Dear Members of the South Amboy Board of Education,

My name is Wendy Saiff. I am the President of the Highland Park Board of Education.

I’m writing to you about an important opportunity for all of us to let our Governor and our Legislators know how strongly we support public education.

Like your school district, Highland Park has worked hard over the past few years to contain expenses while maintaining a quality public school education for the children of our community. But this year, Governor Christie’s proposed cuts in state aid to schools made this balancing act almost impossible.
During the budget process this year, many Highland Park community members were frustrated by the Governor’s proposed cuts and asked what they could do to make their voices heard. They felt that taking $820 million away from schools, on top of the midyear cuts in state aid, was draconian and that all of our schools, and our children, would suffer. They wanted to let our Legislators know that we are counting on them to do what’s right for all of our children.

A statewide rally on May 22 in Trenton offers all of us the opportunity to be heard. The goal of the event, “Standing Up, Standing Together: A Rally to Protect NJ’s Families and Communities,” is to convince the State Legislature to restore funding to education and social services. Rally organizers are working feverishly to bring tens of thousands of people to Trenton to protest cuts that will hurt students, working families, seniors and others.

The Highland Park Board of Education has decided to endorse the May 22 Rally, which is being sponsored by community groups such as NJ Citizen Action, the Greater New Brunswick NAACP, NJ Working Families Alliance, NJEA, CWA, Garden State Equality, Better Choices Budget Coalition, Our Children/Our Schools, and others. Please consider having your School Board join us in endorsing this rally.

In addition to endorsing, helping to organize participation from your school district is key. There will be buses going to Trenton on Saturday, May 22, from every county in NJ. Please let interested parents and community members know. Use the links below to endorse the rally, sign up to participate or call or e-mail for more information.

I invite you to also contact me if I can be of assistance.

Thank you,
Wendy Saiff
President, Highland Park Board of Education

Community Organizations: You can Endorse the Rally by clicking here.

RSVP Online at http://www.njcitizenaction.org/ and/or for more information, contact Adam Sherman at may22rally@njcitzenaction.org or at 732-246-4772 ext. 22.

Distribute the Rally Flyer: Click here to print it out

Join the Event on Facebook: Click here

Are you smarter than a third-grader? Because the online education system used by the Fairfax County public schools apparently is not.

Full article here

Today is the first lesson for the Blogging component on BuddyPress

South Amboy Public Schools | Facebook
Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
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• Grab Website Colors – Color Scheme Extraction Tool
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• sapublicschools – Meme
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• Digital Storytelling Teacher Guide
  The ancient tradition of storytelling meets the digital age.
  When students create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their story, learning becomes personal.
  With digital storytelling, students can:

  Improve their writing.
  Show creativity.
  Have a voice.
  Digital storytelling projects lend themselves well to portfolio assessment.

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• Welcome to BetterLesson
  BetterLesson was founded by a group of teachers from Atlanta and Boston public schools to connect educators and help them create, organize, and share their curricula.

  We are focused on aggregating and scaling the most innovative content and practices from high-performing teachers across the country

• South Amboy Public Schools – Children are the future as inevitably as the future is change.
  This is an active test of how South Amboy Public Schools might leverage the power of it's own educational networking site.
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If you do, here is a link to a very comprehensive listing of the educational apps available to you.  And with all the recent iPad buzz, it might be time to jump on the bandwagon.

The Lively Sketchbook

• Welcome to Wikispaces – Free Wikis for Everyone
  Our full-featured wikis offer unlimited usage and our stellar visual editor. Check out our plans and pricing, and see why our customers call us the best wiki out there.

  Now hosting over 3,920,000 members and 1,470,000 wikis!

  We have given away over 266,000 wikis for K-12 education. Learn more and create your own classroom wiki today.

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• Discovery Kids :: Home Page :: Discovery Kids
  (tags: kids science education games learning reference children fun)
• Online tech literacy, supplemental math & science curriculum, assessment for K8 schools
  Learning.com is a pioneer in providing premier, Web-enhanced instruction. We focus on innovative, results-oriented solutions with a singular, over-riding purpose: to improve student learning.

  We have gathered a remarkable team with expertise in Web technology and forward-thinking educational pedagogies that support educators in their work to improve student learning outcomes. We understand how best to integrate 21st century technology into how children learn and how educators teach.

  (tags: technology education learning assessment curriculum computer literacy online)
• ThinkCentral
  (tags: math reading interactive science teachers curriculum education english storytown kindergarten)

• CDWG | Let Your Imagination Run Wireless
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