We received news from Ohio’s Superintendent of Public Instruction this week that Lorain Preparatory Academy (also known as Mansfield Preparatory Academy of Excellence) – a charter school managed by Mosaica Education – has been named a High Progress School of Honor by the Ohio State Department of Education.

The department established the High Performing Schools of Honor programs this year to recognize Ohio schools that have sustained or increased student achievement over time in reading, math and graduation rates, while serving many disadvantaged students. This fact sheet describes in greater detail the criteria for Schools of Honor.

“What your school has done to serve students from all backgrounds is working, and I urge you to share your strategies with other Ohio schools. The department plans to spotlight your school as an outstanding example of what is possible when students, educators, parents and community members come together and believe that all students can succeed. Please share my gratitude with all of those who contributed to your school’s success.” – Dr. Richard Ross, Superintendent of Public Instruction

The prestigious USDLA International Awards are presented annually to organizations and individuals engaged in the development and delivery of distance learning programs. Included in the recognition ceremony were awards for 21st Century Best Practices, Best Practices for Distance Learning Programming, Best Practices for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching, Outstanding Leadership by an Individual, Hall of Fame and the Eagle for an elected official.

In addition to Dr. Eidelman, Mosaica Education was also represented by Ms. Brenda Wallace, an outstanding Mosaica Online teacher, who was also honored with a Best Practices Award for Distance Learning Teaching.

“As a premier organization for the entire distance learning profession, we are honoring Dr. Dawn D. Eidelman of Mosaica Education and the Paragon Curriculum as a leader in the industry,” said Dr. John G. Flores, Executive Director of USDLA. “Dr. Eidelman has raised the bar of excellence and we are truly honored by her leadership of Mosaica’s Education Department and development of the Paragon Curriculum as contributions to the distance learning industry.”

The USDLA Awards were created to acknowledge major accomplishments in distance learning and to highlight those distance learning instructors, programs, and professionals who have achieved and demonstrated extraordinary results through the use of online, videoconferencing, satellite and blended learning delivery technologies.

“This year’s USDLA Award recipient, Dr. Eidelman, represents the finest example of leadership in our field. The depth and breadth of the USDLA membership allows us to engage with leaders from higher education, K-12, industry, military, government who daily demonstrate the power of distance learning. We are so very proud and excited to be able to recognize this level of excellence,” said Dr. Rob Robinson, President of USDLA.

The USDLA presented its 2013 International Distance Learning Awards to Dr. Eidelman and Ms. Wallace in conjunction with the 2013 National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  For a full press release, click here.

And so it goes.  That aphorism from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five rings in my ears as I stare at this death notice from today’s New York Times – perhaps the most horrifying listing in American history.  It contains the names and ages of 20 six- and seven-year-old children and seven creative and dedicated educators, all killed within minutes of each other by a 20-year-old gunman in combat gear, armed with a semiautomatic rifle and two semiautomatic pistols that were loaded with ammunition designed for maximum damage:  

The entire country has been staggered by Friday’s carnage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in central Connecticut, the wails from inside the school echoing throughout the land, from President Obama’s emotional response to our own silent prayers to the tears of every parent who hugged his or her bewildered child over the weekend.  We’re grief-stricken, angry, frustrated and frightened.  But our most prevalent response is disbelief.  We simply refuse to believe that this has happened again.  We can’t explain this mindless slaughter to ourselves, and we wonder how to even talk about it with our children and students.  How do we assure them that their classroom remains the sanctuary we have worked so hard to create?  At the same time, how should we acknowledge the fundamental fears that events like the Sandy Hook killings trigger?   

First, let’s keep things in perspective.  The media have been quick to characterize school shootings as an “epidemic.”  They’re not.  They happen too often, to be sure, but they are still exceedingly rare.  We, of course, need to be vigilant, but we should also not be quick to turn our schools into fortresses.  We limit entry by visitors and have developed an explicit disaster plan, which includes strategies to lock down the school and pursue close ties with the local police in the event of an emergency.  Those policies should be reviewed and renewed, but at the same time we should take care not to suggest to already vulnerable children that they are in immediate danger – or, worse, that they might be safer any place else.

We also have to be careful not to demonize the mentally ill or those suffering from some other disability.  We don’t know enough about the perpetrator of this crime to diagnose him accurately – and perhaps we never will – but, once again, some talking heads have been quick with their assessments.  If in fact the shooter had a developmental disorder or mental illness, that does not imply that others with that disorder or disability are potential murderers.  If a student (or, for that matter, a misinformed adult) makes that kind of assertion, it may provide a teaching moment to counter the logical fallacy. 

Ultimately, in our dealings with our children and students, we need to follow the recommendations of the medical Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm.  Let’s listen before we talk.  We need to understand what these children have heard.  That puts the focus where it needs to be: on the child, not on the adult.  We instinctually want to tell them what happened – and then drill them wildly on how to protect themselves.  We want to promise them that it could “never happen here.”  (Perhaps if we do, that will even convince us.)  We may think our students are worried about what happened in Newtown because that’s all we’re thinking about.  But they may actually know very little and may not be worried at all.  It may be that the best thing we can do is to protect them from hearing about it.

If, however, your students are anxious, the strategy that’s commonly recommended is: “worried thought, brave thought.” The kids are taught to respond to their worried thoughts with brave thoughts.  A worried thought might be, “A shooter might come to my school and there is nothing I can do about it,” to be countered with the brave thought, “School shootings are very rare, and lots of people are working to make sure nothing bad happens at my school.” 

I have attached a PDF that includes detailed suggestions on helping children cope with trauma.  In the meantime, let’s continue to keep the families of the Newtown victims in our prayers.

Michael J.Connelly               Gene Eidelman             DawnEidelman
Chief Executive Officer        President                        Chief Education Officer

Mosaica Education, Inc. (Mosaica) is launching its most ambitious leadership development program to date in its 15-year old history. In an endeavor to expand the reach of its global educational model with quality and integrity, Mosaica is committed to cultivating visionary, high energy and transformational leaders who share Mosaica’s philosophy of best practices and rigorous accelerated learning.

MLI 2013 – Nomination Application Package

Contact: Helen Owens
Mosaica Education, Inc.

Email: howens@mosaicaeducation.com |  Phone: 404 841 2305 x 111

Laying the foundation of the herb spiral

For Immediate Release—October 17, 2012

Post HOPE Foundation installs an Edible Schoolyard at Vine City school.

Atlanta, GA — Atlanta Preparatory Academy is a charter school of choice open to all students residing in the Atlanta Public Schools district. The public school’s Parent Teacher Organization has a parent-led Edible Schoolyard Committee, which has been developing a “farm at school” initiative with pro bono management assistance from members of the Atlanta Metro Food & Farm Network (AM-FFN) team, a social enterprise consultant group within the non-profit ECO-Action Inc.

With financial support from APA’s Board of Trustees, the Edible Schoolyard Committee was able to retain the site planning services of Sustenance Design LLC to imagine a school-based garden that would reinforce the curriculum objectives of teachers while also providing students with hands on experiential learning opportunities in such areas as horticultural literacy, ecological appreciation, nutrition, career development and much more.

Post Properties, Inc. has already demonstrated their commitment to partnership and support of Atlanta Preparatory Academy through sponsoring the installation of a KaBOOM!™ playground during the 2011-2012 academic year. “We are excited about the opportunity to once again partner with APA and believe the ecological schoolyard will be a wonderful learning venture for your teachers and school children,” says Linda J. Ricklef, Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Post HOPE Foundation, Inc., a charitable 501(c)3 foundation affiliated with Post Properties.

“With this project at Atlanta Preparatory Academy, we intend to demonstrate the advanced concept of ‘Farm @ School’ which brings the benefits of local food to both students and a school’s surrounding community.” says Kwabena Nkromo, the PTO President and Edible Schoolyard Committee Chair. This phase of the initiative will be installed Thursday October 18th, 2012 with volunteers from Post Properties, Inc. and Hilton Hotels’ Sustainability Committee. APA is located at 569 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Atlanta GA 30314.

For more information about APA, please visit: www.atlantaprepacademy.org

###

Media Contact: Kwabena Nkromo or Linda Ricklef
Phone: CD – 404.991.0334 AD – 770.846.5679
kwabena.nkromo@gmail.com or Linda.Ricklef@postproperties.com

www.postproperties.com/post/posthope/

Herb spiral rises

Mosaica Education UK cordially invites you to the Grand Opening of our four East Sussex academies to be operated by Aurora Academies Trust

Date: Tuesday, 18th September 2012

Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Venue: Glenleigh Park Primary Academy,

Gunters Lane, Bexhill-on-sea, East Sussex, TN39 4ED

RSVP To:

Tim McCarthy, Regional Vice President

Mosaica Education UK

tmccarthy@mosaicaeducation.com

HERON Park and Oakwood Primary Schools will reopen as academies – backed by an American company – when the pupils return in September.

The schools will be run by Mosaica Education UK and its parent company Mosaica Education which operates others in America, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The company, which is also known as Aurora, will not make a profit from the running of the schools.

Governors at Sidley Community Primary School near Bexhill are also being sponsored by the same company.

East Sussex County Council said it had been working closely with Mosaica and would continue to do so when the schools came back from the summer break in September.

Heron Park and Oakwood have been chosen after the Government identified a list of schools that could be turned into academies in a bid to help them improve.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said, “Mosaica Education has a long track record in the provision of early years and primary school education.

“It has a strong commitment to the highest quality teaching and learning in its schools and to working with parents and the local community to secure the best possible outcomes for its pupils.

“We remain in close contact with the governing bodies and staff of the schools concerned and look forward to working with them and Mosaica Education as it develops its plans for the schools.”

For Heron Park in Hampden Park this comes just a year after Highfield and Hampden Park Infants merged to create the bigger school.

Karen Bye, Heron Park head teacher, said, “This school is continually moving forward. We have had a very successful year, and we are looking forward to September where we can keep improving the school.”

The county council says Heron Park and Oakwood will remain as local community schools, will be state funded and maintain good relationships with parents.

The curriculum will still be delivered but the county council hopes in a ‘fresh and innovative’ way.

The Muskegon Heights Public School Academy Board of Directors, meeting for the first time Monday afternoon, followed a recommendation by Emergency Manager Donald Weatherspoon to award a contract to Mosaica to operate the K-12 charter school system. Weatherspoon previously selected and gained state approval to form a charter school system in response to a financial emergency in the Muskegon Heights Public Schools.

Mosaica and the Leona Group, which operated the former TriValley Academy in Muskegon, were the two companies Weatherspoon said had expressed interest operating the charter district. A third withdrew its interest.

In Michigan, Mosaica operates charter schools in Alpena, Bay City, Flint and Pontiac.

Parents have the choice of sending their children to the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy, a different charter school in the area, a private school, or to a public school willing to accept transfer students. Officials have said Muskegon Public Schools appears to be the only district accepting transfers.

Emergency Manager Donald Weatherspoon said Mosaica was selected because of its curriculum, commitment to work within the community and a willingness to create a K-12 system.