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Monday, May 16, 2011

Got a glimpse of those old WPA Murals

I don't know if this lunchroom contained all the WPA murals at Bennett School that I had found out about close to two years ago. There are more pictures that I had taken at this month's LSC meeting which was held in the school's student lunchroom. This picture I posted because of the American flag. :P

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Through exotic produce, Chicago schoolkids learn to eat healthy - Chicago Sun-Times

Through exotic produce, Chicago schoolkids learn to eat healthy - Chicago Sun-Times

I still believe our young people should be exposed to those foods that are healthier for them. Of course that doesn't mean that we keep our young people from bringing a lunch from home.
Rutabaga. Star fruit. Jicama. Uglifruit. A lot of adults would have a hard time even identifying any of these in a fruit-and-vegetable lineup.

But not Louis Martinez, even though the first time he held a star fruit, he didn’t know what to make of it.

“It made me laugh,” said Louis, a 10-year-old third-grader at John Hay Elementary Community Academy, a Chicago public school in Austin, a neighborhood not known for having exotic supermarket produce sections. “It’s shaped like a star.”

Laughing’s OK with Wayne Williams, the principal at John Hay. It’s one of 14 Chicago schools where a federal grant is bringing produce to the kids. But at John Hay, the principal and third-grade teacher Jorie Schneider amped things up a bit. They’re mixing the mysterious with the mundane.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Chicago elementary principal Reason's "Nanny of the Month"


[VIDEO] The Principal at Chicago's Little Village Academy is Reason's Nanny of the Month. The critique is over her attempt to protect students from unhealthy food choices. Mainly banning lunches brought to school from home and forcing students to eat food provided by the cafeteria. Of course that does no good if students refuse to eat the food provided by the school's lunchroom anyway. :/

Monday, April 11, 2011

Public School Bans Homemade Lunches


[VIDEO] This video is out of Chicago's Little Village Academy where the principal wants to protect her students from unhealthy food choices. Doing so means preventing children from bringing to school their own lunch and forcing them to eat whatever is in the school's cafeteria. Even though as reported in this video from FOX News, the students may well not like the food and choose to throw it in the trash.

At least it's not CPS policy to do so and that the Principal made the call on this. I would be highly upset about this especially if I know to give my child a healthy sandwich, a juice, or even a piece of fruit. Who is this person to say that I as a parent (not a parent yet, personally) don't know how to make healthy food choices?

UPDATED 6:00 PM District 299 has other related links to this story.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Concerned Citizens of Chatham: Howard University Ready To Teach Program

Concerned Citizens of Chatham: Howard University Ready To Teach Program: "HOWARD UNIVERSITY recruitng for participants for its “Ready to Teach” program, The 2011 cohort has space for 10 participants from Chicago ..."

Monday, March 21, 2011

Harlan Family Conference & Resource Fair

Harlan High School is having a resource fair on March 26 from 9 AM to 1 PM. I have posted more details over at The Sixth Ward. One of the workshop topics at this event is the successful transition from elementary school to high school. I wish I could go just so that I can see what that means. Harlan is located at 9652 S. Michiagn Ave.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Chicagoist: Emanuel Looking Outside Chicago for CPS CEO

So we know who the Mayor-elect wants to lead CPS:
Emanuel is looking to bring stability to a position that has seen three men fill the role in the past three years, who can address the major issues facing the school system - balancing a $750 million budget deficit; improving test scores; improve its own morale problems and be able to deftly negotiate a new contract with a teachers union that didn't back any mayoral candidate in the February general election. Emanuel prefers someone with experience in handling any or all of these issues and high on his list is Baltimore City schools CEO Andrés Alonso.

Alonso and Emanuel have similar ideas about reforming troubled school systems. Before Alonso's 2007 arrival in Baltimore, that city's school system was in a state of decay so bad the state of Maryland was poised to take over parts of it. Alonso diverted millions of dollars in education funds from the system's administration offices directly to the schools, slashed the central office staff by a third, closed schools that were failing and replaced ineffective principals, gave principals at other schools more fiscal autonomy, and the dropout rate decreased by fifty percent. Alonso's sweeping reforms for a school district that was graduating less than half of its students was the subject of a detailed New York Times article last December.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Bill Baar's West Side: Daley: We're a 'country of whiners'

Bill Baar's West Side: Daley: We're a 'country of whiners': "Credit Daley for always being accessible to reporters and saying his mind. I always enjoy hearing his tangled speech. I'm comforted knowin..."

Friday, March 11, 2011

Interim CPS CEO on Chicago Tonight March 8th


[VIDEO] He talks about testing. That was an issue at the LSC meetings I attended at Bennett as it was believed it was an overemphasis. Of course there are other "metrics" that could be used to measure student success such as the grades a student makes. I may disagree with that however a standardized test alone shouldn't determine whether or not a student should be promoted to the next grade. That isn't what Terry Mazany was referring to however.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Help CPS: External Affairs & Partnerships

Discovered this website that provides information for individuals and groups to support Chicago's public schools. I was interested in information for starting an alumni/friends of organization for individual schools. Alas the link on that website was broken and instead I had to rely on archive.org to give me a glimpse.
If you are interested in creating an Alumni Association or “Friends Of” group to support a CPS school, we can give you some ideas that will help you lay the foundation for a successful start. If you already have a group, we would love to know about your activities and help you promote your events when possible.

A great resource for Alumni Associations and “Friends Of” groups is www.CPSalumni.org, where you can post information about events and fund raisers, and use the online donation page to accept credit card donations.
Needless to say there's not much, however, this is something that may be beneficial an alumni or friends of organization. Let's hope that CPS is interested in encouraging the growth of such groups.