The Child Advocate - May 2011

Child Advocate

e h T

May 2011 Issue 8, Volume 20

2011 Convention

Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)

Contents

T he Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is an effort designed to improve educational outcomes for students by developing a set of common, voluntary, internationally-benchmarked academic standards in mathematics and English language arts. A project sponsored by the National Governor’s Office and the Conference of Chief State School Officers, the common standards have been adopted by more than 40 states, so their impact will be nationwide. The purpose of having standards that all states can adopt is to eliminate gaps in education when families relocate from one state to another, and to make it more likely that all students to graduate ready for college and career.

6

The standards were provisionally adopted by the Washington Legislature in 2010, and the first phase of implementing them in our state will begin in the fall of 2011 with full implementation anticipated in 2013.

The benefits of the common standards are: 1. Clear standards that describe what students need to know at each grade level 2. Consistent standards state to state.

3. Rigorous standards in all states based on international benchmarks.

4. Reduced cost of testing by sharing the development costs across many states.

National PTA has long supported consistent standards across the nation because of its unique position as the largest volunteer child advocacy organization working for the benefit of all children in the nation. The Common Core State Standards is well-aligned with the PTA vision that every child’s potential will become a reality.

A series of pamphlets developed by National PTA to assess how the standards apply at each grade level is available for download at http://www.pta.org/4446.htm. More information about the Common Core State Standards will be implemented in Washington State is available on the Superintendent of Public Instructions’ website here: http://www.k12.wa.us/CoreStandards/default.aspx.

The

Child Advocate

a Washington State PTA parent involvement publication

Washington State PTA 2003 65th Avenue West Tacoma, WA 98466-6215 Website: www.wastatepta.org Email: wapta@wastatepta.org Phone: (253) 565-2153 or 1-800-562-3804 Fax: (253) 565-7753

VISION:

5 Arrowhead PTA: Outstanding Local Unit of Year

3

Highlights from General Voting Sesssions

4

Novella Fraser: Elected WSPTA President

4

Silvana Clark Entertains and Inspires

5

Jay Maebori Discusses Good Parent/

Teacher Relationships

5

WSPTA Outstanding Service Award

6

NPTA Presidential Award for Outstanding Service 6 Ginny Markell Encourages PTAs to Take Action

7

Convention Photos

7

PTA Men Essay Contest Winners

8

The Child Advocate is published online every month from September through

May by the Washington State PTA, 2003 65th Avenue West, Tacoma, WA 98466-6215, (253) 565-2153. Contributors are welcome. Call the State PTA office for guidelines. Whenever PTA is used it also refers to PTSA. PTA is a registered trademark of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Scott Allen, Washington State PTA President Bill Williams, Washington State PTA Executive Director Karen Fisker-Andersen, Editor

“Making every child’s potential a reality.”

MISSION:

PTA is: n A powerful voice for all children, n A relevant resource for families and communities, and n A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child.

The Washington State PTA accomplishes the mission of PTA by

• Speaking on behalf of children and youth in the schools, in the community, and before governmental bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children; • Supporting parents* in developing skills to raise, protect and advocate for their children; • Encouraging parent*, teacher, student and community involvement; • Promoting opportunities for positive outcomes for children; and • Being a financially stable, well-managed organization that promotes diversity, provides quality service, models best practices and values its members and employees. *Parent may include adults who play an important role in a child’s family life since other adults (grandparents, aunts, uncles, or guardians) may carry the primary responsibility for a child’s health, welfare, education and safety.

Arrowhead PTA

Outstanding Local Unit of the Year

A

rrowhead PTA 6.10.5, Washington State PTA’s 2011 Outstanding Local Unit of the Year, attributes their success to their focus on goals centered around the needs of the students. This year, Arrowhead Elementary had a new principal so the PTA made a concerted effort to work with the new principal to help support her goals as well.

Within the first three weeks of the beginning of the school year, Arrowhead achieved 110% membership--that’s more than one member per student at the school.

Part of their membership outreach included an organized approach towards welcoming grandparents of students at their school. Arrowhead PTA sponsors a Grandparents Club and sends out targeted communication to this group of members to invite them to join their grandchildren in events at the school. They also have a special Grandparent Night which gives these special members another opportunity to connect with their grandchildren and be involved at the school.

board meetings. In addition, they started their meetings earlier and used Powerpoint to keep the meetings efficient and on-task.

The PTA also focused on being “green” this year. They reduced their paper consumption by half by launching a new website and directing members to the website for feedback, permission slips, and their newsletter. However, they still printed some newsletters and made them available to those families without Internet access.

Arrowhead PTA used Survey Monkey to get feedback on how programs could be improved. They didn’t wait until the end of the year to solicit feedback, but asked for input right after each program while it was still fresh in people’s minds.

Although Arrowhead PTA has been very successful for a number of years and has a long history with many of its programs, Co-presidents Cindy Jensen and Laura Nordyke challenged committee chairs to look at each of their programs with fresh insight to make improvements.

Another group of families that Arrowhead PTA specifically reached out to are families who are new to the school. They sponsor a special day for incoming kindergartners to come to school, and they host a New Family Dinner.

For example, instead of holding one movie night for the entire school, they had two separate movie nights—one for the K-3rd graders and the other for the 4th-6th graders. This allowed each group of students to have a less crowded and more personalized bonding experience.

To make it easier for younger families to attend PTA events, Arrowhead PTA offered childcare at all of their general membership meetings and

They added a fresh new twist to their annual fundraising “Hawk Walk”, in which students collect pledges for walking around the track

The Child Advocate, May 2011

3

and school, by holding a competition for designing artwork to place on T-shirts. Each student received a T-shirt with the winning design on the front of the shirt and on the back of the T-shirts were the names of businesses who paid funds to sponsor the event.

include: the Reflections Program, a school dance, talent show, pancake breakfast, art docent program, science fair, read-a-thon, book exchange, clothing exchange, a Dad’s and Donuts event, and Bring Your Family to School Week.

Arrowhead has hosted an enrichment program for many years, but new ideas were added to the enrichment program based on feedback from parents. In addition to chess, after school science, art, drama, foreign language, new classes offered this year included a knitting class and a yoga club. Improvements on the enrichment program are already in the works for next year.

Congratulations to Arrowhead PTA. They will represent the Washington State PTA at the National PTA Convention in June. n

Highlights from General Voting Sessions

The Art Auction provided parents with an opportunity to purchase artwork created by their children’s classrooms and raise money for arts education at the school at the same time. In the past, Arrowhead has purchased drums for its music department and provided funds for art supplies for all of the classrooms.

Election Results President--Novella Fraser Vice President--Karen Albers Secretary--Barbara Martin Legislative Director--Shelley Kloba Membership Director--Kari Wilkinson Outreach Director--Maria Santiago Program Director--DeeDee Loberg

The Holiday Mail for Heroes program provided students with an opportunity to make cards for service men and women, which where then distributed by the American Red Cross.

Arrowhead PTA partnered with Missoula Children’s Theater to provide an opportunity for students interested in drama to audition and perform in a play.

Parent Education Nights were highly attended events held three times this past year. Parent input was solicited in determining the topics covered at these events.

Other programs supported by Arrowhead

At-large members of the WSPTA Nominating Committee--Wes Brandon, Celeste Hoffman and Suzanne Weaver

Business Results Resolution: The proposed resolution on subsidizing certificated and classified staff salaries was referred back to the WSPTA Resolutions Committee. n Bylaws: Proposed Amendments #1, #8, and #9 were defeated. Proposed Amendments #4, #10 and #11 were amended as follows: The word “syntax” was removed from Proposed Amendment 4; the statement: “Convention training counts towards the next year’s executive committee members’ training for the next year’s requirements” was added to Proposed Amendments 10 and 11. The remaining Proposed Amendments were approved as printed. The updated Bylaws are now available on the WSPTA website. n n

Novella Fraser

Elected WSPTA President 2011-2013

N

ovella Fraser, of Federal Way, was elected WSPTA President by PTA delegates at the 2011 Convention. She will begin her two-year term on June 1, 2011. Prior to being elected WSPTA President, she served as WSPTA Secretary and WSPTA Region 9 Director.

In addition, she has served as president at both the local unit and the council levels. Fraser has volunteered for PTA since her daughter was in kindergarten and now she is a senior in high school.

As WSPTA President, she plans to work collaboratively with parents, teachers, educators, administrators and legislators to ensure the children of Washington State receive the best education possible despite the current budget problems.In addition, her goals for the organization include:

• Create a welcoming environment so that everyone wants to be a part of PTA • Reach out to our under-served population

4

• Encourage all PTA members, parents, guardians, relatives to be active participants in advocating for their children) and make it simple for them to do so through training and having materials readily available for them to use • Listen, learn, implement and create programs and materials that will benefit our members and by asking our members what they need to make their volunteer job(s) easier to accomplish • Make sure that PTA remains the largest child advocate group in Washington State • Ensure that our children receive the best education possible and when decisions are made about children and education that PTA is involved in the discussion and decision making. n

a Washington State PTA parent involvement magazine

Silvana Clark Entertains and Inspires S ilvana Clark delivered an entertaining presentation about her experiences in the TV reality show, “Trading Spouses.” She related her focus as a wife and mother, to encourage kids to learn, explore and grow through experiencing art, nature and the community. In the TV show, this focus was a stark contrast to the focus of the man with whom she spent the week trying to co-parent, making for some interesting and funny stories.

During her presentation, she also shared some of her own personal experiences, which made her into the person she is today. She explained that her own mother was neglectful and at times abusive. During those difficult childhood years, she looked forward to going to school and participated in all the PTA’s activities offered at the school, including the book fairs, and the carnivals.

She shared that her success in life was largely due to caring PTA leaders and teachers.

“When you are working on a PTA program and feeling overworked and are feeling unappreciated, know that there are kids who do need your programs,” Clark related. “Thank you on behalf of all those kids. You made my life meaningful,” n

Delegates enjoy a light moment in Silvana’s keynote presentation

Jay Maebori Discusses Good Parent/Teacher Relationships

J

ay Maebori, Washington State Teacher of the Year, discussed things that help form good parent/teacher partnerships at the Convention Banquet. Following are the things Maebori identified that teachers appreciate:

home that would affect the child in the classroom.

“Hold kids accountable at home.” He urged parents not to

“Have faith in us.” He encouraged parents to start off the new school

make excuses for their children, but to have high expectations of them.

“Communicate with us.” Maebori encouraged parents to communi-

“Write to your child’s teacher once a month.” Teachers like to

year believing in the abilities of their children’s teachers.

cate with their children’s teachers at every opportunity. Tell your child’s teacher if you are going on a family trip, or dealing with something at

Banquet Entertainment provided by SANCA

The Child Advocate, May 2011

get thank you notes or emails from parents of things they appreciate that the teacher did for their child. A simple note is incredibly meaningful.

Following are some things Maebori said that parents should expect from teachers: • A teacher should communicate with parents.

• A teacher should explain the purpose for what the students are doing.

• A teacher should use class time wisely. Teachers need to see time as a commodity and use that time to make sure your children have more knowledge and skills than they did when they walked in the classroom door.

• A teacher should never give up on children, regardless of how they act, whether they don’t turn in their homework, or even when they disappoint the teacher. Not only should a teacher never give up on children, a teacher should never let children feel like he or she has given up on them. n

5

WSPTA Outstanding Service Award Wendy Delong, of Kirkland, received Washington State PTA’s 2011

Outstanding Service Award, WSPTA’s highest volunteer recognition award.

Delong has been a PTA member since 1974 and has served in many capacities at the local unit and council levels over the years.

She has received four Golden Acorn Awards, one council Outstanding Service Award, at least two Honorary Life Membership Awards, and has achieved the Crystal Level of WSPTA’s Leadership Academy.

In addition to her volunteer service for PTA, she is also involved in Campfire Boys and Girls, children’s choirs, neighborhood associations, school district foundations, grassroots advocacy campaigns and the Coast Guard.

Her husband, sons and daughter-in-law were at the Convention Banquet when she received this award.

“I’m glad my family is here because my husband is so understanding and wonderful. I say, ‘I’m going to convention, he says ok...I say I’m going to

National PTA President Distinguished Service Award

be the council president, he says ok.’ He never complained. My family has supported me all along,” she remarked in accepting her award.

She also added that her son and daughter-in-law are expecting a baby in June, so she figured that in another five years she will be starting all over in PTA in another elementary school. n

Other Top Awards Presented Friend of Children Award The Friend of Children Award is the highest award given by the Washington State PTA, and is presented to a group or individual performing outstanding work on behalf of children throughout the year.

Representative Marcie Maxwell, a resident of Renton, and

a member of the House Committees on Education, Education Appropriation and Oversight, Community Development and Housing, and Rules, has voiced one of her main legislative priorities as, “Adequately funding our K-12 education system and re-defining education to better prepare our children with skills they’ll need to participate in the global marketplace.”

Representative Bruce Dammeier, a resident of Puyallup,

Scott Allen, Washington State PTA president, was awarded the

National PTA President Distinguished Service Award. This award was presented to him by National PTA representative Ginny Markell.

During Allen’s two years serving as the first male Washington State PTA president, male involvement in PTA in our state has increased. He also led the state association in the process of developing a strategic plan and has been involved in a number of successful advocacy campaigns on behalf of the welfare, education and safety of our children during his term as president, and prior to that when he served the Washington State PTA as Vice President and Legislative Director.

Allen is currently a nominee for Member Representative to the National PTA Board of Directors. n

6

and a member of the House Committees on Education, Education Appropriations & Oversight, and Ways & Means, states, “my priorities continue to be: preserving and creating jobs; improving our public schools; and ensuring a prioritized and accountable state government.”

Crystal Level Leadership Academy Kerrilynn Robinson achieved the highest level of the Washing-

ton State PTA Leadership Academy, the Crystal Level. Robinson currently serves as Washington State PTA Leadership Director, but has served at the local unit and council level for many years. At the local unit level she volunteered it the trenches for fundraisers and school events along with holding every office on the executive committee.

She has also served PTA at the council level and as a member of the Service Delivery Team. n

a Washington State PTA parent involvement magazine

Ginny Markell Encourages PTAs to Take Action tricts, and when other voices that come along side of us with the same message we are more successful.”

Markell explained that last year alone PTA donated 63 million hours of volunteer work for our children. This translates into roughly 1.3 billion dollars of volunteer labor donated to the public education system to make positive changes in children’s lives. Clearly the PTA is making a substantial impact on children and families across the nation.

G

inny Markell, the National PTA representative at our convention, spoke to delegates about the history of PTA and the critical issues facing PTA today.

The accomplishments of PTA over the past 115 years she listed included: child labor laws; public school kindergartens; juvenile justice system reform; the federally funded hot lunch program; and improvements in public safety. She went on to observe that the times we live in today and the issues we are facing are just as challenging for our children and families as they were a century ago.

PTA has more recently focused on including family engagement into federal education policies. Markell encouraged PTA delegates to be a part of the dialogue on family engagement because it is a key to addressing many of the issues facing our children and the challenges of education today. “As PTA it is our mission to be a change agent within the community so we can give children the resources that they need to be successful in school and in life,” Markell explained.

“Child advocacy is a critical activity of our membership,” she related.

“It’s not just about your child. Nothing is right until everything is right for all children. This is the passion that drives us and it is the passion that gives us power. It gives us a voice with policy makers, school dis-

In spite of our efforts however, the statistics regarding our children are troubling: • one-third of our fourth graders read below proficiency; • one-fourth of 8th graders are considered barely literate; • our 15-year-old students are internationally ranked 25th in math and 23rd in science; • nearly 6 million children are homeless or living in extreme poverty; and • just over a million of our students will drop out of high school.

In addition, she explained that our children are not as healthy as they used to be, noting a 284% increase in obesity among children 6-11 years old over the last 30 years. Along with this trend, diseases such as heart disease and diabetes have increased among our children.

Markell encouraged delegates to take action in schools and districts. Talk about the importance of physical education, and parent involvement in education. “Our children need you to be their advocates. They need for you to speak on their behalf, and while you are making things right for your child, think about those people who need your help to make others right for their children,” she said.

Finally, she encouraged delegates to reach out to the under-represented populations of parents in school. Invite them to be involved in PTA and help them to feel welcome. “Share with them what you know so you can make sure more people are a part of “Every Child, One Voice." n

Convention Memories...

Registration

Classes Recognition Room Awards

Exhibitors

See you next year!

The Child Advocate, May 2011

7

My Awesome Dad

By Rasan Kamkolkar My dad teaches me a lot of things in a fun way because he plays with me too. He has taught me how to play cricket. He has taught me how to bowl and bat. He told me to watch the ball so I won’t be out. We also play soccer and he taught me how to kick properly without hurting myself. He has taught me how to play golf. He taught me how to putt and to swing the golf club correctly. He also got me my own set of golf clubs. We like flying kites together. My dad showed me how to control the kite and prevent it from falling down.

When we went to the tree house in India, we were there for Christmas. The tree house was 100 feet from the ground. To go up to the tree house, there was a manual elevator. It was called a lift, which was like a cage. When we got into the lift, the lift men pulled ropes to make the lift go up. There was a tank filled with water that came down when the lift went up. My dad explained how the tank of water was a counter weight to pull the lift up and down.

On our vacation to Maui, my dad helped me surf. After each surf run, he helped me paddle back to catch the waves again.

I enjoyed that a lot. We also explored the aquarium together and saw sharks being fed. At the Haleakala National Park, he helped me do the work to earn my Junior Ranger badge.

During my winter vacation, my dad and I did four science projects. We built a model airplane using cardboard toilet rolls, a propeller racer, a doodling robot and an air jet rocket.

My dad explained how the electricity from the battery goes through wires to the motor to make the propeller racer and doodling robot move. He showed me how the air from the pump attached to the launcher is pushed into a nozzle which created the air pressure to launch the rocket.

I like the way my dad helps me learn things in such a fun way. He explains in a wonderful way how science works. I like having such a nice dad in the family. He is great!\

PTA Men Essay Contest Winners Untitled

By Ronnie Nguyen My male hero is my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Warnick. He inspires me to take chances in life, to go after chances, to read more, and when you do well, you get rewarded. Mr. Warnick is very funny, yet serious when needed, nice, but strict when things were out of hand, and very talented. Mr. Warnick was always like this to his students, some days he would be different. But he usually acts the same. Need more info on why Mr. Warnick is my hero?

Mr. Warnick is funny because he tells a lot of jokes. His class is always active and running. He loves to play games especially Silent Speed Ball. This is a game where you have to be silent and you pass around 1 or 2 balls. If you pass it to someone at your table or the person who threw the ball to you, you’re out. If the toss is too high, low or hard then you are also out. But Mr. Warnick’s class doesn’t get to play every day, if the class is misbehaving then nothing but work. Mr. Warnick never lets his class get out of hand too much, unless he’s playing too. He’s serious when needed especially during working time and reports. But at the end of the day you’ll end up surviving.

Mr. Warnick is nice, yes, especially if he is impressed with his class being quiet and calm. And let me tell you that is rare. He is also nice when it’s somebody’s birthday.

He’ll probably let that person choose what to do for games and such. But that is only on someone’s birthday. Mr. Warnick rarely raises his voice, but when he does you might feel a little awkward afterward. But he only gets mad when it’s something really bad.

Mr. Warnick is also talented. On someone’s birthday and your singing he’ll play the recorder. He’s actually pretty good, if he warms up first. He always stays strong when things get tough. He never looks at the negative side of things. He always smiles and says nice things to people. He encourages you and makes you work harder. He always gets to say a compliment to one of his students every day. So I guess this is what you need to know why Mr. Warnick is my male hero.

Daddy

By Megan Jensen My daddy’s name is David. I love him because he’s my dad. He’s good at almost everything. He’s especially good at math and fixing and making things. He made a box for my pet bunny when he died. Then we decorated it and buried it in our front yard.

My dad is also a great chef. Some of the things I like him to make for me are: Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Nuggets and PANCAKES! He makes them in funny shapes out of pancake batter! One time he made me a pancake shaped like a dragon! I thought that was funny. He also taught me to read the snack labels on the snacks so I know how many I can have.

He makes my lunch every day and sometimes he puts a note in there. My favorite food is a red pepper and my dad will cut a face into it like a jacko-lantern.

My dad wakes me up every morning. He gently rubs my leg and says good morning. He also is good at helping me remember to bring my violin on orchestra days. He brings me to school every day and I am always on time.

8

He also volunteers for field trips. Last year, he came into my classroom and showed my class the hydro-plane boats he builds. Then after school he helps me with my math homework if I need help. Then sometimes he’ll read with me.

Some things that he does with me are bike riding, selling Girl Scout cookies, and reading and lastly, he helps me with my homework. He plays games with me. Some of my favorite games he plays with me are: Trouble. The card games I like to play with him are: King in the Corner, and Go Fish.

He also lets me sleep in his bed at night when I have a bad dream. Also when my mom is having a PTA meeting, my dad will let us watch a movie in his room.

We also build stuff together. We built a ladder for a tree in my yard so I could go up it. We also made a ladder for my hamster Truffle. So he could climb up things. But I’m still teaching him how to use it. To make something out of wood, first you sand the piece of wood you want to use. To make it smooth. Next you cut out more pieces of wood but smaller.

I am LUCKY to have a dad like my DAD!

a Washington State PTA parent involvement magazine