Teaching

From Teacher Magazine

Comment: last night our faculty met at Angelo's for a spectacular dinner party. We discussed the upcoming year and how much we are all looking forward to teaching. Our classes are small and the students are A+. This morning when I read the article that follows, I thought how much each teacher embodies all these five points. It doesn't matter if you are teaching three year olds or college kids. Teaching is a work of the head that is delivered by the heart. If you want to see what it's like from a positive insider's point of view, read on.

Teaching Secrets: Five Tips for the New Teacher

By Cindi Rigsbee

As the average birth year of our school faculty begins to dip below the year I began teaching, it becomes apparent that I am what some would consider an "experienced teacher." That and my tendency to repeat myself. It occurred to me not long ago that there are expressions I use over and over when giving advice to beginning teachers. Here, in no particular order, are some possibly useful maxims from Ms. Rigsbee’s Guide to the Teaching Life.

1. Hit the floor running and breathe when you leave.

I have always been one of the first teachers to pull into the parking lot in the mornings. Getting to work a good 20 to 30 minutes before the "official" start time is necessary for me. First of all, it gives me time to think quietly about my day. Also, it alleviates the problem of standing in line at a copy machine (or finding a jammed copy machine that was left blinking wildly by a teacher who didn't attempt to fix it). After the copies are made, the agenda and goals are on the board, and the room is ready, there's time for nice adult conversations (there may not be another opportunity until after school) and opportunities for relationship building as students arrive.

I understand there are "circumstances." The year my chronically oversleeping son was a senior in high school, I had to fly into the school parking lot on two wheels every morning just as the second hand on the office clock was announcing I was late. So I do know it may be difficult to arrive as dawn breaks. But the earlier the better, so you can begin the day relaxed and ready.

Relaxed and ready is also the way to end the school day. I tell beginning teachers to beware of the 3:30 Club. Never get between them and the door at 3:30 (or whatever time school is out for you). I prefer to take my time in the afternoons, look over some lesson plans, straighten up my classroom from the day's activities, and get ready for tomorrow. Also, I like to wander around the school to see what my students are up to. There's nothing better than grading a few papers outside on the bleachers on a warm fall afternoon during football practice. My students, who should be paying attention to their coaches, always wave wildly when they see me (like they didn't just see me in class 30 minutes before).

The "breathe when you leave" part? That means teachers need to take care of themselves and relax during their hours out of school. This doesn't mean they can't grade the occasional paper or do schoolwork. For me, it's very relaxing to do my lesson plans on Sunday afternoons, turn on some professional football and plan the week. But this routine may not work for some teachers. I tell new teachers to figure out what works for them, but to make sure to breathe.

2. Always remember, the show must go on.

I have always said teaching is a performance. Standing in front of (or facilitating around) a classroom of kids of any age requires energy and enthusiasm. We don't work behind a computer screen at a desk all day, so we can't just slump in our seats if we feel like it. There have been many days in my career when I have looked at the clock to see that it was time for my next group to come to me. "I can't do it," I would think. But I would take a deep breath, put a smile on my face (it's OK if it's fake at first), and start slapping some fives when those kids entered the room. Pretty soon their energy level would match mine, my smile would be real, and we would take it from there. The idea is to prepare ourselves for the "audience" and be the best we can be when we're with them. Our students deserve no less.

3. Put on your cheerleading uniform.

Yes, we have to encourage and inspire. We know that. Some of our students come to us from dismal situations. I often wonder how some of them can even put one foot in front of the other to get to the bus stop. But they do, and while they're with me, I'm going to do what I can to make their school day the best it can be.

But I'm not only talking about students. We need to cheer each other on, too. Schools can be toxic places. The job is stressful, and hopefully we aren't complaining to kids all day. So when teachers get together, there can be some "venting." That's when I put on my metaphorical cheerleading uniform and go at it. Don't worry—I don't act like Little Mary Sunshine. I do understand, and many times agree with, the complaints that are discussed in team rooms and school hallways. But I do try to put a positive spin on things if I can.

Also, I feel strongly that it's important to be cheerleaders for our profession. I am weary from hearing "if you can't do ... teach" and other misrepresentations of what we do every day. We have to market ourselves as the professionals we are. Some folks have the idea that teachers are still Charlie Brown's wa-wa-wa-ing lecturers, whacking kids with yard sticks if they misbehave. But we know real teachers are committed professionals who believe in purposeful instruction and who have our students' best interests at heart. As we speak to others, in the grocery store or by the neighborhood pool, we must embody that professionalism—not fuel the negative fires that surround so many schools.

4. If you make them the enemy, you will lose.

The rest of this expression goes like this: There are more of them, and they have an audience. As a middle school teacher, this is one saying that I share with teachers often. Teaching cannot be an "us" and "them" situation. In the community of a school, we are all family, and when the students know this (and feel this), they are much more likely to cooperate, be pleasant, and learn.

If, instead, they are aware of the animosity a teacher feels toward them, they will push back, and it probably won't be pretty. Being in this school thing together is much more productive and much less stressful. A student on your side can be the difference between loving your job and dreading getting up in the morning. Do what needs to be done to ensure they're on your side—and it’s mostly about being on theirs.

5. Don't hide your light under a bushel.

I can't take credit for this one. I believe it was mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount. It was also mentioned by my Mama about once a week as I was growing up. Basically, it means "don't hide your talent." I share this one with new teachers as I encourage them to use their talents, even some that aren't so obvious, to make their teaching experience more enjoyable.

For example, I love to write poetry. I'm not a published poet, but I don't need to be. I have a captive audience every day. By sharing my poetry and bits of my personal life, I'm able to connect to my students in a way that may be difficult otherwise. Some teachers use their athletic talents to inspire students; I've worked with two Ultimate Frisbee playing teachers (in two different schools) who have taught their students these skills while at the same time teaching teamwork and perseverance. One of my dearest teacher friends teaches math and clogging at the same time. (And if you don’t know what clogging is, check it out on YouTube!)

Another way I hope new teachers will shine their lights is by marketing themselves as professionals. Each parent who has a child sitting in a classroom should know the credentials that got that teacher there— college degrees, honors and awards received, types of experiences (not necessarily years of experience but types—has the teacher worked with different grade levels before or taught other subjects?). I believe teachers should have a pamphlet ready to hand to classroom visitors that includes all of your career highlights.

There are a few other expressions I throw out now and then. For example, "He is the boss of you" is one I use when teachers are complaining about the principal's expectations. But that’s a story for another day. For now, I'll just look back over the years I've been teaching and wonder when I stopped asking so many questions and somehow got so old that I started answering a few.

Cindi Rigsbee is a National Board-certified reading teacher at Gravelly Hill Middle School in Orange County, North Carolina. She was recently selected as North Carolina’s State Teacher of the Year for 2008.

Just for Fun

From Georgia Education News

Early Life Nutrition May Be Associated With Adult Intellectual Functioning

Comment: I'm a fan.

• Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests.
• Poor nutrition during childhood is associated with poor cognitive performance in adulthood.

Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests, regardless of the number of years they attended school, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Schooling is a key component of the development of literacy, reading comprehension and cognitive functioning, and thus of human capital," says Aryeh D. Stein, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of global health at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.

Research also suggests that poor nutrition in early life is associated with poor performance on cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) tests in adulthood.

"Therefore, both nutrition and early-childhood intellectual enrichment are likely to be important determinants of intellectual functioning in adulthood," Stein says.

Between 1969 and 1977, Guatemalan children in four villages participated in a trial of nutritional supplementation. Through the trial, some were exposed to atole--a protein-rich enhanced nutritional supplement--while others were exposed to fresco, a sugar-sweetened beverage. Stein and colleagues analyzed data from intellectual testing and interviews conducted between 2002 and 2004, when 1,448 surviving participants (68.4 percent) were an average of 32 years old.

Individuals exposed to atole between birth and age 24 months scored higher on intellectual tests of reading comprehension and cognitive functioning in adulthood than those not exposed to atole or who were exposed to it at other ages. This association remained significant when the researchers controlled for other factors associated with intellectual functioning, including years of schooling.

"Nutrition in early life is associated with markers of child development in this population, and exposure to atole for most of the first three years of life was associated with an increase of 0.4 years in attained schooling, with the association being stronger for females (1.2 years of schooling)," Stein says.

Thus, schooling might be in the causal pathway between early childhood nutrition and adult intellectual functioning, says Stein. The data, which suggest an effect of exposure to an enhanced nutritional intervention in early life that is independent of any effect of schooling, provide additional evidence in support of intervention strategies that link early investments in children to continued investments in early-life nutrition and in schooling.

###

In addition to Stein, study authors were Meng Wang, MS, Ann DiGirolamo, PhD, Usha Ramakrishnan, PhD, Kathryn Yount, PhD, and Reynaldo Martorell, PhD, all of the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; and Ruben Grajeda, MD, and Manuel Ramirez-Zea, MD, PhD of the Unit of Public Policies, Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama.

This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the National Science Foundation. The National Institutes of Health, the Thrasher Fund and the Nestle Foundation have funded the work of the INCAP Longitudinal Study since its inception. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Reference: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162[7]:612-618

Sugar Drinks and Diabetes

From Food Navigator

Comment: What we notice at school is the heavier children drink a great portion of their food. In drinking, a person consumes many more calories than eating. Drinking is easier for some children. When a child drinks sugar juices as the predominant food, the child tends to be overweight. When children break this habit, the weight drops off.

Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development - North America
Study links fruit drinks to sweet beverage diabetes risk
By Neil Merrett

Sugar sweetened beverages like fruit-flavoured drinks may increase the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new US study.

The research, which appears in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that African American women within the US, who consume at least two soft drinks a day, were 24 per cent more likely of developing the disease compared to those who drank one product a month.

The same daily consumption of fruit drinks led to a 33 per cent hike in incidence. However, juice products derived from oranges and grapefruit, as well as diet soft drinks, were not linked in the study to diabetes, said lead researcher Julie Palmer of Boston University.

In a number of markets, consumer demand for health and wellness products has led manufacturers to develop a growing number of fruit drinks for their portfolios, due to their association with the health benefits of their flavours.

Fruit drink consumption

Despite the research's conclusion, the study pointed to some differences in the consumption patterns of regular sugar-sweetened soft drinks compared to sugar-sweetened fruit drinks.

The researchers said that consumption patterns between the two beverage types were not linked to respondents Body Mass Index (BMI) or education background, but to some dietary and activity trends.

"[Fruit drinks] were positively correlated with physical activity, cereal fibre intake, and eating a low-glycemic index diet," the researchers stated. "To some extent, then, soft drink consumption was correlated with unhealthy behaviours and fruit drink consumption with healthy behaviours."

Sugar concerns

In identifying contributing factors for the study's findings, weight gain from beverage consumption was identified by the researchers as a key element in the onset of diabetes.

"A systematic review of the literature indicates a positive association between greater intakes of sugar sweetened beverages and weight gain and obesity in both children and adults," the researchers said. "These beverages are dense in calories and are typically consumed as an addition to usual food intake."

The researchers claimed that the use of sweeteners such as high-fructose corn
syrup (HFCS) were likely to have a particularly strong impact on weight gain, due in part to the possible affects it has on insulin secretion and leptin release.

By comparison, the naturally occurring sugars in orange and grapefruit juice, identified in the research as glucose and fructose, were linked to different metabolic effects than those associated with HFCS.

Methodology

The findings were derived from an ongoing health study of 59,000 African American women aged between 21 and 69 years of age across the US.

The research began with a baseline survey back in 1995, which called for various medical and lifestyle information such as weight, height, reproductive history and everyday questions on diet, cigarettes and alcohol use, according to the study.

Updates of these surveys were then issued every two years to respondents detailing current lifestyle practices, with an average return rate of 80 per cent, over the ten-year period that the beverage study was based on.

Researchers added that subjects that had reported already having diabetes, gestational diabetes, cancer, heart conditions like strokes or being pregnant at baseline were not included in the testing.

A total of 43,960 respondents' information was used in the final study.

Other studies

The researchers said that the findings reflected similar follow on studies conducted on US nurses, which was a predominantly white respondent group by contrast.

"Positive associations, somewhat stronger than in the present study,
were found for both soft drinks and fruit drinks," said the researchers. "The weaker associations observed in our study may be due to the higher baseline risk of diabetes experienced by African American women."

Source: Archives of Internal Medicine
Vol 168, Issue 14, July 2008
"Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Incidence of Type 2
Diabetes Mellitus in African American Women"
Authors: Julie Palmer, Deborah Boggs, Supriya Krishnan, Frank B. Hu et al.

The Garden School Tattler

It's going to be very hot today. We're going swimming. It should be a great swimming day.

On hot days, we take a lot of drinks and we mind who is drinking what. We also tell the kids there is a drinking fountain on the deck of the pool for those who need it. Keeping hydrated is an important part of child care.

When we arrive back at school after we swim, children are encouraged to drink as much water as they can. We will then cool off in the building and relax with cool down period.

Taking care of little ones is a multi faceted scheme. These days are exhausting for young children and parents should make sure that children are in bed before 8:00. If possible, don't wake them up until they wake up in the a.m.

This week we will swim three times. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

August 8 is our last out of town field trip. It's to the Garden of the Gods and then Pounds Hollow Lake. It's a great trip and parents are encouraged to come. The lake has a sandy bottom as far as the feet can manage to touch bottom, and the lake is beautifully clean and wide. Swimming with your kids in this beautiful lake is a great plan!

We will be taking hot dogs and hamburgers to cook on the spot. If you want to come, please let us know on the sign up sheet on the front door. There are bathrooms at the lake, so you can change there, but wearing you swimsuit with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt over makes the most sense. Bring a towel!

From Population Reference Bureau

Rural Children Lag in Early Childhood Educational Skills

by Charles Dervarics

(January 2005) A new study on early childhood educational achievement says that young rural children begin elementary school well behind their urban and suburban peers in reading and math skills.

According to study author Glenn D. Israel, rural children entering kindergarten and first grade have lower reading and math scores than any other category of youngsters tested—whether from urban, suburban, or small town environments.

And Israel, professor and program development/evaluation specialist at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, says that rural environments often aren't giving their children a good chance to succeed.

"Low-capacity rural areas, where educational attainment, income levels, job skills, and community engagement are more limited, can create a milieu that does not place a high priority on education," Israel says.

The Crucial Role of Parents in Academic Achievement

Israel analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), which sampled 21,260 students at 1,280 schools in 1998. He found that some rural students in the study scored at least 10 percent lower than suburban youngsters in math and nearly 20 percent below suburban children in reading (for overall scores from the ECLS study, see Table 1).

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Table 1
Mean Math and Reading Test Scores for Students by Residential Location

<>Kindergarten to 1st grade

	Autumn of Kindergarten		Kindergarten to 1st Grade
Location	Math Score	Reading Score	Math Gain Score*	Reading Gain Score*
Large city	19.5	22.7	23.2	32.8
Mid-size city	19.9	22.8	24.1	33.6
Large suburb	21.3	24.6	24.0	34.0
Mid-size suburb	20.1	22.6	24.1	33.1
Large & small towns	19.5	21.9	23.6	33.9
Rural	18.8	21.2	23.7	32.0

Note: Sample size for this table is 9,934 children. This number is smaller than the 21,260 subjects at the beginning of the ECLS study; the lower number reflects loss of children who did not stay in the study through the end of first grade as well as children who remained in the study but for whom certain data were not reported.
* "Gain score" is the increase in score students achieve between the autumn they enter kindergarten through the spring of 1st grade.
Source: Glenn D. Israel's calculations based on the U.S. Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (1998).

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Israel also focused on whether social networks and parent involvement can increase student achievement at an early age. He found that many factors—such as underfunded schools, a lack of community resources, rural isolation, and inadequately trained teachers—can contribute to the lagging achievement of rural children.

Parental modeling and involvement is key to educational success, however. And Israel discovered that many rural parents—particularly those in poverty—have weak links to social networks and the resources that promote early learning.

Rural parents have the least education among their adult peers, with relatively few having completed postsecondary education (see Table 2). Israel says this disparity affects children's early language development and a parent's educational aspirations for their child—a key motivator for youngsters. "Some adults need help on how to be a positive parent," Israel says. "Setting high expectations has a very strong effect on how children expect to do in school."

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Table 2
Student- and School-level Variables by Residential Location

	Large City	Mid-Size City	Large Suburb	Mid-Size Suburb	Town	Rural
Parents' highest education level (6 = 4-year degree)*	4.7	4.8	5.1	4.7	4.6	4.4
Teacher certified in early childhood education (%)	58.8	57.3	58.9	67.6	55.2	48.8
Degree parent expects of child (4 = 4-year degree)**	4.2	4.1	4.2	4.0	3.9	3.7
Read to child 3 or more days/week (%)	76.9	79.0	85.3	82.4	82.8	78.2
Parent involvement in school (up to 5 activities)	2.7	2.9	3.2	3.0	2.8	2.6

* For this variable, the study defined values as the following: 1=8th grade or below; 2=9th to 12th grade; 3=High-school diploma/equivalent; 4=Vocational/technical program; 5=Some college; 6=Bachelors degree; 7=Graduate/professional school, no degree earned; 8=Master’s degree; 9=Doctorate or professional degree. When two parents were present in a household, the higher value of the two was used.
** For this variable, the study defined values as the following: 1=1 year of college completed; 2=2 years of college completed; and so forth.
Source: Glenn D. Israel’s calculations based on the U.S. Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (1998).

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Israel adds that rural families also score low in another critical area of child development: the percentage of parents who read to their young child at least three days a week. About 78 percent of rural parents met this target, compared with 85 percent of parents from large suburbs and 82 percent of parents living in mid-size suburbs.

Rural Schools Also Need More Training in Early-Childhood Education

Israel also documented the importance of a teaching force well trained in early-childhood education—an area in which rural areas also lag. He found that fewer than one-half of rural schools had a teacher certified in early-childhood education, compared with 68 percent of schools in mid-size suburbs and 55 percent to 59 percent in towns, cities, and other more populated areas. Rural parents also were somewhat less likely to participate in school activities—a condition Israel attributed in part to the long distances between many families' home and their child's elementary school.

He adds that this limited parental involvement in school may affect student achievement. "Students whose parents are involved in their school, through parent-teacher organizations and other activities, perform better in their academic courses," he says.

Literacy, Parental Modeling, and Pediatricians: Some Steps Toward Helping Rural Children

To help improve rural early education, Israel recommends early literacy activities as well as more parent education programs and policies that build strong relationships within and between families. Such services might include home visits, learn-by-mail programs, or even laptop loaner programs to get rural families more wired into community resources. "Not only do these social networks translate into direct benefits for children," says Israel, "they also help strengthen the community's social infrastructure"—thereby reducing children's isolation.

Israel adds that some rural parents also may need their own "modeling activities" on how to be a positive parent. "[Rural] parents need someone coming to their door rather than be expected to participate in a workshop," he argues.

Many of Israel's findings are consistent with thinking among rural education experts. The combination of rural isolation and poverty leaves many rural children behind from the preschool years onward, says Mary Logue, professor of early childhood education at the University of Maine. "The main indicator is oral language," she says. "Kids in poverty come to school with thousands of fewer words."

Another challenge in rural communities is that students might spend years with the same peer group in class because of the small overall class enrollments. "If it's a low functioning group, higher achievers may suffer," Logue says.

One effective program for the youngest children is Head Start, the federal program providing services to disadvantaged preschoolers and their families. Such programs have strong parent involvement, something that needs to carry over to elementary school.

Home visits, formal and informal playgroups, and school-based parent resource centers are other strategies that may improve a community's social and family capital. "The goal is for school to become more of an extended family," says Logue.

In addition, pediatricians are often overlooked as a resource for students. Logue says she often has reached out to these physicians to emphasize their role in working with parents on healthy rural child development.

The Difficulties in Training and Recruiting Rural Teachers

Israel's findings about early-childhood teachers are particularly important to Logue, who helps prepare students for rural teaching careers. At the University of Maine, she has seen that prospective teachers from rural backgrounds have trouble passing required tests. "My students from rural communities know a lot but aren't passing standardized tests," she said. "They are coming from underfunded schools."

And while many suburban or small-town students pass teacher-licensing exams, Logue finds that few of these students seem willing to move to a more-isolated community after graduation. "It's hard to live in that type of setting," she said, "if you haven't come from that environment."

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Charles Dervarics is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in education, health, and employment issues.

From England

From The Times

July 24, 2008

Authors unite against drive for toddler literacy

Comment: Glad this isn't us.

Nursery teaching framework sets more than 500 development milestones

Nicola Woolcock

School Gate: Are we teaching our children too much too young?

Alpha Mummy: How the under 5s recommendations and sex education are related

A powerful lobby of leading authors and educationists accuse the Government today of setting children up for failure.

In a letter to The Times they say that ambitious education targets – including using punctuation before a child turns 5 – are unrealistic and risk harming pre-school children by setting back their development.

They accuse Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, of ignoring her advisers and shelving research commissioned by her department because it contradicted policy.

Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo, the children’s authors, Susie Orbach, the sociologist, and Steve Biddulph, the psychologist, have joined dozens of academics to demand that the reforms be scrapped or turned into a voluntary code before they come into force this autumn.

Children as young as 4 are expected to write in sentences and use punctuation under the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework – widely described as a “toddlers’ curriculum”.

This sets 69 goals and more than 500 development milestones that children in England should reach by the age of 5.

They are supposed to use mathematics to solve practical problems, retell stories in the correct sequence, understand right from wrong, read simple sentences on their own, sit quietly, be able to use a computer and understand that other people have different views, cultures and beliefs that need to be respected.

However, two of the most contentious targets are being reviewed by Sir Jim Rose, who carried out an inquiry into primary school literacy teaching. These are that children should “write their own names . . . and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation” and, “use phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words”.

Evidence suggests that only 30 per cent of five-year-olds achieve the first target and 46 per cent the second.

Campaigners claim that young children affected by EYFS will become “guinea-pigs of ministerial whim”.

An outcry from nurseries, child-minders, pre-schools and independent schools, who will have to adopt the framework, prompted two concessions from Ms Hughes, including the review of the two literacy targets.

But these are lambasted today by the Open Eye campaign, founded by Richard House, a child psychologist and university lecturer.

The letter, signed by more than 80 campaigners, says the two “alleged ‘concessions’ fail to address the concerns” because Ms Hughes has “ignored calls to scrap or suspend literacy goals that are widely deplored as being far too advanced for many young children.

“Her other ‘concession’ – the 34-page exemption process purporting to enable providers to opt out of some of the ‘learning requirements’ – is expertly camouflaged, labyrinthine and bureaucratically complex, appearing to have been intentionally designed to deter anyone from applying.”

It adds: “Parents should have the right to choose how their preschool children are cared for and educated.”

The letter is signed by Tim Brighouse, Visiting Professor at the London University’s Institute of Education; Pullman, who wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy; Morpurgo, the former Children’s Laureate; Sally Goddard Blythe, director of the Institute for Neuro-physiological Psychology; Lilian Katz, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois; Katherine Langrish and John Dougherty, the children’s authors; and Sue Palmer, the educational consultant and author of Toxic Childhood.

Dr House told The Times: “Certain parts of the learning requirements set some children up for failure, particularly those who haven’t got the necessary foundations of social learning or basic skills.” He said that children who did not come from middle-class families, or those who were less academically bright, were particularly at risk. “They may withdraw into themselves and stop trying. Trying for them becomes associated with fear and angst.

“Just because you can get children to do something at 4 or 5 it doesn’t follow that it’s appropriate for them, and Beverley Hughes has never made that distinction.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said that the commissioned research had not been published because “the evidence base was too small to be significant”.

Ms Hughes said: “The EYFS is hugely important as a single framework for play-based early learning and care, based on the kind of support that helps children thrive in the early years. We have always said that we will keep the EYFS under review.”

A hard lesson – or too much, too soon

— The National Curriculum was established by the Education Reform Act 1988. It was revised at all key stages and in all subjects in August 2000

— The Foundation Stage, which lasts from a child's third birthday to the end of the reception year, became part of the National Curriculum in 2002. Early Learning Goals were achieved through play and group activities, not sitting at desks

— In 2005 the Government announced that the Early Years Foundation Stage would be included in its Childcare Bill and become part of the national curriculum

— There was mounting criticism of the new national curriculum for under5s. In November 2007 a lobby of academics said it would induce needless anxiety and dent children's enthusiasm for learning

— It requires children to be continually assessed on 13 learning scales including writing, problem solving and numeracy

— It will apply to 25,000 private and state nurseries and aims to make children aged 3 and 4 write simple sentences using punctuation, interpret phonic methods to read complex words and use mathematical ideas to solve practical problems

Comment: something worth knowing about and something worth doing something about.

On March 16, 2006, Brady Blaine Hinton was born at St. Vincent’s hospital in Bridgeport, CT. He passed away two years later on March 16, 2008, his 2nd birthday. In between those dates, Brady endured a life complicated by intricate medical conditions. Through everything his little body endured, he never stopped smiling. He beamed from ear-to-ear when listening to music and experiencing the brightest of lights. He showed people that despite it all, you can maintain a positive attitude. Now, his mother and father are taking the opportunity to honor their little boy’s spirit by making a difference in the lives of those who need the most help. They are a "mom and pop" with a personal cause. A start-up company dedicated to the greater good who hope to fulfill one ultimate goal: to become the largest children's based charitable foundation in the world. Brady's Smile, Inc. has applied to become a 501(c)(3) company and is awaiting approval.

FAIRFIELD, CT (July 24, 2008) - Starting August 7, 2008, Brady’s Smile, Inc. will officially begin “Doing Big Things For Little Ones In Need.” We are thrilled to introduce three very special programs that will take a step towards accomplishing our goal of making life easier for children in the ICU. All three of our programs will be provided to newborn babies/children and their caregivers at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital (“YNHCH”) Newborn Special Care Unit (“NBSCU“) and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (“PICU“). The NBSCU cares for over 1,500 infants every year, while the PICU cares for children recovering from illness, trauma, cardiothoracic surgery and transplant operations, and serves more than 800 children every year.

“It is with the help, dedication and support we have received over the past three months, that we are able to accomplish this goal,” says Annie Hinton, co-founder of Brady’s Smile, Inc. “We hope everyone feels as passionate about these programs as we do. We set out to touch children’s lives, and we are so honored and touched to provide these programs to the children at YNHCH.”

Brady’s Smile will provide Brady’s Smile Comfort Bags, Brady Blankets and Music in the ICU (“MICU“) to very deserving people. Brady’s Smile Comfort Bags will provide basic essentials to caregivers and toys to babies and children. Brady Blankets are homemade fleece blankets that will be distributed to babies and children during their time in the ICU. The MICU program will give every baby and child an opportunity to benefit from the power of music during his or her time in the ICUs.

Please find additional information on each program below or at www.bradyssmile.org.

Rules by Judy Lyden

Too cute for his own good!

One of the things we talk about all the time at school among faculty is children's behavior, good bad and in between. The other day, while watching our little crowd, I asked Miss Kelly our kindergarten first grade teacher, if it was true that children who behaved poorly at school most likely behaved poorly at home. She said an emphatic "yes." And then she did something interesting, she added, "And children who behave poorly at home have no rules."

I thought a lot about that over the next few days, and I continued to watch our kids. Are rules the bottom line in rearing children? If you want a child's behavior to be the kind of behavior you can take anywhere, and that's what we spend most of our time doing - going out - establishing a set of rules for home that are "take along" is the logical progression. But this is not happening.

The question is: Why is establishing a set of rules, which is so basic, so difficult for so many parents? Why do so many children lack these rules? If the parent focuses on a very old rather golden idea - "Do to others as you would have them do to you," it would seem to engage the very idea of community living and make the creation of rules matter more. But this very ancient and simple notion might be where it all begins, but it quickly falls apart. Children have contempt for neighbor and some children even have contempt for the parents. The question is what is happening and why?

In the home (any home) a child is simply ONE of the participants, and yet too often children think they are the only participant, and everything in the room is his or her "due." "Me first or rather "me only," is the common demand. "He hit me," is a one sided argument. Just once I'd like to have a child come to me and say, "We hit each other," but that's never the point. The point is, "He," the dog in the kennel, has hit "Me" the star in the sky. You can see the wheels turning, "If I'm the only one who counts, then I don't need rules."

The point of establishing rules at home is for the sake of order and peace. Some parents have a set of rules that resemble the telephone book. Even the parents don't remember them all and that's one big problem. When parents neglect the rules, how do we expect children to obey?

And then there is the opposite theory of rules - less is more. I established one rule at my house: "Don't fall into the river we eat at six." This one rule for my house meant, "Be safe and remember the needs of your family." In other words, "Be smart enough to not fall into the river which is a block from the house, and be smart enough to know that we are home expecting you." I figured all other rules were self evident, but then I was a very demanding mother with a concrete routine.

And with the word "routine" said, I began to think more about rules and how rules play off routine. How can there be rules if there is no routine? Establishing an order at home means routine. If a family always eats dinner at 6:00, then it follows that the children always need to be home, clean, and ready to eat by 6:00. It also follows that in order to eat dinner at six, mother needs to be at home as well by about 4:30 or 5:00 to make that dinner. If mother keeps the routine, then the kids easily follow suit. To complete the order, it follows that the table needs to be set, the toys need to be picked up, hands need to be washed every time we expect dinner on the table at 6:00. These things don't magically happen. There is a pattern a little like counting. You don't begin with ten, you begin with one.

At the Garden School, we ring the bell. That's 1. Then there is the announcement that we are picking up our toys in order that we can eat. That's 2. Then we do that - we pick up. That's 3. Then we go to a communal spot. That's 4. Then we pray. That's 5. Then we are dismissed to wash our hands and sit down. That's 6 and 7. Then we eat. That's 8. But these are not rules; they are part of the routine order of the day. The rules surround the order of the day and give a super order: we don't push in line. We are quiet during prayers. We sit criss cross. We listen for our names. We use the toilet and sink one at a time. We use ONE paper towel. We don't touch our neighbor during meals.

By establishing a routine and an order any place, the obvious rules simply fall into place. If we are making a line to go into the building, most of the children will understand the concept for the sake of everyone in the building. They know that if we have something REAL to do, then the logic is to be about doing that, and you can see most of the children understand that and enjoy it.

The one thing that upsets the order or routine is an evil demon called chaos. There are agents of chaos in every group. Children and adults who can't maintain the routine and sabotage the entire group's order. These are the people who upset the routine and then ultimately break the rules. And when one person breaks the rules, the whole house has reason to copy. Children who break the rules are not thinking communally. They are thinking about self only.

People who break the rules do so for their own sake. They don't follow the golden rule "Do to others as you would wish them to do to you," because ultimately their target is the group. When children come from homes lacking in order, teachers have to remember that these kids have no guidance and no parental help. They are waif like and struggling to understand a world that has little patience for their barbarism.

Parents are the primary educators of the child. Parents are the primary establishers of routine in the home. Routine is the natural goodness that emanates from the home for the sake of the people who live there. Rules are the natural byproduct of routine. Obedience is the natural byproduct of the love necessary to establish order in the home. A well ordered home creates a whole and creative child, and best of all, it creates peace.

Swimmers Advance!

We're at it again! We keep growing. This week the teams are:

Jelly Fish ( Children who still have trouble putting their heads under the water)

CJ, Caroline, Zoe, Corey

Sun Fish ( Head dunkers who are still too young to swim in deep water )

Isaac, Nathan, Devin, India, Zoey, Alyssa, Paige, Donovan, Luke, Reese, Emma,

Whales ( Children who really swim in deep water but have not gone off the board)

Phoebe, Sam, Stoggy, Cole, Skylar, William, David, Kanin, Javeon, Brady, Jay

Sharks ( Children who can swim and go off the board)

Andrew, Austin R, Alex s. Dax, Hadley, Michaela, Aiden, Briauna, Dawson, Hannah, brycek, Alex H, Jackson, Alexis, Jack H, Morgan, Jack S., Austin W, Wyatt, Adyson, Nikolai, Logan, Spencer, Mara, Nicholas, Madison, Addie,

I'm afraid that's closing in on it for the summer. I took some of the Sun Fish over to the Whale swimming teaching section, but they aren't ready. Maybe next year. Of the Whales, most of them are still to skittish to go off the board. Not sure about Skylar - she's been on vacation. David is coming close - hope he does it by the end of the summer. Kanin is "in" the pool, but still won't put his head under. Brady is close and so is Cole. I'd still like to see four more sharks.

We'll be swimming on Friday this week. Two extra days of swimming might just be the ticket some of the kids need to make that little decision about a three foot jump. It's a bit daunting when you look down and know that you'll be sailing through the air and then splash in that DEEP water and then you have to be able to make it to the side. It's not for everyone.

Workbooks for Young Children

The focus has been off workbooks for a long time in Early Childhood Education because the idea is that children should be free to play in a non directed scheme, but kids get tired of that easily when there is a shortage of toys and they know that a teacher is willing to really teach.

When kids first get that first workbook, you have to wonder why all the free play is better than trying new skills on paper. Kids love workbooks at age four and five and then by the time they are nine or ten, they despise them - and well they should. A workbook is thing that teaches "how" not why or what or when or where. That's why a workbook is a useful tool in Early Childhood because it teaches HOW. By the time a child is nine or ten, it's time to move on to a more hands on and research approach to learning - but that's a whole other topic!

I was recently sent a new BIG ALPHABET WORKBOOK for ages 3-5. I'd say it's a good book for any parent wanting to teach their child HOW to work on paper. It's colorful and big, and it covers a lot of things kids will do in kindergarten and in some better preschools. It's produced by School Zone Publishing Company. It's written by Joan Hoffman and Barbara Gregorich, and i give it a great big green light.

This book is a go for children who have learned their letters and are ready to start to process to read. I'm not sure I would use this as a first book. It would be frustrating to a child who has not learned the alphabet.

The counterpart book is a math readiness book that is approximately the same level. For kids who know how to read a number, it's a green light. This book is called Math Readiness Stickers 123. It's written by Jennifer Neumann and illustrated by John Kurtz.

These books would be a great extra help for parents teaching at home. They are fun, bright and the kids are going to love them. They would be wonderful for small in home day cares as well.

I like both the books and will give them to Miss Amy for her class. It's perfect for our 4-K which is kindergarten for four year olds. I thank Kristina Godfrey for sending me these books and making me aware of them.

You can find this book at The School Zone

Smaller Schools - Duh

baltimoresun.com

The next big thing: smaller schools

In Baltimore County, add-ons losing support

By Liz Bowie

Sun reporter

June 22, 2008

Comment: All I can say is duh. But I can add that smaller must begin with Early Childhood. These huge warehouses that house 200-300 little kids are a hazard to the developing child.

Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.

Now support for small schools appears to be taking root - at the neighborhood level and the school board - in neighboring Baltimore County, which like many suburban districts has long favored large schools.

Vocal parents upset about crowding in the Towson area and elsewhere have demanded new, smaller schools rather than additions to existing ones. Sparked by those complaints, the school board recently reversed course and withdrew a proposal to expand Loch Raven High School; the county has also agreed to build a new 400-seat elementary school in the Towson area rather than expand a school.

The school board, meanwhile, is taking a closer look at research on school size.

"The current board, I think, believes that an overly large school presents problems," said JoAnn C. Murphy, president of the county school board.

County Executive James T. Smith Jr., who supported building additions at two schools this spring rather than new schools, said in an interview that he has never had a conversation about school size with the county's school superintendent. He also said he has no opinion on optimum size for schools, though he believes schools with 2,000 students are too large.

Over the past decade, the county has added additions of 400 to 600 seats to seven high schools, turning several into schools of 2,000 students or more. This fall, Vincent Farm Elementary will open in the northeast part of the county with a capacity of 700 students, much larger than an average elementary school.

Achievement

The switch to smaller schools by urban school districts is supported by research indicating that they might boost student achievement.

Craig Howley, an Ohio University researcher and a proponent of small schools, said "a suburban community that is building high schools over 1,000 is making a mistake." Achievement "degrades" for all students at schools with enrollments exceeding 900, he maintains.

Just how big a school should be has been debated for the past half-century when the first proponents of large high schools extolled their cost effectiveness, large course offerings and opportunities for sports and extracurricular activities. Schools for as many as 3,000 and 4,000 students were built in the 1970s across the nation.

But many urban districts began rethinking that strategy, particularly when graduation rates dropped, violence and fighting rose, and achievement declined. These problems prompted some educators to conclude that large urban schools were unmanageable.

Even suburban districts began to question whether bigger was really better after the killings at Columbine High School, a large suburban school in Colorado. The size of the school was a contributing factor because students did not feel as close a connection to their teachers and other students, according to one report.

Current educational research suggests small schools might be more beneficial to students. The optimum size for a high school is 600 to 900 students, according to a study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis in 1997.

"We did find that the ideal size of a school did not vary by the social or racial composition of the school. However, small size was more strongly linked to achievement gains in more disadvantaged schools," said Valerie Lee, a University of Michigan professor and one of the authors of the report.

Other studies have shown that students in small schools are more likely to be better known by their teachers and go to college.

'Personalization'

New York, Chicago and Baltimore are just a few of the cities that have created small schools. Michigan is offering $3 million in state money to any school that wants to downsize or create new small schools of 400. To be eligible a school must have a graduation rate below 70 percent and the school must return 50 percent of the money if the school doesn't graduate at least 80 percent of its students.

"I think there is a certain weight of evidence that has developed around the country," said Chuck Wilbur, the education adviser to Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, over the course of the past decade, has donated more than $1 billion to cut up large urban high schools under the belief that students would perform better in smaller schools.

The foundation donated $12 million in Baltimore to break up existing high schools, and local foundations added $8 million more.

While results have been mixed at schools that were broken up, a recent study by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, showed that the newly created innovation high schools in Baltimore with 400 to 500 students have better graduation rates than other high schools in the city, with the exception of the elite schools.

Moreover, in two of the "innovation" high schools that graduated their first classes this spring, more than 85 percent of students had been accepted at a college, the majority of them four-year institutions. In Baltimore about 44 percent of graduates go on to college.

"I think that the size of a school matters. You can have strong large schools, but in schools that face challenges, personalization matters a great deal," said city schools chief, Andres Alonso.

There are still those who support large high schools and say that they can point to any number of top high schools in the county that are quite large. High-achieving students, they say, will have a larger selection of Advanced Placement and honors classes in a big school.

One of Prince George's County's premier high schools is Eleanor Roosevelt, which now has 3,700 students.

And a number of top Montgomery County high schools are nearly as large.

But Howard County and Anne Arundel County high schools are smaller. In Anne Arundel, the enrollment is between 1,200 and 1,600. Howard County, another county that has grown rapidly, has decided to limit the size of its high schools to 1,400 students but is building elementary schools of 700.

"Success is not directly related to size," argues David Lever, executive director of the state's Interagency Committee on School Construction. "I think the more important factor is how the school is managed."

But many educators say that it is more difficult to manage very large schools.

Troubled school

One of Baltimore County's expansion projects was a 600-seat addition to Woodlawn High School, now the district's most troubled high school.

At Woodlawn only 25 percent of students passed the biology high school assessment last year and only 37 percent passed English II. Those pass rates are below those of some of the new small high schools in Baltimore.

Smith, the county executive, said he would support the breakup of Woodlawn into two schools with separate staffs operating out of one building. But he does not think that the county has the money to build a new small high school on a different site to downsize Woodlawn.

Gene Bottoms, the senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, said that simply breaking up failing high schools does not necessarily improve the teaching.

But, he said, all things being equal, students in smaller schools are likely to be more involved in extracurricular activities and to have closer ties to their schools that result in higher achievement.

One of the problems with large high schools, Bottoms said, is that students tend to be segregated in different tracks.

The best schools are known for their top students, he said, but the success of the top 25 percent masks what is happening to the bottom 25 percent.

"It is much easier to sort students into pigeonholes and create low expectations for some students," he said.

Meg O'Hare, a county school board member, said sometimes parents have been happy to get additions to their schools because the alternative was trailers next to the schools. But rarely are the core facilities - the gym, cafeteria and hallways - expanded to handle the extra students. The result, she said, is still too many students in the facilities.

Often, she said, the school board supported building a new school, but county executives have decided to allocate money for an addition instead.

"Things come into our budget that we didn't put there. We always rolled over," O'Hare said. "The school board is starting to stand up to the responsibility for adequate facilities for the public schools."

She said the Loch Raven vote was the board saying: "Enough." The county executive contends that decisions about school size are made by the school board.

The problem of crowding in the northeastern portion of the county remains. Five high schools - including Towson, Hereford, Loch Raven, Perry Hall and Patapsco - have an enrollment that is 10 percent above the school's capacity. The county executive's office contends that that is not enough to warrant building a new school.

The Garden School Tattler - Swimmer's list

I'm very proud to announce our newest swimmers:

Jelly Fish ( Children who still have trouble putting their heads under the water)

CJ, Caroline, Zoe, Corey

Sun Fish ( Head dunkers who are still too young to swim in deep water )

Isaac, Nathan, Devin, India, Javeon, Zoey, Brady, Alyssa, Paige, Donovan, Luke, Reese, Emma, Jay

Whales ( Children who really swim in deep water but have not gone off the board)

Spencer, Phoebe, Mara, Sam, Nicholas, Stoggy, Madison, Cole, Addie, Skylar, William, David, Kanin

Sharks ( Children who can swim and go off the board)

Andrew, Austin R, Alex s. Dax, Hadley, Michaela, Aiden, Briauna, Dawson, Hannah, brycek, Alex H, Jackson, Alexis, Jack H, Morgan, Jack S. Austin W Wyatt, Adyson, Nikolai, Logan.

Here's what we are going to do. We are going to Get spencer, Mara, Nicholas, Stoggy, Madison, Cole, Addie, David and William to move up to Sharks.

We are going to get Jay, Isaac, Nathan, Brady, Alyssa, and Emma to move up to Whales.

We're very proud of our kids knowing how hard they worked this summer.

Soda and More Soda

I'm not a soda drinker. I don't even think soda is good for you. It is, however, good for your car engine and dissolving nails, so it has some purpose.

Yet recently we received an incredible new toy that I'm bonkers about. It's called a soda maker and it's from Soda Club. Instead of buying soda anymore for our punches at school, or soda for faculty who still need that fattening carbonation lift, we will be making it compliments of the soda club. That's right, we can make our own soda right at school or at home or anytime.

The soda maker comes with a carbonation unit that makes a lot of soda! You use fresh tap water, and you carbonate it with three little pushes of a button. Then you flavor it with one of the syrups. But you know me, I'm going to experiment.

The soda maker makes carbonated flavored water as well as soda, so you can enjoy the fiz without the calories or the sugar. There are dozens of flavors to buy, and you can make about 4 cups at a time and it lasts as long as store bought soda. The ease of making it is seconds. With a soda maker on the counter, it would take about 25 seconds to make 4 cups of soda.

With the price of soda and all other food rising, this is a really good deal. Look up Soda Club for more details. We just love ours. This would make a fabulous gift for any soda drinker.

Listening Skills

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He
didn't want his mother to walk with him.

She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet
know that he was safe. So she had an idea of how to handle it.

She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the
mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn't notice her.

She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be
a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following
behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighborhood girl he
knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy's little
friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every
day all week.

Finally she said to Timmy, 'Have you noticed that lady following us to
school all week?

Do you know her?' Timmy nonchalantly replied, 'Yeah, I know who she is.'
The little girl said, 'Well, who is she?'

'That's just Shirley Goodnest,' Timmy replied, 'and her daughter Marcy.'

'Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us? '

'Well,' Timmy explained, 'every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm
with my prayers, 'cuz she worries about me so much.

And in the Psalm, it says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all
the days of my life', so I guess I'll just have to get used to it!'

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift His countenance upon you, and give
you peace.

May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always.

From Susie E.

Funky Monkey Snacks

A lovely Miss Molly Antos sent me this note:

New "Funky Monkey Snacks" are freeze dried fruit - all natural, with no added sugar, preservatives, colors or flavors.

They are gluten-free, wheat-free and dairy-free. They come in four delicious flavors: Bananamon (banana and cinnamon - a personal favorite of mine), Carnaval Mix (banana, pineapple, apple, papaya and raisins), Jivealime (pineapple and lime juice) and Purple Funk (banana and acai berries).

These are perfect for Moms-on-the-go - they can take them to work, stuff them in lunch boxes or serve them to tv watching munchkins. It makes healthy eating convenient and affordable.

And I wrote Miss Molly back to say I'd love to try them. The snacks arrived at school, and I gave them to my daughter to take home to try on her three boys. I knew that Jack eats very little variety of food and would balk at something new. Bill will try them if Jack does, and Robby would end up eating most of them.

WRONG! All the boys loved the crunchy snacks, and they ate all four bags upon arriving home from the pool. My Miss Molly said that they are attractive, taste good, and are a no mess clean up, and that's saying something from a mother with three little boys. Because they are a healthy snack, they could eat as much as they wanted. So all around, it was a huge success.

This has a green light! Go for it, moms!

The Garden School Tattler - Mammoth Cave

We had a really nice time at Mammoth Cave on Friday. It's some of our parents' and teachers' favorite spot. It takes a while to get there, but it's well worth it. Our timing was really quite good, and although we got lost coming home, we did arrive on time. Miss Sandy was upset that she had missed the turn, but that's all part of the adventure!

We had a good lunch. Kids seemed to eat - even with their parents on board! We had our usual, and lots of kids asked for salami which surprised me. One day last week we forgot the peanut butter, and the children ate the sandwich meat instead, and on Friday, far fewer asked for peanut butter than ever before, so that was interesting.

I made a shrimp and crab salad for the parents, and a hearty chicken salad as well. It was well received.

One of the things that I use in salads is the new Hellman's Olive Oil mayo. It's a lot healthier than regular mayo. Sandwich salads are always better with a mayo that is sugar free because sugar disguises the taste of the food. When making tuna salad, I use Star Kist solid white albacore tuna. You get a lot more for your $$$ and it just tastes better than cat food tuna. The egg salad is made from farm eggs with the orange yolk, and mayo - that's it. People always comment on how much they like my salads, and I think the reason is the simplicity. Sometimes doctoring something only makes it heavy with too many tastes going on.

We arrived at the cave in splendid time, and descended the long road down to the opening. The cave has a lovely mouth, and is quite beautiful.

The cave was its usual pristine cool dark place, and the children seemed to enjoy the experience of climbing long stairs, squatting to get through and by and over terrain you simply don't find up top. A lot of our children have never been there before, so it was a good teaching and learning day.

Next year we will be taking the Niagara Tour. We've done this one twice, and it's time to change it. I liked the Niagara Tour because of the tight spots and all the turns.

Overall the kids were well behaved. There were three who should not have come. We will remember that for next time.

Field trips are a gift for good behavior. We will be sending home a letter on Monday to that effect.

This week: We will finish our sewing projects. (Kudos go to the following children and adults for learning how to crochet on the trip: Jennifer, Tracy, Briauna, Micheala, Hannah, and Morgan. I brought little bags with crochet tools, and the kids worked diligently until they finally conquered it.)

Tuesday will be a swim day, Wednesday too, and Friday we are arranging a tour of Ellis Park and we will watch the horses race in the first race.

Pax,

Judy

Loved This!

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard; I could tell
from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was
well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head;
he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the
hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

OK, ladies, here it is...

By popular demand I am posting my recipe for Ginger cookies. This is not the famous chocolate chip recipe, but even healthier:

2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 tablespoons molasses
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking SODA
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons ginger
.5 teaspoons salt

Mix all ingredients and form into balls. Roll each ball in white sugar to lightly coat.

Cook on a regular cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

These are beautiful to look at and even the pickiest eaters will love them.

Aren't You Glad....

From Teacher Magazine

Comment: The discipline of children is a big issue everywhere. It is sometimes more important that children run wild and receive no formation from parents and teachers for the sake of a childhood theory that we simply never say "no" to a child. The pool incident on Tuesday is such a case. When ANY discipline is offered a child, the nightmare looks and judgments come forth from a limp community that would rather see the following:

Tight Discipline

Separate incidents at two schools in Westchester County, New York, question the appropriateness of school discipline as parents and educators debate whose responsibility it is to discipline students. An Ardsley school board member and parent of a 14-year-old special education student resigned her post after other parents complained that school officials were too tolerant of her son’s repeated bullying and threats of a massacre and bombing, according to The New York Times.

The middle school boy received one-day suspensions on four different occasions, a lax consequence that parents of other middle schoolers said were given because of the mother’s board position. Maryanne Reda, parent and volunteer cafeteria monitor, witnessed the boy call another aid a “Nazi,” and says that he received special treatment. “The child’s behavior was quite disruptive, but it appeared there were no consequences,” she said.

Another parent is defending her son David Turano for exposing his backside at a June graduation ceremony from Briarcliff High School in Briarcliff Manor, New York, because she claims the school treated her son unfairly over the years. The school responded to Turano’s exposure by revoking his diploma but later returned it. Although Turano pleaded not guilty, his hearing is scheduled for July 24.

Unseen Dangers at the Pool by Judy Lyden

Every year for nearly 35 years, I've taken children to our local pool. It's a great pool because it's well designed for fun and teaching swimming. The pool is crystal clean and beautifully kept. The guards are first rate, the pool management supurb, so why wouldn't I want to take my own children as I did years ago, and my grandchildren and school children year in and year out? Every year we donate about $100. in toys to the pool for all the children to play with. So what would keep me away?

The answer could be the local ladies who visit the pool much as I did in my youth. Every year these women sit across from our group and pass judgment on us. They provide a steady stream of gossip, haughty looks, and erroneous complaints. In the past they have sent hate emails, they've made angry phone calls and worst of all, my staff and I are charged with a lack of care.

What these women refuse to see is just how much we really do care about the children in our school. I don't see another single early childhood school taking their whole student body to the pool twice a week and actually teaching most of them to swim. Most places nap away a child's summer. We teach. At the pool it's swimming.

Today we had an incident that ruffled many feathers. One of our little girls decided she did not want to be wet, and a little boy splashed her. She went after the little boy and scratched his face. She was promptly told by one of our teachers, who has been teaching with me seventeen years, that she could not behave in such a manner. The child decided at that point to throw a tantrum. Because it's not safe to swim while in tantrum, she was told she could go back into the pool when she stopped. It was as simple as that. She decided not to stop. There was not a single tear.

One of the "ladies" decided to intervene. I'm sure her intentions were excellent. She was obviously very upset from what she saw from fifty or sixty feet away. She came to rescue the child from her tantrum and actually picked up the child ready to pull her away from the security of the child's teachers and friends. This presented a danger unlike any danger. It's called stranger danger. There was a strong reprove which ended in an argument about hugs and later we made a call to the police department to report the incident.

What people outside the early childhood theatre must understand is this: real teachers act on behalf of children. We are professionals who work with a myriad of problems every day. We know when one of our children needs to be hugged and when one of our children needs to sort out his or her difficulties all by him or herself. It's experience, not sugary sentimentalism that teaches best. Our teaching staff is an educated body of men and women who work together in a small school to provide the best possible experiences for the children in our care.

For thirty seven years I've worked with very young children. I've taught preschool for over twenty-five years. I'm an innovator, a possibility hog. My principal and I developed the program that takes children all over our area to see what can be seen and do what can be done because we believe that a summer is a time to discover and witness the world - even for children. At the same time we know that many of these children would not get to do these things outside of school. That includes the pool.

The pool is a teaching place for us, and because it's a public place, it's open to our children too. The numbers we bring help the pool financially, because our cost is the same as everyone else's. And because it is a public place, we deserve the same respect and the same consideration as any other family.

This week we will go to Mammoth Cave. Two weeks ago we were in St. Louis at the zoo. Parents are always invited and many of them go because that's the kind of relationship we have with our parents. It's close. We see every parent every day. We talk to parents every single day about the life of the whole child, because every child is a whole child and needs his or her daily place to care about the child enough to give him or her the very best.

How do we do it? It's a whole lot of work and a whole lot of planning goes into it. Our staff works round the clock to put together a program every single parent of a child at the Garden School can be proud of.

This year our little school won first place in the category of schools with fewer than 40 children in the Hoppining jump for Easter Seals. That's because we care about our community and the people who live here. We care as much about the children who will probably never visit a pool right down to the other children who are swimming along side us. We never complain. We mind our own business, do our work and leave.

The Garden School promise to the parents who allow us to care for their children is to continue to provide the very best of everything including pools no matter what.

Yuck

From Breitbart.com

Comment: this is going too far. It is reverse discrimination in my opinion and absolutely ridiculous.

Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."

The bureau says to be aware of children who "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying 'yuck'."

"Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships," the guide says.

Staff members are advised not to ignore racist actions and to condemn them when they occur.

Communication by Judy Lyden

One of the big issues day in and day out in the childcare business is communication. Believing what I once heard in a college communications class, "You cannot not communicate," I have blithely gone about my early childcare life believing that everyone communicates - somehow - and all you have to do is listen. But recently, I think that there are some loopholes in that premise. I am beginning to believe that some children and most adults have some real impediments to what a thinker would call communication.

Communication is not the holding back of information until the pot boils. Kids do this all the time with bathroom needs. "Do you need to use the bathroom?" And the child ignores you, he shrugs, he pretends you didn't ask. He might even go to the bathroom and stand there or wash his hands. Next thing you know, he's got a problem, but the problem is not verbalized. He might be outside dancing around holding himself and you ask again, "Do you need to use the bathroom?" and he will look at you as if you have two heads.

The experienced provider or teacher never asks, "Do you need to use the bathroom?" The experienced teacher says, "Use the bathroom now."

Holding back information is a bad habit that most people indulge in. I'm never quite sure if it's a method of getting to be king of the mountain, or if it's some other power play or some kind of evasiveness that means a kind of emotional safety zone. If you listen to or engage most people, most conversation will be about the details and minutia of someone's life. You will hear about aches and pains, sleep, and what they ate or watched on TV. Sometimes the conversation will elevate into long reports about people the listener has little contact with or little interest in. This is American conversation and communication. This is what fascinates the speaker and deadens the listener. No wonder we are in decline.

If this is the sum total of what children are witnessing at home, God help the next generation.

The whole point of communication is sharing information. Sometimes the ideal of sharing that information is artistic. Someone's art is the expression of that person's soul, and it becomes our greatest communication more so than any other method of expression. No other thing allows us to more completely give information about ourselves than art. That's why art in the classroom is so important. The knowledge of how to express the self is one of the teaching strategies of a good school.

Getting the person out of the person is a frightening experience for some kids and for most adults. The disdain for the kind of expression that runs as deep as art is often something that runs just too deep to communicate about, and that's a shame. It's a shame because that attitude had to be learned someplace and most likely it was learned at home or from a teacher. Adults are often less willing to communicate on an artistic level than children who always want to show someone what they have done. The scripture passage, "Unless you come to Me as little children..." comes to mind.

Yet as a writer I know that sharing information about writing is about as exciting to a listener as the minutia of my life. Artists who produce often keep the details to themselves. In my own life rarely if ever does someone ask, "What are you writing now?" And more rare than that is a willing listener to the answer. (I'm guessing that the question is not rhetorical.) The finished product of my writing is my communication with the world. It's an enormous part of my life, but it's also a part of my life that must be sublimated constantly by a world more interested in gossip, TV and minutia. When the ultimate response to reading my work is "That's good" I wonder if I'm living in Oz.

Little children, on the other hand, are brash about their work and most live in Oz anyway. "Look, Miss Judy, do you like what I did?" Now there is communication at its absolute best. It's a wide open question that asks a really intense statement. "Do you, the chosen person, like, give a seal of approval from your own soul, what I, the communicator at his best, did, his work, the effort of his mind and heart. Then is not the time for the ultimate brush off, "That's good."

A teaching moment with art can make or break a child's mind and heart for a moment. The breaking of the moment drives the child into the mindlessness of minutia, aches and pains, gossip, TV and what he ate the night before. The making or encouragement from a teacher or parent often signals a child that his work is acceptable, and so is he. This elevates his curiosity, it gives him impetus to accelerate the process of thought and creation to the next level - ideas. Ideas are the greatest form of communication because ideas carried out change the world.

Art develops from ideas and a sense of inner worth. Some people express themselves through clothing, language, funny expression, acts of kindness, creativity at work, a house can become someone's artistic expression. Sometimes it's a garden or a collection or any number of human delights. But at the base of expression is the idea. Ideas are a constant work of art and can give immeasurable goodness at any time.

But ideas are like art today; they are stuffed inside the person and wont to come forth because all around us the talk is minutia, TV, last night's dinner and who did what to whom. Why are so many people stuck in the quagmire of a refusal to bring forth their wonderful ideas and really communicate? Why is conversation so incredibly dull, and why is art sublimated at all costs?

Recently I watched my first "reality" TV. I could listen for about 3 minutes before I felt my brain dying. Perhaps this is the new archetype of communication? It fit the causal bill - minutia of a very boring and hapless life, gossip, TV and aches and pains. If this is the new model of communication, we all better re-examine quickly.

This year in school, one of my afternoons will be spent communicating with kids from the heart. We will do an afternoon of theater where expression and vamp will be award winning. It will be called Communication 101. I am hoping to have children talk about their dreams and their likes and be able to act out the things that interest them. It's verbal expression, and I want to catch that and develop it.

Mrs. St. Louis is turning Friday afternoons into fine arts with the idea that she will be imparting the knowledge necessary to accomplish an understanding of what fine art is.

Miss Amy is using the late mornings for a host of different musical components. These components will be far reaching and include a lot of self expression as well as learning about the art of music.

Miss Kelly will be taking science to a fine art height. The touch, the taste, the smell, the sound, the sight of things natural and expected and those things unexpected will be her playground.

Communication is possible from every human breath. It should be welcomed by adults from children and other adults and should never be limited to stultifying reports about personal minutia or insidious recaps about TV. Think about your last conversation and ask yourself what heights that conversation could have met. It's frightening to think that reality TV has caught us in the same muck.