Children’s Home and WSFCS School Collaboration
2 Replies
Given the people spearheading this effort, George Bryan and Ted Burcaw, I'd say the new school being opened at The Children's Home stands a really good chance of working. I was able to spend a bit of time with George during my organization's project at TCH and I've met Ted, who is the brother of a good friend of mine, on a few occasions. Let's just say that both guys bring some serious wattage to the endeavor and that, in addition to this being a good idea in general, will go a long way towards helping the school succeed.
From the article:
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and The Children's Home are entering into a partnership that will enable students to benefit not only from extra attention from teachers and mental-health professionals but also from being on a 212-acre campus on Reynolda Road that has a functioning farm.
"We will be able to do things for kids that nobody else has been able to do," said Principal Ted Burcaw…
Officials don't know yet how many students will go to Kingswood when it opens for the 2010-11 school year. The school is intended to serve no more than 150 students. It will have seven teachers provided by the school system, and each class will also have a mental-health professional from staff at the Children's Home.
"These folks already have experience with the types of children we're talking about," Bryan said.
Outside of class, students will have the opportunity to work with the Children's Home's psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists. And, when appropriate, parents will be invited in for family counseling.
Update (July 13, 2010): A commenter asked how to get her elementary school-aged grandkids enrolled at the school. I passed the question along to Theo Helm at WSFCS and here's his reply:
Jon — The school will serve students in grades 6-12 next year, so it's too early for Ms. Hall to register her children. Generally speaking, it will serve students who have more involved mental health needs. Most students will either be referred there (through the IEP, or Individualized Education Plan, process that serves exceptional children or through a mental health referral) or assigned there (through the discipline process). It will also serve children who live at the group home at The Children's Home. Although there will be some parental choice, students will still generally need to be those who need more involved services.
Insubordinate
Seth Godin's free e-book, Insubordinate, is about the linchpins in his life, the people who made a difference. It's a quick read and well worth it for the insights in to the why and how of being a person of impact.
TAA Food Drive BB&T Ballpark
Bring cans of food and get a hat!
Art-o-Mat
Found via Esbee is this incredibly cool project that converted an old cigarette vending machine into an art vending machine.
Razor Genius
I've never met him, but I have to assume that Jeff Hagan is a genius. Why? Because according to this story in the Wall Street Journal Hagan "bought 100 Gillette Mach3 blades. Then he found oil that helps double the blades' lifespan." Mach3 is my shaver of choice and though I don't much like the expense of the blades, I've found they give me the best shave, much better than the newer four blade shavers, and I'm worried that they blades will go away or get even more expensive.
Mr. Hagan's genius is revealed in this excerpt:
"I'm basically investing in blade futures," Mr. Hagan remembers telling onlookers at Costco as they marveled at the pile of cartridges in his car. "That's my hedge against forcing to upgrade."
I can't really afford to get 100 blades at once, but if add one pack of blades (the Costco packs hold something like 28 blades) every other time I go to Costco I should be able to build up a stockpile pretty quickly. Now I just need to find that oil and I'll be golden.
“The rich are different: they are more ruthless.”
Two sayings I've always associated with the rich are: "Only play with other people's money" and "Never touch the principal." A new one might be, "When the going gets tough, walk away."
Money quote from the story: "The rich are different: they are more ruthless."
Benefit Second Harvest and Take In a Ballgame. Also, Is Winston Better Than Greensboro?
The Triad Apartment Association (my employer) is hosting a food drive to benefit Second Harvest and one aspect of it is that we're having a competition between the Winston-Salem Dash and the Greensboro Grasshoppers to see which team/city can raise the most food for one game. The Dash game is next Monday (July 12) and the Grasshopper game is next Wednesday (July 14). We have slightly different arrangements for each game but the basics are that we're encouraging folks to bring food or financial donations and then stick around to enjoy the ballgame. Here are the details:
Winston-Salem Dash, July 12
Bring food or financial donations to our table by the entrance and you'll get a voucher for a free Dash baseball cap. Your donations will be counted towards the Winston-Salem total.
Greensboro Grasshoppers, July 14
You can bring food and financial donations to our table, and on top of that if you buy your ticket to the game from us $2 of the ticket will go to Second Harvest. There will also be prize giveaways throughout the evening. Your donations will be counted towards the Greensboro total.
Last year our Food Drive raised almost 210,000 cans of food and we're determined to beat that this year. I hope to see many of you on either Monday or Wednesday!
Final note: I'd like to personally thank Mayor Joines, Mayor Knight, WXII, The Dash and The Grasshoppers for partnering with us and Second Harvest to help feed the hungry in the Triad. Here's the commercial we all collaborated on the promote the event:
Befuddled 