Doing yoga in P.E.??

Most all children love p.e. It is the time during the day that they look forward to the most. It is their chance to finally run free, to move around and not get in any trouble. Well, students at Pittsburgh Public Schools are integrating yoga into the phys ed curriculum. They are doing this in an effort to diversify the gym experience and give students at different levels of fitness an activity they can adapt to at their own pace and still have a workout.

Yoga can enhance P.E. because it creates a calm and confidence-building time for students. Not all students are able to keep up or participate in all of the sports, yoga offers an option for them. With yoga, there is no competition. There is no winner or loser. Yoga could definitely be used as a confidence builder in that children are really self conscious. They all want to be first place. In yoga, there is no opportunity for them to be a "loser".

Dr. Lippert, the school district's chief academic officer, said that "yoga allows an entry point for students who may feel like they don't want to get on a track or soccer field after third period, for example, because they don't feel like having to go through with the hustle of sweating at that point in their day."

To view the article in it's entirety, visit: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10109/1051535-114.stm

Rujumba, Karamagi, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "City stretches phys ed curriculum through yoga." Post-Gazette.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2010.

Obama's Commitment to Early Ed. Cheers Advocates, Despite Setback

Almost a year ago, President Obama's budget pledge to put early-childhood education as on of his top priorities created an abundance of excitement among advocates who had long pushed for greater federal investment in that area. "The excitement has cooled a bit. President Obama’s historic remaking of the country’s health-care system and the related measure overhauling student loans last month ultimately failed to include money for his proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would have provided competitive grants to help states both create and improve the quality of services for at-risk children from birth to age 5." (Education Week)

Though many advocated of the budget pledge were disappointed, many are optimistic to the blueprints being made to the No Child Left Behind Act. The president’s blueprint for the ESEA reauthorization mentions requiring states to develop Pre-K through 12 grade literacy plans. "It also suggests that applicants for grants under a proposed expansion of the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund—begun under the economic-stimulus program enacted last year—could be given preference for proposals that would improve early-learning options, among other high-priority needs."

Considering that I am an Early Chilldhood Education major, this really caught my eye. Many of the very basics that children learn are in during their early childhood years. I am not saying that we are more important than elementary or secondary teachers, we all play a significant role. I just feel that we are often overlooked because of so many different reasons. I hope that President Obama is eventually able to follow through with his budget pledge for early childhood education. Everyone seems to need money in all areas of education, I trust that he will do the best he can as soon as he can.

To view the full article, go to: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/21/29obama-earlyed_ep-2.h29.html.

"Education Week: Login." Education Week American Education News Site of Record. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. .

School's 'Wicked Witch' sweeps out the 'no' foods

No packaged crackers? No processed lunch meat? No Oreos? No white bread? Without those things, what does a child's lunch consist of? I know for me growing up that items such as these made up my lunchbox. This is not the case for the students at Children's Success Academy, a 10-year-old charter school on Tucson's south side for children in kindergarten through the fifth grade. The school seems unusual for its food rules - it forbids refined sugar, white flour, and anything it defines as processed food. For example, second grade teacher Leticia Moreno had to take up two of her student's lunches because they brought in a burrito and a quesadilla made with white flour tortillas. When the 'no' foods have to be confiscated, teachers replace them with peanut butter and honey on wheat bread. Funds for the replacement foods are provided through donations and fundraisers. The school has no cafeteria, so it is mandatory for the parents and students to follow these strict food rules.

Although I support the large majority of the reasoning for having these food rules, I do believe some parts of it are still a little bizarre. For example, I see nothing wrong with foods made with white flour. I understand that food made with wheat is healthier, I just never realized how much of a factor that white flour foods made in childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity is a large part of what the school is trying to prevent,but behavioral problems is another factor in hopes of reducing. Although studies don't confirm that additives or preservatives would cause behavioral problems in children, there is some relating evidence. Rather than eating a candy bar that contains substantial amounts of sugar and getting a quick rush followed by a fast crash; the school encourages student's to eat foods such as apples instead. Although an apple will not give student's an instant rush, it still provides energy, just over an extended period of time.

Some examples of the 'no' foods include: American cheese, white bread, flavored yogurt, canned fruit, peanut butter made with sugar, processed meats, and virtually all packaged crackers.



Nanci Aiken, the school director and founder of Children's Success Academy says that preventing childhood obesity and lowering behavior problems is only a part of her reasoning, the overall health of her students is her biggest focus.

Some examples of the foods that students bring to eat include: scrambled eggs wrapped in a whole-wheat tortilla, tomato juice, plain unflavored Fritos corn chips, which are a "yes" food because it's a whole-grain food, sliced peaches, and whole wheat noodles.

To read the full article, go to http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_d26e56b7-b1d5-52d8-bdef-9717ce18a61b.html.

"School's 'Wicked Witch' sweeps out the 'no' foods ." Welcome to StarNet - Tucson, Arizona. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

Reflections on this semester

This past semester has been a life changing semester. I was accepted into the Teacher Education program within the College of Education. I am also enrolled in all education courses relevant to my major. God has blessed me in so many ways this semester is unbelievable. All of the opportunities that I have been provided with have altered/affected my life in so many different ways.

There are two milestones you have while you are in the College of Education at Auburn. The first one is getting accepted into Teacher Education and the second one is getting accepted into your internship. Well, I can thankfully say that I have have passed and been accepted into the Teacher Education program. The pre-teaching that I had to do before entering into Teacher Education was an incredible experience. I got to see first hand how a classroom operates and get a feeling of how it is to be the teacher in a classroom. Although I did not teach, my observing teacher let me participate in many of the activities that the students participated in. It assured my love for my future career even more than before.

I finally finished taking all of my basic classes and got into all education core classes. I am taking wonderful courses that have taught me so much about myself about teaching. One class that I have benefited from the most is my Media for Children class. Learning (and some re-learning) about book genres, appropriate age level books, ways to incorporate literature extension activities to get students involved with the story/book/reading, and much more. The more I learn in all of my classes the more anxious I get about teaching and eventually having my own classroom. Another class that I have thoroughly enjoyed this semester is my Technology in the Classroom course. I learned so many new ways to incorporate technology into my lessons, as well as into the activities for my students. I learned how to better use technology that I was already familiar with. For example, I learned how to make a PowerPoint most effective for different grade levels. For younger levels that I would teach with my Early Childhood Education degree, it is important to use images more dominantly in my slides rather than text. Being that most of them will not be able to read much at all, it is most effective to use images on the slides.

Overall, this semester in it's entirety has gotten me extremely excited and given me a new outlook on teaching as a whole. I can't wait to graduate and to be able to motivate my students the way that my teachers have this semester.

A Third of Americans Use Library Computers

According to an article on www.edweek.org, "a third of Americans 14 and older — about 77 million people — use public library computers to look for jobs, connect with friends, do their homework and improve their lives." This was somewhat shocking to read considering that I am in college and it seems as if majority of all of us have laptops or computers of our own. They say it used by a widespread of people thought, not just by poorer people that cannot afford computers or Internet.

Here are some interesting facts about computer use at the libraries from the article:
-- Researchers found that those living below the federal poverty line — families of four with a household income of $22,000 or less — had the highest use of library computers.
--Among those households, 44 percent reported using public library computers and Internet access during the past year.
--Among those aged 14 to 24 in poor households, 61 percent used public library computers and Internet for education purposes.
--Nearly half of the nation's 14- to 18-year-olds — about 11.8 million people — reported using a library last year and a quarter of teens used the library at least once a week.

The most common uses for library computers included:
--gaining access to government agencies
--searching for jobs and filling out applications
--doing homework
--communicating with friends and family
--banking
--seeking health advice
--running a business
--completing online courses
--seeking financial aid for college

One of the most interesting results that I found throughout all of their research was that over 80% of the users of the public computers changed their diets after using the computers. I thought this was very a very interesting result considering that health factors/diets/foods were not one of the most common uses for the library computers, yet 80% changed their diet after doing so. I would think that with such a large percentage, something relating to health would have been listed as one of the most common uses of the computers.

Another interesting fact that I found interesting from this study was that one in four Americans use public library computers while traveling. Being that I own my own personal laptop, I cannot imagine ever having to use a public computer when I am traveling. I just found this very interesting.

I hope you found these facts as interesting as I did. To read the article in it's entirety, go to: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/25/341603uslibrarycomputeruse_ap.html.

"Education Week: Login." Education Week American Education News Site of Record. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2010. .

Saving money with a different font

According to Education Week online, a Wisconsin school figured out a way to save money. They changed the font in e-mails from Arial to Century Gothic. If you are thinking what I am thinking, that sounds like a very minimal thing. When I first start reading this article I did not really see how that could save anyone money. After reading the article a little further, students save money by printing less pages. With the font not being as large, the students are not having to print as many pages off, saving them money, it might be a minimal amount, but it does add up over time. The school's director of computing says the the font change saves about 30% less ink than the previous font did.

To prove how minimal this change in font really isn't, these savings will truly have an impact. Did you know that the cost of ink per gallon works out to be about $10,000. WOW! When you think of ink from that aspect, the change in font could make a drastic difference in costs used for printing.

This decision made by school is part of a 5 year plan to "go green". I love seeing all of the different efforts made by so many different people, companies, colleges, etc. I would love to have a classroom one day that was "green". Although I have not thought out all of the kinks of how I will do it, I am few things in mind that I would like to try and bring into my classroom. That is something that I want to look more into. Hopefully I will be able to get different ideas from current teachers on how they make their classrooms green.

To read the entire article, visit: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/25/341611usoddcheaperemailfont_ap.html.



"Education Week: Login." Education Week American Education News Site of Record. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. .

No Television on School nights

In response to the question, "What can parents do to help foster learning?", President Obama suggested not allowing your children watch television on school nights. He said that both of his daughters are expected to begin their homework as soon as they get home from school. If they finish early (before dinner) they are expected to read after dinner until they go to bed.

Another way that President Obama suggests parents to do to help foster learning is for parents to stay in touch with their children's teachers. He claims that he has not missed a single parent-teacher conference. It is significant for parents and teachers to collaborate together to provide the best opportunity and to assist them in the best way possible for education.

"Very early on, we set expectations for Malia and Sasha in terms of them taking responsibility for their own education," Obama said. They got alarm clocks at age 4 to begin waking themselves up, making their own beds and getting themselves ready to get to school on time. (Education) Personally, I couldn't imagine having an alarm clock at the age of four. I might have had one growing up that I used as a clock, but I never really used an alarm clock until I was in college. I always had my mom wake me up everyday for school. I think having the children use their alarm clocks and wake up each day on their own also teaches responsibility. To read the article in it's entirety, visit: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2011097346_apusobamaeducation.html.

I believe that President Obama has very good ideals for how to foster learning for kids. Even though that was not how I was raised, I believe that it is a wonderful way to foster education. I know that I would be a much better reader today and probably more motivated in school if my parents would have ran my household that way. Reading is something that is becoming less favorable by kids. Now that there are so many different technological devices for children to play with, it's rare to find a child who would rather read than play with their Gameboy, video game, or computer. Having children dive into good books will make them better readers, as well as have them enjoy reading, rather than dread it.

My favorite part of this article was when President Obama was explaining how he realized that him and the first lady had a multitude of resources and help that most families do not have. He said, "But I don't care how poor you are - you can turn off the television set during the week." (Education) That really touched home because that is so true. No matter what resources one may or may not have, turning off the television does not cost you any extra, no excuses.

"Education | Obama: No weeknight television for Malia, Sasha | Seattle Times Newspaper." The Seattle Times | Seattle Times Newspaper. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. .

"No TV Please - Tír Na Saor - Freemen of Ireland." Tír Na Saor - Freemen of Ireland - Calling all Freemen... It's time to get organized!. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. .

States Push to Pay Teachers Based on Performance

According to Education Week online, some states are trying to pass laws/incentives that will pay teachers based on the performance of their students. Although the incentives are out there, only few states have are actually taking part in these new strategies. In some states, the idea of this is practically illegal.

Although this may be illegal in some states, many of the states are changing their minds in response to the billions of dollars that the federal government is pumping into grants in order to lure states in. Some research has shown that student achievement improves when teachers are given performance bonuses. Other research has found no correlation.

Most school district's calculate the bonus amounts based on seniority and level of education (i.e. teachers who have a master's degree will get more pay). "In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue is pushing for a law requiring teacher salaries to be based on student test scores and other academic factors rather than years of experience and education." (Education World)

To read the complete article, visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/08/345123usteachermeritpay_ap.html?r=28039582.

In my opinion, I would like to eventually teach in one of the states where this is not being practiced. My plan for my future would include me moving back to my hometown and getting a teaching job locally. My hometown is not located in a rugged or a rough area, it is a rural community where you know most everyone that lives there. I feel that this incentive would be harder for teachers in more urban, "rough" areas. Students that come from troubled homes and troubled areas are more likely to struggle with excelling in their performance than students from families of higher economic status. The home lives and economic status of the students should not be reflected upon the teacher's performance. Even for teachers who do not teach in underprivileged areas, they will have students who have struggles. "Your mother and father just got a divorce, your grandfather died, your boyfriend broke up with you: those kinds of life-altering events have an effect on how you do in class that day, through no fault of the teacher whatsoever," said Gunter, echoing the position espoused by major teacher unions." (Education Week) I do not believe that the performance of the student's should depict bonuses given to teachers, considering that circumstances are not always fair for everyone. Although, I do not support it, the idea of making up to $2,000 extra a year seems very appealing.

"Education Week: Login." Education Week American Education News Site of Record. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2010. .

Student suspended for Facebook page

As everyone knows, social media is becoming more and more dominant in the lives of students. Such social networks as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are the center of many students social lives. They find out a great deal of their gossip there, while discussing gossip of their own on them. In Miami, there is a student who is suing her principal for spending her for creating a Facebook page against her teacher. School officials suspended her for three days for "cyberbullying" her teacher. The student, Katherine Evans, is suing the principal for her suspension to be removed off of her disciplinary record, a "nominal fee" for her First Amendment rights being violated, and all of her legal fees. The principal attempted to get the judge to dismiss the case but the judge decided the "protection of First Amendment rights to online writings of a nonthreatening manner" was significant enough to let the case go on. To read the entire article, go to: http://www.educationnews.org/educationnewstoday/53607.html.

My thoughts and opinions on this as a student are that I can think of plenty of times where I have had teachers that I just don't like. I have also seen pages created by my fellow students on Facebook against teachers (none were threatening). This was nothing new for me to see when I read this article. What was surprising to me in the article was that the girl was suspended for it. As a student, I think this is crazy. I can think of so many pages against my teachers and principal that were created on Facebook. I can't imagine my fellow classmates being punished by the school for them though.

Now, as a future teacher, I will give my personal thoughts. I am not expecting every student to like me or my class. I know that I will have students that I will butt heads with and that they may not like. As much as I wish we all got along and that they all liked me, that is not reality. Being an early childhood education teacher, I doubt I will ever face this situation. Speaking just a general teacher though, I still do not see reasoning for suspending the student for creating the Facebook page. The first thing that came to mind as I read this article was the saying, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Whether it is verbally, passed on a note in class, or written on a Facebook page, I know that students will saying negative things about me. In my opinion, as long as the things be said or written about me are not threatening, then I say take it as a grain of salt. I am a professional that should expect both positive and negative things to be said about me. How much one lets it get to them is when it becomes an issue.

GENTILE, CARMEN. "EducationNews.org - Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue." EducationNews.org . N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .

Schools still using paddling

My personal beliefs on paddling are that I think it is an acceptable use of punishment. I know many parents in today's time do not support it or use paddling as a form of punishment as my parents and grandparents did.

In Kentucky, there is still a school that still uses paddling. The principal of the elementary school that still uses paddling says that in many ways paddling seems to be more effective than taking a child's recess away or sending them to detention.

Paddling a student is not as easy as it used to be though. Before this Kentucky principal is allowed to paddle a student, he first has to get written permission from the parent. Also, there must be two witnesses at the time the paddling takes place.

The article also discusses that more schools are returning to corporal punishment due to the ineffectiveness of suspension. Rather than it being a punishment, students are left at home without their parents, and end up having a three day weekend. If given the option, I would choose suspension too! Both of my parents work full time and neither of them would take off of work to sit at home with me to make sure that I am miserable and learning my lesson. I would definitely choose sitting at home by myself and not having to go to school versus receiving physical pain. Although, it may be a small, short amount of pain, I would still rather be at home.

"A study by the Center for Effective Discipline shows 22 states still participate in corporal punishment. Their study showed that in the 2006-2007 school year more than 220,000 students across the country experienced physical punishment at school." (WHAS 11) Personally, I am glad to see that there are still a great number of schools that still enforce corporal punishment.

To read the article in it's entirety, go to: http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Some-Ky-schools-use-paddling-as-disciplinary-measure-for-students-83711032.html.



WHAS 11. "Some Ky. schools still use paddling as disciplinary measure for students." Local News. N.p., 6 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. .

Kids-Spanking. N.d. SMASHgods, online. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.

School shootings

School shootings are nothing less than a tragedy, no matter when or where it is that they occur. When school shootings happen, many people all around stop a say a short prayer or send donations to the families affected or even re-evaluate the way they are living their lives. During the past two weeks, two school shootings have taken place in my home town. You hear about school shootings happening, but none truly effect you the same way as it does when they happen in the very place where you were born and raised. I was shocked to hear that the middle school just across the highway from my home was the site for one of the shootings. I have heard about colleges and high schools having shootings, but never before a middle school. I remember being that age and never having considered even getting into a fight at school, much less shooting someone. It wasn't even a tiny thought in my immature little brain.

I was in such disbelief that it occurred in a middle school that I just knew that it wasn't likely to hear about that happening repeatedly too often. Much to my surprise (again), I came across an article entitled "Elementary Teacher Allegedly Shoots Principal" while browsing around on www.edweek.org. The article told of how a fourth-grade teacher in Knoxville, TN was being charged with shooting the principal and assistant principal of their employed school several times ("Elementary teacher allegedly," 2010). The fourth-grade teacher, Mark Foster, was already under the scope for previous skeptical actions. Reference to his skeptical actions included acting as "two different people" at times, anonymous e-mails claiming that he was a "ticking time bomb", a letter on file from his mother saying how he had threatened to kill both himself and his employer, and students requesting to get out of his class because he was hateful ("Elementary teacher allegedly," 2010). They held an investigation concerning Foster's actions, but the case was dismissed because there was no proof of him violating any school policies. There had been some preliminary discussion of having a security officer present at the meeting between Foster and the principals, where they informed him that they were not going to be renewing his contract for the next school year ("Elementary teacher allegedly," 2010). Although both victims are still alive, what happened was still devastating and unnecessary. Who would have imagined that the meeting would have evolved the way it did?

As a future teacher, all of this leaves me a little intimidated. Although the chances of this happening can occur any occupational field, the stories of it happening in my future occupation send chills down my spine.


Elementary teacher allegedly shoots principle. (2010, February 12). Teacher Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/02/12/teachershootsprincipal_ap.html?r=533154395

Bring Your Parent to School Day

Students at Alfred S. Letourneau Elementary School are getting extra help on their school work now because of the Bring Your Parent to School Day that the school hosts once a month. This gives parents a first hand experience of what their children are learning. This collaboration between the parents and the teacher is so significant. The more involved the parents are, the better the child can learn. One teacher said she gets anywhere from five and 12 parents each time in her classroom. The times change throughout the day for when the parents come to the school in order for them to see all different subjects that are taught.

The teachers at Alfred S. Letourneau Elementary School have different activities for the parents do to with their children in the classroom. For example, first grade teacher, Kristen Roussel, got the parents involved in the math lesson by handing out flash cards with numbers and addition problems on them. (Vital) Another teacher had a science experiment for the parents to do with their child.

Not only do parents find this useful and important, many parents take off work to come and participate on these days. The parents enjoying seeing what goes on during the day in their child's classroom, as well as giving them a chance to be able to help them with their work. To view the full article, go to: http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x562892781/Parents-invited-to-take-part-in-children-s-lessons-at-Letourneau-School.

I would love to work in a school where this program was incorporated into it. I think that is so significant for teachers and parents to be in contact and collaborate together to enhance student learning. One great way to collaborate is by doing the Bring Your Parent to School Days.

Vital, Derek. "Parents invited to take part in children’s lessons at Letourneau School - Fall River, MA - The Herald News." Herald News, MA News - Fall River, MA - The Herald News. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2010. .

Race to the Top

Now that I am getting into more of my core classes in the College of Education, I am hearing a whole new kind of "chatter" than what I am used to thus far in my college career. The "basic" classes that I took my first two years of college (i.e. English 101, World Lit 2, Biology, etc.) were made up of a blended assortment of students with different majors. We all talked about general things that we could all discuss and have some interest in. For instance, we never discussed what was happening at NASA from the engineering aspect or what new music the marching band was learning. We discussed more common things such as what we did on the weekends or what was going on in the class that we shared together because most of us college students interact in similar activities, usually with just slight variations. The "chatter" is slightly different now though. Now, all of my classes consist of college students with the same major who have the same desire, passion, and love for children and education as I do.

This week as my classmates and I were waiting for class to begin, the girl to my right asked a small group of us if we had seen President Obama's recent speech on education. As the girls began to "Ooh", "Aah", and spill their opinions about his speech, I sat silently. I had missed his speech due to working late, but with all of the intriguing discussion between the girls, I knew it was something that I wanted to look further into, and so I did. I went onto Google's website and started my search. I came across the actual footage concerning the No Child Left Behind Act portion of his speech on CNN's website. I was surprised to see how unclear he seemed to be with his response to the teacher's question as to what was going to happen with it. He mentioned many things that need to be done, but he never really discussed what the plan was going to be to enhance the Act other than his 'Race to the Top' competition that was previously set forth. I have had mixed feelings about the 'Race to the Top' proposal since my hearing of it. I had not looked over it some time, so I decided to check www.edweek.org (my main source of information concerning education) to see what they had about 'Race to the Top'. Fortunately, I found an article that specifically included President Obama's speech that I had just watched and information about 'Race to the Top'. I was somewhat disturbed at what I read. The article explained that states were "scrambled to rewrite laws in order to be considered eligible for a share of $4 billion in federal Race to the Top grants" (Education Week, 2010, February 2). The article also stated how states were acting to rewrite laws without even knowing for sure that they were going to even get a portion of the money. "Though participation in the Race to the Top competition is voluntary, recession-battered states are, in effect, being “coerced” by the lure of money to adopt policies that have not necessarily been shown to raise student achievement" says lawmakers (Education Week, 2010, February 2). I hate to think that our elected political officers are making radical decisions based on mere hope. In my opinion, I think that the federal government should leave the majority of decision making up to the individual states and school systems. I do not think that the individual schools or systems should have ultimate decision making but that the bulk of it is left for their deciding. I was shocked to learn from the article as well that "according to 2006-2007 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal contribution was slightly higher at 8.5 percent" (Education Week, 2010, February 2). I believe that if that is the amount that the federal government is contributing then that is about how much say-so that they should receive in the decision making for schools.

As much as I am in support of bettering the knowledge and quality of our teachers, and improving student achievement; I am not sure that this is the best way to go about doing so. Due to the economy being so unstable and at very low spot, education officials seem to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the money needed for their schools; even if it means rewriting laws without guaranteed benefits.


Education Week: State Lawmakers Unhappy With Obama Priorities. (2010, February 2). Education Week American Education News Site of Record. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/01/21ncsl.h29.html?tkn=RZYFwzJqh0vEEf9ItBcBO7jC7B9FdnloYtsH.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com. (2010, February 2). CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from http://www.cnn.com/video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_freevideo+%28RSS%3A+Video%29#/video/politics/2010/02/02/obama.nh.townhall.education.cnn

Diversity

Diversity covers such a broad variety of categories. Auburn University includes race, gender, ethnicity, physical ability, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, economic status, and veteran status as part of their definition of diversity. Although we all experience diversity in our every day lives, many of us do not realize it. Even if all of the people in your classes are all Caucasian or all female, you are all still diverse. Everyone does not come from the same background or culture, does not have the same religion or economic status, or even the same sexual orientation.

One of the most significant experiences of diversity I have encountered thus far was my time spent during my service learning experience. I was placed at a daycare center with predominantly African American staff and children. For one of the first times in my life, I felt as if I was the minority. I have always been considered part of the majority in my college, my church, my elementary, middle, high school, and even my work. Although it was slightly out of my comfort zone at the beginning, it became one of the things that I looked forward to most each week. Although the color of my skin was different, the employees nor the children saw me as any different, any less, or any more.

I gained a lot from this experience. I saw firsthand the importance of including all of my students, no matter what differences that they have. Even if it is something that I am not accustomed to, make sure that these differences do not have a negative affect on how they are perceived by me or their fellow classmates. I always knew that it was important to make sure that my students never felt this way, but I guess I was more or less reminded how important it really is after I experienced first hand. I will always remember a quote that my mother always told me growing up, she would always say, "Differences challenge assumptions." Take that in and really think about that.

Recycling

Students and staff at Crispell Middle School have taken recycling into many different areas of the school. According to an article on recordonline.com, "last year, with 725 students enrolled in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, a staggering 11,880 plastic garbage bags were used at Crispell during the 180 days that school was in session." That number seems unreal to me! Diving that amount of bags over 180 days, that amounts to about 66 bags used per day. But, since their efforts to recycle, they have reduce the amount of bags from 66 to 10-12.

The cafeteria at Crispell Middle School is also taking part in the recycling effort. Rather than having an abundance of trash cans for the students to dispose their garbage in, they now have recycling receptacles for each of the following: organic matter (fruit, vegetables, grains, cereal, pasta, napkins, paper bags); meat and cheese; milk cartons; plastic and aluminum; and juice pouches. To my surprise, the students divide out their trash as they are supposed to. They realize the difference that they are making and are willing to participate in the effort.

The organic matter that the cafeteria collects is transformed into an organic garden compost. Students and staff also use recycling bins for paper products (cardboard, brown paper, newspaper, magazines and envelopes) in all classrooms and offices. Students collect these paper products daily.

The students at Crispell Middle School are also collecting bottle caps from the lunch room as well in an effort to collect enough bottle caps to make a mosaic, using the caps to create an image on a plywood frame.

Without the support from the teachers and faculty, and the dedication and participation of the students, there is no way that this school could pull this off. This is an outstanding example of how it is possible for as many people as there are in a school to even make such a difference. Most would think it is impossible to get that many people to actually participate enough to make a difference. Well, Crispell Middle School is a prime example of how effective you really can be. To read this article in it's entirety, go to: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100113/COMM/1130312/-1/SITEMAP.

"In cafeteria and classroom, Pine Bush middle school recycles big time | recordonline.com." recordonline.com - Times Herald-Record - recordonline.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. .