Have students identify characteristics of trees. Visit trees in the school yard. Have the students do tree dramatizations, using their arms as the branches and their legs as the trunk.

Congrats to Brian Burdon, the 2014 recipient of the Bob Mars Scholarship! Brian is a teacher and the athletic director of Evergreen Middle School in Lake Washington School District. The Bob Mars Scholarship is awarded annually to a middle level principal intern to help cover expenses for attendance at an AWSP-sponsored state conferences or any AWSP professional development workshop. The amount of the scholarship is determined by the Association of Washington Middle Level Principals (AWMLP) Board of Directors during their annual budget approval process.

AWSP has published its 2015 Legislative Platform. The platform was written and approved by both the AWSP Board of Directors and the AWSP Legislation Committee.

If you’re designing a classroom from scratch, what would you prioritize? According to an article from the inaugural issue of the Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal, you’d want to design with these three features in mind:

The National Indian Education Association, in partnership with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, is offering a three-day "train-the-trainer" event Nov. 14-16 in Toppenish for certificated teachers and administrators on the effective implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Begin the activity by drawing an outline of the classroom on the blackboard. Develop a key to one side of the outline to be used to represent the plants, animals and special features which exist in the classroom.

Q. Is it alright to have a fund raiser and have multiple grades participate and divide the funds among the different grade level of students that put in a certain number of hours?

Principals, it’s your month nationally and here in Washington, Governor Inslee has proclaimed the last week of the month to be School Principals Week. Read the proclamation below or view a signed copy of the proclamation (PDF).

Do you have an excellent secondary math or science teacher in your building? If so, make sure to nominate them through the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) program. See the details from PAEMST below.

Q: Dr. WAC, does the principal focus evaluation follow the same focus requirements of teachers?

If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already familiar with Initiative 1351, which is designed to reduce class size. AWSP has long advocated for new revenue and supported legislation to lower class size, but this ballot measure has too many implementation issues and is not the best way to increase student achievement for all kids, which is why the AWSP board voted to opposed it.

Q. If the members of an ASB club wanted to participate in a fundraiser to help pay for individual costs (say the club is going on a field trip), could the club then turn around and allocate those raised funds for the participants of the fundraiser? For example, Student A raises $100, that $100 goes into the club’s ASB account, can the club then approve for that $100 to be allocated to help Student A offset the cost of the field trip that Student A wants to attend?

Here’s a lab oriented lesson from the Cispus Learning Center that can be done in the classroom or at any outdoor school…“Owl Games”

College Spark is launching a new College Ready Math initiative to help low-income students graduate from high school with strong math skills and avoid remediation in college.

Melissa Santos, writing for The Olympian, discusses the State Board of Education's decision to weigh in on basic education funding. Here's an excerpt:

Here’s a lab oriented lesson from the Cispus Learning Center about water quality that can be done at in the classroom or at any outdoor school…“Clearing the Muddy Waters”

Q. Our choir teacher just asked if they could use their ASB account to purchase their choir uniforms (dresses, suits, etc.). Because they are altered/fitted, etc., the kids would buy them and own them. I know this is okay if it becomes school property, is it ok if the students buy to own?

Here’s a lab oriented lesson from the Cispus Learning Center that can be done at in the classroom or at any outdoor school.

Q. Does every high school need to have an ASB?

Q: What if I retire early using the ERF option but want to return to work as a substitute teacher or consultant?