Teaching Thursday

From Food Navigator

High-fat breakfasts could be healthy option, scientists claim

By Caroline Scott-Thomas, 02-Apr-2010

Related topics: Science & Nutrition, Fats & oils

Typical high-carbohydrate, low-fat breakfasts, such as cereal or toast, may not be as healthy as previously thought, if results from a new mouse study are shown to apply to humans, researchers say.

Related news

• Orange juice may protect against bad effects of high fat meals
• Food addiction: Fat may rewire brain like hard drugs
• Low-fat better for mood than low-carb: Study

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) examined how eating meals with high fat content at different times of the day affected metabolic syndrome in mice. Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by central obesity, hypertension, and disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism. The syndrome has been linked to increased risks of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The researchers found that those mice that ate a high-fat meal early in the day and a low-fat meal later were better able to process fat throughout the day than those that ate a high-carbohydrate meal upon waking. Conversely, they wrote that those that ate high-fat meals at the end of their waking period had more symptoms of metabolic syndrome, despite no difference in total caloric intake or in calories from fat.

Professor of epidemiology at UAB and lead author of the study Molly Bray said: "Humans eat a mixed diet, and our study, which we have repeated four times in animals, seems to show that if you really want to be able to efficiently respond to mixed meals across a day then a meal in higher fat content in the morning is a good thing. Another important component of our study is that, at the end of the day, the mice ate a low-caloric density meal, and we think that combination is key to the health benefits we've seen."

Bray said that high-fat meals upon waking seemed to ‘turn on’ fat metabolism and improve the body’s ability to metabolize different types of food later in the day.

Wednesday is Often the Woe Day

Both Value and Harm Seen in K-3 Common Standards

Comment: A good article to invoke thought. As a small school owner, I know that working with small groups allows us to go a great distance with most children. It takes time, but the result is always amazing. The fear should not be about pushing, the fear should be about endless boredom most children experience when they are not learning.

From Education Week

By Catherine Gewertz

The common academic standards proposed for state adoption outline what students must master by graduation in order to flourish in college or good jobs. Defining how they reach those goals, however, means spelling out what they must learn at each step of the way, starting in kindergarten. And those expectations are getting a mixed reception among early-childhood experts.

In some quarters, the standards are being greeted as valuable guidance for teachers of children in K-3, or as a tool that can improve preschool programs. In others, educators are concerned that the standards ask more of many youngsters than their developmental progress allows. Some fear they could drive play-based learning from children’s classrooms or serve as a basis for high-stakes decisions such as denying kindergartners promotion to 1st grade if they cannot show they have learned required skills.

The swirl of discussion among early-childhood educators about the K-12 common standards is taking on new dimensions, also, as the possibility emerges that they could be expanded to include children from birth to age 5. Leaders of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which organized the drafting of the K-12 standards, told early-childhood experts in meetings and conference calls late last month that they hope to begin working on zero-to-5 standards within a couple of months, according to some of those who participated in the sessions.

Dane Linn, who is leading the work on the Common Core State Standards Initiative for the NGA, told Education Week that the NGA and the CCSSO are exploring ways to work with states and the early-childhood community to ensure that all children have the skills necessary for kindergarten. “We’d be naive to think standards are not a part of that,” he said.

The two groups do not envision “any sort of standardized process in the early years,” said the CCSSO’s executive director, Gene Wilhoit, but rather a “preparedness standard” that would describe the ways

young children’s growth should be supported in all their developmental domains so they enter kindergarten on sound footing.

“That there might be an imposition of hard academic skills pushed down from grade 1 to K to preschool, that’s not what we’re talking about at all,” he said. “There are appropriate kinds of activities kids should be engaged in in order to be successful.”

With zero-to-5 standards in only the idea stage, early-childhood educators have been analyzing how the common K-12 standards could affect students and teachers in kindergarten through 3rd grade, and how well they dovetail with the early-learning guidelines or standards that most states already have for their preschool programs.

“This will cause us all to take a look at our early-learning standards for pre-K and check for alignment to see that we can transition children into the standards for kindergarten,” said Penny Milburn, the president of the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education, which represents those who shape state preschool programs.

Forty-eight states support the project to establish common K-12 “college and career readiness” standards, which were developed by panels of experts assembled by the NGA and the CCSSO and circulated among state officials and education groups for input and revision. During a three-week public comment period that ended April 2, the draft drew more than 5,000 comments. A final version is expected later this spring. ("Proposed Standards Go Public," March 17, 2010.)

Too Narrow?

One area of concern among early-childhood advocates is that the draft K-12 standards cover only math and literacy, leaving out subjects such as science and the arts; expectations for social and emotional growth and motor development; skills such as problem-solving; and such qualities as curiosity and persistence—all considered pivotal to young children’s healthy growing-up.

“Whatever gets raised up takes over for a while, and that’s scary,” said Jerlean E. Daniel, the executive director-designate of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, or NAEYC. “When you narrow down to a couple areas, you miss something.”

Much of the early-childhood community has long been wary of any formal standards for young children, fearing they could result in drilling of rote information. Some studies have found, too, that programs for young children have cut back on play-based learning to prepare pupils for the tested subjects that lie ahead.“Having standards in early-childhood education in general is not a good idea,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor of early-childhood education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and one of more than 400 prominent early-childhood educators who signed a statement by the advocacy group Alliance for Childhood opposing the draft common standards.

“They focus on outcomes: ‘You have to have this skill and this skill by this time,’ when what you should be doing is focusing on inputs, training educators to develop a range of capacities that allow them to be shaping learning, in the moment, for every individual child.”

The children with the weakest skills approaching kindergarten are the ones most likely to attend schools that are short on money and experienced teachers, increasing the chances that creative approaches to early learning will be replaced by drill-based instruction and creating “more school failure for the very children we’re trying to shore up,” Ms. Carlsson-Paige said.

Mr. Wilhoit, a former commissioner of education in Kentucky, said he recognizes the concerns about misuse of the standards and understands that it is “hard for people to back away from those perspectives, having had some inappropriate examples of misuse.” But he urged those considering the standards to “separate” them from those poor examples, noting that there are also many implementations of high-quality standards.

Age Appropriate

Even some of those who support early-learning standards question whether some items in the common-core draft are appropriate for all children.

Sue Bredekamp, a Cheverly, Md.-based consultant who has helped design early-learning standards for states and for the federal Head Start program, cited as an example a requirement in the document that by the end of kindergarten, children should be able to “read emergent-reader literature texts with purpose and understanding.”

“A lot of kids will be able to do this, and quite a few won’t,” she said. “Some will still need extra support and shouldn’t fail if they can’t read fluently.”

She suggested broader phrasing, such as adding “with scaffolding as necessary,” as the standards do at the 2nd grade level, to allow for kindergartners’ varying developmental abilities. The idea, she said, isn’t to water down what should be expected of the youngest children, but to accommodate differing rates of development so that all children learn what they need to know by 3rd grade, but at differing speeds, in differing ways.

Likewise, Ms. Bredekamp said, a requirement that kindergarten students be able to “ask questions about unknown words in a text” raises the question of whether they must be able to read that text independently, rather than reading with a teacher’s assistance or having it read aloud to them.

Feedback such as that, Mr. Wilhoit said, has produced “a healthy and thoughtful exchange that has literally changed the document we’re working on. That’s exactly what we want.”

Samuel J. Meisels, the president of the Erikson Institute, a graduate school of child development in Chicago, and the author of learning standards for birth through 6th grade, said that a major problem with the draft K-12 common standards is that they started from the end point of college and career readiness and worked backward, rather than figuring out how and what the youngest children need to learn, and building upward from there.

“They read like they started from the top, went down from there, and just ran out of room,” he said. “They’ll have to make standards for prenatal now.”

Literacy expert Susan B. Neuman, a professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said the common standards give too little attention to the development of oral-language vocabulary and comprehension, which for young children must precede written language development. She also criticized them for only suggesting—not requiring—the inclusion of specific texts, such as Three Billy Goats Gruff. Both the content and structure of such time-tested literature are important, she said.

“It’s like these children are supposed to develop skills with no content knowledge,” said Ms. Neuman, who was the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education during President George W. Bush’s first term. “We know that it’s not just important to retell any story, it’s important to retell classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. Their simplistic, episodic structure, and their classical elements, help children understand other stories. And teachers will expect them to know that later.”

‘Limited Precedent’

Many leading voices in the early-childhood field recognize the risk of misusing early-learning standards, but still believe that, with care, they can be done right.

“I am strongly pro-standards,” said Sharon Lynn Kagan, a former NAEYC president who is a professor of early-childhood education affiliated with Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Child Study Center at Yale University. “The criticism that they could be misused is valid. We have limited precedent for how to use standards well. But well constructed and well used, they can advance the quality of early-childhood education and the capacities of our teachers.”

Good early-childhood standards cover all the domains crucial to young children’s development, and the proposed common K-12 standards do not do that, she added.

Barbara T. Bowman, who has helped shape training for early-childhood educators for four decades at the Erikson Institute, said that taking charge of the Chicago public schools’ early-childhood programs five years ago has helped her see the value of a common set of expectations, especially for the most disadvantaged children.

“I see children are not getting the kind of education they need to be school-successful,” she said. “We have to have high, clear standards, not to make high-stakes decisions with, but for teachers to use so they know what we expect. Unless we make that very clear, often it’s not happening.”

Ms. Bowman added that she believes those skills can be imparted in developmentally appropriate ways. “We see it done well by good teachers,” she said. “We have to make sure all teachers are doing it.”

Teaching Children How by Judy Lyden

One of the most important things any early teacher can teach a child is how to manage himself in a public situation. We always begin with a little something called a line. Now granted, many adults would view a child's line up as almost sad. Putting little kids into a formation that seems to take their personalities away seems brutal. So let's look at the child and his needs and his desires to better understand why the line is so important.

In his first group, a little child is not going to understand why he can't be the first and the only. After all, he is the first and many times the only at home, and that is what he is accustomed to. When there are thirty first and onlys there are often collisions - heads get bumped, and children are pushed down. There are tears, hurt feelings and a sense of loss of the parent that all emerge at the same time. Chaos raises its pernicious head, and nobody is happy.

Establishing the order of a line is not an easy process. It's about like herding cats. We often put marks on the floor and have the children each find a mark to stand on. If the marks or stickers are different, most of the children find a great satisfaction with a particular sticker. Getting a child to remain on the sticker while the other children find stickers is the hard part. That sense that "I don't really have to" is rampant in today's child care.

Over the months, children begin to understand that somehow when the line is ready and everyone is in it, and that includes them, the line will magically take them outside. It's still a fractured line - a noisy, broken line with children facing in all directions. But none the less, it's somewhat functional as it does somehow get the children from the school to the playground.

Understanding that formation begins with listening and following directions is not always easy especially when there is little back up at home. But stopping, listening, and then doing are the steps to being socially attuned to what is going on in public, and this one ability - to stop self, to listen to another, and to do what is required will make the difference between a success and a failure in big school.

So this is our job. Lately we've been working on being quiet at the table. The idea it's OK to scream at the table and wave arms and kick under the table are bad habits to be broken in order that a child can go off to big school and manage his lunch in a reasonable time with reasonable success.

We have also been working on washing our hands properly and looking at them to see for ourselves that our hands are clean. Self management is a tough thing to teach. From the first scramble to be first and only, a child will not desire to be the cleanest or have the best scrubbed hands. It doesn't work that way. Instead, he will dash to the bathroom, stick his hands under running water and then make a wet bee line to the classroom in order to be first where upon he will tumble and roll and toss around until he is sent back to the bathroom to start all over again.

There is a maturity peak of about late five or six when suddenly a child begins to understand that getting quiet, standing properly in line, washing well the first time, and being quiet at the table makes everything that "must" be done go faster. When they begin to grasp the concept, it's spring and then summer and then it's back to herding cats.

Helping a child at home is really just a two step little dance. The parent makes a request and then asks the child to repeat verbally what has been asked. Then the parent waits for the child to comply. Works.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning, and for those not my friends on Facebook, Happy Easter.

This week is getting back to ordinary time - my favorite. By the Church Calendar, we have another forty days of Easter, but as far as holidays go, we're done for a while.

This week we will be digging into learning and trying to keep spring fever away! I know in arithmetic class we will be Streeeeeeeeeeeeeetching into a fast paced "I can do this all by myself" kind of thing. We will focus on number patterns with the hope of becoming very knowledgeable about base ten which is what our number system is all about. We will be testing on number facts of twos and advance to the threes this week.

We are going to start working on the "Friends of Jesus" in our Bible Story class. The question is "Who were and are his friends" with a focus of why that's so.

In Fine Arts, we will be looking at what we see and trying to draw that. Children will be invited to find something in the school house they would like to draw.

In Geography class, we will be really searching out the United States and doing a little history about how it all got together and then we will begin to look at each state.

In Word Power class, Miss Amy is having the children choose a word and create a definition and learn the part of speech and then write write a sentence using the word. All excellent prep for big school.

In our Kindergarten for Fours, Miss Amy has taught the children enough so that they are writing sentences and really enjoying the power of the written word!

In Reading, Miss Leigh is having the children read, read, read. Practice is sooooo important.

I am so proud of our little guys this year. There has been so much growth and development, and so much joy, it's very hard to explain. Let's say what began a little like herding cats in August has become a group of short teens on an everyday trip to Orderville. Love them!

Lasagna today; new dish tomorrow - gnocchi with snausage ;-} and then on Wednesday, there is breakfast for lunch, chicken cheese pockets on Thursday, and Fish on Friday.

Blessings always and have a great week.

Wild and Wonderful Wednesday

Governor approves new teacher licensing regulations


INDIANAPOLIS (March 30, 2010) - Governor Mitch Daniels today signed new teacher licensing rules that are aimed at improving student achievement, ensuring that all new teachers will be experts in the subjects they teach, and helping adults in other careers move more easily into teaching.

The Indiana Department of Education's Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA) require that those who teach grades 5 through 12 earn baccalaureate degrees in the subjects they teach. A degree in education by itself for these grades will no longer qualify an applicant for an Indiana teaching license.

"From now on, we'll know for certain that math teachers know math, science teachers know science, history teachers know history, and so on. 'How to' courses have their place, but they are secondary in value to mastery of the content we need our children to learn," said Daniels.
Members of the Advisory Board of the Division of Professional Standards, including Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett, have worked with education stakeholders on the revisions since July 2009.

"These new regulations are a win for Indiana's students and educators, and they are a great example of the good things that can happen when adults come together to improve instructional quality for students and put the needs of Indiana children first," Bennett said.

"The Commission for Higher Education looks forward to working with our colleges and universities to align Indiana's teacher preparation programs to these new licensing standards for the benefit of both students and teachers," said Teresa Lubbers, higher education commissioner. "Every student who enters an Indiana school of education should do so with the understanding that our state is placing a priority on content knowledge and effective instruction."

The rules will also:

• Assist successful adults in other careers such as math, science and engineering to become teachers in Indiana schools.
• Provide more flexibility for current and future teachers to renew and update licenses without having to spend thousands of dollars in college tuition.
• Make it easier for current teachers to teach different courses by passing subject matter examinations. This will make teachers more marketable and help schools to offer a wider variety of courses, especially in math and science.
• Increase student achievement. Incoming teachers will work with school leaders to create personalized professional development plans aimed at improving instruction.

Empower school boards to hire superintendents from outside the traditional educational system.
The new teacher licensing rules go into effect July 31, 2010. For more information on the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability, go to www.doe.in.gov/news/2009/07-July/REPA.html.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

Another busy week at the Garden School. This week is Easter Prep week. We will be learning about what Easter means and making Easter things. It's going to be nice so we will spend as much of our recess time outdoors as we can.

We will be focusing on addition and subtraction in math class this week. We will play Suduko again and do some sorting and grouping and some number pattern work.

In reading, the children are simply reading. Miss Leigh says it's a work of art.

We will be working on plaid in Fine Arts, and we will learn about the United States in Geography class.

We will experience artichokes this week along with another lasagna, roast pork, and chicken.

School will be closed on Good Friday - April 2.

Have a great week.

Sunday's Plate

One of the things we have invented at the GS this year is something called taco bread. It's a fun kind of bread the children really like. It's easy to make and has all the things we find in tacos. It's the kind of bread that you can make and serve with plain soup. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and run a hot sudsy sink.

Step One: run very hot water into a large bowl. When the bowl gets hot, drain the water and add two cups of water about the temperature of a baby's bath. The warm bowl will keep the ingredients warm.

Step Two: Add two tablespoons of dry yeast, a teaspoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of canola or olive oil. Let sit for five minutes while you put your oil container and sugar container away.

Step Three: Add a teaspoon of salt and enough flour one or two cups at a time to make a nice pliable bread dough. This will probably take 5-6 cups of flour. I use a combination of whole wheat pastry flour and white flour.

Step Four: punch your fist into the dough, then gather it up into a ball and punch again. Repeat about ten times, then let the dough sit outside the bowl about five minutes while you wash your bowl, cup, spoon and wipe down your counters.

Step Five: saute ground meat the way you would taco filling. Add taco seasoning and any vegetables you normally add. Drain and set aside while you wash your pan, wooden spoon or utensil.

Step Six: roll out the dough with a rolling pin as thin as you can get it and use flour underneath your dough as well as on top to prevent sticking. This might take up your whole counter area.

Step Seven: When dough is rolled out, sprinkle your taco filling onto the bread and cover the entire surface. Add six to eight ounces of shredded cheese.

Step Eight: start rolling the dough at one end as snugly as the dough will bear until it is completely rolled into a tight roll. Bend if necessary to fit on a cookie sheet.

Step Nine: beat an entire egg and paint the whole loaf bread for a lovely finish. Wash your bowl and fork or whisk.

Step Ten: Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Slice at about an inch intervals.

Friday's Tattler

No school on Thursday or Friday, but we had a great trip to the zoo on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun to go through Amazonia and then forge out into the zoo. We broke up into two groups, the older kids with the younger teachers and the older teachers with the younger kids. It was a great day! The sun was out and the spring weather caused a lot of the animals to be out and about.

We saw the ground hogs, the wolves who gave a great showing, and then the birds of prey. They were all beautiful. Then we moved up to the giraffes and the zebras. I wish they would do something with that paddock. It's so barren - almost makes me sad. We wound our way through the peacocks making eyes at one another and then we went to the snake house and the dark room. The children were able to watch the bats and the other night creatures! We came out through the hippo's house.

We went to the children's petting zoo and out the other side to the goats and the donkeys. Then off toward the kangaroos and the kookaburra and the emus and then the camels and the wild horses.

We saw the tigers and the lions and ended up at the rhino who was very gracious and smiled at us. Then it was of through the goose lake and up the hill past the ostriches. It was a lovely day.

The children were sweet as sweet could be and there were no complaints. We headed over to the Newburgh park and had lunch. They ate everything and enjoyed playing on the Fortress of Fun.

The day ended with a full romp outside.

Wednesday's Little Wonder

Got this and thought readers might enjoy another "change." This is an excellent program and one worth saving.

Judy,

I just wanted to follow up with you on this grassroots parenting movement to save an important early literacy program.

President Obama's 2011 proposed budget cuts funding for Reading is Fundamental - RIF is a longtime kids' program that provides free books to millions of kids. RIF receives 80% of its funding from the government.

Currently, the organization is rallying parents, educators and the community with a 'write your politician campaign' on the internet - already thousands have offered their support. You just go to www.rif.org and sign your name - that's it!

Without federal funding, more than 4.4 million children and families will not receive free books or reading encouragement from RIF programs.

Ann Noder
CEO/President
Pitch Public Relations
Ann@PitchPublicRelations.com

Tuesday's Thought

Just a few minutes to spend in an otherwise busy busy week and new schedule. With Mrs. St. Louis out, it's been hard to find time to sit and write. The emotions of having ones best friend ill and surgery pending does not make for the kind of writing life that is productive.

This week I've been thinking about how important the third year is - that's age two. I was at Mass and was watching - couldn't help it - right in front- a beautiful young couple with a what was obviously a two year old who was obviously the boss.

As I watched this couple struggle with this child, I saw them pass her long legged body from one to the other. I saw the parents take her out of the church and bring her back. I saw them pull her into the pew, fighting and struggling. She moaned, groaned, sniveled, squirmed, and whined. It was a most unhappy experience for the child making it a most unhappy experience for mom and dad.

The one thing I did not see her parents do was tell her "no" in a manner that she would understand was a command and not something to go up against. As a result, the child did as the child pleased. I wondered what went on at home.

The one thing that two year old children need most is a firm"no" when they go beyond the rules. The two year old is reaching in every direction possible and not all directions are for him. If mom and dad fail to say "no" then the child will not learn "no."

At two, a child needs to learn to speak - that's why talking to him constantly and telling him what he may and may not do is important. He needs to begin to use words rather than shrieks, tears, actions of destruction, whining or other sounds that he learned in infancy. By using words, a child uses his brain and his body usually follows suit. A thinking two year old is much better behaved than a non thinking one.

A thinking, happy two year old can go anywhere and experience whatever discovery there is for him because he understands that there will always BE something for him because good parents take children places that have something for them. He will look up at his parent who he trusts and ask. A good parent will not expect a two year old to go someplace without something for him.

At church, there is always Mommy or Daddy whispering to him about what is going on, and then he gets to go up with Mommy or Daddy when they go up for Communion. (Not sure what Non Catholics do)

When children do misbehave, and they all do, good parents need to ask themselves about how tired the child is, and if he feels well. Then, if all is right, the child needs to be told in no uncertain terms that he MAY NOT do whatever it is that is misbehavior. He needs to be taken firmly by the arm and told "NO." It's a one word command. It should have all kinds of memories for the child so that he quickly stops the poor behavior. He might cry, and he should be allowed to cry for a short time, but not throw a tantrum. Crying should be contrite not demanding.

Two year olds are not easy to deal with. It's a battle zone for mom and dad. It's an energy sucking time that leaves everyone exhausted at the end of the day. But the age of two is the most important year of discipline a human being will ever have, and once it's done, it's over for good.

Monday's Tattler

Good Morning!

This is Spring Break Week. We will be in school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. School will be closed on Thursday and Friday. We are planning a trip to the zoo on Wednesday. The cost is $10.00. Schools shirts must be worn.

This week we do class work. Because Mrs. St. Louis will be out of school these next weeks, Miss Judy will be teaching the Math Program. Our teachers will be covering Mrs. St. Louis both in the classroom and out. Please pray for her. She will have surgery on Friday.

It is now a push for excellence in the classroom. Children will spar and vie for top positions in the classroom. This is a time for competitive classroom games and achievement. Small achievements will be rewarded and published. Parents can help by asking children what they know and adding to their skills. Please keep in touch with all the teachers about what your child is learning.

Have a great week!

Sunday's Plate

Yesterday afternoon I stood in the kitchen and decided to make a cupcakes. Terry and I like a nice dessert with our tea in the evening. But junk cake and high sugar desserts don't taste good to me anymore. Besides, I want to invest my calories into my body, not make what I am eating a test to my intestinal fortitude!

Now it seems to me that the perfect cake or cupcake needs to be light and dry and delicious with that soul ingratiating wonderful deep flavor. Cake needs to have body and substance, but it can't ever be wet or soggy or sticky or heavy. And because it is a genuine food, it also needs to be a healthy food.

So I thought about making a cake that I could depend on as a basic batter that I could change for variety but still use plain if need be.

First step: I measured three cups of whole wheat pastry flour into a bowl. This flour makes the difference between a cake that equals white bread and one that equals whole grain.

Step two: I used 1.5 cups sugar or 62 teaspoons. If you divide the cupcakes into 24 there are about 3 teaspoons of sugar in each cupcake. A cupcake made like this probably has less sugar than store bought yogurt, cold cereal and packaged junk like granola bars per ounce.

Step three: I used one stick of real butter because margarine is one molecule from plastic, and it's a big no, and 1/4 cup of canola oil because canola oil is good for you. It's an antioxidant. You can skip the butter and just use the oil, but butter is such a nice ingredient, it's hard to nix it.

Step four: I used 2 free range eggs. One was green the other white. Such fun to see the difference in yolks from free range eggs.

Step five: I used 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 of baking soda and1 of salt.

Step six: I used about 1.5 cups of milk. The resulting batter should be heavier than pancake batter but not as heavy as cookie dough. It should taste good. Water is an OK substitute.

This is the basic batter.

Turn the mixer on high and beat it for about three minutes. So necessary to whip a batter on high for a couple of minutes because this gets a lot of air into the mix.

Now for the flavors: I had just made my William some fresh granola, so I took a cup of the granola and added it to the batter. I added an extra cup of coconut too. Then I beat it again for a couple of minutes. Coconut is the healthiest and most nutritious nut there is, and when you use it in cakes or muffins, it lightens the batter.

A good basic cake batter can take any flavor or addition at this point. Chocolate, nuts, jam, juice, fruit, veggie bits, cream cheese, spices, candy bits or anything that sounds good can be put into the cake once the basic ingredients have been added.

Into the baking cups - greased foil works best - I added those caramel balls for baking to the bottom of the muffin tins, and then placed the batter on top and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Otherwise you only need paper cups or none at all.

I frosted my cupcakes with a mix of powdered sugar, almond flavoring and butter. They were delicious. I only make enough cupcakes or cookies at home for one meal. The rest of the batter I keep in a jar that I use through the week. This way, while I'm making dinner, I can slip another six or so cupcakes into the oven for a fresh dessert any night of the week.

Saturday's Something...

My oldest friend of 55 years sent this to me.

STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters.... S. T. R.


STROKE IDENTIFICATION:


During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.


They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening


Jane's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 PM Jane passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.


It only takes a minute to read this...


A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.


RECOGNIZING A STROKE


Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR . Read and Learn!


Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.


Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:


S *Ask the individual to SMILE.

T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)

(I.e. It is sunny out today.)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.


If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.


New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue


NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue... If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

Friday's Tattler

Play days are usually really rough. It's always on Friday and Fridays are rough because the children are tired and so are teachers. It's a long day for me because I come in on Fridays at 5:45 and it's a non stop make and bake day.

Yesterday was a breeze day. It was so relaxed and went so well I can hardly believe it. The children were well behaved and that's a big plus. They knew their lines in our run through Friday morning and everyone just went out to play. It was beautiful outdoors and the children were happy to be there.

A special congratulations to Isaac. He was our reader this year. He read the introduction to the play - a fifth grade level read. He was brilliant. His inflection showed he understood what he was reading. We thank Miss Leigh for all her hard work in the reading program this year.

The play was darling. The O'Learys came out and began their scene with Jil's wonderful loud voice. Sam had presence, Colby had moxie, and Makenzie was adorable in her role as Mrs. O'Leary. Robby got an audience ahhhhh with his cuteness in his lines, "But he's not a nut papa; he has two legs!"





Javeon was a natural presence as St. Patrick. He was believable and said his lines with sincerity. So proud of him.
Austin was a great Druid King - Chicken Face - a funny, delightful and daring king ready to listen to ideas and think for himself!




The Druid princesses were brilliant in their performance as little vixen queens thinking the world belonged to them for as long as they wanted it! Emily was wonderful giving a bright and energetic performance. Alyssa was sure of herself, foxy and vampy. Jill was darling and was right in there with her camp. And lastly, Alexis, our youngest princess was loud, daring and adorable with her straight forward presentation. So delighted!



The leps were leps and got themselves from one end of the play to the other with funny little jokes and decisions that led CJ to manage his "brilliant" idea and lead the leps to "doing something good for someone I (God) love" and getting back to heaven. Each of them: Garrett, Scotty, Ely, Ayden, Brady, Jake, Jack, CJ, Nathan, delivered the lines with humor - so much so they were laughing on stage.



The Brownies were as cute as cute could be. Savannah, Toby, Eden and the Triplets: Sophie, Ella and Abbie danced and recited and tumbled for our audience. It is always interesting for us to have such wonderful children come to the Garden School and participate as well as these children do.





The snakes were cute as kittens: Summer, Cheyenne, Layla, Hunter, Jacob, Michael,Donavan and Phoenix sang, danced and were very very loud in their parts. So glad. So cute. These are our youngest performers. They do a great job hamming it up.






Miss Leigh did the backdrop, Mrs. St. Louis made the costumes, and Miss Dayna's never ending hours were a blessing to the entire school. Miss Molly manned the refreshment table and Miss Amy and Miss Judy directed these last weeks to bring the play to life. One parent commented that it was the best play we've had in a long time. My response was simple: a good staff!

Thursday's Teacher

From Education Week

Comment: I think this article is a good one based on what we see so early in the children we serve. I think the management of the classroom has a lot to do with why boys are less likely to enjoy school. Studies in a boys life are one of many interests, and the physical is often neglected. More recess is the answer. Boys will do better with more time to move.



Boys Trail Girls in Reading Across States

By Erik W. Robelen

A new study on gender differences in academic achievement, offering what it calls “good news for girls and bad news for boys,” finds that, overall, male students in every state where data were available lag behind females in reading, based on an analysis of recent state test results. At the same time, in mathematics, a subject in which girls have historically trailed, the percentages of both genders scoring “proficient” or higher were roughly the same, with boys edging out girls slightly in some states and girls posting somewhat stronger scores in others.

In certain states, such as Arkansas, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Vermont, the gender gap for reading proficiency was 10 percentage points or higher, based on 2008 test data.

“The most pressing issue related to gender gaps is the lagging performance of boys in reading,” says the report, released today by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.

In a conference call with reporters, Jack Jennings, the group’s president and chief executive officer, noted that whether looking at student outcomes at the elementary, middle, or high school level, male rates of proficiency were lower than for females across all states studied in 2008. (Forty-five states had data available for all three levels.)

“There is a consistent achievement gap,” he said. “Something is going on in our schools holding back boys.”

The report does offer some encouragement for boys in reading, suggesting that as a group, they are making some gains over time, and that the gender gap has narrowed in many states.

For instance, in 38 out of 44 states, the percentages of 4th grade boys scoring proficient or higher climbed between 2002 and 2008. Also, in 24 out of 44 states, the gender gap for 4th graders in the percentage of students scoring proficient or higher narrowed over that time period, though it widened in another 14 states.

When looking at the data another way, however, based on changes in the average of test scores, the gaps between boys and girls in reading “widened across all three grade levels [elementary, middle, and high school] as often as they narrowed.”

‘Clear and Startling’ Differences

The new report from the Center on Education Policy is part of a series of studies the organization has been conducting that examine trends on state tests since 2002, when the federal No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The center notes that one reason for the report’s focus on the rate of students deemed “proficient” is that the designation is the key indicator used to determine whether districts and schools have made adequate yearly progress under the federal law. However, as the report emphasizes, each state uses its own tests to gauge proficiency and also sets its own cutoff score for what it judges proficient.

The report says that research has long noted historical differences in the achievement of boys and girls in reading and math, though considerable recent research suggests there is no longer a gender gap in math achievement.

With its state-by-state analysis, the report is able to identify those states that appear to struggle the most with gender gaps in reading. In Arkansas, the gap was 13 percentage points at the elementary level and 14 percentage points at both middle and high school in 2008. On state tests in Hawaii that year, boys came in 14 percentage points behind at the elementary level, 13 in middle school, and 16 in high school.

In the conference call, Mr. Jennings noted that even Massachusetts, a state known for its strong academic standards and performance, has a sizable gender gap, at 13 percentage points for elementary students in 2008.

Some other states, however, such as Florida, Kansas, Nebraska, and Virginia, had much smaller reading gaps at all levels. In Virginia, for example, the gender gap for boys was 3 percentage points at the elementary and middle levels and just 1 percentage point in high school.

In most cases, the gender gap in state math achievement did not exceed 5 percentage points, the 2008 data show.

Susan B. Neuman, an education professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in literacy development, called the new study “an extraordinarily important document.”

Ms. Neuman, a former U.S. assistant education secretary under President Bush who was invited to participate in the conference call but was not involved in the study, emphasized the findings with regard to boys’ achievement, noting that it is a relatively recent trend.

“We’ve been talking about closing the achievement gap in so many different ways, ... but we have not focused on the gender gap, which is very clear and startling in this report.”

She added, “I think we have to re-evaluate our curricula, re-evaluate how we are managing our classrooms.”

Wacky Wonderful Wednesday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a wonderful article I think everyone will enjoy!

Water or Coke?
I could not believe this..... Very interesting. It's easy to re-hydrate yourself. When you get up drink a pint of water, do it again at 11:00, 3:00 and before you go to bed. That's your eight glasses!





WATER

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
(Likely applies to half the world population)


#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak
that it is mistaken for hunger.


#3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as 3%.


#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs
for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of
Washington study.


#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.


#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of
water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain
for up to 80% of sufferers.


#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term
memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on
the computer screen or on a printed page.


#8.. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of
colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast
cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop
bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water
you should drink every day?



COKE

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries
two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from
the highway after a car accident.


#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke
and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the
toilet bowl and let the 'real thing' sit for one hour,
then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes
stains from vitreous china.


#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:
Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds
Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.


#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour
a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble
away the corrosion.


#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola
to the rusted bolt for several minutes.


#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into
the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake.
Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix
with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.


#8... To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke
into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run
through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen
grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your
windshield.


FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

#1 the active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid.
It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric
acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major
contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (the concentrate) the
commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place
cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean
engines of the trucks for about 20 years! Now the question is, would you like a glass of water?

or Coke?

Monday's Tattler

This week the concentration is on the play. The kids are doing a remarkable job and we are encouraging them to ham up their lines. It will be a fun week. We will do a little of the usual school work and play some group games and do some art, but the general focus is on the play.

If you do not have your summer field trip form in, please send it in. We are getting lots of calls from people who want places in our summer program, and in April, we will be enrolling them. There are only 40 spots, so please let us know if you want one.

Please send your child in a coat every day. It is too cold for a child to play outside for any length of time without a coat. We have had several children arrive to school in short sleeves. It is too cold for this. Also, snow boots should be left at home. Cowboy boots are fine until the weather is too warm for them to be comfortable.

If your child is having a birthday, and you would like to bring a cake or cookies or even something homemade your child would love it. Please remember him on his birthday. See the handbook!

If you need a new handbook, please let us know.

If you have a friend who you think would like the Garden School and has a child who is age- eligible, please pass on our name to him or her.

Spring break is March 25 and 26. We will be closed.

Have a great week!

Sunday's Plate

Every once in a while I buy a whole cookbook devoted to something special or something I really love like cheesecake. Cheesecake is a many splendored thing! Recently, I found myself throwing a little cheesecake recipe book into my grocery cart and then leaving it on my desk until curiosity reared its head. Glancing at the book, I realized just how much I really like a good cheesecake, and I wondered just how you get a really good quality one.

I think the answer is the temperature of the cheese. Years ago, we left all kinds of things out - butter, eggs, cheese, and nobody thought twice about using these constantly room temperature foods. Today if it isn't refrigerated within ten minutes of purchase, it's heave ho! Not necessary.

Leave your cheese out several hours - won't hurt it or you.

The crust is the first thing to be considered in cheesecake. The question is: what DO you want? The answer is an individual thing. The easiest crust is a ready made - plain graham cracker, chocolate, or vanilla or some of the new crusts.

The other alternative is to make a plain crust from graham crackers butter and sugar, and the third idea is something creative like ground ginger snaps or mint cookies, or even an herb cracker. Remember, it's not an archetype, it's a preference.

If using a homemade crust, the basic recipe is crumbs plus butter plus sugar. For a usual size spring form pan, use 1/2 stick of butter to 1/4 cup sugar to 1.5 cups flour or crumbs ( from graham crackers, or cookies).

Now for the filling:

If using a ready made crust, use two 8-oz blocks of cream cheese. If using a spring form pan, use four 8 oz blocks.

For every block of cream cheese, use 1/3 cup sugar and an egg.

When mixing cream cheese and sugar and eggs, you must beat it hard and for at least three minutes. The cheese must not be lumpy or your cake will be lumpy. Always add 1/4 cup of flour for a spring form and 2 tablespoons for a ready made crust

This is your BASIC recipe.

Now for flavoring -

Nearly anything can go into a cheesecake: Here are some ideas: eggnog, rum, Irish liquor, coffee, chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry, cranberry, pumpkin, pecan, mint, and just about any other concoction you can come up with. I even saw a coconut macaroon cheesecake listed.

The point to perfection is to make sure your cheesecake batter is smooth and has enough flour to bind it. If you add a liquid like rum, make sure you add a little more flour.

Cheesecakes can even be two layer. Bake one and then the next in the same pan.

The sky is the limit. It takes a little effort to be creative, but with the spring fruit on its way, it is fun to dream about lovely desserts that are easy to make. When you have made your cheesecake batter, it keeps a week without cooking. It's a think you can do a day before you need it, and remember cheesecake ages with a spledored magic. It tastes better the second and third day.

Now imagine a chocolate crust and a crushed raspberry bottom with a light vanilla top to a two layer cheesecake.

Imagine a vanilla crust with a dark chocolate bottom and a caramel top. Melting caramels and stirring them into the cheesecake batter is a delight!

Imagine using mint chocolate chips to line the chocolate cookie crust and then using a few chips to decorate the top of the cake.

How about a caramelized nut liner to a chocolate cheesecake or an Irish cream cheesecake mmmm...

When baking, make sure your cake rises and seems puffed and slightly cracked on top. After you have removed it from the 350 degree oven, let it cool. It will sink slightly in the middle. You can build that up with sweetened sour cream, but it isn't necessary.

Cool on a rack so your crust does not get soggy.

Happy cheesecaking!

Saturday's Shopping

Greetings from Yoga 101 ! At 2800 Lincoln Ave in Evansville.


March is here and Spring is just around the corner! Spring is a season of renewal and growth. Join us as we shake off the winter blues and welcome Spring with our first ever "Friends and Family Weekend" Saturday March 20th and Sunday March 21st. Encourage your friends and family to come and experience the wonderful benefits of hot yoga and enjoy special discounts off of purchases made that weekend. Hope to see you there!

Namaste
Friends and Family Weekend!

Join us for our Friends and Family Weekend Saturday March 20th and Sunday March 21st. All students new and old will be able to enjoy 20% off of purchases made that weekend! Encourage your friends and family members who have been wanting to try out our classes to come in and purchase a class package that weekend so that they can receive 20% off of their purchase. Merchandise is also included in the sale!

Friday's Tattler

Jasmin and Isaac won the spelling bee today. They did a great job. So happy to hear that they tied because each one spelled as well as the next. That is enough to warm my heart. Isaac is reading on at least a second grade level if not better. So proud of him.

There was another medal party on Friday - I understand that fifteen people attended. I'm hoping for a medal party that includes all the kids. If a child loses his medal during the week because he either made another child cry on purpose, was chronically disobedient or chronically disruptive, he needs to understand that he is not behaving in a socially acceptable way. Change is the best policy there.

We practiced the play again on Friday. It's at about 75%. That means seventy-five percent of the children know their lines and when to come in. We need that last twenty-five percent for a great play. We will get there. Costuming has been done, and the children all look darling. Next part is back drop and props.

I am working on the summer itinerary. As soon as fees start rolling in, I can be more definite about where we are going and when. The schedule will come out the first week in April no matter what, but many of the trips will be conditional unless fees are in. It's very hard to plan on promises.

Spring Break is the week after the play. We will be in school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and will take a field trip on Wednesday to the Zoo weather permitting. We will be out on Thursday and Friday.

Blessings on a great weekend! See you Monday!

Teaching Thursday

From Teacher Magazine

The cover story in the current issue of Newsweek proclaims that, in order to improve schools, "we must fire bad teachers." The story points to research showing that teacher quality is the most important factor in student success, and then argues that, for a variety of reasons - union obstructionism foremost among them - the teaching profession on the whole has languished in recent years, particularly in low-income schools. It cites the recently planned mass firings at Central Falls High in Rhode Island as "a notable breakthrough" in coming to terms with this issue, adding that "if more truly bad teachers were let go," the good ones would get more respect and a "boost in status that comes with higher standards."

What's your view? Is firing bad teachers the key to improving schools? Would it ultimately bolster the teaching profession? Why shouldn't ineffective teachers be fired - or why aren't they more often?

To participate in this discussion go HERE.

Comment: What makes a poor teacher? Is it someone who can't teach? Can't relate? Someone who cheats the kids out of learning? Someone whose standards are too high, not high enough?

I believe a poor teacher is an ignorant one. A teacher who doesn't know anything and who clings to the textbook without offering the extras is a poor teacher. An ignorant teacher is going to be ignorant about life in general.

I think administrators should always be on the lookout for good teachers and trade up. That's the way it's done everyplace else, so why should schools be the exception?

Wonderful Wednesday...

From Newsweek Magazine

George F. Will
The Basement Boys
The Making of Modern Immaturity.

Published Mar 8, 2010

From the magazine issue dated Mar 8, 2010

Comment: very worth reading.

Current economic hardships have had what is called in constitutional law a "disparate impact": The crisis has not afflicted everyone equally. Although women are a majority of the workforce, perhaps as many as 80 percent of jobs lost were held by men. This injury to men is particularly unfortunate because it may exacerbate, and be exacerbated by, a culture of immaturity among the many young men who are reluctant to grow up.

Increasingly, they are defecting from the meritocracy. Women now receive almost 58 percent of bachelor's degrees. This is why many colleges admit men with qualifications inferior to those of women applicants—which is one reason men have higher dropout rates. The Pew Research Center reports that 28 percent of wives between ages 30 and 44 have more education than their husbands, whereas only 19 percent of husbands in the same age group have more education than their wives. Twenty-three percent of men with some college education earn less than their wives. In law, medical, and doctoral programs, women are majorities or, if trends continue, will be.

In 1956, the median age of men marrying was 22.5. But between 1980 and 2004, the percentage of men reaching age 40 without marrying increased from 6 to 16.5. A recent study found that 55 percent of men 18 to 24 are living in their parents' homes, as are 13 percent of men 25 to 34, compared to 8 percent of women.

Mike Stivic, a.k.a. Meathead, the liberal graduate student in All in the Family, reflected society's belief in the cultural superiority of youth, but he was a leading indicator of something else: He lived in his father-in-law Archie Bunker's home. What are today's "basement boys" doing down there? Perhaps watching Friends and Seinfeld reruns about a culture of extended youth utterly unlike the world of young adults in previous generations.

Gary Cross, a Penn State University historian, wonders, "Where have all the men gone?" His book, Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity, argues that "the culture of the boy-men today is less a life stage than a lifestyle." If you wonder what has become of manliness, he says, note the differences between Cary Grant and Hugh Grant, the former, dapper and debonair, the latter, a perpetually befuddled boy.

Permissive parenting, Cross says, made children less submissive, and the decline of deference coincided with the rise of consumer and media cultures celebrating the indefinite retention of the tastes and habits of childhood. The opening of careers to talented women has coincided with the attenuation of male role models in popular culture: In 1959, there were 27 Westerns on prime-time television glamorizing male responsibility.

Cross says the large-scale entry of women into the workforce made many men feel marginalized, especially when men were simultaneously bombarded by new parenting theories, which cast fathers as their children's pals, or worse: In 1945, Parents magazine said a father should "keep yourself huggable" but show a son the "respect" owed a "business associate."

All this led to "ambiguity and confusion about what fathers were to do in the postwar home and, even more, about what it meant to grow up male." Playboy magazine, a harbinger of perpetual adolescence, sold trinkets for would-be social dropouts: "Join the beat generation! Buy a beat generation tieclasp." Think about that.

Although Cross, an aging academic boomer, was a student leftist, he believes that 1960s radicalism became "a retreat into childish tantrums" symptomatic "of how permissive parents infantilized the boomer generation." And the boomers' children? Consider the television commercials for the restaurant chain called Dave & Buster's, which seems to be, ironically, a Chuck E. Cheese's for adults—a place for young adults, especially men, to drink beer and play electronic games and exemplify youth not as a stage of life but as a perpetual refuge from adulthood.

At the 2006 Super Bowl, the Rolling Stones sang "Satisfaction," a song older than the Super Bowl. At this year's game, another long-of-tooth act, the Who, continued the commerce of catering to baby boomers' limitless appetite for nostalgia. "My generation's obsession with youth and its memories," Cross writes, "stands out in the history of human vanity."

Last November, when Tiger Woods's misadventures became public, his agent said: "Let's please give the kid a break." The kid was then 33. He is now 34 but, no doubt, still a kid. The puerile anthem of a current Pepsi commercial is drearily prophetic: "Forever young."

Monday's Tattler

This morning Miss Judy, Mrs. St. Louis and Mr. Terry will be in Indianapolis. We will return on Tuesday. If there is anything you must have ASAP please see Miss Amy.

This week we are adamant that your child knows his lines. This is a group activity and important to every child.

We will fit your child with a costume this week.

We will have as many classes as we can fit in with play practice. It will rain this week, so rain boots and rain coats are a good idea for kids.

Please remind your child that he needs to take special care to keep his medal. There might be another party this week!

Please return your summer enrollment this week. We are taking outside the school reservations. This is a really good deal for summer: class days on Monday and Thursday, and swimming all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a huge huge huge field trip on Fridays. Parents welcome every Friday. There is no other school in Evansville that does so much for so little. Please remember that your child needs to explore in the summer. Every child has the right to be able to say, "I had a great summer, we went here, and here, and here and we did this and this and this, and I learned to swim and go off the diving board.

If there are any problem with the cost, please see Miss Judy on Tuesday.

Sunday's Plate

We made a new treat this week. It was delicious!

We started at 5:45 a.m. with a clean kitchen! So important that all the dishes are done and put away, the counters are cleaned and the sink has been drawn with hot soapy water for the next job - cheesecake bars!

These are simple and fun and they are sooooo good. Here's what you do after you preheat your oven to 350 degrees:

Step one: in food processor put 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar and blend until you have what looks like cracker crumbs. Put your canisters away!

Step two: press crumbs into the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan that has been pan coated and bake for 15 minutes.

Step three: in the empty food processor bowl, place 1 egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 8oz block of cream cheese and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and blend until creamy.

Step four: pour the egg mix onto the cooked crumb mix.

Step five: put your empty food processor bowl, blade and any cooking utensils into the sink.

Step six: Bake pan of crumbs and cheese mix again for fifteen minutes.

Step seven: wash your processor bowl, your utensils, and wipe down your counter and put all garbage in the trash.

Step eight: pour 1/2 package of chocolate toffee crumbles onto the cooked cheese bars. Cool.

Cut into reasonable squares and devour.

Soooooooooo good.

Friday's Tattler

Friday was a wonderful day. We had a late breakfast of pancakes and juice and milk, and then we played outside.

During play practice, I was so pleased with the children who have learned their lines. This is so important to do this quickly, because we can then ham up or do some body language with our lines. When the children don't know their lines until the last minute, it's stressful to the other children.

Sam and Jake have been wonderful about their lines. Jasmine learned her lines, Javeon is doing a fine job with his dialogue, and Austin knows his lines, but needs to speak louder! Emily is a pro, and Kylie is not far behind. Jill knows every word and Colby is very very strong.

In the afternoon, Miss Leigh and Miss Dayna had a party for all the children who kept their medals all week. There were seventeen children who kept their medals all week. The names are posted in the front hall of the school. They had an ice cream sandwich and MacDonalds fun party.

Lots going on at school. It's hard to keep up sometimes...

Thursday's Teacher

We Need a New Start for Head Start

By Isabel V. Sawhill & Jon Baron

From Education Week

Comment: when it comes to ideology, people are really slow on the uptake. Head Start doesn't work because we fail to believe that the parent IS IS IS the primary educator of the child no matter what. A program that is going to override the home has to be more than what Head Start is willing to offer. The public cannot offer more than mediocrity.

In January, we learned that the $7 billion Head Start preschool program produces far fewer positive effects on participants’ lives than its advocates have assumed. A rigorous study found that the program, after producing some initial gains during preschool, had almost no effect on children’s cognitive, social-emotional, or health outcomes at the end of 1st grade, compared with a control group of children whose families had access only to the usual community services. ("Head Start Study Finds Brief Learning Gains," Jan. 14, 2010.)

It would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that early-childhood education never works. Clearly some programs, including some individual Head Start centers, do. This is the 10th instance since 1990 in which an entire federal social program has been evaluated using the scientific “gold standard” method of randomly assigning individuals to a program or control group. Nine of those evaluations found weak or no positive effects, for efforts such as the $300 million Upward Bound program (academic preparation for at-risk high school students), and the $1.5 billion Job Corps program (job training for disadvantaged youths). Only one—Early Head Start, a sister program to Head Start for younger children—was found to produce meaningful but modest effects.

"Instances of proven effectiveness are rare, in part because rigorous evaluations are still uncommon in most areas of social policy, including education."

Meanwhile, the problems these programs are designed to address have not gone away. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent—higher than in 1973. Similarly, the country has made very limited progress in raising K-12 reading, math, or science achievement over the past 35 years, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ long-term-trend reporting. Advances have been made in some areas of social policy, such as reducing rates of teenage pregnancy and violent crime, but in many key areas progress has been minimal.

A new approach is needed. One that has been suggested—defunding these programs—would amount to giving up the fight against major social problems such as educational failure and poverty that damage millions of American lives. A far better alternative is to use rigorous evidence about “what works” to evolve Head Start and other federal efforts into truly effective programs over time, and to use sophisticated models to trace their longer-term effects on children’s life prospects.

---

This approach draws on the insight that most of these programs are actually broad funding streams that finance multiple models and strategies (“interventions”). Although evaluations may show that the program as a whole has little or no positive effect, certain specific interventions within it may indeed be effective. An example of this in preschool education is Project Upgrade, a Miami-Dade County, Fla., initiative that trained teachers of low-income preschoolers in language and literacy instruction. Its interventions were shown in a large randomized evaluation to increase the development of children’s vocabulary and early reading skills by four to nine months over the course of a single school year, compared with the control group.

Other, nonpreschool examples of research-proven interventions include career academies in low-income high schools (shown to produce a long-term increase in earnings averaging $2,200 per year); the Success for All whole-school reform in grades K-2 (shown to increase schoolwide reading ability in 2nd grade by 25 percent to 30 percent of a grade level); the Nurse-Family Partnership, which provides nurse-visitation services to low-income first-time mothers (shown to produce sustained reductions of nearly 50 percent in child abuse and neglect); and the Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program (shown to produce 40 percent to 50 percent reductions in teenage girls’ pregnancies and births).

Such instances of proven effectiveness are rare, in part because rigorous evaluations are still uncommon in most areas of social policy, including education. But their very existence suggests that evidence-based reforms in Head Start and other federal social programs could help them evolve to become much more effective.

One straightforward reform, which could be done within President Barack Obama’s proposed spending freeze, would be for Congress to allocate a small portion of funds in these programs toward rigorous evaluations to grow the number of proven interventions, and then to provide strong incentives for recipients to adopt the proven interventions and put them into widespread use. The Obama administration has proposed such an approach in federal teen-pregnancy and home-visitation programs. It is clearly also needed in Head Start and other large federal programs that are not performing well.

In the field of medicine, an evidence-based approach based on randomized evaluations has produced amazing improvements in human health over the past 50 years. Such evaluations have, on the one hand, stunned the medical community by overturning widely accepted practices, such as hormone-replacement therapy for postmenopausal women (shown to increase the risk of heart disease and breast cancer) and stents to open clogged arteries (shown as no better than drugs for most heart patients).

But, on the other hand, the evaluations have provided the conclusive evidence of effectiveness for most of the major medical advances, including vaccines for polio, measles, and hepatitis B; effective treatments for hypertension and high cholesterol; and cancer treatments that have dramatically improved survival rates from leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, breast cancer, and many other cancers.

The American public is increasingly concerned about the way their tax dollars are being spent. A clear shift in direction, based on proven-effective strategies, could turn programs such as Head Start into potent, rather than ineffectual, forces against the major problems facing the nation.

Isabel V. Sawhill is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, and the co-director of its Center on Children and Families. Jon Baron is the president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, in Washington.