Recently in AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIALS Category

I've been so overwhelmed with my own back-to-school issues that I haven't been keeping up with all the blogs I usually read and I missed this gem.

Starbucks is giving K-12 teachers free coffee when they show their ID badges every Monday in September. My tardiness has already cost you three cups. But you still have two Mondays left to take advantage of the deal. Read all the details.

I will give myself blog detention this weekend for not doing all my homework and making you all miss out on free coffee. Sorry.

If you haven't read the "prom memories" thing on our graduation page, you should check it out. I just went to see if anyone had added to the list since its original posting. My favorite quotes when I was compiling the list were all the ones about the dresses, probably because I spent so much time agonizing over what to wear to mine.

This is my fave new quote that someone posted Monday:

In 1976 my budget for a prom dress was $20.00, buying a $100.00 dress and taking it back the next day and getting my money back, my Mom never new.
West High, 1976

Also, check out the photo galleries from this year's graduations around the South Bay. Our photographers have been knocking themselves out to get to as many graduations as possible. So far, they have posted galleries from 10 ceremonies and are planning to shoot several more. If we didn't get to yours this year, you can post your own pics on the grad page.

The education page over at MSNBC.com has this very interesting feature about a fascinating new way that some colleges are trying to attract students: By designing ads aimed specifically at sought-after pupils.

And by "specifically," I mean, like, to the name. Literally.

Among the kids included in the story are 18-year-old Nicole Pollock, of Pennsylvania, whose name, in an ad campaign by Wilkes University, was "plastered ... on billboards, pizza boxes and gas pumps -- and even aired a commercial on MTV -- in hopes of getting her to enroll. As one message put it: "We just hope you're on your way to Wilkes University next year."

Wow! Imagine driving down the highway and seeing your name on a billboard, begging you to attend some fancy school.

So far it sounds like this new technique is more or less unique to Wilkes University, but it can't be long before other schools follow suit to some degree, right? Let me know if you hear of such a thing happening anywhere around here.

This story is from Monday's Washington Post, but I just now came across it and, as per my headline, all I can say is OMG.

It's about young teachers with provocative Facebook pages and the related implications. As reporter Ian Shapira writes, "In states including Florida, Colorado, Tennessee and Massachusetts, teachers have been removed or suspended for MySpace postings, and some teachers unions have begun warning members about racy personal Web sites. But as Facebook, with 70 million members, and other social networking sites continue to grow, scrutiny will no doubt spread locally."

It's intriguing and not a little cringe-inducing. Enjoy.

Rock Around the Block, an annual fundraiser of the Wiseburn Education Foundation, the body that itself raises funds to help support programs of the Wiseburn School District, is ready to roll for tomorrow.

Being held this year at the brand-new Dana Middle School campus, at 5330 W. 135th St., in Hawthorne, the events offers a smorgasbord of family fun, from train rides and face painting and a live Nintendo Wii competition to live music, bingo and food.

The festivities start at 9 a.m. and run until 2 p.m. Enjoy!

Memories, of the way we were...

Ahhh, memories, sights and sounds and images tucked away in the far reaches of our brains, now and then emerging out of nowhere to remind us of what once was, whether that once was was good, bad or ugly.

Starting today, I'll finish every Friday with a memory of my own, dredged from that part of my own mind-bank where I've stored all my past experiences school-related, however remotely, so as to stay on topic, this being a school blog and all.

Since this is my first stab (and also since I'm eager to start my weekend -- TGIF!), I'll make my inaugural rehashing on the short side, employing as much brevity as possible (my intro is long enough, I know) in regaling you with my recollection of the first time I was forced to endure a school picture session.

It was in preschool, I was wearing a forest-green turtleneck and my hair was cut into something of bowl, though my bangs were somewhat squared off. And then there was that unfortunate cowlick that remains to this day.

A shy girl with a distaste for speaking to, much less interacting with, anyone other than my parents, my sister and select friends, I was, to put it mildly, extremely displeased when a strange man came at me with a comb -- pulled, by the way, from a large jar stuffed with the plastic contraptions, which at the time didn't occur to me but now that I think about it was very hygienically suspect -- then proceeded to instruct me to "smile pretty for the camera."

I did not comply. In fact, I went the opposite direction and, as I was often wont to do in my childhood (as I'm so frequently reminded, still, by my sister), I swallowed any semblance of a smile and instead shoved my bottom lip out as far as I could get it and settled into the poutiest pout you ever did see.

And I wouldn't budge, despite the photographer's pleas -- not to mention those of my teacher, who was there with the rest of my class, all lined up and awaiting their own closeups -- to please smile. Just once, please.

It was not to be. And so he took the picture of pouty preschooler Shellly, a picture that to this day hangs on the wall at my parents' house, forever reminding me -- with not a little pleasure, I must admit -- of the fiery toddler that was and how, as just wee 5-year-old (wait, are you 4 in preschool, or 5? I forget), I managed to so fluster a grown man.

Happy weekend, y'all. Send your own school memories to me anytime: shelly.leachman@dailybreeze.com.

Oy.

EdWeek has a doozy today about the vexing problem now facing the Texas school system: What to do with all those many children, some 400-plus of them, recently removed from the polygamists' compound, the Yearning For Zion ranch, in Eldorado.

For now anyway, the state is sending school supplies and materials, and not a few teachers, to school the kids at the shelters housing them until all the legal wrangling is worked out.

Interesting.

You can access a chunk of the story here. You can read the whole thing by registering with the site, I do believe.

PBS recently featured San Diego-based High Tech High, an admission-by-lottery charter founded and run by business leaders and built on competition. The school is big on cross-curricular teaching, hands-on activities and entrepreneurship -- especially in the realms of science and technology.

Anyway, it's an interest report, and easy enough to read, being a transcript of the broadcast now posted online.

Enjoy.

I received this press release today from Torrance's Riviera Elementary School, which has a number of activities ongoing related to Earth Day, upcoming on Tuesday, the 22nd. Such things include the decoration and distribution of paper grocery bags bearing eco-friendly messages.

Here you have it, from campus Earth Day coordinator and PTA member Karen Wheeler:

"This is to announce Riviera Elementary School’s participation in the fifteenth annual Earth Day Grocery Bag Project! The students have decorated paper grocery bags with environmental messages. On Earth Day, April 22, 2008, and continuing through the week, shoppers at Sprouts Farmers Market in Torrance can receive their groceries in the decorated bags.The people in our community will get a very clear and positive message that the students at our school care about their environment.

Other Earth Week activities at Riviera will include: a used book drive to support the struggling libraries of two public schools in Compton, plastic waste-free lunch days, and a walk-with-your-kid-to-school day. We invite you to contact us to find out more about the specific activities at our school and the commitment of our students to the issue of environmental education.

The Earth Day Grocery Bag Project is a grassroots, nonprofit, international educational effort coordinated on the Internet at www.earthdaybags.org. A report from our school will be added to the website, so others will know about our efforts. The project started in 1994, with 43 schools reporting the decoration and distribution of 13,000 Earth Day Grocery Bags. By 1999, the number of schools reporting in reached nearly 1,200, with students decorating almost 400,000 Earth Day Grocery Bags! Every report from all the previous years is on the website. There are also thousands of pictures of schools from around the world involved in this project."

Thanks for sharing, Karen!

The New York Times has a cool feature today about this great nonprofit program that, as J. Courtney Sullivan puts, it "pairs high school girls from disadvantaged backgrounds who want to be writers with women who are authors, journalists, playwrights, poets and editors. The group produces an anthology of student writing each spring, and puts on several public readings."

Called Girls Write Now, it's about a decade old, but it's the first I've heard of it. Probably because it's a New York thing, oui? If you've heard of anything at all similar here -- outside of 826LA, with which I'm extremely familiar, having been a founding volunteer at 826Valencia in San Franciso -- let me know!

Ever on top of things, I just came across the following, fascinating story today, although it was actually published about two months ago. (Props and thanks to Alexander Russo's This Week In Education blog for alerting me.)

Appearing in New York Magazine and penned by San Francisco-based writer Po Bronson, the intriguing piece titled "Learning to Lie" examines a load of recent research into lying by kids -- when they start doing it, why they do it, what they do it for, etc. -- that suggests they're simply following in their parents' footsteps.

Here's a short sample:
"The most disturbing reason children lie is that parents teach them to. According to Talwar, they learn it from us. “We don’t explicitly tell them to lie, but they see us do it. They see us tell the telemarketer, ‘I’m just a guest here.’ They see us boast and lie to smooth social relationships.”

Disclaimer: It's a long, beefy read. Also it's pretty interesting stuff. You make the call, people.

Leave it to MTV, great exploiter of adolescent angst and drama, erego disguised under a veil of "reality," vis a vis shows such as "Laguna Beach" and "Newport Harbor" and "My Super Sweet Sixteen," which all combined would have you think that today's teens are all about partying, hooking up, complaining to their parents and going to Cabo. They certainly, apparently, wouldn't be caught dead actually studying on camera.

Not that I would know, because of course I only watch PBS and C-SPAN (wink, wink). But enough about my viewing habits.

The network that more or less originated reality TV with its landmark series "The Real World" is finally taking one of its teen-centered shows on campus. Premiering next week, "The Paper" puports to documents the inner workings of Florida-based Cypress Bay High School's newspaper, The Circuit, focusing especially on competition among juniors seeking to become the next editor-in-chief.

Find a show summary on MTV's website.

Cypress Bay High, FYI, is said to be the largest high school in the country, with some 5,300 students.

As if you don't have enough to read already, I know, but Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews for the second year running has just released a list of his favorite education blogs.

His picks time around feature everyone from the cerebral (U of South Florida professor and Education Policy Analysis Archive editor Sherman Dorn, who Mathews places "among the great original thinkers of education wonkery") to the "contrarian," as he calls journalist-turned-author Joanne Jacobs.

I know what you're going to say: My school blog is the only one you need. Thanks so much, but I'm giving you permission to stray to some of these others, as long as you return here, too!

The Los Angeles Times today goes deeper into the current state of homeschooling in California, which is back in the spotlight since a recent legal ruling (since vacated, pending a re-hearing in the next few months) that only credential-bearing parents can teach their kids at home.

Seema Mehta features two South Bay families in her story -- the Torrance-based Brownings and the Curtos, whose kids who attend classes at Hermosa's Hope Chapel in addition to learn at home with mom Kym.

It's a good read, with a nice accompanying photo gallery online.

In answer to the headline's question: Yes, they can and they do, says a Stanford professor who's been researching how human behavior is affected by their experience with avatars (you know, those virtual characters you can create online).

Jeremy Bailenson, an assistant professor of communications at the NorCal-based Ivy League school, tells the Chronicle of Higher Education this week that "Our virtual identity is not separate from our physical identity."

The magazine's feature goes on: "As the director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Mr. Bailenson has explored ways that online behavior spills over to the real world. People assume that, if anything, online activities emanate from offline lives. But Mr. Bailenson and his colleagues have shown the reverse. Their experiments demonstrate, for instance, that people who watch their avatars — cartoonlike versions of themselves — gain weight from overeating are more likely to adopt a weight-loss plan in real life."

Please, someone, tell me this is a joke. Please?

Third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond, of Santa Ana's Diamond Elementary School, was arrested yesterday after some kids came across a gun in an unlocked supply cabinet in her classroom. The gun wasn't loaded, but guess what? There was some ammunition sitting right beside the weapon.

I don't even know what to say, which is totally uncharacteristic of me, trust.

The Los Angeles Times has a take today.

I came across this cute story on MSNBC today, about a little kid who discovered an error on a display sign at the Smithsonian (which had apparently been there for decades, fyi), alerted the organization via a comment box and ultimately received a reply letter informing him the mistake was to be eradicated asap.

It's a fun read.

Check it out then tell me: Did you know what the Precambrian was when you were in fifth grade?

All I can remember from that time is doing a report on New Jersey that I'm sure was entirely based on information found in the "N" volume of that year's Encyclopedia Brittanica; finding it hilarious that there was a kid in class named Thor; and being elated when Joey Toler asked me to go with him.

But the Precambrian? No, I definitely do not recall learning anything about that. I'm not sure I even know what it is now!

Kids these days, I tell ya...

Handed down from the communications office at LA Unified today, heads up of next week's scheduled earthquake drills at schools districtwide.

Is this where we get under our desks, or do the stop-drop-and roll? Oh wait, earthquakes, that's where we stand in doorways, right? As a native and lifelong Californian, who lived seven years in San Francisco in between forays to SoCal, you'd think I'd have this one down.

But enough about me. Here are the deets:

"LAUSD students will participate in the annual spring 2008 earthquake exercise drill designed to familiarize all students and staff with the safe school emergency response plan at their school. Earthquake drills will be conducted from April 7-11 and will include an inspection and testing of all district radio equipment.

This year students at three selected schools will be videotaped during the simulation drill. District administrators at the Office of Emergency Services plan to use the video to train staff and inform parents about what happens at a school during an emergency.

“We want to assure parents that schools are the safest place for their children,” said Superintendent David L. Brewer III. “Emergency drills are very important and a great way for the district to put safety plans in motion and affirm their effectiveness.”

Each district school has an emergency supply container located in a safe place on campus. These safety bins are stocked with water, first aid supplies and search and rescue equipment. Containers hold half a gallon of water a day for each person sheltered on campus for a three day period. In addition, school cafeterias store a three day supply of canned food. School site emergency supplies, fire alarms and sprinkler systems are also inspected regularly.

“Our office is dedicated to making sure that school staff, students and families are aware of the safety plans in place at their school,” said Bob Spears, Assistant Director of Emergency Services. “We cannot prevent an earthquake from happening, but we can make sure that our schools are well-equipped to serve our students and staff.”

'Nuff said.

As I was wheeling around the South Bay this afternoon after interviewing folks at LAX (for our story about the sudden shut-down of ATA Airlines), trying to decide where I should stop for lunch, I tuned into NPR for my afternoon news fix.

Almost as soon as I turned my radio on, a correspondent named Dan Collins launched into a report from Lima, Peru, where apparently all teachers are now required to take an annual "National Teachers Exam."

Of 180,000 educators who took the most recent test, Collins said, 95 percent failed. You heard that right. 95 percent. Failed. Ouch. Now that's gotta hurt.

The results have been characterized as "appalling." No duh.

However, as with all standardized tests everywhere, this one as well is controversial, with one camp calling it an inadequate measure of teacher competency and another saying, essentially, that it's the teachers who are inadequate, not the test.

One teacher interviewed on air by Collins decried the fact that the exam is given at all -- apparently it's a new thing in the country's effort to improve education there -- saying that Peru's powers that be aren't invested enough in educating educators and that teachers get "low pay and poor training."

Sound familiar?

A similar source went on to say: "More needs to be done to give Peruvian students the education they deserve."

Now, where have you heard that before?

Hey all you stay-at-home types, this should make you happy: I heard today that the recent appellate court ruling that rankled the homeschooling community for declaring that parents who teach their kids en casa will have to have teaching credentials has been vacated.

A rehearing is reportedly pending in the next few months, possibly as soon as June, according to the Pacific Justice Institute.

Of course the state Department of Education had already told parents to remain calm, assuring them that the ruling would not be enforced until the battle is fully fought ... but still, those folks must feel pretty good today, and optimistic that the law will ultimately find in their favor.

We shall see! Knowing the legal system, we won't see for quite a while... but someday, homeschoolers, someday.