Greetings!
This week is the official and long-awaited start of summer. While we hope to finally bask in the sun and enjoy blue skies, we've lined up a few other things to celebrate just in case summer takes a little while longer to arrive (we are in Oregon, after all). The passion and hard work of the CLASS school districts, Mollie Dickson's talented middle-schoolers, and Chalkboard's newly-formed ChalkBloggers team each deserve a round of applause - way to go!
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New CLASS Video
 On May 26th all twelve CLASS districts came
together to learn from each other and celebrate a year of successes. Sherwood,
Tillamook, and Forest Grove have completed their second year of implementation
and the new nine districts have submitted their proposals to integrate and
implement expanded career paths, relevant professional development, effective
performance evaluations and new compensation models.
The discussion and planning around how to provide teachers with
the tools and resources to do their best work in the classroom was inspiring to
watch!
Take a look at this video of highlights from the meeting:
http://bit.ly/9Rj4it
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Finding Efficiencies in Business Practices
 If Crook County, Sisters, and Redmond school districts were
to combine their fiscal and technology services, with a logical partner like
the High Desert ESD, they could see $500,000 in on-going, annual savings.
This was the major finding from a study commissioned by the
Chalkboard Project and the High Desert Education Service District, and
conducted by ECONorthwest, to explore whether or not the regionalization of
business services would save the individual districts money.
The study also suggests that districts across Oregon could find efficiencies by regionalizing certain
services so that those services reach 4,500 or more students.
Read the press release: http://www.chalkboardproject.org/news/press-releases/2010-05-26.php
Read the full report: http://www.chalkboardproject.org/images/ECOESDefficiencyFinal.pdf
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Our Blog is Your Blog
We are putting the finishing touches on our blog and will be
launching it in the next few weeks. Our goal for ChalkBloggers is to provide
the latest news and opinions on education in Oregon with the hopes of sparking
meaningful solutions-based dialogue.
A number of educators will be part of the ChalkBloggers team,
providing an essential perspective on how to strengthen Oregon's schools.
Readers can look forward to blog posts from: - Shawn Daley, High School Social Studies Teacher and Department
Chair
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Mollie Dickson, Middle School Language Arts Teacher
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Stasia Honnold, Middle School Language Arts Teacher from
2007-2010
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Sandy Ludeman, Assistant Professor at Pacific University
College of Education in Eugene
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Ruth Wallin, Elementary School Teacher
If you are an educator, or know an educator, who would like
to provide another perspective on education issues in Oregon please send
contact information to Aimee Craig, craig@chalkboardproject.org.
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Our Voices, Our Schools
 Stasia Honnold taught middle school Language Arts for three
years before recently deciding to leave teaching, at least for the time being,
to explore other options. Stasia will be a member of the ChalkBloggers team.
You just finished your third year of teaching. What do you
wish you could have known in your first year that you know now?
I wish I'd known right off that teaching works best if you just act like yourself. It's something that everyone says, but I didn't really understand at first--I went in trying to be strict and mean because I was worried that otherwise my students would walk all over me. Well, they did anyway, because everyone could tell that I was all bluff. Things worked much better when I relaxed and gave everyone--myself included--space to be themselves.
As a member of the Chalkboard blogger team, you will be
sharing your perspective on education issues with a diverse audience. What are
you most looking forward to about blogging on ChalkBloggers?
I'm psyched to start (or dive into) the dialogue about issues that I think are urgently important to education but don't necessarily get lots of air time. We tend to quibble about the details of a school day or argue about funding and district policies, but we don't often talk about the larger, often invisible structures of power and privilege that influence the way education in this country turns out. I'm excited to have those conversations and engage with others who care about making education the best it can be.
For all of the current and future teachers out there, what
is one book you would want to add to everyone's summer reading list and why?
This isn't a book, but I think every teacher, current and future, should get themselves a subscription to Rethinking Schools (http://www.rethinkingschools.org). Not only does it have great ideas that you can immediately adapt to your own classroom, but it's also one of the most ardently optimistic magazines I've ever read when it comes to the potential of public education. I can't say enough how often I've read that magazine and remembered why it is that I got into teaching in the first place. Read it. It'll remind you that you can make a difference.
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Inspiring Writers
As a nice surprise at the end of the year, Mollie Dickson
received an award from Champman Smiles! Mollie's students participated in an essay
contest with the theme, "How Cool is School." The two winning students had both written about their classes'
work with Ms. Dickson.
Congratulations to Mollie and her students!
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Teacher Advocacy Training
Calling all Educator Advocates and Advocates-to-be! On August 11th, Chalkboard will be hosting a
teacher advocacy training to de-mystify the state-level policy process and
provide educators with the tools and training they need to be strong advocates. Details: Teacher Advocacy Training
Wednesday, August 11th
9 am - 4 pm
West Linn High School
5464 West A Street
West Linn, OR 97068-3199 Chalkboard will provide lunch and refreshments. RSVP by July 30th to Aimee Craig, craig@chalkboardproject.org
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What's Next for Chalkboard...
July 6
Federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant due
July 20
Chalkboard Board Meeting
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