Fire Them All

I read and hear every where about how that Rhode Island school deserved what it got.  Those teachers and that union needed to learn a lesson.  It's so disheartening when you see people who just accept "news" at face value instead of learning all the details.  Here's an excerpt from a blog that most people won't see.  I found it to be very interesting.

What Went Down in Georgia

By Susan Graham
 
On Sunday, The Washington Post posed the question, "Our kids need great teachers. Who makes the grade?" Well, it might help if there were a data based rubric of what makes a great teacher, but Marc Fisher walked away from his experience observing potential with the Center for Inspired Teaching acknowledging that

Maybe there is such a thing as an "inspired teacher" -- someone who listens well and takes students at face value, someone with high standards and perseverance who is also warm, vulnerable and loving. Sounds like a character who exists only in fiction -- and that's part of the problem with the school reform movement.

That's a little vague, but maybe it will help some of the overworked school system HR directors. They've got their hands full this fall because it seems that we've discovered a new fix for broken schools. Just load up a bunch of silver bullets and fire the whole staff (including the cafeteria lady and the custodian). Surely everyone has heard that on February 25th in Central Falls, Rhode Island, all the teachers at Central Falls High School were fired. The story was blasted across the evening news. The New York Times covered the story.The blogosphere buzzed.

CONTINUE READING

Imagine That

Eating good, nutritious food keeps students healthier and improves their academics.


Jamie Oliver's school dinners shown to have improved academic results
Absences down after chef changed junk food menu - a result which is a boost for celebrity as he struggles for US support...


Rachel Williams guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 March 2010 20.21 BST

read more

Pieces & Parts

Did you watch?  Jamie Oliver's new show, Food Revolution, began last Friday.  I did, and I'm hooked.  It's no secret that school lunchs leave a lot to be desired.  It's time that everyone sees how unhealthy they truly are. 

I work in a school that has almost 70% of the students qualifying for free/reduced lunch.  This means they also get breakfast.  For far too many, these are their only two meals of the day.

Guess what they eat.  The favorite choice for breakfast is pop-tarts and for lunch, it's french fries.

We've been working on eating healthier at home.  Buying meat and eggs from a local butcher who only buys from local farmers.  He has a huge sign up in the store that none of their meat has any additives or hormones added.  I choose to believe. We buy regularly from the farmer's market when produce is in season here.  The pickings got light over the winter, but I canned a lot of our locally grown apples and froze bags and bags of fresh corn. Next year, I plan to preserve even more.

This year Jim is talking about putting in a garden as a project for him and Sera.  I told him you grow it, I'll cook or preserve it.

We're far from perfect with this, but we're trying.  Ice cream is much too regular a part of our diet and those Girl Scouts made a few bucks from us, but we're working hard to improve.  Too many children don't have these opportunities. 

Can you imagine a 5 or 6 year old child not being able to identify a tomato? I can see not knowing what a beet or an eggplant is, but a tomato, a mushroom, or a potato? That is one of the things this show highlights, and it's appalling.

We wonder why so many schools are struggling to educate our young?

Maybe their brains are starving from lack of nutrients?

Update:  Another link you may find interesting, Fed Up with Lunch:  The School Lunch Project.

Easter Fair

Yesterday, Sera's school had an Easter Fair with an Easter egg hunt, face painting, a man making balloon animals, hats, swords, bracelets, you name it, and, of course, the Easter Bunny himself.

Sera had a wonderful time, and for the first time, sat on the lap of a costumed character.  She didn't even hesitate.  I think part of the reason is she was very comfortable there.  It's her school, and she knows all the ladies who work there.  She'd run from one thing to the next and called every one by their name. We've been very happy with her daycare/school, and this is one of the reasons why.  They are always doing something a little extra.

Indiana Means Corn

It's corn time! This year I thought I'd buy some to put up in the freezer. We eat a lot of corn, and end up buying a lot of canned corn. Even though we buy the low-sodium versions, I still think we can do better (and it will taste better) if we freeze our own.

One of the things I've really enjoyed this summer is going to the Farmer's Market on Tuesday mornings. Less than half of the Saturday vendors set up, but the ones I usually patronize are usually there. Our Farmer's Market is only open on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Fridays actually have fewer vendors open than Tuesday, and Saturday is insanely busy.

This morning, I headed out there to buy some corn. Since I've never actually bought it in bulk and frozen it, I wasn't sure how much I would need to make this a worthwhile project. My usual produce vendor didn't have corn today, but the stand next to it did. Their sign read 3 for $1.00. As I stood there pondering, the young (20ish) man asked if he could help. I told him I was trying to decide how much to buy since I wanted to freeze it. He waited patiently, but didn't offer any suggestions as to how much it would yield. It would have been helpful, but I wasn't surprised. Finally, I just said to give me $20.00 worth. He pulled out his cardboard sign and looked it over for a few minutes. He then called across the aisle to an older gentleman and asked him how much for 20. The man replied that 21 would be $7.00, so around $6.70. I interrupted to say not 20 ears of corn, $20.00 worth. Out came the cardboard sign again. I mentioned that since it was 3 for $1.00 and I was buying $20.00, then it would be 60 ears of corn.

Around the corner came a 40ish woman who asked the young man what he was doing, he explained that I wanted to purchase $20.00 worth of corn. She went right to her calculator. I said nothing because I was thinking there must be some kind of quantity discount and they were trying to figure out exactly how much corn to give me. After a few minutes of her playing with the calculator and the man, who had now pulled out a pencil, doing the math by hand on his piece of cardboard, I heard the woman tell him that it would be 30 ears of corn. Once again, I interrupted to say that if it was 3 for $1.00 and I wanted $20.00 worth wouldn't that be 60 ears of corn? She looked at me for a minute. Tapped some more numbers in her calculator and agreed with me.

I stood there in disbelief. They had actually spent all this time trying to do such basic math, not trying to calculate some kind of discount like I had assumed. As a teacher, you can imagine how disappointing it was to see. Not being able to handle this level of math is the equivalent of math illiteracy. We're not talking Algebra or Calculus or Geometry. We are talking basic multiplication.

I shared this story with Jim so he can pass it on to his students. They don't want to be either party in this scenario. They don't want to be the retailer who tried to charge me double, nor would they want to be the customer who would pay double. You lose in both cases.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Arghh!!

Pop-tarts = grain and fruit serving

At least it does according to my students.

Crunchberries - The New Fruit

One of the classes I teach is an intro class for business. I always start with the students completing online personality and career assessments. From there, we do some career research, learn to fill out job applications, do mock interviews, etc... We end up with them "getting the job," and then we move into budgeting and investing.

We just entered budgeting. I came up with a project last trimester and am doing it again. I've done a little fine-tuning, and I'm sure that will continue, but I really like this project.

My students have to come up with one week's worth of menus, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack, for a family of four. Their family consists of two adults and two young children. They will then multiply this menu by four and feed their family for a month.

Their meals must follow USDA guidelines for adults and children. They must include dairy, protein, grains, and fruit or vegetables. I provide them with the most current food pyramid to use as a guide.

Over the weekend, they had to go to the grocery store and price a list of staples. I also provided them with last week's sales flyers for three grocery stores.

Once they have created their week's worth of menus, they have to create a shopping list using the above prices to calculate the costs of their grocery bill. If they want to add something that is not on one of those documents, they have to get the current price. I help them breakdown prices to calculate the cost of a slice of bread, etc...

Today, we got started. Oh, did I mention their budget? It's $75 a week. This is food only. They do not have to buy cleaning supplies, paper products, spices, or condiments. They think I'm incredibly cruel. I tell them this is a realistic number for many families. Students took turns coming to my desk to ask questions about the project, check on menu ideas, and whatever question they came up with to try and circumvent the rules.

The prize goes to one student though. He sincerely and truly tried to convince me that the crunchberries in Cap'n Crunch counted as the fruit portion of his breakfast. Oy!