education

They are thinking of possibly closing a great little institution of "lower" learning (lower grade level, that is) - Birchwood Elementary.  Do the local Nisky-ites agree?  Read the story or zip down to the bottom of the article and take the 2 second poll!

These kids were great.  So patriotic!  I'm sure they would like to hear themselves, and parents and friends can burst their buttons with pride by listening too, so here we go - instant replay!

It's true!  I'm pretty much filling the calendar for my Reading, Writing and Rhyming Tour, but i wanted to get the message out now that the new year is in full swing!

If you are a teacher, I  respectfully dedicate this song to you.  Having talked to many of you on my school tour, I realize the incredible pressure you must be under with these new Common Core standards, so I wrote you a little ditty for comic relief.

There are some Albany area school districts where the teachers are paid pretty well.

I feel like a kid myself here. I'm getting more and more excited about how this is turning out! It's a song that schools in four different Capital Region counties are helping to create. The message?  DON'T BE A BULLY. The school helping out this week?  Jefferson Elementary in Schenectady County.

As a Niskayuna resident (and a former teacher, no less) who has put a child through their fantastic school system, I'm having a hard time with this subject.  Actually, a VERY hard time.

Another first, ladies and gentlemen.  Through the use of magic teleconferencing technology at NERIC (Northeastern Regional Information Center) in Albany, I was able to pull this off.  This was a blast to try out.  You can see the results below.

There're so many schools struggling right now to stay afloat.  I happen to have visited the school just within the past several weeks. They are looking for your donations to keep it going and have posted a video about it that I thought was important to share

Maybe you've seen these videos before, but it's probably worth it on this day, Presidents' Day, to have an instant replay.  These are very young kids who would put us all to shame with their Presidential knowledge

Here is Today's Daily Dilemma: Two years ago, I decided to home school my two children when I discovered they were falling behind at school and the school didn’t even seem to notice or care. They had “satisfactory” report cards and at teacher conferences they said they were doing just fine – except my third grader couldn’t really read or do basic math, and my first grader was not participating...

I think this is fantastic, but maybe you don't. Maybe you are a traditionalist when it comes to education.  Perhaps you feel that the only way to get kids' attention is to entertain them.  Sorry, folks, but I love this guy.