What do you think about manufactured housing? Getting teachers and parents to talk. Politicans' lies--some are worse than others.
What do you think?
The program outlined in the article below---to use General Fund dollars to provide incentives to companies building modular and/or kit homes--doesn't inspire a clear feeling in me either way.
I like that it's an incentive-driven program. I like that there is extra incentive to build energy-efficient homes. I like that there is an extra incentive to locate the plant in a rural area.
I don't like the size of it. I'm concerned and wonder what is meant by requiring that the companies that build these modulars must (quoting the article) "... commit to increasing the state’s inventory of affordable housing." Maybe it's nothing bad, but what does this mean exactly.
What do you think? Any more clarity on your part? Feel free to share if you have strong feelings.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/colorado/colorado-launches-40m-program-promoting-manufacturing-construction-of-modular-kit-homes/article_3365bd7e-938f-11ed-aeb0-cfc9f219b489.html
What role should parents play in their student's education?
If you are like me, you might have read the headline on the Sun piece below and thought it would be about social studies standards, school boards, and etc.
I have to be honest, as I read more of the article I found it refreshingly different. I am up for talk about social studies standards and how much say parents get in education nearly any day, but it's a nice change of pace to come at things from a different perspective.
So what is the article about then? It's about schools getting in touch with parents--a subject near and dear to my heart. A group of schools in Colorado is going to embark on a new program to help connect parents and teachers.
To quote:
"With the help of a $1 million grant from the state and a $5 million grant from the federal government, the new Colorado Statewide Family Engagement Center will help the districts rethink how parents are involved in their child’s education and the ways schools team up with them. The effort includes Pueblo School District 60, Denver Public Schools, Greeley-Evans School District 6, Mesa County Valley School District 51 and Alamosa School District. "
I'm glad to see the program, I hope it encourages parents to reach out to teachers and vice versa. The thing is, I am not so sure that millions of dollars and Engagement Centers are needed.
There will always be those parents that reach out to you. That's not what I mean. What I mean is that if we want a better and more open relationship between teachers and parents, then I think that the easiest step is to make it an expectation of the teacher that they reach out to parents on a regular basis.
If you are a teacher, I can already hear you groaning from here. I would too, so let me flesh this out a little bit.
One big problem with being a teacher (probably with being any employee anywhere these days) is the feeling that new job expectations and tasks are always additive: that is, they're always being piled on and nothing is ever removed. When I say that it's easiest here to make parent contact part of a teacher's job, I am not (repeat not) talking about adding more to an already full plate. I am talking about rearranging the school day to prioritize calling. I am talking about removing other duties to prioritize calling. I am talking about possibly offering extra money if calls need to be made outside normal working hours.
I.e. time is what is needed, priority given to this is what is needed. This applies to teacher and school both. When I taught high school, I spent hours every week contacting parents. Hours. Every single week. I made it a priority and would have likely done so in a less friendly environment, but I can't discount the effect that my environment had on this choice.
I would have struggled to do this at another school, and would likely have struggled to do this today. Teachers at other schools may not have the amount of free periods I did (my school had a work study program so I got one extra free period a day), they may not have had a supportive administration to listen if things pinched on my making parent calls, and, from what I hear about schools now, teachers don't have a lot of free time during the day at all because they're busy subbing (due to a shortage).
I was lucky and we should as a state be making other teachers lucky in this regard too. Maybe schools could hire a full time sub (guaranteeing him or her money regardless of work) so that teachers aren't stretched so thin and can use their planning time for this. Maybe they could cut out some of the fluff from inservice days and tell teachers to call parents. Maybe teachers could be paid extra on a per-call basis for calls made on weekends. Maybe we could fund a translator in schools with a high English as a Second Language population to sit in on teacher phone calls or emails. Maybe we could tie a pay for performance bump to teachers who make it a goal to reach out to every single parent of the students they teach.
There are lots of ways to do this, and they needn't be expensive per se or complicated.
In the meantime, if you are a teacher and aren't already, I'd like to encourage you to make it a goal to contact one parent a month? One a week?
It needn't be about anything. Just say hello and open the door to communication. One thing that lifted my mood if I had a bad day was a call to a parent to tell them how and why they should be proud of their child (I'd pick a kid that had a good week or worked hard and tell the mom or dad).
Things like this don't need Engagement Centers nor fancy language. They just require the desire to do it.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/01/17/colorado-schools-parents-pueblo-family-engagement/
Are all polticians’ lies the same?
A quote from the video below:
"We've come to expect and maybe even accept that our politicians are gonna lie about their resumes and their personal lives, that is totally unacceptable. But it's the lies about their policies that we really end up paying for, and that we really can't afford."
I don't agree with everything Mr. Gillespie has said (vis his lionizing Polis as a Libertarian), but we are in agreement about this.