Editor's Blog

By Bill Hurley


Social Media, Technology, Journalism, Education

• When should the school year start?

  Tuesday, August 31, 2010

  We asked that question on the WEAC Facebook page last week, and it generated one of the most active conversations we have seen yet. The clear consensus was that the school year should begin in later August so that the first semester ends by Christmas break, and the school year ends in late May or at least very early June. I was not aware that our members - or at least our Facebook friends - felt that strongly on this topic. Thanks to Facebook, now I do!

  Current law prohibits Wisconsin school districts from starting classes until after September 1 unless ...

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• What are you doing right now to get ready for the new school year?

  Tuesday, August 10, 2010

  You've probably heard the radio ads. It's back-to-school time, and WEAC has pulled together tips from educators and parents on how to get students/sons/daughters ready for the new school year.

  One of the features on our Back-to-School Page is a video of 14 WEAC members giving quick tips. Among them:

  • Weston teacher Deidre Yirkovsky suggests that parents set a firm bed time for their children "because the sleep really matters once they get to the school day."
  • Amery teacher Marie Knutson recommends that parents start packing their child's backpack the night before school to avoid the hectic rush in the ...

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• Social networking rule of thumb: Use common sense

  Tuesday, August 03, 2010

  If a student asks to be my Facebook friend, should I accept him or her? What about parents of my students? Where do I draw the line?

  Those were some of the questions raised last week in an insightful social media training session at the WEAC Summer Academy in Stevens Point. WEAC Public Relations Specialist Marlena Deutsch and I facilitated the group discussion that covered many aspects of using social media within our association, in the classroom and for personal use.

  The experience level of the teachers and education support professionals in the room ranged  from "just beginning" to "pretty ...

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• Thanking your first-grade teacher, 57 years later

  Wednesday, July 21, 2010

  MyTeacherIsGreat.org is one of the most inspiring projects we have ever implemented on weac.org. More than 150 people from all over the state have gone online to honor their teachers and their children’s teachers with deeply sincere – and sometimes emotional – tributes.

  One of my favorites came in last month from Betty Wentland, a 62-year-old retired teacher who wanted to honor her own elementary school teacher, Dorothy Koprek, from more than 55 years ago. Her post to myteacherisgreat.org was heartening:

  “Having lunch with your first grade teacher is no big deal, I guess, when you're a first grader ...

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• Sharing ideas for the new school year

  Thursday, July 15, 2010

  Sure, it’s the middle of summer and kids think it will last forever. Teachers, of course, know otherwise. Many are already getting ready for fall classes - and many have been planning for 2010-11 since the day school let out in June.

  But nobody is thinking more about the fall than new teachers who will be taking over a class for the first time. They are going over their notes, probably buying some extra supplies and – to quell their nerves a little – seeking out sound advice from veteran teachers.

  That’s where the WEAC Facebook Page comes into play. ...

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• It's just about kickoff time!

  Thursday, July 08, 2010

  Imagine being 8 to 13 years old and having the opportunity to be right down on the field as the University of Wisconsin-Madison football team plays in front of 80,000 screaming fans at Camp Randall Stadium. It's a once-in-a-lifetime event, and you can give a special young person you know the chance to experience it this year!

  For the second year in a row, WEAC is sponsoring the Kickoff Kid promotion, selecting a special young person to be honored at each UW Badger football home game. The selected students will run onto the field to retrieve the tee after the ...

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• It's summer!

  Friday, June 11, 2010

  Summer is here, and it's a great time to be a WEAC member!

  Do you like baseball? As a WEAC member, you can get discounts of up to 50% on Milwaukee Brewer tickets through a special offer on the weac.org Savers' Club.

  Maybe splashing around in the water on a hot summer day is more your style. WEAC members are eligible for significant member discounts on tickets to Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells. For you, tickets - normally selling for $35.99 online (and 10% more at the door) - are just $26.

  Or maybe you would prefer something ...

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• Sharing the pride and joy of your education successes

  Tuesday, June 01, 2010

  Tracy Larson of Freedom Middle School says her biggest education success story of the year was simply seeing her special education students experience significant growth. "More importantly than numbers on a piece of paper, though, their confidence grew," she wrote in the weac.org Education Success forum. "This was the REAL story of success!"

  The forum is one way weac.org is celebrating the end of another great school year. WEAC members who share their education success stories are eligible to win a Family Four Pack to either Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells or the Milwaukee County Zoo. But ...

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• It's the little things that matter

  Thursday, May 27, 2010

  If you spend much time on the Home Page of weac.org, or any of the main Landing Pages (for WEAC Retired, ESP, etc.), you have no doubt noticed the colorful boxes that highlight items at the top of page. We call these rotating galleries the Special Features boxes. Unfortunately, you've probably also noticed that if you clicked on an arrow to migrate through the items in those boxes, it was - to put it mildly - not always rapidly responsive to your clicks.

  Frankly, these high-profile boxes, designed to draw attention to the top stories or most ...

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• Three powerful videos: Indian mascots, MS, and school funding

  Monday, May 17, 2010

  In this fascinating age of the social media free-for-all, there is a lot of trivia and silly video out there. But three emails that recently made their way into my inbox highlight videos which demonstrate that quality video can be very powerful in sharing messages across the Internet. Clicking on an image will take you to the video. Enjoy:

  1. Learning and doing: Prescott students push for race-based school logo reform

  

  Daniel A. Young in the Office of State Representative Jim Soletski shared this video about a group of Prescott High School students who concluded that it is disrespectful for ...

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