A recent video accuses “special interests” and “school district insiders” of trying to get their hands on money intended for high needs students. Sigh. Let’s stop using charged words when important decisions about the future of education are at stake. The terms “insiders” and “special interests” are derogatory. They imply that teachers and district officials are trying to hoodwink parents. Seemingly, if you
Professional Development: it’s Tricky (Woo)
I recently saw a coaching app that uses the slogan “closing the accountability gap”. It is an app designed to be used by professional athletes and their coaches. This really resonated with me. In education we talk about various types of gaps. Achievement gaps and opportunity gaps are mentioned in terms of what we adults are not providing to
‘Tis the Season for…the 14-15 Budget
The California Budget Project has posted a useful article on the 14-15 budget debate, which begins with the release of the Governor’s budget on or before January 10. Also of interest on the CBP blog is their post on the budget process. And when I say that these links are useful and interesting, I mean that
Parallel Structure, or Why the Bullet is Your Friend
So you’re pursuing a job in finance. Question: How much writing will you need to do? Answer: More than you might think. It is a given that you know something about finance, or you would never have been hired in the first place. However, as you progess in your career you will find more of
What Does it Take to Get Fired?
Sometimes, Not Much The article Fatal IT Distractions lists mistakes that will lead to immediate dismissal in the IT world: things like forgetting to back up data nightly or not testing your disaster recovery plan prior to a disaster. This made me ponder. What will get you fired in the world of school finance? I am not talking about obvious offenses
Of Gerbils and Groundhogs
Supposedly Mark Twain said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” The meaning being, of course, that it is easy to produce a lot of words and hard to condense them into something pithy, meaningful, and interesting. I have been writing a presentation on career development.
“Dog Person” Gets Cat: Surprised by Level of Dissastifaction
I am working on a proposal to present at a professional conference next April. The topic I have chosen is career development. Thus, my blogging volume is both: 1) Temporarily reduced, and 2) HR related Why the topic of career development? Well, frankly, it is on the list of proposals they are seeking. And also,
Classroom Dollars and Bad Teachers
Start with a graphic representation of a dollar bill. Divide it up to show how many cents are spent in which categories. Not a bad way to represent expenditures. Except when it is done this way: Why? Because this cartoon is not just wrong, it is dishonest. The categories of expense are a bit hard
Taking a Position
The director and manager of school construction sat down in my office. They had made it clear that they needed to see me NOW. “What’s up?” “Well, you hired a supervisor. For the construction department.” “An accounting supervisor. Yes.” “We should have been consulted. After all, she works in our department.” “Yes, she’s physically located
How to Take a Break
CaveGirlMBA’s post about the guy who plays online games at work really struck a chord with me, because here’s a second post about it. For me, the story is explained by one of two possibilities. 1. He is thoroughly disengaged and doesn’t give a s**t 2. He is engaged, but takes breaks inappropriately You’ll know