Today’s word of the day is…

Flagitious: vicious, characterized by cruelty or brutality, extremely wicked; scandalous.

Today’s word of the day is…

Pilcrow: the paragraph symbol.

Today’s word of the day is…

Oubliette: a dungeon with a trapdoor in the ceiling as its only means of entrance or exit.

The New York State School Boards Association holds its annual conference next week.

Reporter Randi Weiner will be there, blogging, on Friday. I’ll be on a panel Saturday morning talking about the Internet’s effect on communication and media coverage of schools and education issues.

It’s a jam-packed three days of seminars and workshops on everything from school law to lobbying. It’s attended by delegates from the state’s 700+ districts, so if it’s a hot education topic, it’ll be coming up.

The Hall Monitor thoroughly enjoyed it last year, as you can read in our field trip entries from last October.

Stay tuned.

Today’s word of the day is…

Docent: a teacher or lecturer at some university who is not a regular faculty member. 03

In case you missed this story today out of Irvington…

What do you all think about the appropriateness of this sort of information at the middle-school level?

Today’s word of the day is…

Pithy: precise and brief.

Today’s word of the day is…

Animus: a feeling of animosity or ill will.

Mount Pleasant teachers call for support after 16-month stalemate in contract negotiations. Here’s the union’s press release:

THORNWOOD — Nearly 200 Mt. Pleasant teachers, joined by parents and colleagues from other school districts, will call on the school board to recognize teachers’ contributions to students’ success and end a 16-month-old contract stalemate with a fair agreement.

Teachers will attend the Mt. Pleasant Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Westlake H.S., 825 West Lake Drive, Thornwood at 7:30 p.m. Mt. Pleasant teachers plan to call on the board to “negotiate a fair agreement that recognizes the challenges and demands of the teaching profession and the superb job Mt. Pleasant teachers do on behalf of the district’s students,� said Mt. Pleasant Teachers Association President Ann Herz.

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An internationally acclaimed teacher and lecturer will speak about racism, prejudice, homophobia and the class system in America this Thursday in a special forum developed by the Westchester County Human Rights Commission and supported by several local school districts.

The free educational program, “Courageous Conversations: An Evening with Jane Elliot,� will be given in two sessions at the Briarcliff Middle School auditorium. This collaborative event, involving the Pleasantville, Briarcliff Manor and Pocantico Hills school districts, will include County Executive Andy Spano and the mayor and supervisors of those communities.

The forum was developed as the result of issues of discrimination and racist behavior that were brought to the attention of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission. In two incidents, the discriminatory behavior was conducted by teenagers. One of the requests of the individuals who were the target and subject of the racist behavior was that the county find a way to really impact and educate the community and the children about the importance of humanity and diversity.

Jane Elliott, a noted educator and diversity trainer, gained notoriety as a teacher by engaging her class in the controversial exercise of “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes� after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. more than 30 years ago. This exercise focused on exploring and exposing the basis of inferior and superior attitudes.

Although at that time she was ostracized, hated and fired from her teaching position, her exercise had a dramatic affect on all who were exposed to it and subsequently became the subject of the Peabody Award –winning film “The Eye of the Storm.�

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First of all, it’s great to be back in the blogosphere! Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that we’ve been out of business for the past few days due to an unexplainable server problem. I apologize to all the students and parents whom I met the other night in Mamaroneck and were wondering what happened to the material that I had promised.

That being said, here are some great insights and tips regarding the college admissions process. They are all from Dr. Roger H. Martin, a former Harvard dean and president of two liberal arts colleges for the past 20 years. Dr. Martin is also a graduate of Mamaroneck High School, class of 1961.

Last week he answered questions from a group of about 20 students and parents at the Mamaroneck Public Library as part of a forum entitled “College Bound: How to Choose…”

I hope you find these to be helpful, and feel free to post any questions you have about the college application process. If Dr. Martin doesn’t answer them right here in the blog, I will ask other experts for some answers.

Top three most important things to consider when choosing a college:

1. Go to a place where you can succeed. What’s far more important than the name of the institution you attend is how well you will do there. You should go to a college where you will stand out and be a leader. That may very well be an Ivy League institution, but if it’s not, that’s perfectly OK.

2. Big is not necessarily better. Going to a smaller school will give you an opportunity for more individualized attention. At bigger schools, some students may not get lost in the crowd.

3. No matter what type of college you attend, be sure to get a liberal arts and science education. This is especially important because students today can expect to have between six and eight different vocations.

On the SAT… It is no longer an adequate measure of how a student will perform in college, which was its original aim. (SAT subject tests, however, are a more accurate gauge.) A better predictor of how a student will do in college is his/her high school grades and the level of difficulty of the courses he/she took.

On what admissions officers are looking for… Level of difficulty of the classes you take in high school, plus grades. Good teacher recommendations. Extra curricular activities that you are deeply involved in. SAT/ACT scores. Application essay. Interview (only do an interview if you interview well).

On the application essay… It absolutely must be the student’s work. These days, college admissions officers can compare the essay to the written portion of the SAT and know whether the essay has been doctored by a parent.

On the SAT vs. the ACT… Take them both and then choose which score you want to submit. Different students prefer different tests.

On public vs. private institutions… Soon there won’t be much of a difference in cost because public tuition is rising so fast. Plus, private colleges often have more money for scholarships. And public schools sometimes have so many students that there’s not enough room for them all to graduate in four years.On visiting college campuses… It’s very important to visit a college before you apply. When you’re on campus, you can get a feeling about whether or not you see yourself there. You should start visiting late sophomore year and definitely throughout your junior year. In addition to looking at the college’s academics, extracurricular options and campus life, also pay attention to the physical upkeep of the institution. It’s often a good indicator of how well the college treats the students.

On the U.S. News & World Report college rankings… “I think they’re terrible.” Often times, one school president will make a verbal plea with another school president to vote for each other’s schools.

Random tips…

– Don’t list which other colleges you’re applying to. Colleges may deny your application if they see you’re applying to better schools and likely will get in. – Be careful what you put on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. – Parents need to butt out and let the students find their way, especially freshman year.

Today’s word of the day is…

Stipulation: an agreement between the parties to a case regarding some aspect of the case, legal proceeding, or fact; a condition, demand, or promise in a contract.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer told administrators of independent and religious schools today that he would work to build a political consensus for a $1,000 tuition tax deduction for middle class and working class parents who send children to private school, says our colleague Cara Mathews, who covers education in Albany for the Gannett News Bureau.

Spitzer proposed it for this year’s budget – read our original entry and the comments here – but the Legislature didn’t adopt the measure.

Plans for a new institution of higher learning in Mount Pleasant from a controversial, conservative Catholic order are up for public discussion tonight.

A group called CAMP, or Citizens of Action for Mount Pleasant, is calling for town residents and residents of the Valhalla school district to show up at tonight’s town Planning Board meeting to fight the plans by the Legionaries of Christ to build Westchester University in Thornwood.

Here’s the background, from articles by my colleague Gary Stern:

The priests of the Legionaries of Christ and an affiliated lay movement, Regnum Christi, are conservative and often controversial. The Legion, as it is known, is widely praised by conservative Catholics for its ability to attract vocations at a time when the number of priests is dwindling. It has some 600 priests but 2,500 seminarians.

The Legion has struggled to develop its properties in Westchester, repeatedly tripped up by municipal delays and court battles over zoning and taxes.

The order bought a 98-acre New Castle estate from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church for $3.1 million in 1994, and soon announced plans to open a seminary for 400 men. For now, the property, called Our Lady of Mount Kisco Retreat Center, is used for retreats and workshops.

In Mount Pleasant, it bought a leafy 264-acre property from IBM in 1996 for $33.5 million. The property is made up of two parcels, each with its own zoning and its own conflicts over taxes that have gone to the courts. In 2003, the Legion said it wanted to build a liberal arts university on the larger, 165-acre parcel.

According to the Legion’s website, Westchester University would be one of a global network. The first university was opened in 1964 in Mexico City. Today the Legion operates 43 post secondary educational institutions including 15 universities. The Legion also operates 175 pre-school, elementary, middle and high schools around the world serving more than 122,000 students.

Its opponents worry that 1,500 students on a campus at Columbus Avenue and West Lake Drive will have a negative effect on the nearby schools and shopping centers.

The planning board meeting is at 8 p.m. at Mount Pleasant Town Hall.

Today’s word of the day is…

Sanction: to give official authorization or approval.