Regarding the Commissioner's search

A twitter thread:

Just want to point out something real quick on the draft #MAEdu Commissioner’s job description (apologize in advance for photos):

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) October 26, 2017

Pumpkin Spice has officially gone too far

UPDATE: A spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Dept has confirmed the source of the odor was a pumpkin spice air freshener https://t.co/JvYiezuFvJ

— ABC2NEWS (@ABC2NEWS) October 5, 2017

h/t Dan Gleason

Have a good weekend. 

Social Media for Board Members: presentation by the Maryland Association of Boards of Education at NSBA

Maryland Association of Boards of Education is here on Twitter, BTW.

Coming up as part of the presentation

• brief what it is "not a lot of slides now"
• your activity on social media
• other board members
• your school system on social media

statistics on social media are larger every year

a lot of which one matters to you depends on who your audience is : choose your venue by audience

"is there a problem with board members on social media? I think there is"
"how to tell your story on social media and not become your story on social media"

Colleen Ritzer and Twitter

I have nothing profound to say about the death of Colleen Ritzer--I'm heartsick that any school once again has become a place of violence--but if you caught a glimpse of her and her teaching via Twitter, as I did, you may be interested in the thoughts of Ed DeHoratius here.

Happy back to school!

A few reminders:

• While most students went back today, our kindergarten and preschool students don't start until next Tuesday (sorry, typo earlier!). All kindergarten students should have a screening appointment with their teachers this week; if your child doesn't have one, please contact your school.
• Among the myriad of things that will be heading home for a parent signature this week is the Student Policy manual. You can find it online here in multiple languages. Signing it means that you've read it, so do give it a read and keep it around!
• Remember that you can pay for school lunches online through the Parent Portal (YIKES! Which is down right now! I'll check it out and get back to you.).The price of school lunch for all students who pay full price is $1.65 this year; reduced price lunch remains 40 cents.
• The WPS bus schedules are here. If you have a difficulty with your child's bus, CALL THE SCHOOL FIRST! There's a decent chance that whatever the issue is, it isn't just your child, and the school can turn it all in together. 
• All schools have websites, 'though they vary WIDELY in how much is done with them. I've already today gotten some "I wish this was on there" type of comments; let me know if you have some to pass along!
• If you text "follow @worcesterpublic" to 40404 on your phone, you will get the district's Twitter feed as text messages (just be sure you know your rate plan). What does this mean? School cancellations and postponements as a text message! 

As always, know that you can get in touch with the School Committee if you get stuck. 

Duncan at AERA

And if you're looking for insight into what our rank-and-file educational researchers think of our Secretary of Education, you might hop over to Twitter: Secretary Duncan has just finished a speech and Q&A at AERA (American Educational Research Association), and Twitter is erupting.
A few examples:

Q: Why is @arneduncan is greeted w/ protests everywhere he goes? A: Because he's no friend to public ed. [ #AERA13 #AERASec ]
— Tobey Steeves (@symphily) April 30, 2013

"After hearing your remarks, do you even know what race to the top is?" Our hi-stakes testing "suffocating" kids. Tough crowd #AERA13
— Ximena Hartsock (@ximenahartsock) April 30, 2013

Summary of #arneduncan #aera13 speech: Everything will be better in the future when we have more and better tests and Pearson rules world
— E Wayne Ross (@EWayneRoss) April 30, 2013

Education Movie Lines

Just for Friday
Currently on Twitter, the meme "education movie lines"

@arotherham: You want the afternoon recess duty? You can't HANDLE the afternoon recess duty
@juscohen: I coulda been a test vendor
@arotherham "Bloomberg....Bloomberg?