Jim McLaughlin's Blog

Timeless Stories for My Brain and Yours

Blog

  • Interesting, Happy Times

    This recent summary of the challenges facing school boards everywhere is indicative of the concerns I feel as well.  If you are interested enough to follow this blog, then I encourage you to review the article and note just how many complicated and conflicting issues there are surrounding the actions of boards. I’m rapidly approaching… Read more

  • Thoughts On An Educational Technology Plan

    In reference to this article,  I believe the 2010 National Educational Technology Plan is a good general approach and should not be over-politicized.  It seems to be moving the ball in the right direction.  The educational community should use it for the good parts and reconsider anything that doesn’t seem to work.  Far better to… Read more

  • Testing and Being Data-Driven, For Improvement

    I’m a passionate person. If you’ve attended any of our committee meetings when I have poured forth, you know. I care deeply and sometimes I can overdo it. It’s who I am. I want to expand on comments I made at our last Educational Affairs meeting wherein I was pretty adamant that we needed to… Read more

  • Transparency – Part 2

    Transparency demands are here to stay. This is certainly not lost on me, nor on many other parents and taxpayers across the country. Rather than stew about it or worry that my actions on the board will somehow raise the ire of some watchdog group, I’m really trying to understand what transparency is and how… Read more

  • ROWE, ROWE, ROWE Your Learning

    Here’s a quick one. I was passed this great video (very fun and worth 10 minutes), which prompted me to get Daniel Pink’s book, Drive (available at our library). In both is a great discussion on new research and thinking by the author and those he writes about regarding how we are all motivated in… Read more

  • Here’s a Key Input…Parents!

    A coalition of civil rights organizations got together recently to blast the Federal administration on their education programs.  They called for addressing the following topics in the upcoming renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or ESEA (previously known as No Child Left Behind or NCLB).  Here are their topics: Equitable opportunities for all;… Read more