Commissioner’s Update – July 28, 2011

Newsletter image
Click the image to view the fully formatted Commissioner's Update.
It’s a misconception to think educators take the summer off from work. This week is the perfect example to disprove that myth.

Earlier this week in Orono, more than 200 professionals who work with our students attended the Positive Youth Development Institute: three days of workshops focused on brain development, 21st-century survival skills and classroom practices designed to keep students engaged with their learning.

At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, participants in the Maine Learning Technology Initiative Summer Institute today are going through their third day of exercises aimed at integrating technology in all aspects of learning.

And at Sugarloaf Mountain, the professionals charged with safely transporting our students to and from school and elsewhere are meeting for four days of sharing best practices and sharpening skills. The State Transportation Safety Conference began Tuesday and wraps up Friday.

While this week is packed with professional development, it’s no anomaly.

Next week, arts educators will gather at the Maine College of Art in Portland for the four-day-long Arts Assessment Institute. And later in the month, our food service professionals will convene at Sunday River.

— Stephen Bowen



ACTION ITEMS

More

Administrative Letters
Reporting Requirements Calendar



NEWS & VIEWS

Wagner: Schools should retool, teach ‘survival skills’

Our public education system needs a makeover with an eye toward equipping students with the “Seven Survival Skills” required of citizens in the 21st century, says Tony Wagner, author of “The Global Achievement Gap” and Education Innovation Fellow at Harvard University. | More

Risk-taking as a route to transformation

Just as risk-taking is prized in the private sector as a route to innovation, we need to prize risk-taking in education as a route to necessary transformation. By Stephen Bowen | More

Task force to explore early college options

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has announced the creation of a 19-member task force that will make recommendations on expanding early college and other post-secondary education opportunities for high school students. | More

More

Dispatches
Press Releases
From the Commissioner

Leave a Reply