Tag: news

School Houses Rock!

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Get past the Border Patrol Ad, okay?

This was my son’s teacher last year! This was her! Teachers are so way cool. Molly is so way cool. Molly can teach AND double dutch. And guess what, she’s going to have a community garden WITH CHICKENS at the school. I miss Molly.

I’ve been concerned about my son’s teacher this year. She’s more traditional and worksheet oriented. As it turns out, she is also empathetic and her students like her. She also lets us parents come in and knock around whenever we want. She’s letting me teach the students about current events. This week the 3rd graders READ THE CONSTITUTION as it pertains to the presidency. Can you imagine? All that language? But they did it and they know what qualifies a candidate for the presidency and what the duties are. Of course they were mostly interested in the part about forgiving their buddies and throwing parties for foreign dignitaries. Toward the end of the lesson, we touched on the electoral collage (S + R = E, did you know that? The presidency is not just a history/civics thang, it’s also math/geography). Next week are going to go into campaigns and eventually we will look at the current candidates. I’ll keep you posted, because I’m sure you are on the edge of your seats to know what the kids are saying.

On Friday, another parent is coming in with her bassoon to help the kids with their sound studies. Yet another parent has made tons of homemade playdough to help the students better conceptualize city, state, country, etc. And yet another parent is bringing in tons of related texts and may start an art project. So, it’s still cool this year, though it’s hard to top Molly. I wish every child could experience a classroom where the teacher and a large number of parents frequently indulge in active learning and engaging children.

One thing I should learn is how to post a video that doesn’t immediately start playing every time the website opens. Sorry about that. I hope next time you visit, you won’t mind hitting the pause button.

‘Cause We’re United

My kids and I watched the opening to the Olympics up until the U.S. was featured on the parade of nations. I think 10 p.m. is late enough to be special even without witnessing the denouement. During the performance (the incredible, amazing, wonderful opening performance) Parrish said something wonderfully patriotic. It was the innocent nationalism of a kid who is taught the pureness of patriotism, before the subjective and hypocritical nature of politics enters your awareness.

I want to say this without too much of my own editorial though, because I love the way children think of possibility and reality as the same. During the display of children from all over the world, Parrish commented that they could all be from America. “Yes, I suppose they could. We look like all those people.” “Yeah,” he said. “‘Cause we’re united.”

Smörgåsbord

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Smörgåsbord my style isn’t exactly Swedish or buffetish, but I like the word anyway. Those Sweds just use cool words. I’m attempting a more enriching daily kitchen experience through the preparation of one inspired foodstuff creation each day. Sadly, today’s effort fizzled with an applebutter sandwich. I should have recognized my own culinary incompetence, but I have had some successes.

George and I made the muffin recipe again only we used organic blueberries and lemon juice instead of chocolate chips and vanilla. Next time, I would set my blueberries in sugar like my great aunt. In fact, I really need to get that recipe. The muffins were drier than I would have liked. Also, I tried to save them for a potluck lunch, but in just two short days a swamper/plastic bag combo set them to mold. Not exactly inspired, but attempted.

Starting 15 or so years ago, it became impossible for me to think of summer without thinking of tabbouleh (tabouli?). The tomatoes and cucumbers are just too good to be true in the summer and the two in any combo makes my stomach go mad with anticipation. I tried a new recipe and it worked. Only I didn’t stick to the recipe. This is something like a cup of bulgar, a cup and a half of boiling water, some olive oil, and some lemon juice sitting for an hour. I added salt at this point. Also, I used table salt instead of kosher salt. It was too salty. Once the bulgar soaked up all the juicy goodness, I added tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, spring onions (or whatever you call them), cucumbers, and dry mint. I didn’t like the tabouli at this point, so I put in lots more lemon juice and more onion. It worked and was eagerly received at a potluck lunch. Is potluck the new fondue?

Olive oil has been central to my attempts in the kitchen. My girlfriend Anna brought some to me from her husband’s folks in California. I used it to make my favorite garlicky mustard vinaigrette. I stole this recipe from my friends the Cojeens. If you are ever in Oklahoma and in need of archaeology, guitars, or salad dressing, they are your peeps. I don’t know that it would be appropriate for me to publish their recipe, but to give you an idea of why I like it so much, this small half jar took eight cloves of garlic. Luckily, we had just been to a garlic and onion festival at Agua Linda Farm.

I put up some blackeye peas in the freezer some time back. I needed to cook them up. Nothing fancy here. Peas, water, bacon grease (I didn’t want to wait for hamhock to thaw), and after 45 minutes, salt. Now we are full circle because this food reminds me of my mother and her family. It goes super yummy with my great aunt’s tomatoes and cornbread.

After all this eating, I need to jump on a stationary bike at the kids’ school to exercise and generate electricity.

Parrish’s former teacher got a sentence write-up in today’s paper:

● $994.74 to help second-graders at Borton Primary Magnet School see energy being produced by pedaling a stationary bicycle linked to a generator.

Read the full article here.

Who’s Funding this Reportage?

My plan to blog about my peaceable kingdom must defer to my annoyance at dot gov. They must be kidding me with this report. Why is the focus on revenue for road maintenance? Less traffic means less wear and tear on the road. Less traffic means there’s not so much of a need for road expansion. With costs like those decreasing, the need for revenue decreases. I’ve been trying not to obsess, but I can’t help it. Why take the encouraging news that we could be a less oil/gas dependent country with cleaner air and turn it into crap? Even the Today Show took the baited hook this morning!


(About 2 min 30 sec in)

Having nested next to a busy road where people routinely drove their vehicles right up the curb and into our wall, living with the noise and particulate poisoning, cleaning road grime from inside my home, I think the fewer miles driven are a blessing. Perhaps kids living near highways will have less asthma, attention deficit, and whatever else comes with miserable traffic. You could google innumerable articles on it, but common sense would tell us not to suck on a tailpipe unless death is the goal.

Plus, the oil and gas companies are running a bunch of “you must be a dufus” ads. “You think you don’t own a gas company? You do if you have any sort of financial investments.” In between the lines they say controversial drilling and imported (stolen?) gas will put money in your pocket. Also, are we really supposed to think the warmth created by gas pipelines that attracts caribou is a good thing? I might be convinced that some off shore drilling is needed or even that we need to open up ANWR, but you have to give me a better argument that what I’ve heard so far. Cheap gas isn’t convincing because you get what you pay for.

Kookies

Kamp Kookakid is a cooperative of sorts started by a few friends and myself. The idea is that we can have fun this summer with our kids and each other at low cost. We’ve had a good time so far and are just getting started. One parent came up with the idea of touring the Phoenix Mars Mission facility (it’s free!) and another set it up. Here’s the result:


KVOA coverage of Phoenix Mars Mission tour

I can’t get the video to embed. I had trouble even making the link, but I’ll keep trying.

I probably shouldn’t talk about kids other than mine on this blog, so I won’t except in general terms. The tour begins with a presentation and the presenter engaged the audience with lots of questions. I was impressed by the extant knowledge of our campers. Additionally, the kids’ focus interacting with the exhibits was enviable. Lastly, their retention about the science facts exceeded my own. Friends and kids and Mars are pretty cool.

I Heard the News Today…


The best part about my recent trip to Canada is that I allowed myself to take a real vacation. I didn’t even get dressed without reading the newspaper. Here’s a round-up of stories that captured my attention.

From the Globe and Mail in Vancouver…

From the Obituaries
McDonalds franchise owner responsible for the invention of the Egg McMuffin passed away March 25th at the age of 89. Had I known, I would have canceled my trip in favor of mourning, or at the very least I would have had a breakfast sandwich in his memory. Say what you’d like about McDonald’s, but Herb Peterson was a great man whose McMuffin has brought me great joy. (The Canadians may take exception to the term “Canadian bacon”, but I say the Chicago-born Herb can call that stuff whatever he likes.)

Tiny Mentions
A French folk song is the oldest recording of the human voice. Recorded 148 years ago, a 10-second recording was made by a Parisian inventor who got lots of recognition. The singer’s name wasn’t mentioned. As usual, the poor artist gets the shaft again. If you have a particular sort of something you can even listen to the recording.

Star Gazing
In less than 48 hours Carla Bruni managed to step neatly out of the role of temptress, husband-stealer and all-round sexual velocraptor into the role of an impeccably poised first lady. People are trying to compare her to Jackie O but, pul-eeze. Forget it.

Big Boys with Little Toys
To commemorate their 40th anniversary, Hot Wheels had a design contest. All the major car companies were represented and somebody won. Hooray! The real news is that this momentarily took Parrish’s mind off LEGOs and Bionicles.

Homework Completed
George’s teacher told her to look for a great tree while in Vancouver and she did just that. After reading this story about Stanley Park’s Hollow Tree, George was on a mission. She listened to the story closely, cut out the article, and kept it with her even as she slept in the closet. We went to visit the tree where George was interviewed by a broadcast journalism student. He asked her several questions about the tree, to which she gave her informed opinion. Her major soapboxing was that it was time to stop spending money on the tree. “Trees are part of nature and they should fall over theirselves.”

American Politics
(Editorial note: There is hardly mention of McCain except in terms of his existence. Clinton is mentioned occasionally, but mostly in terms of her desire to renegotiate NAFTA. They don’t appreciate that idea. Obama is the love child of Canada I think. They discussed him in detail, including the following article.)

Did you know Obama only wears white dress shirts? Apparently so, and this article even gives you tips on getting your own white shirt. Seriously. Because it really matters if you are white collar. I think I’m going to go buy myself a blue collared shirt. No disrespect to Obama, but since I’m now forced to think of the symbolism of my shirts…

We may have the same news here in the States. I wouldn’t know. I don’t have time to read the newspaper now that I have my internet access back. Canadians have a serious lack of free wifi.

Outdoor Education

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Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) published a self-promotion story on the bird sanctuary at the kids’ school where I spend a few hours each week. Borton Environmental Learning Lab (BELL) is a patch of desert that a few parents and I have been cultivating for the past few years. The committee is mostly driven by betts, though other parents contribute significantly. We try to get the kids outside once a week on top of the planting, watering, and clean-up we also do once a week.

It’s great to see the kids outside, but the ventures into BELL aren’t to replace recess. The kids are involved in meaningful learning. They take in their surroundings through careful visual, auditory, and tactile observation and then journal about the experience. There’s a great deal of science and writing involved. There’s also the occasional cactus prick and bug bite.

The kindergarteners and first graders I’ve taken to BELL learned about symmetry when comparing mesquite, palo verde, hackberry and other tree leaves. They’ve learned about Precolumbian people and uses for the desert plants. They’ve learned about habitat, adaption, and how they relate to each other. They’ve learned some state history too. My next goal is for them to create their own desert story using the information they’ve gathered. I’m not an educator, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m proud of the students’ work and would post it, but it’s not my intellectual property. Let me just tell you, it’s incredible. At the beginning of the year, students were unnerved by crickets, unsure about sitting on the ground, and asked about polar bears. Now they run to the bee bush to see if it still smells like lime gummy bears. They are much more confident in that couple of acres of wilderness.

Kids are too smart to be taught how to take tests or to write to arbitrary prompts or to sit in front of a computer. For that matter, teachers are too valuable a resource to be scripted. I’m probably biased toward an inquiry curriculum since I work for the woman who put it “out” there, but to teach all subjects to a child’s imagination is a powerful thing. I’m thankful for this school, principal, and teachers. Every child deserves these opportunities.

Tree Room Star


George’s class made the newspaper! This time it’s for their work and not the MRSA scare, which wasn’t an issue at Borton to begin with. George’s class designed and executed a newspaper publishing operation. The front page article was a blurb but on 4A is this article.

As the daughter/great-granddaughter of a public school teacher (my mother is still in public schools as a speech pathologist) and the daughter of a former newspaperman, this project was fun to see come together. It brought back vivid childhood memories. Dad read the paper to us and frequently had smudgy inky fingers. His work was a madhouse! He taught me to use a dictionary with the command, “Summon your elder sibling.” My mother’s teacher lounge was endlessly fascinating with an old duplicating machine, typewriters with no letters on the keys (click, click, zip, bing!), and a vending machine. She was an English teacher and so I learned classic stories like that of Abelard and Heloise and in 5th grade, she helped me memorize the Emma Lazarus poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty. But back to George…

George is quoted in the article and to the right of the screen is a photo gallery that includes this picture of me looking every bit the exhausted mess I am. (Would somebody please shove me in the shower once in a while?!?) Molly, who is also quoted, is Parrish’s teacher. Don’t worry about her skipping math instruction. She has a math focused master’s degree and so her students get lots of it. The more I know Molly, the more I like her. Dana came to the U.S. last year from Iraq. During my tour, he pretended to be interviewing the president.

+++ rant on NCLB, scripted/corporate curriculum, crippling mandates and so forth deleted to highlight how looking at teachers as degreed professionals who teach between the cracks can make awesome things happen +++