Virginia Public Schools: From the Superintendent's Desk

An

Inside view
into Virginia

Public Schools


	Marking the differences in pronunciation.

"A long 'o' or a short 'o?'

I wandered into Cullen Warren's second grade classroom and found Cullen standing at the board, asking questions to the students. "We are looking for the words that have a short 'o' to them." He then pointed to the board where a number of words were written, including the two words, 'on' and 'go.' "Does the word 'on' have a short or long 'o?'" His eyes surveyed the room. Several hands shot up. "Short," said one of the heads attached to a hand. Warren filled in the circle around the word 'on.' "What about this word?" he asked while tapping the marker on the word, 'go.' "Does the word 'go' have a long 'oooo' or a short 'oo," he asked, stretching out the 'oooooo's' on the word 'go.' More hands in the air. "That's long," said one of the students. "That's right!" said Warren while emphatically stabbing his marker into the air.


	Proud of her notebook! [Notice the student in the background who really wanted to be in the picture and worked it so he was.]

School Forest Notebooks

I found myself in Amanda Faulkner's fifth grade science classroom and discovered the students pasting and glueing leaves and seeds onto pages. "What are you doing?" I asked several students. "We are making our school forest notebooks," replied a student. "It's full of things we found at the school forest and then we had to identify them and put them in here." I asked if I could look at their notebooks and the students were happy to oblige. I turned the pages in their notebooks and found leaves of birch and flowers from black-eyed susan and seeds from goldenrods. "How did you know which leaf, flower, and seed went with each plant?" I asked. A student finished laying glue down over a piece of plastic to secure a leaf to a page. "We have pictures and then we had to match them up and figure out which ones matched up," she replied.


	Working on important criteria and constraints for their future bumper car.

"If a baseball is hit to roll on the ground, what will stop it from rolling?"

I turned into Amanda Wolf's eighth grade science classroom where the students were finishing up a game of Kahoot, which is a simple game-show type quiz. The last question was, "If a baseball is hit to roll on the ground, what will stop it from rolling?" The possible answers were: "frictional forces," "mass of the ball," "size of the bat" or "gravitational force." Students typed their answers into their iPads. Amanda then changed the screen, which now had the correct answer as "frictional forces," checked off. She could also see how many students got the answer right or wrong. Amanda then grouped the students into groups of three. Occasionally a student groaned because he or she didn't get in a group with their friend. The students then worked on identifying criteria and constraints on a bumper car they were designing.

Random hallway moment


	"What's in the water?"

I was walking through the halls of Roosevelt when a student came up to me and asked, "Would you rather swim in a pool of sour milk or a pool filled with dog poop." I didn't have to think very long about my answer to this question. I answered, "I'd rather swim in a pool of sour milk." The student then looked at me and said, "I have a cousin who says she would rather swim in a pool filled with dog poop than a pool filled with sour milk. Can you believe that?" She then turned and headed down the hallway to her classroom.

[Editorial Note: The game of "Would you rather...." continues to be popular among groups of elementary kids. The premise of the game is that you are forced to choose between two unpopular options, neither of which is probably plausible and both of which are highly unlikely--which, of course, is why kids like the game.]

Advice for Parents Disposable vape pen with refill pod on hand

Vaping is all the rage now days and school administrators throughout the United States have grown weary of having kids say to them, "There's nothing wrong with vaping. It doesn't harm me. And it's better than smoking cigarettes. Leave me alone." Well, of course, we are discovering that there is something wrong with vaping and that 'yes, you can die quicker from vaping than you can with cigarettes." The science and health data is finally catching up to the marketing wizards who push poison to our kids and claim there is nothing wrong with it while making lots of money in the process. Kids are dying all across America because there is something in the vaping chemicals that, surprise, surprise, the biological body doesn't like and occasionally isn't capable of processing efficiently.

When did we ever think inhaling mixtures of chemicals was a good idea? (Spoiler alert--only when we were uncertain or unaware of the science and health data.)

Bonus Round: Do you really want your child or grandchild inhaling propylene glycol and glycerol and formaldehyde and acetaldehyde? These are all chemicals which can be found in vaping smoke. (And I'm not even counting the lead, nickel, and arsenic which can also be found in vaping materials.

So what is a parent or grandparent to do?

Be a good example to your children and grandchildren. Don't smoke or vape. And then, if you must vape or smoke, don't do it in front of them. Go somewhere and smoke and vape away from your children and grandchildren.
Make it difficult for your children and grandchildren to get their hands on vaping materials. Corporations aren't giving these devices away free to their customers. They cost money. Know what your child is spending their money on. You have every right to know, as a parent, what your child is buying.
Look for odd behaviors from your child and grandchildren.What are their lips touching? What are they trying to shield and prevent you from seeing? Companies are making their vaping products appear normal and found in common everyday objects. For example, a pen might not be a pen. A string in a hoodie might be more than a string. Is that really a duck call or something else? (Yes, unfortunately, this is what it has come to.)
Pay attention to sweet or unusual odors. Many vaping products come in a variety of flavors, colors, and smells. The companies manufacture vaping materials in many different "flavors" because they know that kids crave certain "flavors." Is that candy corn you are really smelling? And the lingering popcorn odor hanging around the living room? What you are smelling might not be candy corn or popcorn.
Talk to your kids and grandkids about vaping. Make sure they have accurate information.
Keep your kids and grandkids busy with activities. Active and busy kids have less time to get into trouble. And when do kids get into trouble? Often it's between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., or between the hours when school is over and the family supper.
Watch out for your child hanging out with older kids who are making poor decisions. Often the older kids, and they can be older brothers and sisters, will buy vaping materials for kids who can't legally buy them.