This is why I find the Parents' Coalition of MC so frustrating.
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Anonymous
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The title of the blog post is: "Breaking News: Teachers Demand 2,000 Promethean Boards"
Yet, when you read the memo and Gazette article cited http://www.gazette.net/article/20120906/NEWS/709069850/1022/-145-million-technology-plan-proposed-for-montgomery-schools&template=gazette there is no mention of teachers making any such demand. I guess this is the author's sarcasm? I just find it misleading. I get that the author does not like Promethean Boards, but why? Does she think the money the county is spending would be better spent elsewhere? If so, where? Can MCPS use the FCC grant for some other form of technology she thinks is more useful? I'm not saying I'm a fan of smart boards. Personally, I think this generation of smart boards are not very good. In the age of iPad, the smart boards seem clunky and not much better than a camera projector. I just don't understand why MCPC presents issues in the manner they do. |
Anonymous
Because the owner of the site has an agenda. My advice is to ignore it. |
Anonymous
| Janus Sartucci will take any statement and twist it to fit her agenda. Must have learned how from her hubby who worked for Senator Trent Lott. |
Anonymous
Well, I'm not saying its good or bad but I went to open house and there was a Promethean board in a box stuffed into the teachers classroom corner and she had no clue what she was going to do with it... |
Anonymous
Really? The box was in the corner? They have to be professionally installed and the box would take up half the room. Are you sure it was a Promethean Board? |
Anonymous
Yes it was brought up by another parent and the teacher confirmed it. And as you hinted to not only did she not know what she was going to do with it, she didn't know where it was going to go. I wonder will it just sit there the whole year.... |
Anonymous
| Hard to imagine something the size of a classroom chalk board stuffed in corner. My kids had the in ES, Some teachers used them very effectively others might as well have just had a chalk board. I assume less techy teachers don;t take full advantage of the features..and some just how too many movies. |
Anonymous
This issue recently reached a boiling point on MCneeds when a special needs parent called Sartucci out. |
Anonymous
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Janus Sartucci hates MCPS and is not supportive of teachers. She has her own agenda after fighting a battle with Churchill for supposedly not supporting her son, who was receiving special ed services.
IF teachers are up in arms over PBs it's only b/c they can't teach curriculum 2.0 w/o one. So although teachers are often caught in the middle, Janus will still place some blame on them. I know of one school where the PTA had to purchase a PB for a classroom b/c there was no money left in the budget. Imagine being the only teacher in a school during the Curriculum 2.0 roll out with NO board. again - caught in the middle But Janus loves to blame anyone who works for the system, as she feels the system let HER down. Furthermore, she has plenty of time on her non-working hands to dig up all sorts of goodies like memos, which she loves to post to her site. So even IF you wanted to challenge her, I doubt anyone else has that time to invest, as most people work. Furthermore, in her eyes, her highly touted law degree, is like a golden crown. Someone with that much animosity toward a school system must suffer from some mental issues, as this need to pursue some of these matters to the extent she does is obsessive.
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Anonymous
I think the problem tends to be there is so much spin that you miss the truth. I would be surprised if teachers really demanded Promethean Boards. Usually a certain percentage of teachers embrace new technology, others see it as more work to figure out how to incorporate it. Now I do wonder why PB were picked. There are less expensive smart board technologies plus I see iPads being more up and coming. |
Anonymous
| In general these boards are stupid and I love technology. Most teachers have not figured out how to fully integrate them into the curriculum to get the most out of them. So they are used as white boards, to show movies and to display written material that is then circled by the student. Nothing new here. Private schools are littered with these boards and the vast majority are wasted. There are probably a lot of teachers who don't want these boards but once one class gets them they all need them. |
Anonymous
Yes, there were many posts on this topic. I don't want to speak for JS but it seemed her main point was that the contract was not put out for bid properly. She suggested that similar boards could have been purchased for less money. My issue (and it seems others on Mcneeds are similarly frustrated) is that everything with MCPS is not black and white. While there are definitely issues and problems (especially with services to special needs kids), there are also good things about the system (including with respect to some special needs kids). |
Anonymous
I get that the blog owner doesn't think the contract was put out for bid properly. I would imagine that she has reported it to the county inspector general or the State's Attorney's Office or whatever the equivalent of the Government Accountability Office is for Maryland. So if she were correct, I would think action would ahve been taken. Instead, she continues to shout at the rain and does so with misleading head lines. |
Anonymous
| I do visit the blog occasionally, but take everything I read with a grain of salt. |
Anonymous
| Me too, I definitely take everything I read on the ParentsMC Board with a grain of salt. Are there any other blogs/boards/websites that people frequent that give us unbiased or non misleading information? Can anyone recommend anything? |