So here is the latest and GREATEST

Within the last hour Riverside was named as the "most intelligent community in the world" by ICF (Intelligent Community Forum) who holds the annual competition for the award.  You remember we were named one of the top 7.  This was the culmination of the work on this award.  It was preceeded by information being sent and visitations to Riverside by the ICF representatives.  I believe this is the first time the award was given to a US city.

Additionally, we won the "coolest app" part of the competition that was lead by Jay McPhail and the student learning aspect of all of this

Kudos to all!!!!

Here are 2 short videos.  http://bit.ly/LK5N3X and http://bit.ly/KUe7kc

You REALLY Missed It!!

If you couldn’t make it, you really missed it on Saturday night when we had our Red Carpet premier for our student acted and produced video on the A-G requirements that are necessary for University of California admission.  While it was not totally full, it was a very full house in the Ramona Theater (over 650).  Students were introduced and premiered including several red carpet interviews.  We even learned how to “shuffle” – kinda.

As indicated earlier in the week, we have a great staff across the District that is producing some incredible results with our students.  Many from the HS media arts and publications staff were involved in this effort along with many students – essentially all on non-school time.  There were student producers, camera-people, actors, choreographers, and you-name-it.  When people talk about preparing our students for the jobs of the 21^st century (which is now) – I believe this is a great example – that can translate into real jobs.  Additionally, these students have a very valuable piece for their job or college portfolio that is very credible.

Bottomline, if you or others don’t know what each of the 7 letters (A-G) represent in the A-G requirements you could and should check out this video (http://bit.ly/NhKqLm) that will explain it in some fun detail.  Your friends might even enjoy it.  Great job students and staff!!

Graduation Week

To follow yesterday’s theme of great teachers and staff doing great work – here is another (and the reality is that there are MANY). 

Each school and each situation is different -- much like our students and their families.  One size cannot fit all and arguably fits none.  At one of our high schools, graduation looks a lot less like pomp and circumstance in the stadium and is much more intimate.  One of our teachers, enlisting their own creativity and resources, recorded just one of those graduations and the story of completion and achievement.  It has been published for the world to see the creativity and achievement of our staff and students on YouTube.  It is the story of one EOC graduation.

Thanks Ann!!

As graduation week begins there is much to celebrate.  Certainly, we have many graduates, their families, their teachers, and their mentors that have worked hard to accomplish the celebrations of this week.

On the other side, it is also a time to look at the spectacular work of many of our teachers and staff that do extraordinary things for our students.  To point to one example, that in my view represents many, I would look at the Senior Exhibition event at JW North HS.  This is certainly a great example of preparing our students for the world beyond high school (next week!). 

Though it probably is not an “official” Senior Exhibition project – I am stunned by the work of just one of our teachers in this area.   In this case, AFTER graduation, the teacher contacts you and asks you to write another essay and make sure it includes a literary work as part of the overall theme.  Guess what, many students did exactly that and emailed their essays back to the teacher (had to use email as they didn’t show up for class anymore).  The teacher, of course, commented and edited the work and returned it.  All of it ended up as the most extraordinary book of these essays – that are very thought-provoking and insightful from our students about their various journeys in life.

The book is entitled:  Bookmarked by Ann Camacho (JW North teacher).  If you haven’t looked at it I would highly recommend it.  I was intrigued and impressed by the project -- I was even more impressed by the quality of writing and thinking by our students.  To that end, I would also thank Ann and all of the other teachers across RUSD that are so committed to our students and their excellence.

P.S.  Ann, please don't edit my work as it is not likely to be to the standard that you have demanded of your students.