New Band Director

Melanie Brooks is Pine City's new High School Band Director.  I met with Melanie last week.  Melanie is passionate about teaching.  She is a St. Olaf graduate and has worked with a variety of fine music programs.  Melanie is certified to teach K-12 Instrumental Music.  Ms. Brooks has lead large concerts and small group ensembles with much success.  She is experienced in teaching music theory and music literacy.  From private instruction to an ensemble director to full concerts, Melanie is prepared to lead the way for our outstanding band program.  She is bright, enthusiastic and good with people.  Melanie is inheriting a great band program that she will continue to build.  She is very excited about the prospect of new auditorium and looks forward to meeting the community when she moves here.

Melanie's primary instrument is the saxophone but can play all of the instruments.  I suspect she might play the saxophone for the community at some point.  This should be a great year for our music program. 

If you have questions about the transition to a new band director or if you have questions about the auditorium, let me know.  You can reach me at wgilman@pinecity.k12.mn.us or (320) 629-4011.


Feel free to comment on this blog post.

What questions do you have for Ms. Brooks?

External View of the Auditorium

I wanted our readers to see these simulated external views of the auditorium.  We will hold a public information meeting about the auditorium proposal on Thursday, August 9th at 7 p.m. in the Elementary Auditorium. Have a great weekend.

What do you think of these images of the new proposed auditorium?

Auditorium Update

The architect has prepared a simulated view of the outside of our proposed auditorium.  When the board and I are satisfied with this image, we will share this with everyone.  This auditorium will make our school a very special facility.  I want to thank all of the many people that have pitched in.  The process is so much easier when many lend a hand.  Please tell others about this information.  I will be building a district Face Book page that will contain helpful information about the auditorium and other school information.

I met Melanie Brooks today.  She is going to bring great energy to the band director position.  She has many good ideas and will be highlighting her musical talents very soon.  This is going to be a positive and exciting year for Pine City Schools.  Melanie will send me a picture so all of you can put a name with a face.  Stay tuned!!

Multi-purpose Auditorium

I begin another humble blog with information about the Pine City Bond Referendum for a new auditorium.  With the help of many great people I begin a new journey as Superintendent for Pine City Schools.  On June 30th I left Crookston behind and on July 1st, 2012 I began work for Pine City Schools.  Pine City is a positive place to live and work.  

This floor plan shows some expansion of the choir room and band room.  The spacious lobby will also have public restrooms.  Our band program has grown and the practice and performance areas are no longer suitable.

 

The auditorium will have two large instructional areas divided with these moveable panels as shown below.   Pine City School District and community need a multi-purpose auditorium, a large group meeting area, and a multi-use instructional area.

 This is what the inside would look like.  The multi-purpose auditorium can hold up to 740 people.  Each seat is aligned and the walls are constructed that every person can see and hear the activities on the stage.  The design will also eliminate any echo or distortion. 

 Pine City Schools has been nationally recognized by NAMM as having one of the top Music programs in the nation.  Lets prepare for our future by maintaining our Arts, Academics and Athletics.

 The Vote in on Tuesday, August 14th from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.  Below is the actual ballot question as it appears on the back of the ballot.  The cost for this auditorium is about $5 per month for the average property value of $150,000.

 

 

Why do you think the levy is important to the community?

June 29th will be my last day as Superintendent of Crookston Public Schools.  On July 2nd I begin a new chapter as the Pine City Superintendent of Schools.  Pine City is a great opportunity.  They have a nationally acclaimed music program.  The "Dragons" are integrating technology into the curriculum with innovative practices including class sets of I Pads.  Pine City is a beautiful area half way between Duluth and the Twin Cities.  I will miss many fine friends in the Crookston area.  Crookston has been a safe and peaceful place to raise my children.  The district is in better shape than when I got here. I hope only the best for the Crookston community.


What would you like to see happen, in the future, for Crookston Public Schools?

Summer

The start of June always holds a bit of melancholy for me.  The dual emotions of sadness and excitement fill the air.  Seniors say good bye to high school; the place they both love and hate.  Students and families take a break from the hectic school year.  Some work, some play and some do nothing during the precious and few warm days of the year.   For the staff it is a time to begin to recharge.  They have made it through 9 months of constant demands.  Most teachers are in a routine that flows with the seasons.  The retiring teachers and staff face a new chapter.  For employees that take jobs elsewhere, they too face a new chapter in life.

I am so grateful for the employees that take on this career.  Over and over our young people pass through this place and find their way to repeat what their parent and grandparents have done.  We have given these young adults a critical gift.  They leave with hope; hope for opportunity, work, family and the American dream.  Along with their parents we taught them right from wrong.  They received the critical learning needed to step into this crazy world.  My wish is for abundant success for all the staff and students that shared their years here at Crookston Public Schools.  Enjoy, be safe and I hope to see all of you again soon.  

What are your hopes  for the summer and for the future?  What are you thankful for about Crookston Public Schools?

Is the Internet hurting children?

By Chelsea Clinton and James P. Steyer, Special to CNN

updated 10:04 AM EDT, Mon May 21, 2012

Chelsea Clinton and James Steyer says there's evidence that the explosion of computer use has changed the way kids think.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Chelsea Clinton and James Steyer say we must ask: How are social media effecting kids?
• They say explosion of online access for kids has opened Pandora's box of privacy issues
• They say it's changed the way kids think, interact with others; discretion is abandoned
• Writers: We need laws, norms, education to maximize benefit, minimize disasters of online use

Editor's note: Chelsea Clinton is a board member of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on media and technology's effects on children and teens, and wrote the foreword to "Talking Back to Facebook." James P. Steyer is founder and CEO of Common Sense Media and the author of "Talking Back to Facebook."

(CNN) -- Amid the buzz over the Facebook IPO, the ever-evolving theories about how Twitter is reshaping our communications and speculation about where the next social media-enabled protest or revolution will occur, there is an important question we've largely ignored. What are the real effects of all this on the huge segment of the population most affected by social media themselves: our children and our teens?

The explosive growth of social media, smartphones and digital devices is transforming our kids' lives, in school and at home. Research tells us that even the youngest of our children are migrating online, using tablets and smartphones, downloading apps. Consumer Reports reported last year that more than 7.5 million American kids under the age of 13 have joined Facebook, which technically requires users to be 13 years old to open an account. No one has any idea of what all of this media and technology use will mean for our kids as they grow up.

By the time they're 2 years old, more than 90% of all American children have an online history. At 5, more than 50% regularly interact with a computer or tablet device, and by 7 or 8, many kids regularly play video games. Teenagers text an average of 3,400 times a month. The fact is, by middle school, our kids today are spending more time with media than with their parents or teachers, and the challenges are vast: from the millions of young people who regret by high school what they've already posted about themselves online to the widely documented rise in cyberbullying to the hypersexualization of female characters in video games.

Chelsea Clinton

 

These challenges also include traditional media and the phenomenon of "ratings creep" in the movies that our kids consume. Movies today -- even G-rated ones -- contain significantly more sex and violence, on average, than movies with the same rating 10 or 20 years ago.

James P. Steyer

 

The impact of heavy media and technology use on kids' social, emotional and cognitive development is only beginning to be studied, and the emergent results are serious. While the research is still in its early stages, it suggests that the Internet may actually be changing how our brains work. Too much hypertext and multimedia content has been linked in some kids to limited attention span, lower comprehension, poor focus, greater risk for depression and diminished long-term memory.

Our new world of digital immersion and multitasking has affected virtually everything from our thought processes and work habits to our capacity for linear thinking and how we feel about ourselves, our friends and even strangers. And it has all happened virtually overnight.

From PCs in school to online schooling

Should you bet on Mark Zuckerberg?

It goes without saying that digital media have also altered our fundamental notions of and respect for privacy. Young people now routinely post and share private, personal information and opinions on social media platforms without fully considering the potential consequences.

The immediacy of social media platforms, coupled with vulnerable youngsters who are socially inexperienced and not fully developed emotionally, can create a combustible mix. Kids often self-reveal before they reflect, and millions of kids say and do things they later regret. The permanence of what anyone posts online and the absence of an "eraser" button mean that the embarrassment and potential damage can last forever.

We urgently need a public conversation in our country among key stakeholders: parents, educators, technology innovators, policymakers and young people themselves. The dialogue must focus on the ways social media and technology enable our kids to give up their privacy before they fully understand what privacy is and why it's important to all of us. We should also discuss how social media can help empower kids to find their voice, find their purpose and potentially create the next technology revolution.

All adults know that the teen years are a critical time for identity exploration and experimentation. Yet this important developmental phase can be dramatically twisted when that identity experimentation, however personal and private, appears permanently on one's digital record for all to see.

In the 1990s, as a reaction to an explosion of television programming of increasingly questionable quality for kids, Congress passed the Children's Television Act. There was universal recognition that given all the time kids were spending in front of the television, the nation had a collective responsibility to offer positive, educational programming with limited commercials. We are at, arguably, an even more important crossroads when it comes to digital media and technology.

Howard Gardner, a professor and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who developed the concept of multiple intelligences, calls kids' use of digital media and technology "epochal change." He compares the revolution in digital media to the invention of the printing press because of its extraordinary impact on the way we communicate, share information and interact with one another. As a society, we have no choice but to engage with this new reality and work to ensure that it affects our kids in healthy, responsible ways.

The promise of digital media to transform our lives in positive ways is enormous. If managed well, technology can improve our schools and education, deepen social connectedness, expand civic engagement and even help advance our democracy. But for these positive outcomes to occur, we as a society must confront the challenges endemic in our 24/7 digital world.

We need legislation, educational efforts and norms that reflect 21st-century realities to maximize the opportunities and minimize the risks for our kids. Only then will we be able to give them the safe, healthy childhood and adolescence they deserve.

What do you think our public schools should do to prepare our children for these technological advances?