One of the best moments in television history!

Our South Fayette community came together today for Steps with Purpose – An Out of the Darkness Suicide & Mental Health Awareness Walk, hosted by the SFHS Work2BeWell Club and the AHN Chill Project. From the one-mile walk led by our Little Green Machine marching band to bracelet-making, art activities, the Remembrance Wall, and free Kona Ice, the afternoon brought people together to raise awareness, honor loved ones, and show support for those affected by suicide and mental health challenges. We were also honored to welcome State Representative Jason Ortitay (@JasonOrtitay), who attended with one of his daughters, along with representatives from local and national mental health organizations, community members, students, and families. A heartfelt thank-you to our student organizers, staff, athletic teams, community partners, and everyone who participated in this meaningful event. By walking together, we help break the stigma surrounding mental health and remind one another that no one has to face their struggles alone. 💚🦁🤍 #SFLionPride

I’m incredibly proud of these students for the work they’re doing!

Literacy isn't just a heart issue. It's a pocketbook issue. Some people are moved by heartstrings. Everyone is moved by their pocketbook. 💵 Here's what years of literacy advocacy have taught me: reading isn't just an education issue. It's an economic issue. A workforce issue. A national competitiveness issue. And it affects every American, every single day. Right now, only about 1 in 3 of our students in 4th, 8th, and 12th grade read proficiently. How do we compete with China when two-thirds of our kids can't read at grade level? We don't. Here's the hopeful part: as Dr. @LouisaMoats points out, research suggests about 95% of children can learn to read with evidence-based instruction. 95%. Imagine where the United States would be today if we'd delivered on that. Every child who learns to read becomes a stronger worker, a better-informed citizen, and a more secure family. Their success is our success. It's in ALL of our interest that children learn to read. 📚 👉 Share this if you agree literacy is everyone's business. #ScienceOfReading #LiteracyMatters #Workforce #Education #ParentsForReadingJustice

The new season of Sold a Story is coming tomorrow. I've seen speculation about it. I think there will be some surprises. I'm interested to know what you think. First two episodes tomorrow. Then one a week on Thursdays until Nov 19. features.apmreports.org/sold…

I've had to stay quiet about this part of my story for years. I'm not holding it back anymore. 🧵 1/11

Part 1/8: I helped put the man who kidnapped me back in prison almost 20 years later. At 13, I was kidnapped by an online predator. The FBI rescued me. He served 20 years, then was released into my home state. It's the first time I'm sharing what happened next.

In our conversation w/ Pat Roberts & Nancy Blair, we talk about what teachers & families should notice early, why letter reversals are not a sign, and what can happen when children spend years trying to hide their struggling. ow.ly/Uvk650ZWfmm @AIMtoLearn @AIMSchool

Pat and Nancy should be an inspiration to everyone!

Our first book is officially published! We wrote this book to support skilled educators as they integrate reading and writing into a structured literacy lesson. 💜 A special thank you to my best friend in the world @NicoleOrmandy & our reviewers Tim Odegard, @SoniaCabell, Aviva Coyne-Green, Tina Zampitella, Ray Christner, @Shawpsych... & Linnea Ehri (who kindly wrote our foreword)! Amazon orders ship next week -- link in bio ☺️

Sold a Story Season 2 is coming, two weeks from today. piped.video/watch?v=4YDq-AB_…

Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.

A couple years ago, Mikala Sposito applied for a work ethic scholarship from my foundation. She asked for $2,700.00 to help realize her dream of becoming a welder. (Actually, her first dream was to become an Olympian. As a kid, she excelled at horseback riding, dance, soccer, and track, but not quite at the Olympic level. So, Mikala adjusted her dream and focused on something within her reach. Precisely the kind of commonsense approach to making a living we try to encourage.) Toward that end, Mikala filled out the application, jumped through all the necessary hoops, and signed the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, as all applicants must. According to our internal ranking system, which is inherently subjective and relative to each batch of new applicants, Mikala scored a 94, and was awarded $2,100.00, or roughly 80% of what she asked for. This is typical of the average percentage awarded to an excellent applicant. As a rule, we almost never award the entire amount requested. We want our recipients to have some skin in the game, and we encourage all applicants to apply for additional scholarship funds elsewhere, which Mikala did. But in this case, if I had it to do over again, I think I’d have awarded Mikala the full $2,700.00. Why? Because this woman is precisely why I award work ethic scholarships in the first place, as recent headlines prove. Headlines all over the country that identify Mikala Sposito as the sole welder to represent Team USA in the upcoming @WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai. This is a very big deal. The World Skills competition is often referred to as the Olympics of the skilled trades, so it looks like Mikala’s dream is coming true after all. And it seems to me her journey is worth a brief encapsulation. Before she applied for a scholarship from mikeroweWORKS, Mikala demonstrated an affinity for welding in SkillsUSA. As a senior at Dexter High School, she won 1st Place at the SkillsUSA Michigan high school competition and went on to place 14th nationally. Then, as a freshman at Washtenaw Community College, she repeated her success by taking 1st Place in the Michigan college division. She then advanced to nationals, where she finished 8th in the country. That earned her an invitation to the Team USA pre-trials, which whittled the nation's top 16 young welders down to three. At the final USA Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama, each competitor was evaluated on precision, safety, technical execution, craftsmanship, and multi-process capabilities under extreme time constraints. Mikala Sposito took the Gold, officially becoming the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills. Next week, she’ll face off against the absolute best of the best from all over the world. I should point out that Mikala would prefer it if the press didn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand. (She’s a welder – not a “weld-her.”) But today, the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female. At mikeroweWORKS, our female applicants are closer to 20%, but I assure you that percentage could be much higher. Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove that in spades, and I want to offer her my sincere congratulations, and invite all of you to do the same. Because Mikala Sposito is exactly what our country needs a lot more of. People who understand that talent is never enough to compensate for laziness. In her application, she wrote, “Hard work beats talent any day of the week, and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.” She also connected with every point of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge but said the final tenet resonated with her the most. “Some people choose to be lazy. Some people choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.” My favorite quote, however, is Mikala’s response to seasoned professionals who see her wield a torch and call her a “natural.” “I’m not a natural,” she says. Far from it. And none of this came easy. I worked and trained 60-80 hours a week for two years to get here.” Regardless of what happens in Shanghai, the job offers are already piling up, including the most recent from SpaceX. She hasn’t graduated yet, but the future looks bright, and I for one would not bet against her. PS. I never do this, but since my name is in the title of the foundation, I suppose I can. Mikala – please accept the additional $600 you requested from mikeroweWORKS two years ago. Shanghai is expensive, and since you’re representing all of us, we’d like to provide you with a little walking around money. The check is in the mail. Now…go get the gold!

Trade your expectations for appreciation.

Great times!

Awesome night at our @varietykids Celebrity Scoop at Millie’s in South Fayette! 🍦@JasonOrtitay

This is The Way. ✅ Science of Learning ✅ Knowledge-Rich Curriculum ✅ Focus on Fluency ✅ Writing as Leverage Point ✅ Whole Books at the Heart of Curriculum "The Science of Reading is the tip of the iceberg. Starting in 2022, Tennessee began to implement training and curricula rooted in the Science of Reading, which we embraced and incorporated. Along the way, we learned that this evidence-based approach rests upon a broader foundation of cognitive and social science. This research has not reached most American teachers and school districts. Over the past two years — thanks to organizations like Teach Like A Champion, Steplab, and Deans For Impact — we explored the science of learning. Based on what we learned, we overhauled our approach to coaching and development. Today, every teacher at Nashville Classical is trained on basic concepts like the importance of securing and harnessing attention, the difference between working and long-term memory, the importance of background knowledge and the need to support encoding and retrieval. If you walk into a third grade classroom today, you might see students with a knowledge organizer on ancient Rome, quietly self-quizzing themselves on terms like patricians and plebeians. These simple daily practices are supported by science, but implementing them is not rocket science. Very few schools or districts have shared these practices with their teachers, which is a tragedy because anyone can learn them and every teacher deserves to know them. Don’t teach skills — build knowledge. Our curriculum features a listening comprehension strand, which we use to build background knowledge. In younger grades, we reinforce key terms, timelines and vocabulary through daily oral drills, content-focused songs and frequent opportunities to repeat ideas through “turn and talks.” As students move into tested grades, they practice reading short passages and answering multiple choice questions. But we avoid teaching test tricks like “crossing out wrong answers” or lessons on “how to find the main idea.” Instead, our teachers ask themselves “What background knowledge or vocabulary might prevent students from understanding this passage?” and “How can I build their knowledge to increase their comprehension?.” By eliminating time spent trying to teach abstract “critical thinking,” we have more time to build knowledge and vocabulary, which are the actual building blocks of comprehension. Fluency — in all its forms — unlocks growth. Our benchmark assessment system measures fluency across grade levels, including for letter sounds, word reading, oral reading and silent reading. Our team took time to deeply understand the importance of each of these domains and unpacked what a fluent reader could think and do at each stage of their development, from kindergarten to middle school. Unfortunately, many schools have started to overteach phonics, prioritizing sound or word reading fluency at the expense of fluent reading in context. Our team worked to align vision of reading excellence across grades, which meant teachers were working toward a shared picture of what proficient young readers and successful adults readers can do down to the tiniest details of exactly how many words per minute a third grader should be able to read silently and what sorts of affixes, word roots, and phrases made passages appropriate for each grade. This level of granular detail meant teachers could identify students at risk early and clearly, intervening to provide the right support to the right students. Writing is thinking. We invested significant time in teaching students to write, starting in kindergarten. Our approach is rooted in The Writing Revolution with a focus on three areas. First, students write about complex topics directly connected to the knowledge and content they are reading about. So, our kindergarteners learn to speak in complete sentences while explaining what happens in nursery rhymes, our first graders learn to write sentences about Aesop’s Fables, and our second graders learn to write their first paragraphs about Greek myths. Next, our teaching focuses on sentence-level activities. By third grade, students have learned to expand, distill and express their ideas in complex and complete sentences. Finally, we teach students to revise. Teachers frequently display student work on document cameras, analyze it and then prompt students to apply concepts to their own work. Books belong in classrooms. Across the country, many schools have reduced the number of books children read and many curricula emphasize short passages or excerpts. We believe books belong in classrooms and have selected curricula — Core Knowledge, Fishtank and Reading Reconsidered — built on this belief. Great books expose children to beautiful stories that have or will stand the test of time. When a classroom of second graders reaches the end of Charlotte’s Web, there is not a dry eye in sight and they are joining a cultural conversation that stretches across grades and generations. We’ve found that the experience of reading great literature has grown our children’s attention and shaped their identity in the best way possible. There is a tradition of literacy and reading at our school, which we hope students carry with them long after they graduate."

Stop in to Millie's in South Fayette on Tuesday for some delicious ice cream on Variety Night! A portion of all sales will benefit @VarietyKids and we hope to see you there. My fellow community scoopers are @JasonOrtitay & Tressa Glover! Details: facebook.com/events/13684893…

Good luck this season ladies!

RIP Dolly Parton. A true American icon whose heart was as big as her talent. Her Imagination Library has put millions of free books into the hands of kids across the country, giving them a love of reading that will outlast us all. Thank you, Dolly.