Saturday, May 30, 2015

IBx at Ingraham High School end of the year wrap up

A reader asked "The first IBx cohort is graduating from Ingraham on June 8. I would like to hear from the parents about how they feel about their and their child's experience. This cohort took a chance and I want to say that I appreciate the students and the amount of support I have received from the parents."

Let's expand that a little bit. For anyone in any of the cohorts not just the seniors feel free to add how the year went. I remember there was a bit of  angst over the English pathway at the beginning of the year. Did that end satisfactorily?

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Moderator Introduction

Hi,
I've agreed to take over moderating this blog along with Julie as a backup. So I thought a quick introduction would be in order. First, I'd like to thank Greg for all the work he's done maintaining the site. I've found it invaluable over the last few years and I volunteered in order to maintain it as a resource for the community.  I think its extremely important at times to have a censorship free forum to discuss news and make connections.

I've been involved with HCC program for the last two years. I have a 3rd grader at Lincoln and my main (elementary school related) passion is mathematics.  As of this year, I started volunteering and running the after school Math Club for fourth and fifth graders. So if you have a rising third or fourth grader feel free to shoot me an email if you're interested. Julie is the mother of a student at Thurgood Marshall. So we'll have a representative of both programs.

Moving forward, I don't really plan to change any of the policies or type of posts that already are occurring. I've always posted under an authenticated identity myself and I would put out one plea that if you feel comfortable to do so as well or at least use a consistent pseudonym.  At the same time, if there is anything you'd like done differently, feel free to comment below. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks and I hope to make some new contacts in this process.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Looking for a new moderator

When the district first said it wanted to split APP, way back at Lowell Elementary in 2009, Andrew Siegel started this blog. His goal was to provide a open forum for APP parents to discuss APP.

Later that year, Andrew added me as a moderator. I've mostly been running the blog since 2009. Now, we're looking for another moderator to add and mostly take over.

That moderator probably should be someone who does not already run a major forum (including the PTAs and APP AC), would continue to keep comments almost entirely unmoderated (aside from deleting spam), and at their core believes in the idea of making this a place for open discussion among parents to help parents.

The time commitment isn't much more than a couple hours a week, mostly reading all the comments that come in, occasionally deleting spam that gets through the filters and restoring comments that incorrectly get labeled as spam, and doing a posts on topics parents ask for, district policy changes, or open threads.

If you are that person and want to take this on, please comment here or e-mail me at glinden@gmail.com. Please also free to discuss this blog, moderation of the blog, and other good forums for discussion here in the comments.

Friday, May 8, 2015

How's the blended model?

By request, a thread to discuss how the new blended model (blending APP with Spectrum or gen ed) at Fairmount Park is going. Parents happy with it?

Friday, May 1, 2015

Open thread

It's May. Summer is coming up fast! What's on your mind?

School board candidates and advanced learning

There are several people running for school board. It's not clear if any will read this thread, but let's start a discussion assuming at least some of them might. What would you like to say to the school board candidates about APP/HCC and, more broadly, advanced learning?