It's Super Bowl Sunday, and even though around here most of us are rather upset that our beloved Patriots are not in the game, it's still on many people's minds today. I know when I went to the grocery store...the packed parking lot and the deals on chips, dips, and wings were certainly signs that many would still be watching the game in the evening.
I thought I would reflect back on last year's game. The one where the Patriots won. I actually don't really want to talk about the specifics of the game. Instead, I decided to do a little research and want to share some interesting numbers with you.
Did you know that last year's Super Bowl was the most tweeted Super Bowl ever? There were 28.4 million tweets about the game or the half time show. Last year's game also broke records on Facebook as well. There were 265 million posts, comments or likes related to the Super Bowl. That's a lot of people talking about a football game. Posting on social media. Reading what others are writing. Writing and sharing thoughts with each other.
What if one day, that many people were talking about what we were doing in school? What if for a few hours millions of people were talking about student learning?
Here are some more numbers. Did you know that prior to the Super Bowl, NBC sold out of ad space at a record $4.5 million per second. Per second?! Are you serious? So that means...if my math is correct...that's $270 million in a minute!!
What if we were able to have that much money and more go to our schools, our educators, our students!? Here I am writing out grants for $2,500 or $500. Imagine what we could do with the money spent just on Super Bowl ads alone.
The average price of one Super Bowl ad? Last year, it was $4.2 million, up from $2.5 million in 2005.
What if businesses gave that money to each school instead? You want more technology in your classroom? You got it. You want to purchase standing desks and exercise balls for students who need them? You got it. You want to redo the playground? You got it.
It's the start of budget season around here. There's lots of talk about data and numbers and dollars and needs. Of course lots of talk does not translate to millions of tweets, or millions of dollars for that matter. We are not the Super Bowl. We are just a bunch of hard-working educators trying to mold future minds with minimal funds. Yet, for some reason, our society puts more money into trying to sell us stuff while we sit on a couch watching grown men play a game.
Did you know that in 2013, the average amount spent per student in the U.S. was $10,700.
What if kids, the future of our nation, were more important than Doritos and Budweiser?
Currently reading:
I am still working on listening to Hoot in my car and am enjoying it. I checked out some picture books from my local library. Appropriate for our snowstorm last week and the potential ones this week... If It's Snowy and You Know It, Clap Your Paws! I think any kiddo would love to listen to this read aloud. In fact, if you want me to pop in and read it to your class this week, let me know!
Another interesting read was a book called The Library Pages. Pretty funny story about what happens when the librarian is on maternity leave and the kids decide to be "helpful" while she is out! I have been working on Fish in a Tree and even sent a tweet to the author Lynda Mullaly Hunt (@LynMullalyHunt) and now she is following me!
Events this week:
Monday - Zumba at 3:30 in the gym with MarkKaye!
Tuesday - School Council Meeting @ 3:30
Wednesday - Sydney D. will be Principal for the Day!, 4th graders from Potter and Roundtree doing the pledge at School Committee Mtg @ 7:00
Thursday - Student Council Meeting @ 8:30, Curriculum half day, dismissal at 12:15, Grade 3 Enrichment program in the am - Groton Light, Spirit Day!
Friday - Dianna and Liz at SLT meeting in the am, Grade 1 chorus practice @ 2:25 in the gym
Enjoy your February vacation!
Great things I noticed last week:
- Unfortunately, the stomach bug, a meeting at DESE and a snow snowstorm meant that I was only in the building for one and about one fourth of a day last week. Looking forward to being out and about and healthy this week!
- I did love reading aloud to all of you at our staff meeting and then beginning to discuss the book...before we had our lovely fire drill.
- And when I was in Wednesday afternoon, this picture shows Dianna with a 2nd grader...right before we all did the happy dance because he had been working so hard in class. Afterwards, he informed me that I needed to get some more legos for my office. I will work on that over the break!
Check it out:
I heard that lots of you enjoyed the math snippet I sent you on the snow day. Here's another one...about going to the nurse!
Check out this post about the Super Bowl of Book Chats!
https://adjustingcourse.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/the-super-bowl-of-book-talks/
And are you looking for a great new shirt? I will be ordering some of these. Adam and Todd are two awesome principals who are putting out a great message...#KidsDeserveIt!
http://www.kidsdeserveit.com/#!The-KDI-Project-KidsDeserveIt/jykdy/56ae2eba0cf2dc1600d97888
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