educating for the journey

You know, I think that if parents would spend less time worrying about what their kids watch on TV and more time worrying about what’s going on in their kids’ lives, this world would be a much better place.
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone

I could spend pages and words at the outset of this post talking about how i am busy and how i have been trying to post for months and months, or i could try and catch you up on my summer and the posts that have been whirling around and around in my head…the fact is that would just put me further behind.
We hit the ground running at CMS this September and life has, quite simply - never been busier.

This September’s launch of new web-based grading software (WebGrader and PowerTeacher) and our new student information system (PowerSchool) has been hectic, its benefits are great and is supporting far greater shifts happening in the student learning that goes on here.
The Carol Morgan School is supported by a board that has high expectations for its staff, its students and its selves. Parents have had web access to student grades for five years now and it is no longer a bell, nor whistle - it is an expectation; something these parents and students depend on. i thought i knew this but something brought it back to the forefront of my mind this last weekend:
Allow me to set the scene a little:
I run out of school on Thursday carrying the heavy burden of a long itinerary. This is my first flight on points ever and i am paying for it; Santo Domingo to Miami (layover) to New York (overnight layover) then on to Halifax. The first delay in Santo Domingo didn’t faze me as i knew i had a long night ahead of me. When i finally arrived in Miami i still had an hour and twenty minutes to clear the twelve people in the customs line. Making my connection should be easy - Nope. An hour and ten minutes later i am still three deep in line. i break out my most respectful Spanish and my boarding pass and explain to the family in the front of the line that i have to make this connection. They are typically kind Dominicans; they agree to let me pass - however there is a catch: I’ve been made; in exchange for letting me through mom wants her son’s login information early. She has become so accustomed to checking his grades regularly that the delay the new system has brought is driving her crazy (for the record she never called to get the information). CMS teacher-parent communication enters its newest phase on Wednesday night at Back to School night.

I have to share this image that was sent to me by the psychology teacher here, it was new to me and i love it:

Villemard’s 1910 view of schools in the year2000.

img: http://expositions.bnf.fr/utopie/images/3/3_95b1.jpg