Frelinghuysen Township School District is proud to be a part of the #innovateNJ community. We look forward to collaborating with schools and districts to exchange best practices. Below is a glimpse into some of the innovative practices that take place at FTSD. #MustangPride #BeTheirChampion
My father is an amazing man. Growing up (and to this day) he would show my mother little acts of appreciation like holding the door open for her, dancing with her in the kitchen, and sending her gifts...just because. Days like Valentine's, Christmas, and Anniversaries are great opportunities to remind us to show those close to us that we care. How about the other days of the year? How about showing our loved ones we appreciate them just because?
My father's great example is why I show my wife I love her...just because. Reflecting on this got me thinking about my school district and how I can apply this to the amazing staff at FTSD. So I created "Just Because" coupons.
Every staff member will be able to redeem this coupon between now and June and I will teach the class, cover recess, mop the floor, serve lunch, anything and everything except drive the bus (I looked into it they won't let me). So despite being in the middle of budget season, strategic planning, evaluations and whatever else Supts do I will be showing the FTSD staff that I truly appreciate them by giving them the gift of myself. Why? Just because! #MustangPride #BeTheirChampion
2015 data from the PARCC assessment has been released. Below is a video created for the FTSD Community. Parents, please join us at our next PTO for a presentation entitled, "What the Scores Mean". #MustangPride #BeTheirChampion
As I mentioned last month, our theme at FTSD this year is #BeTheirChampion. As a school community, we are focused on being a champion for one another. This means we will advocate for each other, support each other, lift each other up, and even help each other get back on track when we lose our way. In order to recognize our community's #BeTheirChampion efforts, we are proud to announce the inaugural #BeTheirChampion Awards. At the end of each marking period, students will nominate a classmate who consistently exhibits the "champion" qualities mentioned above. Those students will be recognized at a Board of Education meeting and will receive the #BeTheirChampion Award.
Additionally, one community member (a parent, volunteer, BOE member, etc) who has been a champion for our school community will also be recognized at our BOE meeting. At the end of the year our #BeTheirChampion Awards will culminate in recognizing the biggest champions of them all, our entire teaching staff. Please take a moment to nominate a community member for the inaugural award. Click here to nominate a champion! Please join us at our specially designated BOE meetings to recognize our #BeTheirChampion award winners. Hope to see you there!
It is my great honor and privilege to serve as the Superintendent for the Frelinghuysen Township School District. This year our district wide theme is "Be Their Champion", based on Rita Pierson's TED Talk entitled "Every Kid Needs A Champion". My goal as your Superintendent is to be a champion for our kids, our teachers, and the entire community!
This will serve as my reminder to #BeTheirChampion
What do we mean by champion? If you look up the word you will find two definitions. For athletes, being a champion means:
1.
a person who has defeated or surpassed all rivals in a competition, especially in sports.
For myself and our school community, our definition of a champion is:
2.
a person who fights for a cause on behalf of someone else.
As your Superintendent, I pledge to be a champion for the entire school community. As educators, we have the great privilege and potential to make a real difference in the lives of those we serve. Let this be the year that we advocate for our kids and for each other. As a school community, we look forward to working together to serve as a champion for all! Let's "Be Their Champion" this year and ALWAYS! #MustangPride
As a father of eight and a School Superintendent, the safety of children is constantly on my mind. Hopefully (for all of us) keeping our kids safe means more than looking both ways before crossing the street. Living in a digital world our children have access to what seems like an infinite amount of media. How do we help them to make smart choices and develop good digital citizenship habits? Whether you are a parent or an educator, you will not be able to preview every single thing your children read, listen to, watch, search for, etc. These tools below will assist you in making sure your child is "safe" while more importantly helping them to develop those positive digital habits...
1. Common Sense Media- This site has been a great find for me both as a parent and educator. I have been able to get an unbiased review of books, movies, TV shows, games, apps, etc. and determine if it is appropriate for my child or my students. The site is completely free. I suggest using it with your older children/students in order to engage in meaningful discussion on why something would be appropriate or not.
2. Safe Search Engines- You and I know from experience that even the most innocent of keywords can lead to sites and images you would not want a child to see. Although search engines have filtering, if you do not set them up that way then you risk a child being exposed to ANYTHING. Search engines such as Safe Search Kids, Kid Rex, Ask Kids, Mymunka offer child friendly search alternatives. Remember though, nothing is 100%. That is why it is as important to teach our children and students digital citizenship skills.
3. YouTube Kids - If your children/students are like mine, they spend plenty of time watching videos on YouTube. This app will allow children to watch videos that are age appropriate. Click here for Android. Click here for iTunes.
Keeping our kids safe should be the highest priority of parents and educators. For more on digital citizenship check out Vicki Davis' article on Edutopia. Feel free to share other tools/resources to keep our kids safe in the comment section below or tweet at me @NicholasADiaz.
Last year I wrote about the "summer slide", the phenomenon of students sliding backwards (academically) due to a lack of reading over the summer. Research shows that children who do not read over the summer will lose two or more months of reading gains. But the good news is research also shows that students who read at least six developmentally appropriate books over the summer will stop that regression.
A big part of developing life-long readers is motivating kids. As a father of eight, I have found the most effective way to motivate my children to read is to read aloud to them. I even do this for my littlest one, as even he can look at the pictures, listen to my voice and try to turn the pages. Now that half of my kids are in elementary school, they really enjoy reading to me. They even try to compete with the funny voices that dad makes for each character.
One of the questions I get about motivating kids to read is whether or not to use extrinsic motivators. I will admit that I have often used this "trick" in my schools to get children to read. Often what I found was that strategy only worked for a while. It does not help to produce lovers of reading and life-long learners. I suggest to parents and educators to try Todd Nesloney's approach. Todd is a principal in Texas and stopped using a reward program to motivate students to read. You can read more about what he and his students did here.
Below are some additional tips I previously shared to help your child/students start off the new school year off on the right foot. Happy reading!
Be a reading role-model! Children are quicker to do what their parents do rather than what they say. Set aside time where your child sees you reading. If it's important for mom or dad then it will be important to them.
Read! Read! Read! Have your child read a developmentally appropriate book for twenty minutes per day.
Visit your local library! Need I say more?
Word of the week! Post a new word on the fridge every week. Challenge your kids to use it as much as possible!
Audio books! Driving to your vacation destination? Listen to a book in the car. Visit audible.com for books. Better yet local libraries have wonderful selections of audio books for free!
Book or Device? Who cares as long as they are reading!
I was recently appointed as a new
Superintendent in NJ. I am extremely honored and
humbled to have been selected to lead a school district. Throughout the hiring process, I was able to receive guidance
from outstanding and established NJ School Superintendents. Thanks to
the power of the PLN, I learned from leaders such as Timothy Purnell, Scott Rocco, Johanna Ruberto, Jay Eitner, and Andrew Rinko. Their
advice was invaluable and I am indebted to each of them. If you are considering
becoming a School Superintendent, I highly suggest reaching out to them.
All are connected educators and would be more than happy to assist. During
my preparation for the Superintendent interview process, I stumbled
upon a series of YouTube videos created by the Beverly School District in Massachusetts. The videos take the viewer on an inside look at candidates
interviewing for the Superintendent role. The series also includes an
insightful video of the Board discussing the candidates along with the final vote. I
found these videos very helpful and would like to applaud the Beverly
School District for their transparency. At the end of the videos I have
also provided a script of the questions asked during the video series.
Here's hoping this post helps aspiring Superintendents to realize their
dream of leading a district.
Final
Candidate 4 (he was offered the position) Steven A. Hiersche
Final
vote by the BOE (found this very insightful to listen to their thought process)
Superintendent Finalist Interview
Questions
1.
What do you believe the top 3 issues/challenges facing our district? What will be you plan of attack to address at least one of these issues?
2.
How do you plan to raise the academic performance of the lowest achieving
students without neglecting the highest performing students as well as those in
the middle?
3.
What have you done in your current or former role to support teachers in the
classroom?
4.
Communication is key for this district. How would you ensure BOE members,
staff, and stakeholders are kept informed of district initiatives, needs,
priorities?
5.
How have you or how would you balance academic program offerings against
budgetary constraints
6.
How would you describe your leadership style?
7.
Technology is a critical tool in supporting student learning. As such, there is
an increasing need to bring families up to speed with technology. Please tell
us how you have addressed this issue (or would) as Superintendent.
8.
How has discrimination impacted the education of students? How would you
address it for the students of (district name?
9.
Please give an example of an unpopular decision you made. How did you proceed
with the decision? What factors did you consider and what were the results?
10.
In your role as Superintendent, how would you advocate for public education?
You've heard the saying, "An apple a day
keeps the doctor away". Well, "A Bammy a day keep the
negativity away". I applaud the good folks at the Academy
of Education Arts and Sciences International, for being counter-cultural
and proactive in spreading the good news about education. As many of my
PLN members say, "If you don't tell your own story, somebody else
will".
Last year, I wrote about how the Bammy Awards are a great way to pay it
forward. You can read that posthere.
This year, my goal is to nominate one person a day for a Bammy Award.
Thus, this blog post #ABammyADay.
We are all busy, but we can all afford to take a few minutes out of our day to
help spread this positive message. We all know educators who do amazing things
for students on a daily basis. Here is your chance to recognize them.
Join me in my Bammy a day goal. I'll be using
the hashtag #ABammyADay each time I nominate someone. Feel free to do
so too!
Is your school or district Future Ready? Last November, President Obama addressed over 100 school superintendents challenging them to take the Future Ready Pledge. This movement seeks to empower educators to leverage technology in order to provide students with rich and individualized digital learning. Take the pledge today. I have partnered with the 2015 NJ School Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Timothy Purnell, to raise awareness of the Future Ready movement and to assist schools/districts to get "READY". Using the hashtag #FutureReadyPD we provide FREE online professional development based on your school or districts' needs.
Becoming a Certified Google Educator is a great way to be recognized for learning and mastering Google Apps for Education tools. Below is my presentation on what it takes to become a Certified Google Educator (with tips on how to pass the exams).
NJASA's TECHSPO 2015 was once again an incredible and inspiring conference. I have attended this conference for three years and presented the last two years. Each time I have left invigorated and eager to put the many things I learned into practice.
If you were unable to attend have no fear! My co-presenter, Travis Zimmerman, put together a great Blendspace highlighting many of the great things TECHSPO had to offer. Click here to view the Blendspace. I am also providing our Prezi on All Things Flip 2.0! Click here to view. Can't wait until next year!
Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom have steadily made their way into classrooms throughout the world. If you are new to the Google movement the videos below can give you a quick overview to help yo see what all the fuss is about! Google can help your students collaborate and create like never before. See what "going Google" can do for your classroom.
Flipping
the classroom is an amazing way to engage students in learning. Students in my
elementary school have been part of the flipped classroom and have taken an
active role by providing the video lessons themselves. There are many iPad apps
and tools that have supported our flipping efforts. Here are some apps and
tools that we have used that can help you flip your class.
Our
new favorite tool to flip the classroom at Weston School. EDpuzzle offers teachers an easy platform to create and manage video lessons.Teachers can even create individualized video lessons for students to foster differentiated instruction.
Explain Everything is an interactive tool that
allows students to and teachers to create slides, draw in any color, add
shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Slides created can be
shared/exported.
ScreenChomp allows students/teachers to provide a running narrative. ScreenChomp records your voice and drawing and then allows you to upload your creation to ScreenChomp.com and share via different platforms.ScreenChomp also allows you to make annotations on an image or photo in much the same way you will on the whiteboard.
