1) Teachers are striking in Chicago today — I’m working on a longer blog post about it for later this week…
2) At some US schools kids are being restrained or are left in isolation as punishment — I found that article to be incredibly disturbing. However, I am relieved to say that I never saw that kind of thing happen in Chicago Public Schools.
3) Parents recognize that childhood obesity is a problem, but are in denial about their own family’s weight issues. Duh.
Regarding number 2, although I can’t speak for other disability-related groups, this has been a known issue in the autistic and/or neurodiversity community for a while.
I have a couple things I wanted to share, I will add them on to “Mrs. Q’s News.”
4. Both of my kids informed me today that eggs are a vegetable. They bought school lunch today and it was eggs and pancakes. For a serving of fruit they each got oj. (@@) I said, “Why no veggies?” And the lunch lady told them that eggs counted as a veggie and they were denied anything else. Thoughts? BTW, we are supposedly adhering to new nutrition guidelines in the caf. Ha!
5. My 3rd grader has a points based rewards system in her class. Once you reach a target number, you get to pick a reward of your choice, one of which is that you and a friend get to have a “lunch date” with the teacher in the class room. I have never heard of any other teachers doing this, and let me tell you, my daughter is over the moon at this idea!
Regarding the “lunch date” reward, my third and fourth grade teachers both had a similar reward system. If we reached a certain number of points, we could invite a friend from a different class to come have lunch with us. However, at my elementary school, we ate lunch in our classrooms, so it was more than just the two of us (or three if you count the teacher).
I do this with my Sunday school class. The only difference is that I let htem pick from a box of small goodies that they get for earning so many stickers. I also use it with a special needs child that I work with. I give him a choice of five different types of things, ranging from a trip to the library, a trip to the park, extra free time to a special day at a museum. All of these things are things that he enjoys and can choose. This seems to be a way to help him stay on task.
I am horrified about number two. I guess it’s naive to hope that kind of stuff doesn’t happen.
My daughters first grade teacher also does lunch dates with her as a reward, it’s so cute how excited the kids are about it. She has other fun, creative, positive rewards that really motivate my daughter to be on her best behavior, such as allowing shoes off in the classroom, bringing a stuffed animal to school for the day or reading a book to an administrator. I like these better than the weekly treasure box we had in Kindergarten because she gets a choice and its not materialistic in nature.