Today I went to a workshop on how to incorporate special lessons into the regular curriculum to add enrichment for gifted and talented children. The materials were good. I will use them, but think most would be fine for everyone. Years ago when I taught English I never told the students, but I taught them all more or less as if it were an Advanced Placement class. This strategy resulted in high test scores on the state test. Everyone complains about teaching to the test. If you teach well, students will do well.
It’s late; this day went by way too fast and here I am blogging and still need to grind coffee for morning among a few other things. Three kids,including my grandson, are spending the night. They have the iMAC on, the TV on, and are drawing, all at the same time. They are 8 and 10.
In the midst of all this activity, I came across the following information:
-The Sacramento River is so low salmon smolts cannot make it to the sea so the state is transporting them in trucks.
-Three-fourths of the US corn crop is bioengineered to include genes from the natural toxin Bt to make it resistant to corn rootworms, which are now becoming resistant to Bt.
-Lake Mead–the water supply for Las Vegas–is so low they are going to have to move the intake pipes.
-One-third of the natural gas produced in North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation is burned off and lost. The flares from this can be seen in space and produces greenhouse gases equivalent to one million cars.
-Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the highest it has been in at least 800,000 years. s
-Solar power in Italy and Germany is now as cheap as power from fossil fuels.
-At night rangers close the roads through northern California’s parks to prevent poachers from cutting the valuable burls out of the redwoods with chain saws.
-The use of public transportation in the US is at a 57 year high.
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