Education

The Education Commission can encompass many different areas of focus and we want to help you zero in on the topics that are most useful to you. We will also try to keep current on events that might complement the activities of your school. Our Resource Guide and Parent Guides for core education standards may also help you to become the person at your school with answers regarding education.

I would love to hear from you about what has been effective in supporting education in your school and community.

Deon Turley

E-mail: deon@utahpta.org
Phone: 801-261-3100

Have You Heard?
Current short spots for events or programs related to education
Look for purple text for information for parents. PTA leaders can use this for newsletters or email to parents. Look for red text for information for PTA leaders. Blue text indicates an online link.

* Do you know an outstanding teacher that strives to make a difference in the lives of students? I have spotted two contests that may help you honor that teacher and benefit all the teachers at your school.
National PTA and the GE Foundation know that teachers face a big challenge incorporating changes in teaching based on new State Core Standards. Utah has adopted Common Core Standards into their own state standards and you are therefore eligible to participate in the National PTA Thank-a-Teacher Contest for this month.  Write a send a letter of appreciation to your child's teacher during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6-10, and send an electronic copy to PTA to be entered into a drawing. Your school PTA could win $500 toward a teacher appreciation luncheon! Find more details at the National PTA website.
Another contest is sponsored by Promethean World. You can help your favorite teach win a trip to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference in San Antonio, Texas from June 23-26.  Nominate a teacher beginning May 1 through May 8. The winner will be announced on May 10. Nominations will be accepted from students over the age of 13. If under the age of 13, then a parent or guardian may submit on the students’ behalf. Mark your calendar for May 1 and visit www.facebook.com/thankateacher to like Promethean’s Thank A Teacher Facebook page!

* If the Reflections Art Contest is just not enough for your students, look into the nationwide Sargent Art Contest. There are competitions for students and teachers. Call Grandma and Grandpa--there is a contest for them too. Submission deadline is May 15, 2013. Prizes are art supplies; the Grand Prize is a trip to the art museums of New York City! 

*Could your school use additional computers? Here is a way you can help provide them: The Federal Government requires that used, surplus equipment, that is useful for education, be made available to schools or non-profit educational entities. It is called the Computers For Learning program Ownership is transfered at no cost to the school but the school must pay for shipping and handling.  Click here for details about how to apply to receive computers and other peripherals.

*Help your children learn how credit card debt works -- both for and against you! Find great information about using credit cards at Credit Card Facts at the Mint.org site. On the left side menu, you will find features, such as an interactive credit card debt calculator, and across the top is a tab called Pointers for Parents. Help your students to be wise consumers with this great resource!

The mission of the Education Commission is to:

• Become knowledgeable about education issues in Utah.
• Promote the objects of PTA to help children in the home and school.
• Be a catalyst in strengthening the education of children through parental training.

The Education Commission provides an "umbrella" for many PTA projects and activities. The Chair of the Book Fair or the Dropout Prevention program, the organizer of the Read-Athon or the Geography Bee can be your local connection to the Education Commission at Utah PTA.

Click on one of the focus areas below to find resources that might be just right for your school!

• Advocacy is how every parent can stand up for their own children or support education opportunities for all students.
• Reading and Literacy programs can help the students at your school make greater progress toward reading proficiency.
• "STEM" Education consists of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects.
• Social Studies and other academic subjects can include financial literacy, character education, arts education, etc.
• Promoting Post-high school and vocational aspirations can be even more effective when you start early. We are collecting ideas for your College and Career Readiness programs!

Find resources for these areas of focus by clicking on the boxes above!

Dear PTA friends!

More than 30 years of research shows that family involvement promotes student success. No matter what their family income or background may be, students with involved parents are more likely to:

• Earn higher grades and test scores
• Pass their classes
• Attend school regularly
• Have better social skills and adapt well to school
• Go on to postsecondary education

For more information, please read Family-School Partnerships on the National PTA Website - http://www.pta.org/family_school_partnerships.asp

When you are planning activities for the month of February, think about this:  

PTA Take Your Family to School Week is just one of the PTA programs revitalizing parent involvement in education. PTA has worked to bring families and schools together since its founding on February 17, 1897.  Each local unit should host an event during that week, because research shows that when parents and families are involved, students achieve and have more success in school.  There are many resources available to help you run this program.  Click on the link below to find FAQs, Event Ideas, Timeline & Planning for the event, and lots of downloadable posters, signs, and commitment cards.  Many of these resources are in English and Spanish.

For more information on PTA Take Your Family to School Week, please visit: http://www.pta.org/take_your_family_to_school.asp

Add something fun to your reading at home. Find a collection of classic books, children's books, young adult books, and others, online. You may recognize some of them from your Grandmother's book shelf!

Elementary School PTA leaders!

Make reading a daily activity that is fun for the whole family!

Look for a program that suits the needs of your students among the many that are available in our own communities.
Partner with the community to energize your events!

Here are a few links that might help you create a great literacy event at your school:

• Parental Involvement Literacy Workshops - KBYU
• Student Tutoring Achievement for Reading (STAR)
• Read with a Child - Governor's Commission on Literacy
• Read Today - Deseret Media Companies
• Ken Garff Road to Success - Academic year
• Read for the Record Jumpstart - October 4!
• Reading Marathon - KUED - Nov-Dec
• Be a Team Player: Read! - Utah Jazz: February-March
• KUED Annual Young Writers and Illustrators Contest - KUED - Feb-April
• Read Across America - March 1 (Dr. Seuss' Birthday) 
• Drop Everything and Read - April 12 (Beverly Cleary's Birthday) 
• Children's Book Week - May13-19, 2013

STEM is the acronym used to refer to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. A student's proficiency at STEM subjects gives the student confidence and greater problem solving skills. It is also a good predictor of  post-high school success, employment security, and even lifelong income. 

Consider activities to support STEM subjects at your school. 

Using Math to Solve Air Traffic Control Problems for Grades 5-9

NASA's Smart Skies has brought its LineUp With Math™ professional development workshop to the Web in the form of a video workshop. Educators can now watch a series of eight topic-driven, on-demand training videos that introduce the product, show how to solve a problem on the air traffic control simulator and explain the math used to solve the problems.

The Smart Skies website features two mathematics products for grades 5-9. LineUp With MathTM taps into prealgebra skills to challenge students with distance-rate-time problems in a fun interactive air traffic control simulator interface. FlyBy MathTM uses hands-on activities that incorporate graphing as students solve distance-rate-time problems. Both activities are aligned with state education standards.

To download these free education materials, visit http://smartskies.nasa.gov/.

To view the training videos and learn how these lessons and activities can be used in the classroom, visit http://smartskies.nasa.gov/trainer/videos.html.

• I ran across a news piece that suggests a great way parents can jumpstart their children to enjoy and excell at mathematics. Add math puzzles to the bedtime ritual (link)! Here is the link to the Bedtime Math website.
• Find information about Academic Competitions, such as the AMC for mathematics, at www.natassessment.com. If your school would like to participate for the first time, the registration fees are greatly discounted right now! Use this coupon code (12MM5for50) to register for all five competitions for just $50
• Could your school use additional computers? Here is a way you can help provide them: The Federal Government requires that used, surplus equipment, that is useful for education, be made available to schools or non-profit educational entities. It is called the Computers For Learning program Ownership is transfered at no cost to the school but the school must pay for shipping and handling.  Click here for details about how to apply to receive computers and other peripherals.
• Science Fairs
• Science Olympiad
• Math League (Preparation Sessions for American Mathematics Competitions) for 7-12 grades
• Has anyone tried Math League for elementary schools--perhaps in an After School program?

I welcome your contributions. Contact me with your suggestions. Also if you have tips for successful activities, I'd love to hear from you.
--Deon

In Secondary Schools, we include the students in our PTA organizations, making them PTSA!
Together we can help them prepare for life after high school. Some of the resources that may be helpful to you in planning programs or activities -- or just having available information -- are below. Just click on the words that are highlighted in blue.

Find out what you can do to help your child prepare for life after graduation. Check out the new website at Step Up Utah! This site has information for parents and students, K-12, on how to prepare for college or other post-high school certificates. It's never too early to start thinking about it. Parent of elementary school students will find information and a kids fun page.
PTA leaders, talk to your school counselors or administrators to help plan events around college and career readiness. Step Up Utah has resources for you.

Utah Futures helps students prepare for their future careers with individualized plans. Check it out with your student!!

March 2 Success is a free tool to help middle and high school students prepare for success in college. 

Utah Women and Education is focused on encouraging women to be prepared for, start, and finish a college degree.

The Museum in the Classroom -- or Home

The National Gallery of Art’s Children’s Video Tour - Time Travel is an exceptional online resource that takes students on a tour into famous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Leonardo Da Vinci, Claude Monet and more. Each featured painting has a video that brings the painting to life by providing commentary about the artist, the model(s), and interesting details about each work of art. Students can explore “Saint George and the Dragon” by Raphael or learn details about Mary Cassatt’s career by clicking on her painting, “The Boating Party.”  If you can’t take your students to the museum, this is a wonderful way to bring the museum to your students.

Financial Literacy

There are many reasons that children should learn to save and spend money wisely. Parents may be interested in resources that help them to teach financial literacy at home. PTA leaders may want to craft an activity at the school around this theme too.
Check out Money as You Grow, an online, interactive tool to give families a guideline for teaching kids 3 to 18 (and even beyond) important money lessons, like how to make good choices when spending, how to avoid debt, and why it's important to save for an emergency.

Civics Education has a champion in Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The project she is promoting is called iCivics and can be found at this website. It features games that kids can play from the website and also has lesson plans that can be adapted for the classroom or an AfterSchool program. Click here for a blog report on Justice O'Connor's motivation and involvement.

Find resources as varied as our country at Kids.gov.

Civics Education

A series celebrating the 225th Anniversary of the United States' Constitution was developed by Lydia Nuttal in Morgan, Utah and is being used in the Morgan School District. It is found on the Morgan City website. It is called "Forgotten American Family Night Stories" and is easily adapted to family, PTA meeting, classroom, or after school program use. Ms Nuttall holds the copyright but has given permission for non-commercial use.

Here are links to the first five sets of materials: January, February, March, April, May. Check out the Morgan City website for additional topics!

• For what other academic areas should we seek out resources? 
• Do you have tips for more resources?

Contact Deon Turley, Education Commissioner

Did you know:

• Every time you attend the Parent-Teacher Conference for your child, you are advocating for education.
• Every time you attend meetings of your School Community Council or serve as a parent representative on your school's Council, you are advocating for education.
• Every time you contact your District School Board member about your concerns, you are advocating for education.
• Every time you follow education issues and email your state legislator, congressional representative, or US senator, you are advocating for education.
• And every time you teach other parents to do any of these things, you are advocating better education for every child!

The trick to effective advocacy is knowing who to go to for any given problem. I am posting information about issue that PTA is advocating below. The title indicates the level where your advocacy is appropriate. Some topics apply to more than one level. 

State-Wide Issues

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) continue to draw voices of opposition. It looks like it will not be going away anytime soon. I have posted historical information about Utah's adoption of CCSS as part of its own education standards elsewhere on this website.

The Utah PTA general membership passed a resolution in support of Utah's education standards based on Common Core Standards in May of 2012 [see the resolution here].  The debate was lively and we heard from most, if not all, of those who ultimately voted in opposition. Their opposition was based on the effect of PTA taking a stand on such a controversial issue. The final vote was to pass the resolution by over 97%. It was a vote that put the children ahead of the organization.

One of the concerns of those opposed to the adoption of CCSS is that the federal government would some day require states to adopt them as National Curriculum standards or lose all federal education funds. The actions of the Supreme Court in regard to the Affordable Health Care Act in June 2012 informs us about the likelihood of this occuring.The Affordable Care Act mandated expansion of Medicare or losing all federal Medicare funding. This part of the law was struck down in the Supreme Court, stating that the Federal Government cannot change the rules regarding federal funds (which would apply to Title 1, Title 3, etc. as well) later in the game. This ruling is a triumph for states-rights advocates; it also takes away this argument from the anti-Common Core contingent. [more on the ACA ruling implications for education]

• Utah State Board of Education - http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/
• Utah State Office of Education - http://schools.utah.gov/main/
• UtahFutures.org - http://utahfutures.org
• Utah Charter Schools - http://www.schools.utah.gov/charterschools/
• School Trust Lands - http://www.schoollandtrust.org/
• Special Education Services - http://www.schools.utah.gov/sars/
• Schools for the Deaf and Blind - http://www.usdb.org/
• Title 1 Schools - http://www.schools.utah.gov/TitleI/
• Utah State Office of Assessment & Accountability - http://www.schools.utah.gov/assessment/Default.aspx
• Utah's No Child Left Behind Documents - http://www.schools.utah.gov/nclb/
• Utah Educational Savings Plan - http://www.uesp.org/
• Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority - http://www.higheredutah.org/
• U.S. Department of Education - http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml