Saturday, March 01, 2008

McMurray-Phillips interview is nothing to advertise.

You may have noticed we are attempting to communicate with you more frequently with the news, events, and celebrations that occur across our District every day, without inundating your email inbox. The below content reflects that effort, and is a compilation of several items – including a well-deserved recognition of our Food Services Department for an outstanding federal audit.

Your comments, suggestions, and ideas on ways we can further improve and provide you with timely and accurate information are always welcome and can be emailed to either Jennifer or me in Community Relations.

Sincerely,
Debbie Jakala
Jennifer Aaby

Edmonds School District Board Members ON AIR Channel 21/26
Ann McMurray and Susan Phillips interviewed by DJ Wilson for “Civic Engagement” on educational access channel

Tune in to channel 26 in Edmonds or channel 21 elsewhere in the district to see Board Members Ann McMurray and Susan Phillips interviewed on a variety of topics, including the make-up and duties of the school board, educational issues such as the WASL and No Child Left Behind, graduation requirements, diversity in our schools and communities, and current events such as local caucuses.

The schedule for the program:
Sundays at 12 and 11 a.m. and 7 and 11 p.m.
Mondays at 2:30 and 7:30 a.m. and 7 and 11 p.m.
Tuesdays at 6 and 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Wednesdays at 12:30 and 8 a.m. and 1:30 and 10 p.m.
Thursdays at 3:30 and 11 a.m. and 4:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Fridays at 12 a.m. and 1:30 and 10 p.m.
Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. and 3 and 9:30 p.m.

The program in its entirety is also available as a free download to iTunes at
www.edcc.edu/trc/itunesu.

I couldn't watch the entire program in one sitting. It is far too painful to see how our school district is portrayed.

McMurray sounds like she has a brick of molten cheese shoved up her nose, she gestures like a retired orchestral conductor and her most inspirational "book, play or film" is Little Nemo. Her use of "um", "well", "ya know" and "like" reveals just how much time she must spend with pre-teen children.

At least Phillips volunteers "every one day a week" as a lunch buddy for two fourth grade girls. They play games. How sweet.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark what is your favorite play, book or movie?

ESD15.org said...

Favorite play: Macbeth.
Favorite books: Anything by Shaw or Dickens. Sun Tzu's Art of War. Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.
Favorite movie: Gandhi.

Anonymous said...

After watching the 2 School Board members being interviewed on ch 26 I hope that the school district doesn't do any more of these to try and improve their image. Apparently McMurray and Phillips hope that all students (before graduating) see "Finding Nemo" (McMurray's suggestion) and "West Side Story" (Phillips suggestion). What ever happened to reading? I think the "bar" has just been lowered. Soon we'll be doing the Limbo under it.

ESD15.org said...

Fun Factoid:
I had a room mate at the University of Dar es Salaam named Limbu Gimbuya.

Anonymous said...

Movie-Gandhi
Play- too many to list them all(drama major) Enemy of the People-Ibsen, Hamlet, Man for All Seasons-Bolt, Oedipus Rex.
Books- Band of Brothers was excellent, as was Flags of Our Fathers. Einstein in Berlin. Love in the Time of Cholera.

And we were, of course, supposed to model "appropriate behvior" during sustained silent reading (SSR) by reading a book while the kids did (I usually finished 2 or 3 books a year during that daily 20 minutes). But then the work load was increased, more expectations were made of staff and many felt pressured to use SSR instead to answer parent or office e-mail ("didn't you read your e-mail?" with a snide tone; when you have 5th or 6th period prep, that's when you get to it unless you cheat and do it during SSR but then you aren't modeling "appropriate behavior" now are you?), write-up their reflections on their teaching or lessons, do their curriculum mapping, UBD planning, or prep for "Critical Friends."

I can read more now. Currently, Halberstam's last book, Coldest Winter (Korean War).

Does that mean I'm too smart to be a board member?