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ADHD and Diet Study An article on NPR's All Things Considered, Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs, told of host Guy Raz's revealing interview with Dutch researcher Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands. Pelsser, lead author of the study, The Impact of Nutrition on Children with ADHD (INCA) (460K PDF document), found that "64 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD are actually experiencing a hypersensitivity to food." Pelsser was very clear that medications may still be needed for some children in the treatment of ADHD, but that treatment "should start with diet research," with meds used if a dietary change does not produce sufficient behavioral improvement. Having had one offspring with serious food allergies when he was very young (and some ADHD symptoms), the research above makes pretty good sense. With our youngest son, Zach, an elimination diet revealed a number of strong food allergies. Removing those things from his diet, not an altogether easy proposition, made him a much healthier and happier child. As Zach grew into adulthood, he found that his tolerance to some previously forbidden food items increased. Teaching about Earthquakes and Tsunamis I haven't found any materials online specifically tailored to teaching about the earthquake(s) and tsunami in Japan last week. Katherine Schulten has some good links on the New York Times Learning Network in Teaching Ideas: The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. Yahoo contributor Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben's Free Resources to Teach Children About Earthquakes and Tsunamis is a similar page. Looking through some of my tried and true resource sites listed on our 2009 feature, Resource Sites for Teachers, I found lots of general links for teaching earthquakes and tsunamis. Maybe these links will save you a few minutes in your prep.
Endeavour on the Pad
From Endeavour on the Pad, a NASA Image of the Day:
A couple of articles by Brian Boyce on the front page of Sunday's Terre Haute Tribune-Star illustrate why Indiana's House Democrats have left the state to prevent a vote on Governor Daniels' anti-worker, anti-teacher, anti-public school agenda. The agenda will continue the narrowing of school curriculum while encouraging constant test prep to the detriment of student's learning. (Guess I should add "anti-student" to the listing above.) In "Save our schools!" Crackerbarrel draws more than 500 protesters eager to defend Indiana education system, Boyce accurately portrays Republican state legislators trying wildly to justify their unreasonable and unfair positions on education issues in the state. Boyce notes where the legislators' repeatedly tried to evade questions about their support for charter schools, merit pay based on high stakes testing, vouchers, and only requiring 50% of teachers in charter schools be certified. In Protesters boo GOP; Rep. Borders touts anti-bullying brochure he tells of 45th district Representative Bruce Borders waving an anti-bullying pamphlet because he was upset with the crowd's cries for him to "Answer the question." It's understandable that Bruce didn't want to address the crowd's concerns about education and other issues. He represents a very, very poor district, but consistently votes against bills that would aid his constituents. He skipped the last Crackerbarrel where Republican legislators took hard questions from constituents and then returned to the statehouse to ignore those concerns. I'm really surprised he showed up at this one. You might wonder how he got in office and stays there. First, Bruce is a very personable guy. He was frequently in the halls of Backwash Elementary, where I finished my teaching career. He also runs a successful insurance agency. But the real thing that propelled him into office was celebrity. Bruce is an Elvis impersonator, and a very good one at that. He has a beautiful singing voice that he unfortunately also uses in speech to bash public schools and their teachers and espouse whatever his masters in the state and national Republican parties who bankroll his campaigns tell him to support. In other words, Bruce as a legislator is an embarrassment to his district and the state of Indiana. A Teacher Speaks Out The Indy Star's Robert King departs this week from his chronicles of School 61's kindergartners to tell about a brave teacher stepping out and saying what is on his mind. In Teacher says debate has ignored a crucial issue: parents, King tells of Greenwood Middle School science teacher Evan Camp being frustrated because "all the talk about education reform seemed to be about punishing teachers, especially the part about tying teacher pay to test scores." Camp first wrote and delivered a letter to Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett for the super and Governor Daniels. Feeling his letter had no effect after receiving a polite email response from Bennett, Camp made his thoughts an open letter to the Governor and Super. Camp wrote in part:
Camp goes on to cover a lot of issues in education "reform" being promoted by folks like our Governor Daniels, Super Bennett, President Obama, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He does an excellent job of refuting their flawed plans in everyday language that the public can understand.
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Prank Memo Irritates Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction
The memo (685K PDF document) suggests that Dr. Bennett will "begin to listen to the thousands of teachers who have voiced their concerns." It goes on to state:
If state supers didn't know the memo was a fake, the following line being attributed to Bennett should have told them that it was bogus:
Bennett is reported by various sources as being "irritated" and "angry" about the prank memo. IDOE sources threaten to track down and prosecute the source of the memo.
The Hoosier Holdout Continues I ran across another good Facebook group, Support Indiana Teachers, last evening. Where Stand Up for Hoosiers is more of an organizing site, Support Indiana Teachers is pretty much a discussion site. I got a chuckle from a posting there that led to Bank that funded Scott Walker, Now Closed -- Firefighters and others withdraw all deposits. Odds 'n' Ends If you hadn't guessed from the coverage above, I thought the fake memo circulated to state supers this week was a great prank. I also thought Bennett's humorless response said a lot about the man. Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Agency Links I read yesterday where some big phone companies may be delaying getting texted Japan relief donations to the proper organizations! Wow! I also read that one can donate via iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, and other digital options. Here are a few links to sites where one can make a donation: The Plan E.D. Kain aptly described "the Republican vision for public education" yesterday in Scott Walker is the New Face of Education Reform:
Articles from around the nation over the last few days tell one of the all out Republican assault on public schools and teachers:
Also in Wisconsin, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi "ordered a temporary halt to Governor Scott Walker's controversial measure curbing collective bargaining for public employees, saying a legislative committee likely violated the state Open Meetings Law when it rushed passage of the bill earlier this month." Ed Treleven tells in Judge orders temporary halt to collective bargaining law; state will appeal that the order left Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Steven Means snarling about "a quick appeal," circuit court judges making errors, and "significant constitutional issues about when 'a court can interfere in the legislative process.'" The ruling "bars Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law, the last step before it can take effect." La Follette had resisted Governor Walker's request to fastrack publishing the bill, forseeing legal challenges to it. La Follette commented about the ruling and Walker's behavior, "I feel pretty good, to be honest. It seemed prudent and conservative to wait and see what the courts said, and it turns out I was right." Screwed by IMPACT I read Stephanie McCrummen's Evaluating teachers is a delicate conversation with some trepidation, as it seemed to be another Washington Post editorial board inspired teacher bashing article. But as I read on, McCrummen artfully describes how the flawed District IMPACT evaluation system and a well-meaning but inflexible evaluator managed to give an apparently good to great teacher a rotten evaluation. NYTimes Subscription Model and Post Site Redesign In 2005, the New York Times announced its Times Select subscription model that hid most of the paper's op-ed and much of the news from non-subscribers. The plan to boost income failed, and the Times quietly dropped it months later. Yesterday, Times' publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., released a letter describing a new subscription model the Times will begin using on March 28. The subscription rates posted are pretty ambitious, but the exclusions for free access appear to be much better than the 2005 plan:
I hope the Times' plan proves to be workable. They need to make money to stay in business, but crucial columns, such as Paul Krugman's recent The Forgotten Millions, need to get out not only to subscribers but to the nation as a whole and especially those in Washington who've forgotten the unemployed. The Washington Post's refresh of their site design is beginning to settle down a bit. I magically found the right email address to express my frustration with the new site design, traded several emails with a site designers, and actually saw one of my suggestions implemented! Their new local education page is probably more attractive than the old one and definitely leaves them more space for advertising. I'm not sure it's really an improvement for readers, though. Have a great weekend! Ads shown on this site do not represent an endorsement or warranty of any kind of products or companies shown. Ads shown on archive pages may not represent the ads displayed in the original posting on Educators' News. |
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©2011 Steven L. Wood