| YEAR | TOPIC | DESCRIPTION | Source
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2013
| We've come a long way to get where
we are today
| Key Messages: · History attests to the connection between prosperity,independence, and power, and a high-quality and equitable system of public
education. · The foundational principles of public education are worth protecting and promoting, even as private and sectarian competition for public dollars increases. · Public education has continually evolved to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. | Click Here
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2013
| Who do you think you are? Who do they think you are? |
The question “Who do you think you are?” has been used at many times in many situations—often in a condescending or challengingway.But confronting the question can be very useful to leaders seeking professional alignment among their vision, goals, and behaviors and within theirschoolcommunity.
| Click Here
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2013
| Public and Community Relations | Competition... It's Here to Stay
Key Messages:
Public schools must now compete for the profound privilege of educating Minnesota’s children for the future. Today’s educational leaders need to also be public relations leaders for their schools to successfully compete.
| Click Here
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| 2013 | Legislative Landscape | Legislative landscape. Academic Achievement. Graduation Rates.
| Click Here
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2013
| Spring into Action and Stop the Leaks | Key Message:
There is a leak in the system — summer learning loss. Creative repairs can reduce loss and increase student and school success.
| Click Here
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| 2013 | Minnesota Markers | Key Message:
Minnesota's success is exceeded only by its potential.
| Click Here
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| 2013 | Leadership and Kid Connections | Most parents want their children to make and be friends. They want them to be socially confident and competent. For some children that is easier than for others. But parents can help and kids can often help themselves. Following are a few tips for parents to help their children have and be friends.
| Click Here |
| 2013 | Leadership, Marketing, Kid Connections
| Leadership,Marketing, The World (some reasons global education and educating our kids globally are important); Kid Connections on Parents of Preschoolers, Parents of Tweens, and Cliques in Schools.
| Click Here
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| 2012 | ABC's of Preventing Bullying | Actions. Behaviors. Character.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Advocate for Your School | Key Message:
The window of opportunity to effectively advocate for your schools is open now. Look for the open windows and capitalize on the opportunities they present. Make this the year that you will meet with more parents, present to more groups, explore new technologies for communications, write more articles and letters, partner more with community groups, establish closer relationships with legislators, work more closely with businesses, learn more about your students, and become more accessible to all stakeholders.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Begin at the Beginning | Key Message:
A person’s capacity to become a happy, healthy, contributing adult begins to take shape at the beginning of that person’s life. It is our collective responsibility as a society to provide the environment and opportunities within which that development is most likely to take place.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Bullying | What is bullying beyond hurtful behavior that we may have all engaged in or been victims of at some times in our lives? The Minnesota Bullying Prevention Initiative is a partnership of the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and Hazelden and OLWEUS™.
| Click Here |
2012
| State and Common Core Standards
| State and Common Core Standards, Sparks, Options and Opportunities, Principles for Principals, Price of Government, Betting on Business, Some Things to Think About. | Click Here
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2012
| Schools Aren't What They Used to Be
| Schools have changed and will continue to change to meet evolving needs of learners and the expanded expectations of the workplace. Educators have needed to be even more innovative, insightful and creative than in the past. School leaders are challenged daily to engage children as learners very early in their educational careers and to keep them engaged into post-secondary education. Here are some examples of innovative schools reaching out to learners of all ages.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Compare and Contrast | Bragging Rights Grading Schools, Compare and Contrast (worldwide), Education and Globalization, Likelihood of Employment, Values and Variables, On the Brain, and Reaching Out.
| Click Here
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| 2012 | Economics of Education | Key Message:
Quality schools are the best investment we can make for the future. Often, especially in uncertain economic times, we think of our schools more in terms of how much public education costs rather than how much it contributes to our prosperity. In fact, our public investment in schools significantly influences our future economic success.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Education Systems | Family systems that support school success. School systems that make a difference.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | Learning from Lawyers | Ethics in Education. Learning from Lawyers. Sailing toward September and communicating with parents.
| Click Here |
| 2012 | To Tax or Not to Tax | Key Message:
Decisions about increasing, decreasing, maintaining or redistributing taxes will likely play a major role in the Minnesota we create for ourselves and our futures.
| Click Here |
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2011
| The Wealth Gap and How it Affects Children
| Key Message:
There is a correlation between academic outcomes and the level of support children receive in their lives. The growing wealth gap in the United States likely contributes to low international academic comparisons.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Bragging Rights | Minnesota is the 5th healthiest and happiest state according to a recent gallop poll, Gallop--Healthways Well-being Index, 2010. (Business Insider.com) The index includes such factors as life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, etc. Happiness seems to correlate with healthy lifestyles.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Bridging the Gaps | Key Message:
Summer is an optimal time to partner with parents and communities to increase learning opportunities and reduce the learning loss that occurs over summer months when schools are closed. Using the calendar gap to narrow the achievement gap.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Building a Bridge: Help kids cross the gaps | Key Message:
Summer is a great time for parents and communities to help kids to continue to learn and narrow the learning gap that often increases when schools are closed.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Bullying Hurts People | Key Message:
Bullying in any form and by any name damages everyone involved – the aggressors, the victims, and the observers. Every seven minutes, a child is bullied on the school playground. Every month, three million students miss school because they feel unsafe. One in four middle school students reports having been bullied online. An estimated 18 million students in the United States will be bullied this year. We can not afford these statistics.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Bullying- Parents Issue | Key Message:
Bullying in any form and by any name damages everyone involved – the aggressors, the victims, and the observers. Parents can play an important role in identifying and preventing bullying. It is the job of adults to help kids develop empathy, self esteem and peacemaking skills early in their lives.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Did You Know? | Early Childhood. Grads and Gaps. Teacher Licensure. Climate Control. Technology.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Framework for the Future: Those things
that matter most | Key Message:
Schools of the future require a vision and framework that focus on academic success, create adequate and sustainable funding, provide flexibility, and attract and maximize the potential of high quality educators.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Funding: Working Together to Work it Out | Key Message:
Although these are tough times for schools, our commitment to providing the best possible education to all learners is unwavering.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Healthy Start | Healthy Start. Investment and Innovation. Taxes. Bullies and Bullied.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | Minnesota Markers | Key Message:
Minnesota’s success is exceeded only by its potential.
Minnesota has consistently been ranked at the top or near the top as the most livable, most caring, and healthiest state by Morgan Quitno Press and United Way of America. Minnesota is ranked “outstanding” in safety, education, economic and financial well-being, volunteerism, charity, civic engagement, natural environment and other factors.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | School Climate Control: Does it Matter? | Key Message:
Student achievement and behavior are impacted by school climate. School climate can be influenced and improved.
| Click Here |
| 2011 | School Climate Control: Does it Matter? ppt
| PowerPoint presentation to use when addressing any stakeholder groups that have the opportunity to improve school climate. Just addressing the groups will help them to realize that school leaders are concerned about this and will help stakeholders to see that they too have a role in improving school climate.
| Click Here |
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| 2010 | Leadership in Times of Scarcity | Minnesota’s school administrators believe they have a responsibility to lead their communities through crisis and toward more effective and efficient schools. Frame the conversation. Provide current quality data. Provide funding facts…
| Click Here |
2010
| Challenging the Challenges | Despite the difficult financial times our state, our schools and our citizens are facing, we must continue to improve public education to meet the needs of our learners and our futures. Schools need creative and committed partners to make this happen.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | Public Investment | Leadership through different lenses. Public engagement. School Leaders' Summer Savvy.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | What Does It Take to Graduate?
| Minnesota has a set of standards and assessments that were designed to ensure that students who graduate from Minnesota’s public schools have at least minimum competence to achieve success after they graduate. The purpose, consequences, and outcomes of these standards and assessments need to be better defined, understood and communicated.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | Looking Back/Thinking Ahead | Key Message:
Finding time for public relations can be challenging when schedules are overloaded and pockets of resistance exist. It is essential to student improvement and support for our schools to change how we relate to people within and outside of our schools in these dynamic times.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | Continuous Change | Key Message:
Minnesota Schools are constantly changing to meet the needs of today’s learners as they prepare for an unknown future. The Minnesota Association of School Administrators, the Association of Secondary School Principals and the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association assist schools and school leaders as they identify and make changes.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | Cause for Pause | Values and Variables. Public Investment. Early Childhood. Charter Schools.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | Funding for our Future
| The potential of our people, our communities and our state depend heavily on our willingness to invest responsibly in the future.
| Click Here |
| 2010 | The Past, Present, Future and the Challenge | During the 1990s, Minnesota consistently spent more money per pupil than the national average. The value of the investment was evident in Minnesota’s schools’ national standing. (i.e. number one in achievement). Over the past 10 years, Minnesota’s ranking for investment in education has fallen to 1.31 percent below the national average.
| Click Here |
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| 2009 | Good News | Early Childhood Education, After School Programming, Values and Variables, Good News, Public Investment, Cause for Pause, and Red Flags.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | Early Investments: High-quality early childhood education
and after-school programming
| Key Message:
Children are our greatest resource. Parents, communities and schools are responsible for working together to ensure that all children realize their full potential, have the opportunity for fulfilling lives, and become contributing members of society. This awesome responsibility begins before children enter kindergarten and extends after the traditional school day.
| Click Here |
2009
| Testing for Tomorrow
| Key Message:
Tests that have the capacity to measure individual student progress provide the most useful information for improvement.Testing is just one of several meaningful components of measuring school and student success.
| Click Here |
2009
| Testing for Tomorrow ppt
| This Power Point should be presented as a slide show. The notes below each slide indicate the number of "clicks" to display the complete text of that slide. As each "click" reveals another line of information that information should be expanded upon to audiences. This presentation is intended to be used in conjunction with the INVESTMN "Testing for Tomorrow" talking points above.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | At the End of the Day | Key Message:
Children are our greatest resource. Parents, communities and schools are responsible for working together to ensure that all children realize their full potential, have the opportunity for fulfilling lives, and become contributing members of society. This awesome responsibility extends beyond the traditional school day.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | Talking the Walk | Key Message:
About public education can be most effectively communicated throughout the state if school leaders are actively sharing those messages within their own communities and are preparing staff and board members to do the same.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | Keeping the Promise | Key Message:
As the African proverb says, "It takes a whole village to raise a child. We are the village and these are our children." Our children are the promise for the future. Minnesota’s Promise is a clear vision for public education: preparing all of our students for success in the global economy in world-class schools and a world-class state. It is the opportunity for all of us to come together to meet the needs of all learners and to help them become all that they can be. Just like it will take all of us together to impact energy consumption, the economy, or the environment, if will take all of us together to improve our schools and our outlook for the future.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | Minnesota's Promise
| PowerPoint (slide) presentation to use in presenting the above concepts to your school community.
| Click Here |
2009
| Did You Know?
| Current facts and resources for you to use when talking about the status and needs of education: including Just the facts on good news for Minnesota education, did you know?, parent involvement, community engagement, cause for pause, looking ahead, and red flags.
| Click Here |
2009
| Investment Connection
| Key Message: Greater investment in public services, including education, has consistently been accompanied by greater state prosperity.
| Click Here |
| 2009 | Investment Connection ppt | PowerPoint (slide) presentation of the Investment Connection. When using the presentation, use the "Slide Show" option so that the animation is accessible.
| Click Here |
2009
| Operation Education
| Key Message:
Public understanding and engagement is foundational to achieving the best possible educational outcomes.
Minnesota’s public schools are good—very good—but global competition and a struggling economy require that they be even better—great. In order to make that happen, a shared vision for kids and their futures needs to be cultivated and supported beyond the walls of school buildings—in communities, homes, places of worship, businesses and government—everywhere that people are impacted by the outcomes of public education.
| Click Here |
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2008
| Champions for Children
| The school year begins with potential and promise. Anxious and enthusiastic parents send off their treasured children – sometimes for the first time. Students stream through the school doors feeling brave, cautious, self conscious, and hopeful all at once. Teachers prepare for another year of challenges and possibilities while working to establish the right mix of what has worked in the past and what will best ready kids for the future. And you? You are expected to lead them all.
| Click Here |
2008
| Competitive Edge: Reforming the Future
| Together—today—we are creating the future of Minnesota through our choices, priorities, and commitments. “The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created – created first in mind and will, created next inactivity… The paths are not to be found but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”
| Click Here |
2008
| What Now?
| Experience from the past, hope for the future, and the need for change have been the driving dynamics of this historic political season. People are participating at higher levels than at any time in recent election cycles. As Champions for Children™, we are challenged to learn from what is happening around us and to apply that knowledge to improve support for public education and the students it serves.
| Click Here |
2008
| Competitive Edge: Looking Ahead
| According to Minnesota state finance commissioners who have served 18of the past 22 years—under Republican, Democrat, and Independent administrations—we should be concerned about the current status of state support for our schools.
| Click Here |
2008
| Competitive Edge: Working Together
| As community leaders and school leaders—as Champions for Children™—it is incumbent upon us to ensure that we are never forced to look back and acknowledge regretfully, “We had the best public schools in the world.” We must capitalize on the energy, expertise and experience available to lead our schools into a reality that will cause us to say, “We have the best public schools in the world and, thanks to our shared commitment, they are getting even better.”
| Click Here |
2008
| Bop to the Top
| It’s the time of year when you feel the familiar tingle of anticipation and the burst of hope that you did when preparing for your first class of students—when you saw every child as a possibility and every challenge as an opportunity. Now you prepare not only for children, but also for staff members, mandates, expectations, and systems. The potential is greater and the risks more apparent. Public education and educational leaders in Minnesota are at the crossroads of soaring and survival. This is the start of something new....
| Click Here |
2008
| Summer Surge
| All kids need parents to...
Preschool age children will benefit if parents...
Elementary school-age children learn when parents:- read to them or listen to them read every day.
- encourage them to select books at the library and talk about the reason for their choices.
- take them on a tour of the town, visiting places of government, education, art, health, and faith.
- allow them to plan and help prepare a meal each week.
- walk with them through a variety of neighborhoods, public places, and natural settings.
- have fun with them acting out or doing interpretative readings of poems or plays.
- show them how to plant and nurture seeds and watch them grow.
Adolescents feel valued when parents...
| Click Here |
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