Regular Board Meeting Recap for Mar. 11^th, 2014

“…everybody loves a pirate!”

This month it was my responsibility to arrange for the opening exercise. Because I have been feeling very “Piratey” lately, we had the great honor of having many pirates visiting this day and we were graced by the musical singing of the Crystal River High School Gasparilla Singers under the direction of Mr. Mark Garlock. Before having them sing, with the assistance of CRHS principal Dr. Connors’s, in pirate tradition we raised the Jolly Roger in the Board Chambers and I read from Dave Burgess, author of the book ‘Teach Like a PIRATE‘.

“So why a pirate? After all, we don’t want teachers who attack and rob ships at sea. Teaching like a pirate has nothing to do with the dictionary definition and everything to do with the spirit. Pirates are daring, adventurous, and willing to set forth into uncharted territories with no guarantee of success. They reject the status quo and refuse to conform to any society that stifles creativity and independence. They are entrepreneurs who take risks and are willing to travel to the ends of the earth for that which they value. Although fiercely impendent, they travel with the embrace of a diverse crew. If you’re willing to live by the code, commit to the voyage, and pull your share of the load, then you’re free to sail. Pirates don’t much care about public perception; they proudly fly their flags in defiance. And besides, everybody loves a pirate.”

This section of the book I feel sums up the spirit of education in Citrus County and I am blessed to be a small part of it. We had several wonderful presentations during the meeting. Superintendent Himmel presents the Superintendent’s “Making a Difference” Award to the volunteers at the elementary level who work with our students at our school run clubs. These clubs participated in the recent, “5 Points of Life’s Marathon” which included over 800 elementary and middle school students.

Next, Superintendent Himmel & the Citrus County School Board issued a Proclamation urging all to contact their Congressional Representatives to “Bring Bowe Home”. The mission of the “Bring Bowe Home” Project is to spread and create awareness for Prisoner of War, US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. The “Bring Bowe Home Project” promotes awareness campaigns about the status of Bowe Bergdahl as well as to advocate for his safe and timely return home. If you are interested in seeing the video of this presentation follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4ncAncro9Y

During the meeting the school board received presentations on the Academy of Environmental Science Annual report, the Citrus County Education Foundation, and Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee – Coffee Survey Results. For those interested, after the coffee survey results presentation, board member offered their thoughts on the subject, and the consensus at this time was to not move forward.

Also, during the meeting, Executive Director of Educational Services, Mark Klauder, and Director of Instructional Technology, Dr Mike Geddes, presented and the board approved, the recommended English Language Arts (ELA), Reading and Mathematics Instructional Materials for adoption in 2014-2015. This will be the first time in over 12 years that ELA subject area will receive new and updated textbooks. If you would like to see more of the board meeting or listen to the CRHS singers follow this link to the video stream: http://new.livestream.com/citrusschools/events/2831218

Our next board meeting is April 8^th, 2014.

Comments Off on Regular Board Meeting Recap for Mar. 11th, 2014
Filed under: News & Updates

Thomas Talks on Citrus Today

I had the pleasure of joining Rotarian Doug Lobel on CITRUS TODAY on WYKE on TV channel 16 or 47 on Friday, January 31, 2014 to share about Citrus County School Board.

To watch the segment follow this link www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Gsc-itH_M or click on video below.

Comments Off on Thomas Talks on Citrus Today
Filed under: News & Updates

“I read this article recently and appreciated it and wanted to share it with you all. Greg was kind enough to give me permission to repost it.” ~Thomas

Forget tests, Focus on the love of learning

By Greg Biance
I have always been a follower of (Citrus County Chronicle Publisher) Gerry Mulligan’s writing. I don’t know if it is the common Catholic school influence on our view of life or he just has an interesting perspective on the world. I am sure it is both. It touched me when he wrote about a childhood experience as a young paperboy who took a little time to listen to a Holocaust survivor. Mrs. Larson, Gerry’s customer, was marked by a degrading series of numbers tattooed on her wrist, put there when she entered the Auschwitz camp. No human should ever be a number, and it obviously moved him to this day.

This scarring by numbers still goes on today — not to minimize the horrific event that targeted Jews. I loathe the current business model driving education today. It marks humans without a soul and without depth of other giftedness. It is one-dimensional and tragically linear in thought.

On the same day Gerry’s column was published, Nat Hentoff wrote about a 70-year-old retired educator named Carmen Farina. The mayor asked her to return and help reform New York’s education system. Her vision is about bringing “joy” back into the classroom. It is about inspiring children to learn and grow.

As the politically right have continued to push accountability through excess testing in Florida, the classroom has suffered. Yes, our end-of-course scores can go up, but it is the lifelong learning where my greatest concern has heightened. The trick is not in moving numbers, but moving people to want to learn. I am disillusioned by Florida’s political forces that place monetary value to human value. If that is the case, I have little value as an educator. The rich businessman, ballplayer, actor only have real value. Numbers do not lead to superiority, just more money or a bigger paycheck. A few kids get bragging rights and others walk away marked as not good enough to learn in school. This negative correlation can metastasize into every fiber of a human.

I see zombies walking blindly encouraging this practice. How can one obtain passion, when it appears that the big test becomes the center of this new universe? The misinterpretation of two to three poorly written test questions on our past Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores or the evolution of the new end-of-course testing can affect the students’ ranking, stigmatize schools and affect our district’s ranking and funding. The demographics of local regions, a collective effort of the majority of parents’ minimized involvement with teens working towards educational achievement. Local hardships and disconnected parental control have not been factored into education’s business model. It is the area we do not discuss in society because it is culturally biased and makes people nervous. Unfortunately, real estate’s term of “location, location, location” is real.

The number is all that is seen these days. It removes the face of the child, it masks the modern emotional impact that is evident of our confused culture. I feel they compare areas that are not apples with apples. That is what a spreadsheet does in business when the bottom line is a number. The complexity of each human and their unique strengths outside of the test are lost. This should never be a reality, yet it crept in and now is embedded deeply in Florida’s dialogue in teacher training and professional development. The contradiction is when these two somewhat opposing forces push and pull on the educators to chase the data on the sheet. Teachers are expected to juggle both the data and a conflicting demand to engage our youth with interesting ideas and intellectual thought.

More engaging teacher prep is essential as conceptual ideas are noted, but questioning to support concepts is left to others. Now others write these test questions, which are supposed to be from objectives or standards, yet they integrate some confusing reasoning skills that require assemblage. They create a high-stakes test. College-bound students would have seen these questions in entrance exams, but now the total student body is driven by possible vagueness, with less sophisticated reading comprehensions skills and abilities. Yes, there is giftedness in some test takers. Are they really smarter?

I believe I can write a pretty challenging test in biology, but my variety of assessment and teaching style is of much better use of time while developing lessons. The money holders control these enterprises. Something has to give, and many need to start speaking up to counter the biased number. The state is stepping up the testing across the academic arena. Kids will be tested to death, with a number deciding their destiny. How many graduating classes of students will have to succumb to this myopic methodology? This business model has brought us to this unfortunate stage in education. Ask a well-experienced politician to pass the very test they implemented and you will be surprised by the data spreadsheet. Elections and moving ideas to the center might alter the future.

So when I read another human story, it stirred my passion to combat any program that limits individuals to a number. We are more than this. We are better than this. Giftedness comes in so many packages.

Greg Biance is a teacher in Citrus County and is a former Teacher of the Year.

Comments Off on Biance: Forget tests, Focus on the love of learning
Filed under: News & Updates