Lakeland High School has been awarded $60,000 in technology and software as a winner of the Samsung Hope for Education essay contest.

English teacher Diane Travis submitted the winning essay, which was selected as one of 30 first-prize winners out of more than 8,000 applications.

“It just shows the efforts the staff is making to reach out and find new ways to get equipment to be used in the classrooms,â€? said James VanDevelde, district spokesman. “It’s so exciting to be recognized and to receive this money.â€?

Here’s the winning essay (it had to be 100 words):

3 R’s, meet your new friends: the 3 E’s—Education, Excitement, and Enrichment, all made possible with technology! Today, teachers must be able to access the technology-rich world of our students and use it to educate. Camcorders, digital cameras, DVD/VCRs, Smartboards, computers – all enable our students to actively participate in their own education. Technology brings to life the information-retrieval possibilities that are at the heart of research and inquiry. Because “immediacy” and “relevance” are the keys to making education dynamic, we educators need technology to make the classroom a vital learning environment. This is the real “Hope for Education.”

There are consequences to grade retention, more commonly known as “getting left back.” They’re discussed in this position paper from the National Association of School Psychologists. The paper stated that, among other things, retention was associated with increases in behavioral problems and had negative impacts on student achievement.

A reader today forwarded me a link to the position paper in response to my story on the Gift of Time program at the East Ramapo school district. The program allows students who struggled in first or second grade an extra year to strengthen reading, writing and math skills before moving on the next grade.

I called East Ramapo superintendent Mitchell Schwartz to talk about the paper. His response? That GOT is different from traditional retention and that the program should result in “confident learners.”

“There are two things in education research that have stood the test of time and are probably the most valuable findings: One is early intervention and the other is more time with skilled instructors — those are the two things that, without fail, are always proven to help kids succeed,” he said. GOT, Schwartz said, has both.

“It’s not just a rehash of the previous grade,” he said.

The “Wonderful Words of the Week” program at the East Ramapo school district is taking a hiatus for the holidays, but the words already reviewed by East Ramapo grade schoolers are still up for vocab-ophiles to see. You’ll find the grades K-3 list here and the grades 4-6 list here.

I’ve pasted my original story explaining the program after the break. Read more of this entry »

As the U.S. population grows, so does the pool of top students applying to the nation’s top colleges. But until recently, some of the country’s elite schools (eg. Harvard, Princeton, Stanford etc.) haven’t done much to expand their student bodies, leaving more and more “astonishing applicantsâ€? facing rejection, Amherst College president Anthony W. Marx tells The New York Times.

Fortunately for Ivy wannabes, that is changing, the Times reports, with several schools embarking on or at least considering expansion efforts.

In the meantime, students have had to alter their expectations and make back-up plans in the ever-more competitive college application environment. After the break, I’ve posted a story from earlier this year by colleague Diana Costello on application bulges and the agony of college wait lists. Read more of this entry »

More than 50 Irvington High students were named Advanced Placement Scholars this year. The designation comes from The College Board, which administers Advanced Placement exams and the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

AP courses allow students to take college-level classes while in high school and to receive college credit. They take exams to demonstrate their mastery of the material and are graded on a five-point scale. The tests were taken in May. Read on to see the list of awardees. Read more of this entry »

Is a college acceptance letter? That’s right. When given the choice between getting into their first choice college or getting $500,000, a majority (59 percent) of high school students around the country said they would choose getting into their top pick school.

And when given the choice between a perfect SAT or ACT score or a brand new care car*, the answer was even more decisive — 86 percent would rather get that perfect score than a new set of wheels.

That’s according to a recently conducted Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions survey of about 1,700 prospective college students.

“Although half a million dollars is extremely tempting to students of any age, a majority of today’s high school students understand that attending a competitive, top college or university may be of even greater benefit in the long run,” said Kristen Campbell, national director of college prep programs, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “And while a new set of wheels may earn them popularity points in school, they recognize it won’t do anything to help them into the Ivy League or favorite college.”

*Special thanks to Jared Zeide for his acute editing eye!

The brightly-painted windows that greet visitors to Tappan Zee Elementary School are the work of students from teacher Donna Schaefer’s third-grade class. Under the guidance of art teacher Tatiana DiPierno, students painted a scene from the book “Stand Tall, Molly Lou Mellon”, a story about a small girl who gets teased because of her size.

Want to see the young artists in action? Check out the photos below, courtesy of Tappan Zee assistant principal Beth Lipton. For more on Tappan Zee Elementary, see the latest story in our Rockland School Days series.

From the official press release…

At a special meeting on December 20, the Byram Hills Board of Education appointed Mr. Christopher Borsari to the position of Byram Hills High School Principal, effective July 1, 2008. Mr. Borsari will succeed Dr. Bill Donohue, who will move from the high school to the district office, as Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Leadership Development, also on July 1, 2008.

In taking this step, Mr. Borsari will resume service to the district he calls “home� after two years as principal of Sleepy Hollow Middle School in Tarrytown. Before assuming the principal’s position in Tarrytown, he served for 11 years as a teacher of social studies in the H.C. Crittenden Middle School, and another three years as Byram Hills High School assistant principal. He has a B.A. from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree from Manhattanville, and administrative certification from SUNY New Paltz and Manhattanville.

Byram Hills expects Mr. Borsari to be a very visible leader at BHHS; he earned a reputation for frequent and visible presence in the hallways and classrooms of the school while assistant principal, and is much respected by students, staff, and parents. The board, district administrators, and teachers present for the announcement of Mr. Borsari’s appointment joined in hearty applause at the news of his expected return.

Here’s today’s story about the new Mandarin program in Croton-Harman and Briarcliff.

I also want to add to the reporting that two schools in Yonkers — Mark Twain Middle School and Roosevelt High School — also started offering Mandarin lessons this year. Thanks to a grant from the College Board, Yonkers administrators have traveled to China over the past two years to explore the educational system abroad and bring back best practices.

Any other schools offering Mandarin that didn’t make it into the article? I’d love to know.

Bad news and Nanuet schools don’t usually go together in the same sentence. But the small, generally quiet district has been criticized publicly this week by the office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. In a new audit report, DiNapoli’s office cited “questionable overtime costs and overpayments” to employees of the district’s facilities department.

Over a two-year period, the district paid $941,747 in overtime, the bulk of which went to facilities employees.

Though the district has since agreed to develop policies to address overtime, Nanuet officials say that the overtime was “crucial to accommodate major renovation work, additions to three buildings and shifting of grades among buildings.”

For more on the audit (including the comptroller’s 33-page report) check out this site and also look for a story in tomorrow’s Journal News.

Assistant Business Administrator Kevin Sheldon will leave the district on Jan. 14 to take a position as assistant superintendent for business in the Poughkeepsie City School District.

A former interim assistant superintendent or business at Katonah-Lewisboro, Sheldon worked at the district for nearly eight years. He previously worked in the Lakeland School District.

Answer: Mandarin Chinese lessons at Croton-Harmon High School. Here’s a video I put together from this morning’s visit. Story’s coming out tomorrow.
Download:

New class(room) war: teachers vs. technology, New York Times

Home-school ties aided Huckabee’s Iowa race, Washington Post

Bush signs Head Start renewal, with reservations, Education Week

U.S. Middle-Grade teachers found ill-prepared in math, Education Week

Top musicians are composing own curricula, Washington Post

The Lakeland school board is seeking applicants by Dec. 19 to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of Trustee Robert A. Caluori Jr.

The appointee will serve until the May 20 district election, when the seat will be filled by voters.

To qualify, an applicant must be a registered voter residing in the district for at least a year, and be able to read and write.

Send letters of interest, resumes and a completed questionnaire to: Lakeland Central School District Board of Education, Administration Building, 1086 E. Main Street, Shrub Oak, N.Y. 10588, Attn: District Clerk. The questionnaire is available from District Clerk Kathy DeMaio at 914-245-1700, Ext. 222, or by going to www.lakelandschools.org.

It’s 2 a.m. and your bed is looking awfully inviting. You have, after all, been cramming for that dreaded biochemistry/greek philosophy/art of walking midterm for hours and now it’s time to shutter the books and catch some shut-eye, right?

Well, actually, yes.

A new study of students at a small New York liberal arts has found that, on average, those who don’t pull all-nighters have higher GPAs than their bleary-eyed peers.

“It’s not a big difference, but it’s pretty striking,” said a researcher quoted in this Associated Press story. “I am primarily a sleep researcher and I know nobody thinks clearly at 4 in the morning. You think you do, but you can’t.”