Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

A Pa. teacher's blog causes controversy calling students names, swearing and complaining.

I was brought up believing that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  I developed into my adulthood realizing that if you can't say anything nice, at least find a solution to the stuff you're complaining about.

In the end, if you can't find a way to be positive, encouraging and uplifting in your work, you've got the wrong job.  So, with that... I leave you with the news:
ABC News
http://www.kmbc.com/r/26883337/detail.html

USA Today
http://links.visibli.com/links/8d0796


Comcast
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20110216/US.Teacher.Suspended.Blog/


CBS Philly

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/02/16/embattled-bucks-teacher-says-her-blog-spoke-the-truth/


Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_hi_te/us_teacher_suspended_blog

Well, it looks like the educators in my PLN will be discussing this for a bit here in the upcoming weeks.  We seem to have a common understanding that we want to encourage teachers to blog, to use technology as a sounding board and a tool but not as a diary for complaints. 

Hey, we know that teenagers can be difficult.  We know that schools and parents often fall short.  We know there is work to do improving education.  What people will find if they look is that a large number or educators world-wide are using blogs to encourage relationships, collaborate and improve education and every single day.

Let me know your thoughts on this!

Back in the School Fundraising Saddle - Blog Followers and Comments...

I recently found out that there are some folks following my posts here on this very blog with interest - www.believejay.blogspot.com

Ironically, most people viewing the pages here are not actually following the blog using the tools on the right hand side but that's alright.  I wasn't really quite sure I was doing much good out there.  Well, no matter how people remember the URL or access the site is alright by me.  As long as I'm in some folks PLN, that's all that matters!

So, I originally started posting just for me.  The act of writing is a way to really air some stuff out and let the brain reset a bit.  I am able to let go of whatever fixation I've got at any particular time by writing it and posting it - I don't get hung up.  Once posted I find that I can move on with my day.  Yep, I find it very helpful in allowing me to stay focused and positive.

Now, I also write for the people that have gotten something out of my posts, philosophy or advice - no matter how trivial. I feel a sense of obligation now to put stuff out there and see what happens instead of writing with no expectations whatsoever.  I am starting to see that although our little fundraising industry is actually quite small, that I can make a difference that extends past just the people I see in person on any given day.

Overall, it's an honor to know that people read this blog behind the scenes, and although not commenting, are willing to share their positive feedback with me in person about how I am sharing online and it means a lot.

For those of you that have provided positive feedback to me or one of my co-workers about this blog, I thank you!

Less is More - Get Rid of School Fundraisers that Don't Perform...

So, If you had a chance to read my last post entitled  Your school should keep records on fundraising trends You may be a bit more aware of the importance of your past fundraising data. 

Your past successes and failures in the school fundraising department can help you immesurably in how you structure your future school fundraising.  You can use past data to understand what works and what doesn't for your particular school.

When you take a look at the past school fundraising results or remember back to what didn't work so well, can you point to any of the following examples as being true for you?  Go  ahead and ask yourself the following questions:

-Did you have a spirit night or other event that generated little income?


-Was there a fundraiser that you marketed well that made under a thousand dollars?


-Have any of your fundraisers required an unreasonable amount of man-hours to pull off?

-Have you incurred rental fees on any fundraisers that barely broke even?

-Have you tried a type of fundraiser that is so new and unique that parents and the community didn't support it?


-Have you received a much larger number of complaints from any one fundraiser?


-Did you use your printed and email newsletters to promote a box tops, soup label or recycling program instead of your main fundraiser?

-Have you ever fallen short of your fundraising goal?


-Have you hosted safety nights or other educational or community service events and called them fundraisers?

-Have you added fundraisers to make up for lost fundraising income?

-Have you sold a single product that wasn't as popular as anticipated?


-Do you require approval for all fundraisers at the school?


-Are fundraisers allowed to operate one after another?

-Do you believe parents will only be satisfied with new and unique fundraisers?

Perhaps one or more of the above situations are true for you and your school.  We know there are a lot of considerations and that's why there are professional out there to help.  You can call my company or any other reputable elementary school fundraising company  and get honest advice free of charge.  Good fundraising companies should allow you to choose them and not try to take your desire for straight-up information the wrong way and pester you.

Regardless of your interest in calling around for advice, may I suggest you check my blog out again since I am planning a follow up to this post with some answers to the questions raised here.

In the end, you may be able to get rid of at least one fundraiser by using the questions above. Not every fundraiser or fundraising type will be right for your school so looking closely at the effort and results will certainly help you put things into perspective.

As usual, thanks so much for looking and I appreciate your comments more than anything else.  If you can, please just write me a little ditty below - good or bad.  Thanks!

New Features - BelieveJay Elementary School Fundraising

Yep, there's some new features on the BelieveJay Elementary School Fundraising News blog! It looks a bit funny that this is retroactive to all previous posts but we'll just roll with it.

New features include a way to share my blog posts with users on other platforms such as twitter and Facebook. This is really easy to use and I already am a big fan!

Secondly, there is a reaction area where you can just check a box to indicate your level of interest and let folks know if you thought the post was cool or not :)

I hope you like the new features and yes, I blog pretty often but we've got a bit of a specialty market with the whole elementary school fundraising thing so don't expect thousands or coolness marks.

Ok, please share anything you can from the blog that you find valuable. Give it a shot and put a checkmark on cool below. Thanks!!

Students and blogging - recommended reading for teachers interested in blogging in class.

I am interested in technology integration in the classroom so I wanted to pass along this blog post for you to checkout. It's from someone I follow on Twitter. I really thought it appropriate to pass on and I hope anyone reading this is trying their best to integrate technology in schools in any productive way they can:

Ten Things Your Students Can Blog About Today

I recommend you take a minute to take a look. Thanks!

Good Starting Stuff...

So, I already abandoned one blogger.com blog or at least think I have. Seems to be the way of the world these days. I have been doing marketing for a living for a very long time and am always surprized at how things are in a constant state of flux. Many say that blogging is old news but I do a lot of google searches and blogs appear more often in search results than ever before. Thing is, there are some very cool blog sites out there even though I am not yet a subscriber to any. So, I will be taking a look around here for a while to see what I am in for if I start obsessing on the blog. If not, I am afraid, this is all anyone will see.