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by Louis Steigerwald, Ed. S.

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Who needs to do their job? Nobody!

February 21, 2016 By Lou Steigerwald, Ed. S. Leave a Comment

Because I did not vote for the current governor and because I do not like many of the policies he and the Republican legislature pass, I have decided that I will not, from now and until the public elects the people I believe should be in office, do my job. I mean, I’ll show up and sit in my office and interact with my fellow workers…but get anything done? What? Why?

Of course I still expect that my salary, my health care, and my retirement all be paid for by my employer. But seriously, how can anyone expect me to get any work done when I am still not done pouting after a term and a half with a governor I did not personally certify and approve of with my vote? After all, I am just being a responsible patriot and following the lead of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell. Right? After all, shouldn’t our elected officials serve as models as to how the rest of us should behave?

Of course they should! I am just following along.

This means you too should phone your local media outlets and let them know that you are in on the revolution too! Let the pundits know where you disagree with, well…with whatever! Your boss backed the Broncos and you wanted to dab all night with the Panthers? Good enough my friend! Lay done your tools, refuse to attend to a patient, just kick back and do nothing. Nothing except complain about how you don’t want to do your job until you feel the American people have spoken! In your favor of course! And if they don’t, keep on pouting!

Never mind that there was a presidential election a few years back and the people did speak and elect that fella in the White House. Declare that you don’t agree with that vote and that your ability to do your job hinges on the next election. And if that doesn’t go your way? Friends, there is always a future election! Pick the next election cycle and sit down in front of that company computer, log onto your favorite server and whack zombies until it’s time to go home!

Just tell your boss Mitch McConnell is demonstrating that it should not be the expectation of the folks who trust in you to carry out your duties, for you to…carry out your duties! I am certain he or she will understand. Maybe your boss has a boss too, he can join in our pout until we all get what we want revolution!

What’s that? You there, in the back of the room? You say that nothing will get done? Sometimes we have to work with folks we are not friends with? Sometimes we don’t get everything we want and we have to compromise with others? Doing parts of a job that we don’t like is part of being an adult? Excuse me, would you please step a bit more into the light, who are you? Mom! What’s that you say? Stop being childish and get to work? You’ll cut off my allowance? Drat!

Well, fine maybe I’ll share a bit more, but only if Senator McConnell’s mom calls him and tells him to put down his pacifier and get to work too.

Filed Under: Education

Michigan Burning

February 7, 2016 By Lou Steigerwald, Ed. S. Leave a Comment

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2016/02/06/finley-helping-flint/79940496/

In Nolan Finley’s article in the Detroit News today, Mr. Finley accuses the folks involved in the water mess in Flint of doing little but point fingers. While doing a fair amount of finger pointing himself, Mr. Finley is correct that little has been done to actually correct the situation. What Mr. Finley avoids pointing out is that so little is being done in large part due to the current leadership in Lansing in every chamber of elected government. This is not new. Because too many Republicans have taken a pledge to never raise taxes, regardless of challenges, the party cannot provide the leadership the state so sorely needs in many areas. Michigan residents should be appalled at the national and international image of our state being created by the pitiful level of cowardly non-leadership on display in Lansing.

Detroit Public Schools have been in financial free fall for over a decade. Our roads and bridges finally had a bill passed to do something about them, but only by passing legislation that contains a funding time bomb set to explode shortly after the current folks the legislature will be term limited out of office. (Dear Future, Enjoy our gift to you. XOXOXO, Lansing 2015. P.S. Boom!)

Meanwhile tax breaks to corporations continue unabated. Here in my neck of Michigan’s woods, school districts have been hammered by recent corporate tax shenanigans. By taking advantage of tax rules that the state has supported, companies are being allowed to have their businesses taxed as if their buildings were empty and unoccupied rather than flourishing and profiting. This has cost schools hundreds of thousands of dollars in expected funding. As in Flint, when it comes to questions of citizens vs. spending or corporate greed, current leadership in Lansing always choses greed and cronyism.

It does not have to be this way in the Republican party. Teddy Roosevelt fought and broke up monopolies and battled against political machines and their entrenched cronyism. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush raised taxes. Dwight Eisenhower warned against the military industrial complex. When faced with the needs of the people vs. simple greed, these leaders made hard choices and the criticism of their peers. There used to be a place for this type of leadership in the party. Unfortunately it has been replaced by stool pigeons who take and then uphold an unreasonable pledge on taxes. A good politician should have identified beliefs but should also allow that circumstances dictate over dogmatic pledges.

Here in Michigan the citizenry suffers while the state burns. Voters would do well to seek out politicians who do not swear allegiance to nonsensical oaths and the puppet masters who write, finance, and impose them.

Filed Under: Education

Technology, schools, and kids

January 27, 2016 By Lou Steigerwald, Ed. S. Leave a Comment

Because students in our district are issued iPads between grades 3-12, we get a lot of questions about electronic devices in school.  While individually issued technology is a new wrinkle in school for parents, for the generation of kids in school expect to live and work in tech rich environments, it is just the way the world is.  Schools vary in their approaches to technology, here is what we have decided to do in our district and why.

1. Teach don’t block: this is the first decision any school district adopting massive use of technology must decide.  There certainly is a good amount of content out there that is not appropriate for kids or for school use.  There are also many things a person could do online that we would not approve of either.

However, there is also an amazing amount of information on the web that is of high educational value.  I have seen creative teachers make use of sites, such as Facebook, YouTube, etc., in order to communicate and share information with students and with school, national, and international communities about what we are doing in school.

We decided that it is important for today’s generation of kids to learn about how to use the internet responsibly.  Starting with our elementary aged students, our amazing technology teacher, Jacquelyn Leiker, educates kids about their digital footprint.  She teaches about the wonderful things technology can help us with.  Jacquelyn also teaches kids that being a good digital citizen means being aware of the fact that anything we do on the internet is archived and permanent, even if we don’t believe it is.

Mind you, we do block apps that we have determined have little or no educational value.  We have blocked Snapchat, meow chat, and other similar apps that too often prove too tempting for young people to do only negative things.

2. Control of devices: another reason to teach rather than block is that we have more control of district issued devices than even just a year or two ago.

District issued student emails go through a screener that searches for key words or phrases.  When suspect language is noted an email is sent to a district administrator.  The student receives an email letting them know that such notice has happened.

Schools also have the ability to customize apps down to the individual student level.  If we have a student who has demonstrated that they have issues using their device appropriately, we can lock down their iPad so that only specific apps and functions are allowed.

At the classroom level our teachers are able to lock students into or out of specific apps while they are taking a test, for example.  Thus a student would not be able to gain access to an answer site during a time the teacher prohibits it.

3. Another question we commonly get is what will happen to these kids should the internet go away.  Having been born when, I’ll just say LBJ was president,I certainly understand why parents might ask this question.  There are a couple of answers to this question.

I remember my father telling me stories of what folks thought when refrigerators began coming into homes.  People thought they were not safe.  There were rumors that the things might blow up!  It’s funny to think that this was a concern when one of the homes my dad lived in still had the old interior gas lighting installed in it!  I think I’d be more worried about those than my refrigerator!  Anyhow, dad tells me folks thought refrigerators would go away too.  They were just a fad.  Thanks to the Internet (ironically here) you can go online and read accounts of the fears any disruptive technology brought with them (cars, televisions, etc.).  History shows though that new ways of doing things do not go away.

Technology has become so interwoven into our lives that we now take it for granted.  If the Internet were to suddenly go away we would all be unable to access our bank accounts, use electronic forms of payment, and businesses and business services would slam to a catastrophic halt.  Whether or not a student’s school iPad functioned would be among the least of our problems!

Technology has made things possible that were impossible or took much longer in the not very distant past.  Our kids have access to an incredible amount of knowledge at the next swipe of their device.  Schools need to teach kids to function in a world that is technology rich.  Making technology readily available to all children is an important part of receiving a twenty-first century education.

Filed Under: Education, technology

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