A teacher’s plea for help
Seven Oklahoma schools are in a national running for a $10,000 grant from Big Lots. A teacher at one of those seven schools — third-grade teacher Dawn Dilley at Putnam City’s Apollo Elementary — sent me an e-mail about it.
She hopes the school will get the money so they can build a fitness track, and wrote an essay and put together a 90-second video with some of the school’s students as part of the application.
Twenty-five runners-up will get smaller amounts of money; there are 100 schools nationwide all trying to win.
The thing is, online voters choose the winner, and she wants some help. Here’s what she told me in an e-mail.
Apollo’s is very important because we are considered a 100% Title 1 school. All our kids qualify and get free lunch & breakfast through a federal program. Now, due the economic issues facing our students, we don’t have a lot of PTA funds or giant fundraiser budgets to draw money from. We are also aware that kids in poverty have a higher rate of obesity and a lower rate of overall health. Knowing this, we applied for this grant to get our school a walking track. This grant would allow us to easily motivate our kids to get in shape and help the regular classroom teachers at our school comply with the OK Legislature’s new longer PE times, since we will be taking on this burden.
What I need from you is your vote and possibly the vote of all the people who read your education blog, or anyone else you know who might vote. I would also like to get the word out to support all OK educators. This competition costs nothing but 5 minutes of time from now through July 22nd.
It would be great if we could win, but it would be even greater if all 7 Oklahoma schools won some money.
Here’s how to vote: Go to www.lots2give.com. Use the drop-down menu to select Oklahoma, and Apollo Elementary’s video as well as the others will appear. Vote by clicking the “Vote for this school” button. People can vote up to three times a day through July 22, and you don’t have to watch the video each time.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Do you know an outstanding young educator?
Student contest information often comes my way. But this week, I came across an advertisement in Education Week that gives teachers and administrators a chance to shine.
A middle school social studies teacher in New Jersey was named as the 2008 Outstanding Young Educator. Now, the organization that bestows the title – the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development – is taking nominations for 2009.
The organization will, for the first time, honor not only one teacher but also one administrator. Nominations are due Aug. 1; the nominees must be age 40 or younger.
To nominate someone you know, visit www.ascd.org/oyea. And if you’d like, share your stories here about a great educator — young or young at heart – that has crossed your path.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Lights, camera, science
Science is not my strong suit, despite having hands-on science kits packed with a microscope, test tubes and powdery chemicals like borax when I was a kid.
Discovery Education, which is affiliated with the Discovery Channel, wants Oklahomans who do have a knack for science to submit video entries for a contest.
A spokeswoman for the Discovery Education/3M Young Scientist Challenge, Pat McMurray, said there are too few entries from Oklahoma right now.
The competition is open to students in grades 5 through 8. The video entries must demonstrate how well students understand and explain scientific concepts.
A winner will be selected from each state, and 10 finalists will get an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, where a national winner will be crowned and handed a $50,000 savings bond.
More information about the contest is available at www.DiscoveryEducation.com/YoungScientist.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
From bad to worst
The Center for Union Facts wants to give $10,000 each to 10 teachers — to stop teaching.
The organization said Tuesday it can be impossible to fire a bad teacher if he or she is protected by a union. To clarify, the Washington-based nonprofit also says it’s not against unions, just against corruption and the like within unions.
Anyone age 13 or older can submit nominations for the Worst Union-Protected Teacher at www.TeachersUnionExposed.com.
The Web site in part singles out Tulsa for firing “only two tenured teachers” out of more than 2,000 between 2003 and 2006. During that time, six tenured teachers seemingly resigned or retired in the face of termination, according to the site.
Do you think there are more than a handful of teachers in any given school district that should leave the profession? Do you think unions protect them too much? Or do you think union rules need to be in place for the good of the majority, even if that means a few unsatisfactory teachers are protected?
Share your thoughts with me and with other readers on the Education Station blog at NewsOK.com.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Excuse to doodle
Google. It is a noun, a verb, and now, a competition.
The popular search engine is asking schoolchildren to design a Google logo for its homepage that is inspired by the question “What if…?”
Already, students from five Oklahoma campuses have submitted entries, Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya said.
The five schools are Southern Hills Elementary, Wilson Elementary, Christ the King Catholic School and Francis Tuttle Technology Center — Reno Campus in Oklahoma City; and Victory Life Academy in Durant.
The winning design of the “Doodle 4 Google” competition will be displayed at www.google.com on May 22, and the student who sketches it will win a $10,000 college scholarship plus a $25,000 technology grant for his or her school.
Schools must be registered by March 28 and entries must be postmarked by April 12. To participate and for more information, visit www.google.com/doodle4google.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
More than a place on a map
I didn’t know that beer and wine tastings could teach me anything about geography. Apparently, though, they can.
The nation’s largest geography education conference starts in Oklahoma City tomorrow. But don’t think that means nothing more than the arrival of 700 people who could pull a Ken Jennings in the geography category on ‘Jeopardy!’
Twenty-four lucky participants will go out to Bricktown on Thursday night for a “blind” tasting of four microbrewery drinks. They’ll learn “how to critically evaluate a malt beverage” and learn about the geography of brewing in America. Another group will discover how soils, hydrology and climate affect crops of grapes and wine production – during a tasting at the Canadian River Winery and Vineyard.
Also during the National Council for Geographic Education conference, geography teachers will learn things like how to integrate global positioning systems into their lessons, how Asian governments are preparing for future disasters and how climate change is portrayed in American films – “reel science.”
Students – many on Fall Break right now – also will take part. Among the opportunities for youngsters, Washita County 4-H members will host a poster session, and a hands-on workshop is designed for elementary and middle school students to create travel brochures.
Geography is not just about memorizing maps. There’s culture, climate, cartography and more. And it’s all in Oklahoma this weekend.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
QUIZ YOURSELF – Can you answer these geography-related questions about Oklahoma?
1. What is the highest point in Oklahoma and where is it located?
2. Forests cover what percent of Oklahoma?
3. In land area, Oklahoma City is how big compared to other U.S. cities?
4. Oklahoma is one of only two states whose capital city includes the state name. What’s the other?
5. Oklahoma has more man-made what than any other state?
6. What does Oklahoma have more miles of than any other state?
7. Oklahoma’s Cimarron County is bordered by more states than any other U.S. county. Can you name them?
8. Oklahoma is home to the highest what in the world?
9. Only one river in Oklahoma flows north. What river is it?
10. The state’s name comes from two Choctaw words meaning what?
ANSWERS:
1. Black Mesa in the Panhandle (4,973 feet).
2. 24 percent.
3. It’s the third-largest city in the U.S. (608 square miles) – before Jacksonville, Fla. (759 square miles) and Anchorage, Alaska (1,698 square miles).
4. Indianapolis, Indiana.
5. Lakes, with more than 1 million surface acres of water.
6. Original Route 66.
7. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
8. The highest hill, Mount Cavanal, at 1,999 feet.
9. The Poteau River.
10. “Red People.”
Quiz information from www.travelok.com and www.50states.com.
