California Offers Free Meals to Students

California is the first state to offer all public school students access to free nutritious meals this school year, thanks to the statewide Universal Meals Program. Good Morning America reported that the program comes at a crucial time, with food costs rising, inflation and an overall increase in children facing hunger since the pandemic. The Universal Meals Program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (BSP) and ensures all students are offered breakfast and lunch at school. The Universal Meals Program will cover all 6 million public school … Continue reading →

CDC has a Plan for School Reopenings

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an operational strategy for reopening schools. Their operational strategy presents recommendations based on the best-available evidence at the time of release (which was February 12, 2021). The operational strategy emphasizes mask wearing, social distancing, and other actions. The CDC adds that vaccination of teachers is important, but does not consider it to be a prerequisite for reopening. Parents need to know that the CDC cannot force schools to reopen. They are not calling for a mandate that all U.S. schools to reopen. The CDC’s Essential Elements of safe K-12 school operations … Continue reading →

Growing Up Surrounded by Books Increases Adult Literacy

How many books are in your home? A study found that immersing children in book-oriented environments benefits their later educational achievement, attainment, and occupational standing. Do your children have access to plenty of books at home? The study is titled: “Scholarly culture: How books in adolescence enhance adult literacy, numeracy and technology skills in 31 societies.” It was published in Social Science Research. It was led by Joanna Sikora of the Australian National University. The findings of the study indicate that the size of a home library equips youth with life-long tastes, skills, and knowledge. Whey these youths grow up to … Continue reading →

Parents Eating Lunch with Kids at School Cause Problems

Think back to when you were an elementary school kid. Lunch time was probably one of the highlights of your day. It is one of the few opportunities during the school day where kids get to eat and to socialize with their peers. Some parents have started eating lunch with their kids at school. This is causing problems. Darrien News (Darren, Connecticut) reported that a rule change will no longer allow parents to eat with kindergarteners and first-graders at the town’s elementary schools. This rule was conveyed to parents via email. The email was sent by Interim Superintendent Elliott Landon. … Continue reading →

Banning Chocolate Milk Doesn’t Improve Nutrition

Parents who had children in several schools in Oregon noticed what they viewed as a problem. The kids were much more likely to drink chocolate milk than they were to drink white milk. The parents believed that banning the chocolate milk would force the kids to start drinking more white milk. Instead, things did not work out as planned. It is safe to say that the parents in the school district’s PTA meant well. They were hoping to make changes that would provide better nutrition for the students. They believed that removing the chocolate milk, and only offering white milk, … Continue reading →

Have Some Mountain Dew Before a Test?

How do you feel about standardized testing? Chances are you aren’t an incredibly big fan of it. Children tend to strongly dislike taking standardized tests because it is stressful, confusing, frustrating, and very different from how their typical school day goes. Perhaps this is why a school in Florida found a controversial way to motivate students to take their standardized tests. Someone at Creel Elementary School in Florida came up with an unusual way to get students excited about taking the FCAT. The FCAT stands for “Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test”. A grandmother who learned about it contacted the local media. … Continue reading →

A (very) Brief Ethics of File Formats

I’m a bit of a free software activist. Okay, that was a bit of an understatement. I’m sort of a big free software activist. Big as in “I care a lot,” not in that I’m well known (I’m not). I’m not talking about price either (though that is a factor), I’m talking about freedom. Make a quick web-search for free/libre software to see what I’m talking about. At any rate, I have a very strong belief that this should be the software of education (and governments) for a variety of reasons. Others have said it better than me but I’m … Continue reading →

Your Own Work

A nearing-the-end-of-the-semester reminder to all of the students out there: plagiarism is not good. Oh sure, you might be tempted. When you’re staring down a couple of all-nighters in a row the prospect of replacing your friends name with yours and changing a couple of sentences seems appealing. As we’re not at the very end of the semester just yet I think you might be able to avoid those all-nighters of the future if you pull some part-timers right now. Sure, there are probably all sorts of social things you could be doing. Social things are good — but is … Continue reading →

On Ebooks and Libraries

At various points throughout my time as a blogger for families.com I’ve written about my weird relationship to ebooks. “Weird,” you ask? Yes, weird. You see, as a graduate student (and a part-time instructor) I’ve got my fair share of books sitting on the shelf. I’ve also typically got a constant stream of new material flying my way and filling my existing shelves. “Ebooks don’t take up additional shelf space,” you correctly retort. No, they don’t. You see, part of my strange relationship with ebooks is that I don’t buy them. Now before I hear all about how I’m a … Continue reading →

Copy to Learn

If you haven’t been keeping track of my other blog you may not know that in addition to be a student and a teacher I’m also a father (and the Fatherhood blogger here at Families.com at present). Being a father (or a mother) opens your eyes to the very beginning stages of learning in a human being’s life. Our son is amazing. He’s constantly learning and progressing at a break neck pace that I can’t quite comprehend. If all of us kept learning at the pace of young children for our entire lives humanity would have cured every disease and … Continue reading →