Tired of being forced to eat what she felt were nutritionally sub-par meals at school, a 9-year-old student took to her blog in an effort to draw attention to the issue. It didn’t take long for that attention to go viral as Martha Payne's blog, Never Seconds, was eyed by several media outlets in her native Scotland. The attention grew to the point of a nationally-televised interview with the BBC. She explained how she would take pictures of the meals presented to her with a digital camera and write up a summary of the food including a Food-o-meter rating of how much she likes it, a mouthful count, a health rating and a number for how many pieces of hair were in the food.
She started in April and by May 15, school and town officials were seen leading journalists on tours of the school’s dining area. It was then that Payne blogged that there was a new system for ordering food, and that "cherry tomatoes, radishes, carrot and cucumber shreddings," began appearing in the meals.
As we get ready to head in to summer, I know you are thinking about taking a break! You should be. But, as a teacher, I know my brain was always thinking, “what is something new I will try next year”? I am going to break down STEAM and STEM learning this summer in a several part series, to make it easier to try to organize and decide what YOU want...
The COVID pandemic caused k-12 teachers and higher education faculty to suddenly shift to using more technology, to teach virtually and remotely, to keep learning going in new ways. Educators were pushed out of their comfort zones, having to quickly learn new knowledge and skills.
For instance, some k-12 teachers were required to use course management systems such as Canvas—tools traditionally reserved for the college-level- to organize online work, grade assignments, and communicate...
Principals can help shift the focus from teaching to learning if they insist that certain critical questions be considered and principals are in a key position to pose those questions. How can we continue to reduce student misbehavior and increase time on task? Is the redirect process working? What do we want our students to know and be able to do? Teachers are not teaching if students are not learning.
The focus of high performing schools are not on are you teaching but what are the...
As teachers, we want to share ideas with families on how to engage with their children at home in a meaningful way. During the 2020 pandemic we were all made to stay home (eat, shop, clean, do chores etc). Everything was done with a small group that usually included your family. Hopefully families worked together on cleaning the house, gardening, planting flowers etc. Life skills are something that no one can take from you. They are also something you are going to use your entire life....
Since their inception, schools have continually sought to improve in response to demands from teachers, administrators, parents, policymakers and legislators. When we look at the research into improving schools and examine the keys to school improvement, it invariably boils down to the ability of the people within the school to function as a professional learning community. A professional learning community (PLC) shares a vision. A vision is generally created by the principal to move the...