Highlights from 3/15/18 school board meeting

WOW! This is not from our school board meeting, but it’s breaking news – Ripple, a company that uses blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to make international payments faster, lower cost, and more reliable, has donated $29 million to DonorsChoice.org to fund every single one of the more than 35,000 classroom projects posted! Thank you, Ripple, for helping over a million students around the country!

 

Resolution Supporting School Safety
Resolution Opposing HB 512 (Consolidating the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation into a new state agency called the Department of Learning and Achievement)
Increase learning by taking notes by hand

Here are the highlights from the 3/15/18 school board meeting:

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Resolution Opposing HB 512

Resolution Opposing HB512  (Consolidating the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation into a new state agency called the Department of Learning and Achievement)

While I have decided to support this resolution, I have significant concerns about how the Ohio Department of Education and the Department of Higher Education function. The ODE has been a source of frustration since I’ve been a school board member, and I’m sure long before that. Lack of communication, varying answers and interpretations, mandates that make no sense – those are just a few of the problems.

Increase learning by taking notes by hand

How often do you write these days? I type almost everything, to the point where my handwriting (which was never exceptional) has gotten noticeably worse.

Yet while typing may be convenience (and necessary) in the business world, is it the best course for students who are working to learn and retain information? Perhaps not, according to a study published in Psychological Science.

Resolution Supporting School Safety

Resolution Supporting School Safety

I agree with everything this resolution says – but I feel it’s the back end of what needs to be done. Without question, we need to be unrelenting about finding ways to increase safety in our schools. However, I feel we also need to take a step back and do more work on the real problem: what is causing the problem in the first place?