Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1312 - 1336 of 1862
Decades of research indicate that poverty has a huge impact on student learning. According to professor emeritus Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California, studies show that “more poverty means lower scores on all measures of school achievement.” Many studies show that poverty negatively impacts school performance. In brief, here are some findings: - Children of poverty are more likely to suffer a lack of adequate food, resulting in slower language development and behavioral problems. - High-poverty fam...
Ever since Sputnik ascended the heavens in 1957, education reforms have consistently failed to improve schools. Why has there been no improvement? David Berliner offers an answer: Failure does not reside inside the schools. He states: “The sources of America’s educational problems are outside school, primarily a result of income inequality.” However, the U.S. Department of Education‘s goal is that “with better teaching, we will have more learning [higher test scores], and this will improve the economy.” As Berliner no...
It sounds like science fiction when you first hear about it, but some people see it as a way of addressing both animal welfare issues and environmental concerns. I’m talking about growing meat cells for human consumption from stem cells harvested from a cow. This so-called “cultured beef” recently was unveiled in London by a group led by Mark Post, a physiologist at the Netherland’s Maastricht University. It’s been known for a while that an anonymous donor contributed money toward an effort to grow a hamburger patty in...
Today is Labor Day, so of course I’ve spent it laboring. I’ve moved a few hundred bolts of fabric. Some of them more than once, since I don’t really have a plan. Now I’m tired. Even though it’s a holiday, as long as I was at the shop, I plugged in the “OPEN” sign, and a few people stopped in. One was a regular customer from the Harrington-Davenport area. Another was a woman with local connections who was on her way home to the west side. Just taking the scenic route. And fi...
So many recipes, so little space. Over the next few weeks, I will get all the submitted recipes published. This weeks column will focus on the most summery recipes, and of course, zucchini. Kathy Ratkowski brought UnPotato Salad to a recent community potluck picnic. Cauliflower is used in place of potatoes to create a low-carb salad. Kathy made note on the recipe that she uses a little less mayonnaise than the recipe calls for, and substituted the light version. UnPotato...
In 1943, Professor Abraham Maslow of Brooklyn College proposed that human behavior is guided by five basic needs (in this order): 1) physiological, 2) safety, 3) belongingness, 4) esteem, and 5) self-actualization. People, children included, are motivated to fulfill the basic needs (1-3) first before moving on to the last two needs. In other words, food and shelter (1), safety and protection (2), love and affection (3) come before learning or achieving on test or in school (4 and 5). Individuals will not move on to higher...
Dear Odessa and surrounding community, We would like to take the time to thank you for your incredible support; it is our honor and privilege to be back home! We are grateful to Odessa for supporting our adventure to try a larger school district. Many of you visited, sent notes, cards and care packages along the way and continually checked in on how we were doing as a family. Although our journey was exciting, and we learned a lot about a larger educational system, it certainly did not fit either Jeff’s style of teaching o...
“Knowledge is a big subject. Ignorance is bigger. And it is more interesting.” So begins Stuart Firestein’s book Ignorance: How It Drives Science. Part of the core message in the book about how science should work is wrapped up in a brief story about a physicist named Isidor Isaac Rabi. When Rabi came home from school each day his immigrant mother didn’t ask him what he learned, but rather whether he had asked any good questions in class. That approach to thinking about l...
Over the last month the price of wheat has been in a fairly narrow trading range. That relative calm has belied some of the powerful forces that have been influencing the grain markets both globally and locally. The futures markets are the backbone of the grain markets, for better or worse. And over the last month the speculative funds have had a major influence on the market by acquiring a record short position in wheat and a very sizeable short position in corn, largely based on the anticipation of a record corn harvest. Up...
Oops. I didn’t get around to writing a column last week. It was probably because I was out sweeping the cobwebs off the storefront. Or maybe washing my feet. At any rate, time got away from me. My apologies. This week, I’ve been thinking about one of those things we learn as children, although perhaps not always intentionally. I’ve been thinking about “Practicing What You Preach.” I tend to think of this particular topic in capitals, because somehow I grew up thinking it was i...
Getting ready for school means getting school supplies and back packs. It’s also the perfect time to make sure children are up to date on their shots. Getting all of the recommended shots is one of the most important things parents can do to protect their kids’ health. Vaccines are among the safest and most cost-effective ways to prevent disease. Protecting children from preventable diseases will help keep them healthy and in school. The shots that are recommended and required to enroll in school are available at your doc...
I have been hard at work in recent years combating a significant disease of wheat. Stem rust is caused by a group of nasty fungal organisms that can infect wheat plants and devastate yields. In some cases up to 100% of the crop can be lost. That’s a disaster for farmers, obviously, but it’s also potentially an enormous problem for those of us who eat bread, hotcakes and muffins, and who want to keep such foodstuffs in our diet. The battle between stem rust and agr...
Many students in high-poverty schools perform poorly on state tests already. With Congress’s plan to cut food stamps for the poor, elderly, and disabled, schools nationwide will face much greater difficulties in educating hungry children. Then add the cost for technology to make Common Core testing possible. Many schools have trouble now connecting to the Internet, and others have many connections but terrible WiFi infrastructure. Systems have been known to crash on the day of testing, forcing students in mid-keystroke of a...
To the Editor: We have a huge problem that needs to be addressed. We have 31 million veterans in the United States and most of them are eligible for benefits. That means we have a huge unfunded liability! There ae 774,000 unemployed veterans and the most help they are getting comes from the business world and wealthy individuals. We have a high percentage of suicide among our group of veterans and many of the stories that have been told go back to not getting necessary care. There are 613 forms that have to be filled out. It...
The Odessa School District staff committed to having Great Expectations for students and each other during the 2012-2013 school year. This commitment produced amazing results in what students learned, how they behaved, and what they accomplished. As the 2013-2014 school year begins, we are committing ourselves to go Beyond Great Expectations. We are committing ourselves to making sure every student is given every chance to be successful. The teaching staff will spend Monday, August 26, working with Greg Benner to continue...
To the Editor: Reading the August 4, 1988 history, I saw the name Stanley Wrasper and it brought back memories of me playing a gig with him and with Richard Totusek on piano. This was in the summer of 1959 while I was working on the Ott ranch. I was given the oldest set of drums that I had ever seen in my 55 years of playing. The set had to be from the very early 1900s. We played at a place in Wilson Creek. What I remember is Stanley and Richard whistling in harmony all the way from Irby to the gig. Not one song but one...
When our special needs son was in school, he always rode the school bus for handicapped children. God blessed us with great school bus drivers and you have to be very special yourself for this job. In my husband’s church office, he had intercoms that led to his secretary due to the long distance between offices. There were days that Tom would pick up truck drivers speaking on CBs to other truck drivers. Tom would stop his work occasionally and try to catch a few words between drivers. Tom said it never distracted him from h...
In Part 7, we saw Common Core curriculum being used with second-graders in New York. For K-12, the standards, readings, and suggested curriculum remain about the same – developmentally inappropriate for learners, especially in elementary school. How did it come to this? According to the 2010 U.S. Census and the National Center for Education Statistics, 13,604 school districts oversee the more than 100,000 public schools serving about 50 million students. I understand that about 100 high-poverty school districts formed the bas...
What are the odds? That was my thought when I read recent pieces about a very special fossil from the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Here’s some background: if you saw the movie Jurassic Park, you may think that Tyrannosaurus rex was the biggest predator of all time. That’s certainly the way the movie portrays the 40-foot-long dinosaur that could weigh seven tons. But there’s actually been a long debate in scientific circles about whether T. rex was a predator chasing d...
The grain markets have been in a downtrend for the last couple of months, pressured by very favorable weather in the central U.S. and continued selling by speculative funds. Traders were surprised that in the July crop report USDA increased acres and production despite the flooding and planting delays that the cornbelt experienced for most of the spring. Heading into Monday’s report, most traders were looking for a 14 billion bu corn crop and a 2 billion bu carryover for next year. Once again the market got caught leaning the...
I just got back from a short stay in my home town. I’m pretty sure I should have stayed longer, but I ran away. I usually do. My dad fell last week, and the results weren’t particularly pretty. When I arrived at his house Saturday afternoon, he was asleep on his bed. That was enough to alarm me. My dad has always been a pretty good napper (wherever he happens to be – on the porch or at the table) but if he’s in bed in the middle of the day, you know it’s serious. After he...
To the Editor: How lovely to write a little news article about the charm I left in your town. I just found out. Here are the links to the blog posts about Kiama's Charm in Odessa: http://catherinapetitvanhoey. blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/kiamas-charm-no-18-is-found.html http://catherinapetitvanhoey. blogspot. co.uk/2013/08/kiamas-charm-no18-news-coverage.html Catherina Hertfordshire, UK And from the blog: I had a lovely email/comment from two children, Makayla and Charleigh, from Odessa in Washington, who found charm no.18...
Recently, someone asked me to address (in this column) the issue of bringing more visitors to Odessa to shop in our retail establishments. Believe me, it’s not a topic foreign to me. Or to anyone else who belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. Or to anyone who owns or works in any of those aforementioned retail establishments. And I'’m including our restaurants in that category. The Chamber of Commerce, love ‘em or hate ‘em, has done a pretty good job of bringing people to town...
The House of Representatives and House Republican leadership recently took a bold step to separate the Farm Bill into farm policy and feeding programs (aka food stamps). When asked for a reaction, the most common answer in my farm community is “it’s about time.” We have allowed Congress to fall into a pattern of mega-bills too large for anyone but full time lobbyists to read and understand. Focusing on issues separately allows for more transparency, better debate, and less opportunity for brokered back scratching. The Suppl...
I recently pulled some weeds in my yard. Sometimes I’m glad to have a little simple work where I can see progress, even if the effects of my labor are only temporary. I can only do a little bit at a time, having to take it slow due to arthritic knees. But one thing about pulling weeds in August stands out even when taken in small doses; it’s hot work. With the sun beating down on us, warming the whole nation, it’s easy to wonder if solar power will some day replace fossil fuels as our mainstay energy resource. That could...
