From Dr. Gallagher's Desk . . .

Over the past few years, the District leadership team and Board of Education have invested lots of time and resources in building our programs in STEM, Environmental Education, Robotics, and Science Research. For several years, during the “Common Core Madness,” there was such an emphasis on preparing elementary students for NYS exams in ELA and math (because those tests had such high stakes---and what I think about that whole mess would be enough to fill another whole blog post :-), that real science learning was sometimes neglected. The fun of nature walks, experiments on worms, talking about what makes weather happen, and thinking about natural phenomena took a back seat. I remember talking to teachers (in a different district; I wasn’t in Long Beach then), and one was in tears because she could no longer “fit in” what she saw as her best teaching—cultivating the curiosity of children through science. Last year, even in the middle of COVID, we prioritized putting STEM teachers in e

  Just about a year and a half ago, I started this blog as a way to share the wonderful things happening in our district. Well, not too soon after the blog began, COVID hit, and my last blog entry was March 8, 2020. Shortly after that, I started to email parents—every day for the remainder of that difficult year, and then nearly weekly after that. In the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic, the blog fell silent for awhile. Now, I think it’s really important to start writing again about the educational direction of our district. We have SO many exciting things happening for students, and many plans to improve learning and make school even more engaging.   I will still email parents important information, but the blog will be a way to give you a window into the great things happening in our schools! Over the first few weeks of school, I was excited to see many programs get “up and running,” and I’d like to highlight two of them today. One is our competitive surf team. I think w

I was struggling with what to write about on my blog this week. We had an AMAZING Black history celebration at the Middle School last Friday that just made everyone so proud. I saw some AWESOME lessons this week in my visits to schools. And we won the State hockey championship AGAIN! So many good things happening in LB, and so many things that I could share with you! But, of course, the biggest thing on my mind as a leader is the coronavirus. I am not a worrier by nature, but situations like this make all good leaders concerned. I admit to checking the CDC and NYSDOH websites compulsively,  and thinking and planning constantly about what we need to do to protect our students and staff, and to be one step ahead of whatever comes next. I wrote about some of those things in my letter home this week. For this week's blog entry, though, I wanted to share with you one of the best things I have read this week about the virus. It comes from Dr. Abdu Sharkawy, an infectious disease specia

Projects, Peers, Passion, and Play. These four elements are widely considered to be the foundations of nurturing creativity in children (see Resnick, Papert, American Academy of Pediatrics, etc.). These four elements are also at the heart of some changes to our elementary programming next year.   First, we are committed to adding more movement and free play to our children’s schedules in elementary school. When was the last time you had to sit still for more than 2.5 hours? How did you feel? I know how I feel when I am stuck in a long meeting with few breaks or opportunity to move and stretch---tired, foggy, and distracted.   Truthfully, when I feel that way, not much learning or productive thinking is going on in my brain. A short break for fresh air and to move around often gives me greater focus, and actually helps me to learn more than I would have if I had spent that 15 minutes in the meeting. In the fall, we are implementing 30 minutes of free play in every elementary student’

I see lots of great lessons, great teachers, and great projects in our district. Every once in a while, though, I get to be a part of something going on in a classroom that makes me almost want to cry because it is SO AMAZING! This week’s weepy superintendent moment was courtesy of Doug MacConnell and Christine Walsh’s fifth grade class at East. They let me be a “shark” as the most incredible fifth graders pitched their inventions, REAL inventions!!! Each student proudly showed off their gizmo, gadget, or unique angle. There were simple but genius ideas---snaps to keep pairs of socks together in the wash, combo headbands and scrunchies. There were ideas that sent me to Google to look up things like piezoelectric plates. C’mon, did YOU know what that was?  A super-smart fifth grader explained it to me.  The inventions were great in themselves, but you just had to see and hear these kids’ impassioned sales pitches, video-taped commercials, and business plans. This project integrated

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, as many as one in six U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17 has a treatable mental illness.   ( https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20190318childmentalillness.html Nearly half of those students did not receive treatment from a mental health professional.   In addition, I don’t think any of us would argue that it’s just much more stressful to be a kid today than it was when we were young. The world is much more complicated; social media is a variable that influences children in ways that we just didn’t have to worry about years ago.   So, what is the Long Beach School District doing to support students’ mental health and wellness? First, we have a comprehensive approach---it’s not just one program or service. We subscribe to the CASEL competencies of social/emotional learning https://casel.org/core-competencies/ , and we use this as a basis for our core social/emotional learning programs in K-8 (SELF Families

As we enter the budget season for 2020-2021, we would love to hear from the community about our budget priorities. As always, we are committed to providing a wonderful education to ALL Long Beach students, while simultaneously respecting the burden on taxpayers. This year, some of the program changes we are proposing are below (more to come). Please come to upcoming Board meetings to hear more details. I will also publish more details in this blog as the season progresses. Proposals: Increase Opportunities for Physical Education/Movement/Play Add an additional PE period for K-2 during each cycle Provide periodic additional PE periods for grades 3-5 during the health period Formalize two 15-minute movement/play breaks each day Hire a STEM teacher for each elementary school We want to strengthen our STEM program, and ensure that all students are exposed to quality, hands-on science instruction in the elementary grades. The new STEM teachers would teach K-2 once per cycl