Hoops for a cure

In just a few short weeks, the North Branch Area and Chisago Lakes high school basketball programs raised over $9,000 for cancer research. A check presentation was made to the American Cancer Society during a double-header between the two programs on Jan. 12.

It's a wonderful outcome for cancer research and the student athletes and coaches involved. Many thanks to a community that really stepped up and answered this call.

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Where it's all headed?

Here's an interesting trend in post-secondary education:

Both the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system say they've seen double digit increases in recent years in the number of students taking online courses.

Online courses can take multiple forms. The article linked above talks about "hybrid" courses, in which students spend a portion of their time in class, and a portion learning online. North Branch Area Public Schools has something similar, its distance learning program, which blends classroom time with both offline and online learning.

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A holiday salutation

Happy holidays to all of my readers and to the community at large! I hope you enjoy the season to its fullest, with family and friends close by!

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A podcast experiment

As part of the district's strategic plan, we are tasked with finding ways to bring school board meetings to a wider audience. With that in mind we are experimenting with podcasting meetings and making the audio publicly available. Here is a podcast of the Dec. 10, 2009 meeting:



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Good news on the college front

MPR is reporting a study today that shows an incredible number of Minnesota students enrolling in college:

A new report from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education says 70.2 percent, or 45,776, of Minnesota's 65,000 2008 high school graduates enrolled in college immediately after graduation. That's a slight increase over the year before.

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SEE Notes

Brad Lundell, of Schools for Equity in Education, is doing some great reporting on happenings at the state level. Check out his blog, "SEE Notes." It is a good way to keep up with what is happening with state government and education.

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Kudos to musical staff and students

It's nice to read such a positive review of our talented students:

In all, the NB musical of Fiddler on the Roof was an excellent production, put together by a cast and crew that clearly spent a lot of rehearsal time and energy into putting on such a great show.

It was truly a delight to enjoy such fantastic singing, dancing, and music.

There is more here.

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