Today we’re going to bake a chicken. It’s Sunday, and although I am posting this late, it’s not to late for next week!

Baking a chicken is something we do at the Garden School regularly. It’s one of those no mess, no fuss dinners that’s really good. The only catch is that it takes a couple of hours. When you read most cookbooks, the directions are to bake a chicken for 35 minutes a pound, but that does not make for one delectable chicken. Most whole chickens are about 3 pounds, and that means 1.5 hours by the book. For a really good chicken you won’t forget, try to bake a chicken at least two hours if not 2.5 hours. When the leg falls off the bird, it’s done. Bake at 350 degrees in MID oven.

Here’s what you do:

Step one: Buy the bird. It should be a 3-4 pound bird with white skin. It shouldn’t smell at all.

Step two: Find the right baking dish. I like metal, but glass will do. Must remember never to add water to a hot glass dish. The bird should be able to fit all the way into the baking dish.

Step three: turn the oven on to 350 degrees.

Step four: Now open the bird in the sink because you will want to wash the juices down the sink; you won’t want a puddle of bird juice on your counter.

Step five: Remove the innards packed with the bird. Make sure both cavities are empty before you wash. Then wash your chicken lightly and paper towel it dry – all in the sink.

Step six: With the semi dry paper towel, wrap your innards and your packing materials and discard. Wipe up any drips.

Step seven: Place the bird into the baking dish. Because it is small, you don’t need to cover it.

Step eight: Spray your bird with cooking spray. The butter type tastes best. Then spice and salt. This way your spices will remain on your bird. I use Mrs. Dash at school, and the children love the outcome. Any spice will do that you like, but do spice and salt your bird. You don’t need any extra butter. If you want to stuff your chicken, now is the time.

[ stuffing: for a chicken, take two pieces of whole wheat bread and grind them up in your food processor with half a stick celery and a quarter of a small onion. Add a some olive oil and process until it’s crumbly. Stuff bird…]

If you made stuffing, wash your paring knife, and your processor and put your olive oil away.

Step nine: place your bird into the oven and let it roast for 2.5-3 hours. It’s done. Now wasn’t that easy?

To go with it for a no muss no fuss dinner: cut six potatoes in quarters and open package of baby carrots and add both to the roasting chicken an hour before you eat.

Dinner’s served with no mess.

I got this last week and thought some of you would be interested.

Whether it’s your kid, the latest celebrity mishap, your spouse, coworker or boss, or the dry cleaner who lost your favorite shirt, their body language is telling you everything you need to know. Former Navy SEAL and military interrogator Greg Hartley knows all the clues and his latest in a series of books on body language, The Body Language Handbook, has a variety of tips and techniques that he’d like to share with you.

The Body Language Handbook:
How to Read Everyone’s Hidden Thoughts and Intentions
By Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch

Ever wonder what that raised eyebrow, nervous twitch, or lazy slouch really means? Is it profound and important…or a meaningless quirk? What celebrities are really saying on the red carpet? Wondering if your significant other is lying to you? Are they really in love?

In The Body Language Handbook (Career Press, January 2010; $15.99), the authors, media pros, use candid photos of real people in stress-free situations, then juxtapose them against others showing the same people responding to different kinds of stimulus to illustrate the power of body language. By going step-by-step from the holistic to the detailed, you’ll quickly discover when body language indicates something significant, and when an itch is just an itch. You’ll learn how to:

* Identify the basic mechanics of human communication.

* Observe what is culturally normal…and when determine “abnormal” matters.

* Read changes in body language.

* Avoid misunderstandings.

* Project the right message.

* Protect yourself from manipulation.

The Body Language Handbook will not only teach you how to read the body language of others, it will also make sure you send the signals you want to send. Increase your power of communication at the office, in a courtroom or classroom, at home, and in any social setting–even the poker table!

About the Author
Gregory Hartley started his career with the U.S. Army, teaching interrogation and resistance to interrogation, as well as providing interrogation support to Special Forces in Operations Desert Shield. He then translated that military experience to businesses and has provided body language and behavioral analysis for print, TV, and radio media. With Maryann Karinch, Hartley is the author of five other books about human behavior, deception and body language, including How to Spot a Liar, I Can Read You Like a Book, and Get People to Do What You Want.
Maryann Karinch is the author of 16 books, most of which address human behavior and communications skills, which are are the topics of her keynotes and training. Her corporate background includes senior communications positions with a several technology companies.

The Body Language Handbook:
How to Read Everyone’s Hidden Thoughts and Intentions
Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch
ISBN13: 978-1601630766
Career Press, January 2010; $15.99

Friday was a new experience for the Garden School students and teachers. It was our culmination of world geography, and as a nice little coda, we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. We went to Yen Ching on Green River Road. We ate a small breakfast so that the kids would be hungry. We boarded the bus at 10:45 and arrived promptly at 11:00. The restaurant staff met us at the door and escorted us to several tables in the back of the restaurant. It was very nicely decorated and white tablecloths really set off the decor.

The children all sat perfectly, and not one child asked to go potty or move around. They all sat and ate their soup, egg rolls, their shrimp and noodles, chicken and noodles, sweet and sour shrimp and chicken, the beef and broccoli and the pork and vegetables and the rice and shrimp and rice and chicken. We brought our fortune cookies home and had milk. It was a splendid outing.

The most adventurous child was Ely. Emily concentrated on the soup and the sweet and sour, and CJ filled up on noodles, but Ely ate everything. He tried a bite of this and that and finished off several platters. Garrett tried most of the offerings, and had the biggest most pleasurable grin on his face.

We didn’t pay much attention to who was not eating as we spent so much time coming around to the tables with this platter and that platter of food. But even our pickiest children all tried something and enjoyed the outing very much. The favorite dish was the shrimp and noodles. It was really a hit.

Next time: Mexican!

When we came back to school we had a spelling bee and Isaac won. Congratulations, Isaac, way to go.

A great day!

Family Income Matters Most in Early Years, Study Says

It’s no secret that growing up in poverty has a negative impact on children’s life chances. A new study suggests, however, that family income plays a more critical role in some stages of children’s development than at others.

According to this study, published in the current issue of Child Development, the key period seems to be from birth to age 5. University of California, Irvine researcher Greg Duncan and his colleagues analyzed data on a nationally representative sample of people born between 1968 and 1975, with an eye toward determining links between the level of a family’s income throughout the childhood years and a host of outcomes later on in children’s lives.

Were poorer children, for instance, more likely than others to have been arrested or employed by the time they reached their 20s and 30s? Were they healthy? Did they finish school? (All of this, of course, comes after controlling for a wide range of variables, such as parents’ education, whether the child’s parents were living together, birth order, and the part of the country where the family lived.)

The researchers found that the strongest links were between living in poverty before age 5 and having lower earnings and fewer work hours 30 years later. The researchers estimate that a $3,000 annual increase in income between a child’s prenatal year and 5th birthday is associated with 19 percent higher earnings and 135 more work hours.

So why are these findings important? The researchers give two reasons.

First, the study is the first to have detailed income information across the span of childhood. Researchers were able to collect data on income from jobs, food stamps, welfare payments, and other sources for at least 12 years of a child’s first 15 years of life and to track participants up until age 37.

Second, the study has implications for public policy. With the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, for example, low-income working families already can receive a refundable tax credit worth more than $4,800 a year. Policymakers could modify, or expand, such policies to focus on families with young children.

The bottom line, says Duncan, is that “our findings suggest that policymakers might do well to focus on situations involving deep and persistent poverty early in childhood.”

We have a new school president! Yeah!

It was a tough battle with three votes. Fifteen children wanted to be president of the school. So on Tuesday afternoon, all fifteen gave speeches. It was decided that the kindergartners would run for the presidency, and since there were so many younger children throwing their hats into the ring, we decided that we would have a vice presidency, and the younger children ran for that post.

I tried to video the speeches, and if at all possible, I will be putting them on the blog as soon as I figure it out.

Our first vote yielded a tie and a near tie with most of the kindergartners. There were two children with six votes each, and we had a run off for the presidency. Javeon won by one vote. He is now our President.

Our Vice President is Scotty.

We are so proud of our little guys. They have done a wonderful job with this.

Good Monday Morning! It’s going to be a great week. Here’s what you should know:

We are hot and heavy into our campaigns for President of the School. Banners, posters, handouts, and any and all campaign magic is welcome! Treat your friends to the best!

The campaign speeches will start today and on Wednesday, we will vote by secret ballot. Anyone can win.

I am still trying to book a lunch reservation for thirty-five or so children for lunch out. It’s not easy. Will let everyone know by Thursday. This week is our last geography week. We are going to look at Asia as a continent, and look at where the countries lie. Not a lot of interest this year in geography.

Lenten Bona Operas still count. Please help your child keep his pledge these forty days.

It’s Mr. Terry’s Birthday today…

One of my friends was saying she loves to bake, but she really hates the clean up. Let’s travel together making one of my favorite cookies step by step and learn that your kitchen does not have to suffer the mess of baking to get a fine result.

First step: wash your hands and put on an apron. Grease stains!

Second step: clean up anything in your kitchen before making a new mess including wiping your counters and cutting boards. Your kitchen should be sparkling before you cook. That way, the orbit of clean is perpetual.

Third step: fill your sink half full with hot soapy water.

Fourth step: pull out two sticks of butter from the fridge, open the butter sticks and throw away the paper wrapper NOW. Put the butter into your food processor.

Fifth step: measure out 1/3 cup sugar and put the sugar into the food processor. Wipe up any spills and put your measuring cup into the sink.

Sixth step: take two eggs and separate them. That means crack the shell in half and pour the egg into your hand while your hand is over a small bowl. Let the white ooze through your fingers into the bowl while you catch the yolk. Do this twice putting the yolk into the food processor.

Seventh step: wash your hands and dry them on paper towel. Never use a dish towel to dry your hands because it will spread all kinds of germs. Throw out your paper towel NOW!

Eighth step: put your egg whites into a jar and place them in the fridge. Put the bowl you used into the sink and wipe up any spills.

Ninth step: turn on the food processor until the butter, sugar and yolks are a nice light paste.

Tenth step: Measure out two cups of flour one cup at a time – process – and add the second cup. You will find a nice soft dough results.

Eleventh step: In a square baking pan, press half your dough into the bottom of the pan with the back of a greased spoon. Use oil, it works best and goes faster than using fingers. To get the oil on the spoon, use a can of pan spray. Put the rest of the dough into a bowl.

Twelfth step: wash your hands and dry them on a paper towel.

Thirteenth step: Put your food processor bowl and blade and your measuring cup into the sink.

Fourteenth step: using half a jar of your favorite jam or jelly, spread the jam or jelly onto the dough with a spoon. (I use homemade cranberry jam I make by boiling two cups frozen cranberries and 1/2 cup sugar for five minutes on the stove.)

Fifteenth step: put your spoon into the sink and your jam jar away or the empty into the trash can NOW.

Sixteenth step: using the remaining dough dot the jam with clumps of the dough. This is the time to add nuts or any other garnish that seems like fun. Put your bowl into the sink.

Seventeenth step: Put square baking pan into the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty-five minutes or until the edges are brown.

Eighteenth step: Wash your two measuring cups, your two spoons, your two bowls and your food processor and blade. Rinse and let dry on a towel. Wipe down your counter.

Nineteenth step: lay out your cooling rack.

It’s a start to bake without a mess. Baking is one of the most enjoyable jobs there is in the kitchen. Baking without a mess makes the treat so much sweeter!

Phenix & Phenix literary publicists sent the Garden School three new books to review. We enjoyed them very much. You can find Phenix & Phenix here

Feeding Penny Pig

Is a story about a very special gift for a very special granddaughter’s birthday. It’s a story about love and affection and about teaching children to deal with money. It is very well written and has the right lilt for kids. The children loved it at the Garden School, and they all wanted to talk about their own piggy banks.

I’m up in a Tree

Is a story about working out problems. It’s a cute story and filled with cute little characters. It’s about parents and children’s love for one another. The language is easy to read and has a real music to it that keeps the children listening and learning.

How Lil Eddie Learns to Read

One of my teachers read this and said the children really enjoyed it.

We enjoyed reading these wonderful books. The children like the gentle lilt of the language, and through all three of them listened for the story. These are new books and very much worth buying for the home library. Look for them at your book store.

Friday was a special day. The Lion’s Club came to do eye exams on the kids. They have the newest equipment. They have a hand held device that looks a lot like a radar gun. It has a smiley face on it, and the children look into the device, and the doctor snaps a picture and that’s it! The results will be mailed soon. The kids all seemed to like the whole project.

We got to go out for the first time in weeks, and the children seemed to love to run between the still snowy places and the wet ones. The sun was shining, and Kylie got to pass out her valentines with suckers and the kids were thrilled.

Later in the afternoon, we had our spelling be. Haidyn won! Yeah Haidyn. Jake came in second and that was a big surprise because Jake has just made the leap of 4-5 and from Middles to Kindergarten. We are sooooooooooooo proud of him. Kylie came in second – way to go Kylie.

Looking forward to the weather changing. One day cold, the next day warm, the next day sunny then rainy, then spring. So very exciting.

We have been working on telling ourselves about that which is good and that which is not. We’ve talked a lot about the rules and knowing them and just not minding. Good behavior is always a choice and we are encouraging every child to make a good choice every time.

This week we sent home our Bona Operas. This a good work the children promise to do during Lent. It’s a promise they make. Please remind your child of his promise during these forty days.

From Teacher Magazine

Published: February 17, 2010

Comment: an excellent article. I agree; students learn differently from one another because students are different from one another. One child learns through hearing, one from doing, one from the visual of a movie, and some need two or more means of materials to learn. Good Job Heather!

The Bunk of Debunking Learning Styles

What if research debunks your own findings as a classroom teacher? Do you cease to use the strategies that you’ve come to know and trust?

According to an article on Psychcentral.com, learning Styles are being re-evaluated and even negated. This research summary, reported in a recently published journal article, claims that there is really no proof that one kid learns differently from another.

The article declares that:

“The wide appeal of the idea that some students will learn better when material is presented visually and that others will learn better when the material is presented verbally, or even in some other way, is evident in the vast number of learning-style tests and teaching guides available for purchase and used in schools.

“But does scientific research really support the existence of different learning styles, or the hypothesis that people learn better when taught in a way that matches their own unique style?

“Unfortunately, the answer is no.”

Shrug. Cue eye roll. I don’t know what students they studied, but I politely dispute the dispute.

The article reads that, “For decades, educators have harped on the necessity of a variety of teaching methods to accommodate the particular learning styles of students.” (Notice the word “harped.” How’s that for loaded reporting?) There’s no mention of the nearly 40 years of research at Harvard and elsewhere that pushed these ideas into the teaching mainstream. There’s also no mention of research on the alternative —that of teaching all students the same way.

If you read the article closely, it basically says “Nobody’s proved this scientifically.” But I have—hrough observation.

I’ve conducted my own field studies of students in their natural habita—my own classroom. And despite what this study claims, I have found that these individuals do learn differently from one another.

It’s true that I’m not set up in some scientific lab here at school (although I would welcome a large grant to get that going). But I am available to share my knowledge. I am, after all, a classroom teacher, and pretty savvy about how kids learn. I’ve taught over 2500 of them in my 11-year career, and I’m not so sure these scientists can boast the same depth of knowledge about their test subjects.

In case the research folks don’t have time to drop by, I’ll share some observations from my own classroom here. Maybe they can form a few hypotheses to test out. For example, I know that: that:

• Neil learns better if I’m teaching with the interactive board and totally phases out when we’re reading.

• Desiree phases out when we’re reading, but as long as someone’s talking about the material, she’s in.

• Tien thrives in the computer lab.

• The entire class wakes up if they stand up.

• Seth has to be doing three things at once or he can’t pay attention at all.

• Armando needs everything to relate to him or he goes over to the Dark Side.

• Jenny will do anything academic I ask of her as long as I allow her to use a pink pen.

• Brandon will never be given the time of day, and nobody will love his writing like I do, unless he learns to type.

• Every student loves coming in to find the room looking different.

• Sarah will only work with Angy, but Fabiola can’t work with Sarah.

• Tin will function in a small group, but only one consisting of young ladies.

I live with these kids in a day-to-day setting, studying and reflecting how to best reach out to them. So what if I can’t fit them into neat little categories assigned by the scientific community? These are the practices that work in my current classroom. I’ve analyzed the different learning styles in my class, and that’s all I really care about.

Engaging All Students

That said, I’m not sure why standardization and individualization need to be completely at odds. I mean, each student is different, yet each must learn to function in the same world; so maybe there’s a place for it all. Why can’t we teach in such a way that all students are engaged, are learning the same skills, and can be appreciated for who they are as individuals?

Why can’t they be asked to bubble and paint?

Why can’t they be asked to listen and observe?

Why can’t they be asked to move and stay still?

The important thing here is not whether science can back up different learning styles with research, but really whether or not teachers (regardless of research) do what they find is necessary to engage all students.

And if that means having your kids stand on tables to represent a main topic sentence; or instructing a student to run around with the sign “Rome” on his or her chest slaying other countries until they’ve conquered the classroom; or delivering material via online survey, essay, scene study, or quick draw…well, then, so be it. Who needs the research to tell you how to reach your students, if indeed, you can prove that you are striving to engage them all and mostly succeeding?

Maybe the real dilemma here is not in the research, but in the teaching strategies. Maybe the heart of the matter is that not all teachers are teaching all students, or that they know how to. If so, that’s probably less an issue of science than of using common sense in teaching—observing and reflecting on what works and what doesn’t.

When I think back on the lessons that I loved as a student, the ones that stayed with me, they were the ones that asked me to solve authentic problems. They were the lessons that asked me to challenge myself outside of my comfort zone. They were the ones that allowed me to strut myself in my comfort zone. In all, they were the lessons that shook up the norm. But not all teachers naturally know how to mix it up.

Whether the current talk is about learning styles or multiple-intelligences or syn-naps or project learning or critical thinking or whatever, teaching is always about scaffolding—about how to teach in an engaging way in order to reach a wide variety of students.

But let’s face it. Some teachers must learn how not to be boring. They might be brilliant in their knowledge of content, but that doesn’t mean they understand how to deliver or communicate that content to every kind of kid. So why diss any theory that helps liven up learning?

I do think that teachers get bogged down with the unrealistic goal of trying to deliver the same lesson in different ways. I don’t think that benefits any learner. Students need to know how to compete in many different settings, after all, and they need to learn to listen and respond in many different formats. So we mix up our menu from day to day, but we don’t have to prepare every meal seven different ways.

Some nay-sayers who dismiss the legitimacy of learning styles don’t seem to realize that it’s more difficult to teach this way. Others may realize it but fight it because it IS more difficult. But it’s undeniably (at least in my classroom) the more effective way to reach the most students.

Common sense and long experience proves to me that there are different learning styles.

Just how many styles are present in your classroom will change from year to year. I would be as foolish to say that there are only so many learning styles as I would be to say that there are none at all.

This year I have 252 students. Does that mean that I have 252 different learning styles? Well, that’s what I spend the year working to find out.