Category Archives: Elementary School News
You’ve heard of learning Spanish or French, but Mandarin?
Most of us were required to take a foreign language in high school. Many of us chose Spanish, a lot of us chose French, and some of us chose Italian. But did any of you chose Mandarin?
School Lunches are Becoming Healthier
School Lunch Menu:
Pizza with marinara sauce, banana, raisins, and whole milk
Or
Chef Salad with romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, low fat mozzarella cheese and soft whole-wheat pretzel, cooked corn, raw baby carrots, skim milk, low fat Italian dressing, low fat ranch dressing
Which one would you choose? Which one would your kid choose? Personally I prefer the second choice, but I’m pretty sure my kids would pick pizza if the choice was given. However if there was not a choice and the second menu was all that was available I can say with confidence that my kids would be quite happy with a salad and pretzel. They love corn and carrots, and skim milk is all that is served at home so they wouldn’t think anything of it.
21st Century Learning: what’s so different?
Through an educational source I was reading I ended up viewing a YouTube video put out by the Pearson Foundation. The video is simply done having a black backdrop as people who work in the field of education all over the world speak candidly about where education could go in the 21st century. They all seem to agree that schools should be a very different type of place than schools of the last century.
Colleges are coming to elementary schools
University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Missouri, or University of California Davis might be some of the signs you see as you walk down the hall of No Excuses University at Los Pen. Formerly known as Los Penasquitos Elementary School, Los Pen in San Diego is part of the No Excuses University model being used in almost 90 schools.
Whose job is it to pay for school supplies?
Did you buy school supplies for your elementary school aged child this year? Or did the school he or she attends make the purchases? Were you given a list of specific supplies such as 1 red folder, 1 yellow folder, and only certain types of pencils are allowed?
Recess Eliminated – what?!?
In a New England school district morning recess has been eliminated for elementary students. The thinking went like this: test scores are poor, No Child Left Behind mandates are not being reached, therefore we will spend more time in our classrooms cramming knowledge into our students, the result will be increased test scores for all!
Do These Jeans Make Me Look Fat?
I have to admit I’m guilty of asking my husband, “does this outfit make me look fat?” just about every time we walk out the door. I think on some level it’s normal to want to make sure that we look “nice” when we’re going out, but not eating or purging after you do eat so that you can achieve the perfect body image isn’t normal…it’s an illness.
I don’t think that, in our body conscious society, we are surprised by the number of teenage girls and even boys who suffer from anorexia and bulimia. The statistics that are surprising…frightening…and sad…are the number of young kids who are now dealing with these mental illnesses.
Playground Gossip Is Not Fun And Games
Do you remember playground gossip? I do and it usually went something like this…the meanest girl in class (you know the one…nicest clothes…prettiest hair) would take it upon herself to decide that “Debbie” had cooties and before recess was over she had most of the kids convinced not to talk to Debbie or they’d get cooties, too. Of course, you could protect yourself from the cooties if you wrote a C.P. (cootie protection) on your hand. It seems so harmless now, but I can’t imagine how hurtful it was for “Debbie” to have most of the kids in her class running away from her for no other reason than to be mean.
Community schools show promising results
Fully developed community schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma are doing some great things for students AND their families. A fully developed community school looks to “cultivate and sustain supportive conditions for learning” through “heroic leadership,” effective teachers, community and family engagement and holistic programs and services such as health clinics, early childhood development, mental-health social services and after-school tutoring and enrichment” according to Curt Adams as quoted in Education Week. Adams is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
Goodbye, Mr Chips…You’ve Been Replaced By A Robot
I think that everyone probably has a favorite teacher…the one that took the extra time to help you with your long division…the one that played with the kids at recess…the teacher that you knew loved to teach. What kind of memories do you think you’d have if your teacher was a robot?
It’s not that strange of a question or something out of a bad science fiction movie…30 robots have started teaching English to students in a South Korean city in a project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.
