.

Go watch it. Now. I’ll wait…

Find more videos like this on The Big Four

Right?!?

What an amazing example of the importance of coaches! Of why, no matter how amazing our talent (and this girl has some serious pipes!) we all can use some coaching.

Today, we were talking about this in the context of the people that spend more time on a daily basis with my kids than I do. Their teachers.

We’ve heard from them how having coaches and professional development feedback loops in their workplace is the standard of excellence and best practice.  My kids’ teachers (on top of everything else they do) are still on a quest for self-improvement -and to me, that makes them my heroes.

Such a great idea right? Coaches. For teachers. Because no matter how awesome we are (and my kids’ teachers ARE awesome) we all would love to have a coach in our corner like the one in this video.

Come to think of it, I could use one of these as a parent sometimes…

What did you think of the video? Does your school use coaches? 

The post Some. Times. In. Our Lives…Coaches [Video] appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

Source: Competitive Intelligence Blog

Today is one of those days when I think my brain has reached it’s max capacity for retaining even just one more piece of information. One of the best, and worst things about the speed with which information now travels is that there is SO much of it.

Every day I’m introduced to new and exciting people and their ideas and I struggle to find time to synthesize it all and then incorporate it into my own life. And of yeah, be the CEO of my household. Can you relate?

Currently, I’m knee-deep in trying to navigate education finance reform for my children’s school district, understanding curriculum and standards and trying to decide what the heck to do about my passion for eradicating breast cancer.  I think somewhere in there I need to build a Leprechaun trap with my son.

So bear with me as I download for you what’s in my head these days… you can follow along if you like.

Education

Help California Shine Again – California State Budget Results in Parent Demonstrations Across the State – via LA Moms.  On ‘Pink Slip Day’, Thursday, March 15th, schoolchildren across California will be blowing bubbles before the 1st bell  to tell Sacramento budget policymakers: ‘Don’t Blow It!’ – a very important and effective message for California.

Educate Our State campaign for March 15th, 2012

Parent, Community Groups Pressed to Fill K-12 Budget Gaps via EdWeek. This just about sums up the conversations we’ve been having later about district financing issues and frustrations around it. 

Rethinking School via Harvard Business Review. The US report card shown here is EYE opening and JAW dropping. C’mon people… 

Breast Cancer Awareness

Last month (or was it 2 months ago?), Komen and their major gaffe with Planned Parenthood blew up on the internet. Komen later reversed it’s decision but sadly it was considered by most, too little too late.

For me, it was the final straw in some personal gripes with the organization. I won’t go into them here because I still think the organization does a great job in raising awareness for breast cancer but I  believe that, for me personally, I need to focus my breast cancer awareness elsewhere.

I’m still walking and talking breast cancer awareness until we don’t have to anymore.  I sure hope I won’t have to anymore.

So I made a decision.

This year, the Maidens for Mammograms and Margaritas are going to walk in the San Francisco Avon Walk for Breast Cancer on July 7-8th.  We would LOVE IT, LOVE IT LOVE IT if you joined us!

Last year,  I made a new ‘breast’ friend, Rachael who walked and camped with me.  We’d love to walk with you too! Let me know if you’re interested – by the way, we celebrate the finish line with Margaritas all around!  The team page is coming… stay tuned.

On the Homefront: Cleaning and Groceries

Just when my head was totally about to explode, my bloggy friend, Ilana reminded me that my house needs cleaning and oh! it can make you happy with the right products! Wha? So of course I hop over to MommyShorts where I just have to enter her giveaway for a year’s supply of cleaning products from Method. I mean because NOW I’m all self-conscious about the cleanliness of my house and it’s un-color coordinated soaps!  Thanks Ilana!  Here’s the link for you too. (I won’t hoard it – enter by April 2nd). Pretty sweet right? Also if you don’t think you are going to win, you can stock up on Method supplies with 20% off using the code CLEANHAPPY on their site (ends 3/31).

via MommyShorts

And THEN… Amanda from One Family One Meal (my secret weapon in meal planning) shows me that it’s possible to make 20 meals for 1 week all from Whole Foods for under $200. Excuse me??  Impossible! (Say it with an Italian accent it’s way more fun).  See how she did it by clicking here. She’s also giving away a $200 gift card to Whole Foods which I totally want to win but again I’m not selfish, so here’s the link for that one too.

OK PHEW…that’s it… I’m done for now. That’s a bit of my brain download for ya. I will spare you the parcel tax discussions and descriptions of endless loads of laundry.

Cheers,

Sara

The post Overload: Education, Breast Cancer, Cleaning and Groceries appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

Fact: Oreos are delicious.  But did you know that they can also make you smarter?

For fun I host a little book club for a few of my daughter’s 1st grade pals. We’ve been reading the Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osbourne, a short and quick series of chapter books that cover a wide range of subjects.  In each adventure, Jack & Annie, a brother and sister team from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, travel through time and space by pointing to a page on a book that they find on the shelves of their magic treehouse. So far, we’ve traveled with them to the land of dinosaurs, Egypt, the Amazon, Japan and the Ice Age each book building on the next.  My kids have loved the adventure so far and also love the stories because the two main characters share their namesake.

So what does this have to do with Oreos? I’m getting there.

There’s so much supporting content out there on this series that it’s been super easy to find a craft for our little group to do after we’ve discussed the book. We don’t delve too deeply into character development or plot theories, afterall they’re only 6 and 7 years old but they do consistently surprise me with their comprehension and astute observations.

This week we are tackling Book #8: Midnight on The Moon and I was so excited for this one because my son had just done the best phases of the moon activity using Oreos (see I told you it was coming) with his preschool science teacher, Ms Janet.  I couldn’t wait to share it with the kids (and you)!

The original project idea came from Science Bob’s blog – and after looking around there I’m totally inspired to see some other really great projects to try next.

So got a kid who likes to read, got milk? got Oreos? Try this one at home, teach your kid about the different phases of the moon using Oreos! So cool and so easy.

Check this out:

Source: Science Bob

Click here to jump to Science Bob’s full blog post on using Oreo’s to teach about phases of the moon.

Happy learning and Happy 100th Birthday to Oreos!

The post Oreos Make You Smarter appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

Have you heard of the Khan Academy? It’s free and it’s going to change the way our kids (and you and I) learn.

Watch this video of its founder, Salman Khan at TED Talks from March 2011. He’s entertaining and inspiring. Then log on with your kids, you’ll never run the other way again when they ask you to help them with their calculus homework!

I love this…

The post Innovation in Education: Video appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

Dragging Out That Soap Box… Again

I really wish I didn’t have to do this… but it’s time to drag out that soap box –  again…  Something bad is about to happen to our schools. Again. Argh!!! If you live in California you need to read this and you need to give a crap. Because people, it’s only getting worse and frankly I’m getting tired of talking about it.

Valerie Bertinelli is here to help. Hunh?

Can you hear my blood percolating? California is about to go through yet another fire-drill on education funding…yup, again. The stability of the state’s funding for education has been smoldering and now… it’s about to flare up into a serious brushfire. Are you ready?

I’m getting a little sick of it to tell you the truth but read on because I have a couple of ideas how we can get off this rollercoaster together.  Ok, they’re not MY ideas but I’m here to share them with you. And guess what? Celebrities are getting in on this too… Seriously!

Luke Perry and Valerie Bertinelli they’re all parents now with kids in the school system and they know the gig, and you should too. Read on.

Note from Sara: I don’t pretend to have all the facts – this is my brain trying to remember most of the facts. There are experts out there and I don’t pretend to be one of them. But I’m a parent and I raise funds for my public school and at some point I ask why are we constantly doing this? So there’s that..

DECEMBER 15th, 2011

Remember that date. That’s a trigger date. A trigger date for what? Well… for cuts and more cuts to education. Almost $1.2 BILLION in cuts to K-12 Education, scheduled for Feb. 1.

Yup, it’s happening again.

OK Let’s review… Back in March, I dragged out my soap box because the California budget was a mess, then in May I told you about a rally to get Californians stoked and motivated.

Remember these depressing facts???

Sad right? None of the above has changed, in fact our ability to address those issues has been hampered because our state’s budget is about to implode.

Want to hear a little story of where we were about a year ago and how we got into the mess we are now looking at?  Here’s the spark/cliff notes version of what happened this past year (stripped down to plain English):

January 2011 – Watch The Gap

Almost 1 year ago, there was a huge gap in California’s budget. And by huge I mean ENORMOUS: to the tune of $25 BILLION – with a ‘B’. People were freaking out (rightly so) and politicians were finger wagging. The budget looked like it would never be balanced or passed into law.

Governor Jerry Brown had promised there would be no “phony plans or snappy slogans that don’t go anywhere,” and that he would be the one to make tough decisions to get the state back on track.

Tough Talking Jerry Brown. Then & Now.

The politicians were supposedly busy duking it out in Sacramento listening to all sides and trying to figure out how on earth to unravel years and years of government decisions and management that led to the current situation.

March 2011 – Pink Slip Party Time

In March, by law, the California School Districts were required to submit THEIR budgets based on the current state budget proposal (totally ass backwards but whatever), and with a giant gap of $25bn everything was looking pretty bleak. Districts planned for decreases – some as high as $1,000 per student in funding.

And on March 15th, California School Districts were forced to issue pink slip notices to teachers and other staff in order to balance their budgets.

Not a fun day.

In my district, our librarians, physical education teachers, behavioral specialists and some administrative staff were all notified. It could have been much worse, as it was in neighboring districts, but our Superintendent was able to look to his pipeline of private funds coming from parents and foundations to help mitigate the gap in his budget. Other communities would not have this luxury.

As parents and education advocates, we all started applying pressure on Sacramento, writing and demanding that California’s budget be balanced and education not take a direct hit from it’s already depleted stance.

June 30, 2011: Budget Day or Let’s Just Make Stuff Up Time

By the time June rolled around a lot of proposed cuts to social services and regional parks were on the table along with cuts to education. No one was going to come out a winner in this situation and it totally sucked.

But just how much it was going to suck was the real question and proposals flew back and forth between Republicans and Democrats all while the clock ticked towards June 15th, the day by which a budget HAD to be passed into law.  If not?  Legislators would stop receiving paychecks.

Wait… What?

No budget? No Pay.

There were major holdouts. It looked like 5 GOP Reps were going to block whatever came down the pike if new taxes were going to be proposed. Democrats, fearing their paychecks were going to get cut off, started pasting together a budget.  Then when Governor Brown viewed the proposed budget, he vetoed it saying the plan was full of “gimmicks” and sent everyone back to the drawing board.

The deadline passed with no balanced budget and.. their paychecks stopped.

And that got everyone’s attention.

So much so that they got pretty creative and found some extra money lying around. How much extra? Well… Are you ready for this? $4 Billion dollars in additional revenue!

Wait… what? How much???

$4,000,000,000

Where the hell do you ‘find’ FOUR BILLION dollars to save the budget? Do you just print money?

Well… kind of.

At the absolute last minute, politicians (and I’m guessing their accountants) said: “Whoops! Our projections are off! California businesses are doing MUCH better than we thought! We are going to get so much more in revenue dollars from sales and corporate taxes than we were anticipating! This will fund the budget and there will be no cuts to education! WOO HOO!”

Hunh? I thought Jerry said no gimmicks? No phony plans?  Ummm… ok…..

So we all sat back, the budget was passed and everyone went about their business and kids went off to school in September.

Somebody somewhere did ask the question, “But what if they don’t make more money??” But they were quickly taken and out back and shot.

Fast Forward to Now…

In this hasty “no gimmicks” budget plan, Legislators also made the projection that this new found revenue would continue throughout the year and therefore carry the economy.  But guess what?  Businesses haven’t been doing so well throughout the State.

In fact, by the end of October it became clear that this $4 Billion projection was off, waaaaaaay off. Like $3 Billion off. That’s a big screw up.

Missing The Mark

For K-12 education funding, this could mean $1.2 Billion in cuts to staff and programs in January 2012. Most districts will have to reach into their reserves (if they have them) to cover these automatic “trigger” cuts but then what?

Because Bake Sales Aren’t Going to Cover It

So that brings me to this… and those celebrities I promised.

What can you do? 

By now, if you are like me, you’ve probably figured out that we can’t keep treating education funding like a fire drill – something HAS SERIOUSLY GOT TO CHANGE.  We can’t expect our schools to run properly or smoothly if they don’t know or can’t rely on the funding they are supposed to get.

Also, there’s only so much that the parents and communities can personally donate and let’s face it… there’s no amount of bake sale cookies that are going to bridge this billion dollar issue of funding year after year, after year..

Bake sales aren't the answer.

Get involved. Stay informed. Support funding measures.

Thankfully, there are some really smart people out there that are making it easier for us to stay informed and suggesting ways to hear about alternatives to the status quo.

Valerie Bertinelli is one of them. OK, well she’s a Mom and she lent her celebrity-One-Day-At-A-Time-voice to the current PSA for Education Our State.  Anyway, all she (and I) want you to do is:

Stay informed and give a crap.

So here’s a few ways you can do that:

1. Watch this PSA:

• Next:
1. Like Educate Our State on Facebook
2. and then ‘Like’ Lafayette For Education on Facebook and then…
3. Tell 10 of your friends to do the same.

You won’t regret it and you’ll start to hear about ways you can help get involved to bring about larger scale change and stability to this rollercoaster that we all want off of.

Support Local Measures
The next thing you can do is support local measures that will provide additional funding for your district, like parcel taxes.  During this past election, communities through out California supported 5 out of 7 parcel taxes, with the required 2/3rd’s vote (the 2 that did not pass did have +50% of the vote).  These new fund will now help support their school districts directly.

So if you see one on your ballot next spring, read up on it and throw your support behind it. Every vote will count!

Come On Out

And finally, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in the East Bay, consider coming to this Town Hall Meeting on December 6th put on by my friends over at Lafayette For Education.  They’ve lined up an impressive group of speakers to address this very issue and the big guns are going to show up to talk about it. Here’s their line-up:

Featured Speakers will include:

• Mark DeSaulnier, California Senator
• Nancy Skinner, California State Assemblymember
• Craig Cheslog, Principal Advisor to State Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Crystal Brown, Founder of Educate our State
• Dr. Fred Brill, Lafayette School District Superintendent
• Dr. John Nickerson, Acalanes Union High School District Superintendent
• Phil Ting, Founder of Close the Loophole, Assessor/Recorder San Francisco

Pretty impressive group right???

OK that’s it. I’m done.

Do this for your kids and do it for me because really… I don’t like being on a soapbox – not at all.

The post CA Education: Time To Get Off This Rollercoaster! appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.