Category: Village of Ridgewood

>The Digital Divide and the Knowledge Deficit
By Peter Meyer 03/22/2011

“Anthony Orsini, a middle school principal from Ridgewood, NJ, talked about the media frenzy surrounding his memo to parents advising them to keep their kids away from social-networking sites.”

To walk from a conversation about the need for a common core curriculum to one about turning schools into digital gaming parlors modeled after Grand Theft Auto – well, it’s what we in the business call a head jerk. But the good thing about the recently concluded marathon conference at the Hechinger Institute (sponsored by theMacAruthur Foundation, which has a major digital learning initiative) was that you didn’t have to walk anywhere.

https://educationnext.org/the-digital-divide-and-the-knowledge-deficit/

>Ridgwood Parks and Recreation is sponsoring Middle School Mixers – 6, 7, 8 Grades

Ridgwood Parks and Recreation is sponsoring several Mixers for students from both Ridgewood middle schools to come together. Each evening offers music and dancing with a DJ, refreshments and games. Admission is $7 at the door (village teens only).

The sixth-grade mixer is rescheduled to Friday, April 8; seventh-grade mixer was held on Friday, March 18; and a mixer for eighth-graders will be held on Friday, March 25.

All mixers run from 7:30PM to 9:30PM and take place in the Annie Zusy Youth Center at Village Hall, 131 N. Maple Ave. Parents must drop off and pick up children in the rear lot. For more information, call 201/670-556

>BOE Announces New School Budget and No Layoffs 
the Staff of the Ridgewood blog

The BOE announced that it is not planning to eliminate any staff positions for the 2011-2012 school year and at its Monday meeting it unanimously approved an $86,775,809 budget. which will now be sent to the county Executive Schools Superintendent for review.

The district also received word that the state would be returning a small but significant portion of its state aid.The $850,000 in state aid has been allocated to cover budget shortfall of a reported $650,000 that could have resulted in staff cuts. The finalized version of the School budget must be approved by the voters .

The Board of Education had previously announced there will be no raises for teachers and secretaries represented by the Ridgewood Education Association, according to a report on NorthJersey.com.

Last years budget was defeated by voters , as residents expressed frustration at what they saw as teachers unwilling to make sacrifices like everyone else in a tough economy. The district had proposed an $84.9 million budget.

The Ridgewood Education Association ,the local teachers’ union is currently in the second year of a three year contract. The current contract ends at the close of the 2010-2011 school year, on June 30, 2011.

The BOE will have two vacancies in the April 27 Annual School Election. A full term on the school board runs for three years. Candidate kits are still available in the Board Secretary’s office at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, or online from the New Jersey School Boards Association. The deadline for filing candidate petitions is Tuesday, March 8, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, is the deadline for registering to vote in the Annual School Election.

>This just in….The middle school math program is a failing our children.

Ridgewood NJ – The concerns over Connected Math continue to be justified as we fully integrate the program into the middle schools. This is NOT confined to one class, grade or school; BF or GW. It’s the whole program, top to bottom. Ridgewood’s once successful middle school math program has been destroyed and replace with one which fails to prepare the children for advanced level high school math. There is little support for the program from teachers, parents, and students. It’s such a shame. How can this continue?

If you are not aware of the situation; students are lost, teachers are finding it difficult to explain, review and complete the ‘Investigations’ (cute huh; we used to call them lessons), and parents are expressing their concerns in droves only to be told to have the kids come for extra help that is only more of the same.

At least this is some recognition of problems and an attempt to address them, but the children will only benefit from Connected Math when it is gone. Let’s hope they do not try and put blame on the teachers. After all, they are the same teachers who oversaw the successful program that was replaced.

And now a message from the BF Principal…….

———————————–

Dear BF Parents and Guardians,

We have asked our math teachers to utilize the following practice beginning next Monday.

Since we now have Skyward open full time our Math teachers have the assignments posted daily. In addition, they will put in the comment section the amount of time the homework assignment SHOULD take the students to complete.

I would like our students to really only spend the amount of time on the homework that the teacher believes it should take to complete. If a student works for the assigned amount of time but has not completed the assignment, the student should stop and have their parent or guardian initial where they left off. Students will receive full credit for any homework that is not completed but has a parents initials.

It is important for us to follow this procedure because it gives our teachers valuable information that can directly inform their teaching. If 20 students in the class cannot complete an assignment, the teachers knows that he or she must either cut down the amount of work, or re-teach a concept that the students as a whole are not getting. If an individual is not able to complete an assignment, the teacher knows specifically what that individual student was not able to grasp and can target individual instruction or procedures to help that child.

We believe this will help us target instruction for individual students, provide feedback for our teachers as they plan lessons, and reduce stress and angst over the inconsistent struggle to complete homework.

I hope everyone is diligent about helping our math teachers (and our
students) by following this simple step.

Sincerely,
Tony Orsini
Principal, BFMS

>The 23rd Annual SUPER SCIENCE SATURDAY is March 12


SUPER SCIENCE SATURDAY
Free Event is Saturday, March 12, at RHS
9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.


This year’s Super Science Saturday extravaganza will feature an interactive show by the Franklin Institute on motion and machines and the traditional paper airplane contest and live rocket launch.


All Ridgewood Public Schools students are invited to present any type of science project.
Full details of the day, including registration forms, can be found on the Super Science Saturday website at www.supersciencesaturday.org.