Senor Parrot’s Perch

Here’s a sad commentary about our national teaching pool. KansasCity.com reports about the poor demand for teaching jobs in the Kansas City area. It’s common to see 100 applicants for each job. That’s an average though, and apparently there is quite a variation in the number of applicants depending upon the area of specialization.  Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects,  Special Education,and Foreign Languages get 10 to 50 applicants per opening. Half of the 190 open teaching positions are in those areas.

Still, isn’t that an adequate number of applicants to fill those positions with qualified teachers? Reading between the lines, you wonder just how qualified are the applicants for those STEM, special education and foreign languages positions, that the jobs should go unfilled. Yesterday I wrote about the task Don Mugan has taken on, up in North Dakota. His goal is to train the teachers that the school districts already have in how to teach the core STEM subjects. A good STEM project for our universities would be to clone Don and put a few of his clones in every school district in the country.

Are teachers the weak link in introducing and teaching STEM careers to our kids?  STEM, you may know, refers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  These broad subject areas are the key’s to successful careers in our kids’ futures.

A common approach to learning about careers is the Career Fair. In fact, career fairs in middle school are fairly common. In my own daughter’s school, it takes the form of a “Renaissance Fair”, really more of a medieval fair,  where each kid studies a trade, prepares a presentation and a booth, and then performs demonstrations of their trade for several hours before schoolmates and parents. The principal result of this is an excellent multifaceted teaching and learning experience for the students, but no real connection to modern day work and occupations.

Other schools handle career days differently. At the college  where I work we have steady streams of kids passing through and getting introductions to many career educational offerings that are available there. These include information technologies, electrical engineering, robotics, biotechnology and many other medical and technology related careers.

But what are the kids interested in? Recently a public school in North Dakota polled it’s students and found that the careers most appealing to students included hairdresser, snowboarder, or actor. Interest in careers in science or engineering hardly registered. Hmmm.

Don Mugan to the rescue. Don Mugan is Director of the Great Plains STEM Education Center at Valley City State University in North Dakota. Mugan says that survey results like this are fairly representative of kids interests nationwide.

In response, Don Mugan is busy reaching out to students and teachers to increase interest in sciences and math. As Director of the Great Plains STEM Education Center at Valley City State University in North Dakota, Mugan has his work cut out.

“Kids are thoroughly turned off by the abstract way math and science are presented,” he said. “Because America is slipping so badly in a lot of areas, we need to change the way we deliver those subjects.”

To stem this decline in American students interests and performance in STEM subjects Mugan directs a training center to educate and train teachers in ways to integrate these core subjects into the classroom in ways that spark kids’ interest.

The new way of teaching emphasizes hands-on learning and integrates the subjects around a practical theme, he said.

“If we want kids to get fired up, we have to connect with their lives, which our traditional model does not allow for,” Mugan said.

We parents need to see if similar partnerships are being forged at our schools. Some schools have brief demonstrations and visits incorporated into their school years, but there is rarely a clear integration into the curriculum and rarely are the teachers qualified or trained in how to teach these subjects.

I don’t recall exactly why I grabbed Dinosaur Scientist: Careers Digging Up the Past by Tom Holmes from the Library. I had stopped by the new books section on my way out and saw this book, looked at the cover, thought it looked cool, and took it home. It wasn’t until I read the full title, the part about careers, that I said a silent ‘Oh, no!’ I shouldn’t have said it. I was just a page or two into the first chapter before I was hooked. Now that I finished it, I’m giving it strong recommendations.

Dinosaur Scientist is one of the rare and excellent science books describing what scientists do at a level that elementary and middle-schoolers can become engaged with. Holmes approach is to present 6 top paleontologists and describe their careers through short bio pieces, each making up a chapter. Along the way he explains the cool science, adventures and discoveries that each of these scientists has made, and how they solved the problems that they encountered. He shows how multi-faceted they are in their skills and backgrounds and the paths they took to becoming paleontologists.

The author has a personal interest in the subject and, it seems, considerable experience, as well. This shows throughout the book. He isn’t just relating facts and activities, but he exposes the interesting personalities of each scientist and bits about their science that are most engaging, that is, the very things that draw a person into a scientific field.

And there is the career component of this book. Each scientist expresses in their own words how they prepared themselves and what they found most useful to know. In this day and age, it’s common for college students to have no idea what they would like to do with their lives even when they’ve reached their junior and senior years in college. They have no vision and they have no valuable guidance. Books such as Dinosaur Scientist are excellent resources to help our kids choose a career path and begin planning to achieve their dreams.

The author, Thom Holmes, has a web page and a paleo-blog. He has a short bio here. He’s written about 20 books on dinosaurs, evolution and other prehistoric life.

How to Clone a Sheep

By Hazel Richardson

Illustrated by Andy Cooke

Kids love science when it’s served up on their level and written in a lively, humorous style. That’s exactly what you get with How to Clone a Sheep by Hazel Richardson and Illustrated by Andy Cooke. This fun little book is a first-rate introduction to genetics, DNA and cloning aimed at kids in about the 4th through 8th grades. The book also has some activities that are easy and educational.

How to Clone a Sheep covers the basics. Beginning by explaining what exactly are clones, DNA and genes, the book approaches the subject from a historical perspective, explaining historical thought about the inheritance of traits and how these ideas were either confirmed or rejected. Finally, it explains the science and methodology employed to produce Dolly, the famous cloned sheep. There is quite a bit of interesting historical information provided, as well. Richardson’s description of the race among scientists to discover the secrets of DNA is especially amusing, and it gives us an inside perspective on scientific research.

I think that adults would enjoy reading this along with their kids. In fact, it was my 6th grader who found this book and passed it along to me after reading it herself. She insisted I’d love it and she was right. The explanations are simplified and accompanied by terrific cartoonish drawings that perfectly illustrate the text.

Courtesy of NASA

In some crowds science has a bad reputation. These people folks find it dull, or poorly written. It’s a reputation not at all deserved, yet sometimes the writing of science books can leave a bit to be desired. That’s why it’s great news when we learn about the best of the best science books available. So when I saw that The School Library Journal had posted the list of finalists for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Science Books for Children and Young Adults, I was excited.

There are three categories: Children’s Science Picture Books, Middle Grades Science Books, and Young Adult Science Books. Today I’ll highlight the nominees for the Children’s Science Picture Books.

Children’s Science Picture Books

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life

(Blue Sky Press, 2009)

By Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

Illustrated by Molly Bang

This might have been called “My first book of Photosynthesis”, Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life, Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm explain how plants transform sunlight into energy and life giving food for everything on the planet. The illustrations are colorful and support the simple text. It’s almost magic when an author can explain such a complex web of interaction within a children’s picture book.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

(Atheneum, 2009)

By Brian Floca

Author and illustrator Brian Floca lets us ride along with the Apollo 11 crew as they journey from earth to the moon and back. The illustrations in Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 have a fantastic sense of scale to them. The story is exiting and full of interesting details that bring this historic and inspiring journey to life.

Redwoods

(Roaring Brook, 2009)

By Jason Chin

Redwoods by Jason Chin is a bit reminiscent of Flotsam, a visual fantasy by David Weiner, as it follows a boy who finds a book about the giant redwood trees just before riding the train. As he reads the simple text of the book, the dinosaurs and other things appear in the train window behind him showing what was happening in the world during the lifespan of the spectacular trees. In one of the illustrations a young girl is seen. Later, when the boy puts down the book we see that girl finding the book and beginning to read it herself.

What Bluebirds Do

(Boyds Mills, 2009)

By Pamela F. Kirby

What Bluebirds Do by Pamela F. Kirby highlights a year in the life of bluebirds in beautiful photos. It’s simple text should be readable by many early readers. Following a pair of bluebirds who have nested in her backyard, Kirby captures their daily life, including their raising of five young bluebird chicks. School Library Journal compared this book to The Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Nic Bishop.

The New York Times reports an interesting and troubling research finding about how Hispanic children are falling behind their white, middle class peers. The article, titled Hispanic Immigrants’ Children Fall Behind Peers Early, Study Finds, discusses several things.

• Hispanic children of immigrants start out in early years equal with their peers
• By Age 3 they are already lagging middle class white children by as much as 6 months in cognitive abilities
• Hispanic immigrant households do not foster learning and cognitive development to nearly the degree that done in middle class white households
• These results may be more related to socioeconomic determinants, and be characteristic of all lower level socioeconomic groups than to race or ethnicity

They go on to emphasize the role of early learning and how its value is demonstrated by activities such as little performances of the ABCs in front of grandparents, that are missing from Hispanic immigrant homes.

The response, of course, is more money on early education. Doubtless, that would help at least a little bit. However, after reading the NYT article, I grew suspicious that either the writer chose to view only a narrow range of possible causes that may have been addressed in the research, or that the researchers had a very narrow focus and perhaps deliberately ignored other factors that influence the early childhood development from these children. My personal guess is that the researchers narrowed the discussion, which perhaps may have been outside the scope of their article.

I have a growing suspicion that we are both tolerating and cultivating a culture of poverty, which has a hallmark of racial and ethnic minorities, but by no means is confined in its association with only minorities. It is this culture of poverty that greatly influences the social and cognitive development of our children, and that it is an increasing outcome of these lifestyle choices that are in play.

The attack must be on the cultural factors and not just handing a kid a book (though I’m completely in favor of that!), nor in just integrating the child into the educational system at an younger age. For all the sniping at middle class values and culture that we often see, they result in a more nurturing and healthful environment for our children that leaves them better prepared for the own lives as adults.

Here we have historic must-see video footage of NASA rocket scientists planning the exciting LCROSS Moon-crash project, including the launch and return.

If you look closely, you’ll see top NASA scientist, Albus Dumbledore, convening the planning session. Can anyone identify any of the others in this video?

This, of course, is the work of cinematic genius Georges M�li�s.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls

By Lucy Nolan

Illustrated by Connie McLennan

ISBN: 978-1-934359-96-9
Published by Sylvan-Dell Publishing, emphasizing Science and Math through Literature

Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.
Just beneath the waves you lie,
like a star tossed from the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls, written by Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Connie McLennan, is a collection of� fun and entertaining parodies of many favorite Mother Goose nursery rhymes. But the rhymes inside Mother Osprey are parodies with purpose. Math and counting skills, science and history are all lessons taught in these poems.� Don’t think “Boring” when you see that this book teaches hard subjects like math or science. The rhymes and illustrations are pure enjoyment in themselves.

Most of Lucy Nolan’s rhymes are pure silly fun that kids will enjoy listening to over and over and even memorizing; the rest vividly illustrate a point in time from history. An appendix in the back adds more facts and explanations that the parent or teacher can use to draw young listeners further into a teaching moment. A map shows where each of the habitats is located.

Twinkle,� Twinkle starfish dear, quoted above, places the starfish in its natural habitat and opens up rich opportunities for discussing the shallows and beaches along a rocky coast. What other animals life nearby? What do they eat? What eats them?

But Lobster Pies is just plain silly:

Old Mrs. Wise
made lobster pies all on a winter’s day;
her greedy son
grabbed every one
and took them clean away.

What a surprise
for Junior Wise
lay inside that croaker sack.
When he sat on a bench
to eat a pinch,
the lobster pies pinched back!

Nursery rhymes satisfy at many levels: they’re great fun to listen to, with their rhymes and the rhythm of their meter. They’re pleasing for the strength of their imagery. They easily capture a child’s imagination, slipping into their memories and never losing their ability to bring enjoyment. Children seem to never tire of repeating them over and over and the verses are a natural invitation to singing. Nursery rhymes teach children language skills and the repetition packs information into their young, developing brains and they help develop their ears for word use and phrasing.

Mother Osprey is a perfect gift for your child or your child’s classroom teacher, whether in preschool, kindergarten, or the early grades. The rhymes are a perfect starter to get children to focus on some part of the environment, or a place. They introduce elements of nature in an interesting way, which leads naturally to a discussion of what is in the rhyme.

The Capital Times, a Madison-based online and weekly newspaper, has an article with words of wisdom of what every college student should know. The Cap Times asked their question of knowledgeable folks at the University of Wisconsin, Edgewood College, and my own Madison Area Technical College (Go Wolfpack!), and they gleaned lots of great, helpful information.

My favorites:

(Very practical and true, from Carlotta Calmese at MATC)
Carlotta Calmese, associate dean of retention and student development, Madison Area Technical College:

If you are a first-time college student know that:

1. It is not a “more advanced” high school; college is VERY different and more demanding.

2. You do not have to decide what you will major in or do RIGHT NOW, you have a lot of time to figure that out.

3. Take full advantage of all that college has to offer (faculty connections, student life, co-curricular activities, etc.).

4. Get connected to academic support services before you really need them.

5. If you didn’t have to study in high school, know that you WILL have to do so in college – so learn how to study.

6. You will be treated as an adult and will be expected to make adult decisions, even if you are 17 or 18.

7. You are responsible for your own education.

8. How well (or poorly) you do in college may have long-term consequences.

9. If you make a mistake, AND YOU WILL, know that tomorrow is a new day to get it right the second time around.

10. Faculty do not stay up all hours of the night trying to make their exams more difficult for you.

11. Take time to really get to know your teachers.

12. We will not be calling your parents to tell them you did not come to class today.

(From Lorin Toepper, also at MATC)
Lorin Toepper, executive director of economic and workforce development, MATC:

There are three basic ways of learning: self-, peer- and instructor-directed. Self- and instructor-directed require no explanation. Peer-directed learning, however, is often underestimated by students. It is when the student works with other students to master a skill or concept. The most common format for this includes the dreaded group project. While students tend to dislike this method, it truly reflects the collaborative approach used in the workplace and in social endeavors. That’s why instructors use it so much. A more subtle but equally effective approach to peer-directed learning are study groups that arise informally. These can be one of the best ways to learn because the students in this informal cohort group teach each other. I highly recommend to any college student that they form a study group for each class in which they are enrolled. It makes learning so much easier and enjoyable.

Some wise advise to manage money well and keep down the debt:

Susan Fischer, director of student financial aid, UW-Madison:

Students who rely on financial aid to assist them with educational expenses face many challenges as they begin the academic year, but there is one unique challenge that rises above most of them in my mind. That challenge is the recognition and then subsequent need to spread out the resources they receive in August and September over the course of four-plus months; an amazing budgeting feat that most folks employed full time would find difficult, let alone a person starting their college life.

So take a couple of hours to plan out the big and small expenses that you know about now and make sure to have one category of “surprises” that will most certainly pop up. Easy goes it in the miscellaneous/entertainment spending categories. Get a part-time job: 15 hours or less per week. You will not only earn money to help with your college expenses but it will help you budget your time. Then calculate out the actual take-home pay from your part-time job, remembering that taxes, etc., reduce that old paycheck.

And remember: There is an inverse relationship between the ease of borrowing money now and the difficulty of repaying it later. Take advantage of living like a student when you are one so you don’t have to live like one after you graduate!

Getting to know teachers is so easy, and so smart!

Barry Orton, professor of telecommunications, Division of Continuing Studies, UW-Madison:

Each semester, every student should try to get to know at least one of their professors well enough so that the professor knows the student by name. Professors almost always welcome students with questions, so that’s a great way to accomplish this goal. First, do the reading, and then go to the professor’s office during office hours, introduce yourself, and ask an intelligent question seeking clarification or more detailed information. Your professors will remember you and that’s the first step toward humanizing a very large campus.

A proverb from the Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” We get similar advice from Tim Alexander

Tim Alexander, associate director of athletics and head men’s and women’s soccer coach, Edgewood College:

1. Seek out those who will make you better.

Where you are a year from now and even five years from now will be determined by the people you spend the most time with. Your thoughts, beliefs, tendencies, even language will rise or fall over time to match that group. Smokers hang out with smokers, partiers are more comfortable around partiers and champions find other champions.

2. Start preparing for life after college.

You need to look for opportunities during your daily life that will help you prepare for life after college. It is not how tall you are, how smart you are, not even how many times you fail, but the telling sign is how many times do you get back up and fight on to succeed.

3. Financial knowledge.

I see too many students who are not prepared for the financial concerns that will face them in college. Learn from people you trust and most of all your parents. They did not get to where they are without some ups and downs during the early years of their lives.

I take issue with Marc Kennedy

Marc Kennedy, communications director, Wisconsin Union:

Take advantage of all the opportunities available for students at the Wisconsin Union. It’s more than a comfortable place to … relax on the Terrace and watch the sailboats …

Nothing, I mean Nothing, is more important than sailboats! And, if you’re in Madison, head down to the Terrace and join Hoofers Sailing Club, learn to sail, and sail all the rest of your life. That’s what I did and what I’m doing. This advise is from me, Senor Parrot.

And to finish, and partly reiterate what others have said, as well, is Alfonso Studesville, a wise, long-time career counselor at MATC, and all-around Good Guy:

Alfonso Studesville, career counselor, MATC:

Read and learn about the policies, programs and information resources at your school. Even kindergarten is not what it used to be.

Manage your finances to get you through the semester. Post-secondary students should come with money, checkbook or debit card to pay for books in case financial aid is delayed or emergency expenditures come up. Create a budget and follow it.

College is not a continuation of high school. Therefore, you may need to change some of your habits as well as some of your beliefs.

You are responsible for your education and getting the work completed and in on time.

Please have reliable transportation to get you to and from school on time.

If you have children, you should have three baby-sitters you can use.

Make a plan, set your goal and stay focused on your educational goals.

Show up on time and ready to learn.

Learn to take tests and notes. It will help you to learn content for any subject.

Have good technology skills.

Ask for help – each institution has a large staff of advisers, counselors and others to assist you.

Seek out and join college organizations, clubs and groups to have an informal learning experience.

Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, and balance your weeks.

Know your rights as a student to appeal what you believe is unfair.

Learn to say NO to others who distract you from studies and school responsibilities.

Limit your text messaging and phone calls, and use the time to study more.

Make good and wise choices. They will impact the rest of your life.

The youngest is eagerly reading now. She had steadfastly�resisted before. She enjoyed guessing words, but not memorizing them, not actually reading. She hated sounding words out, and when she did, it was “guh…aww…tuh…guh-aww-tuh…got!” �Every single word! �Her reading ability appeared to slip to what it had been nearly a year ago.

But school has started and now she’s motivated. Now she wants to read.

We bought a set of BOB books, the first set. It was sort of a start-over point. I hate the pictures, but my daughter finds humor in them. It turns out to have been a good decision. These books have the sort of repetition of sounds and word groups that helps her recognize the words more quickly. She catchess her mistakes more quickly, �she is gaining speed and confidence, she is reading with less effort and that has sparked in her quite a bit of enthusiasm for reading more. Each book in the set builds upon the one before it. �So, I repented my disdain for the BOB books and I have become an ardent convert. And, best, my girl carries them around and reads them on her own.