October 2008

Six ways to help your child understand the elections

A top government and politics teacher offers tips

Allison Hunt teaches a class at duPont Manual High.

Allison Hunt is one of only four teachers from schools throughout the United States who was selected as a 2008 C-SPAN Teacher Fellow. Hunt, a government and politics teacher at duPont Manual High, spent four weeks during the summer at the television network’s office in Washington, D.C.

She worked with the C-SPAN education team to develop resources, including information on the 2008 presidential election, for C-SPAN Classroom, a Web site that helps educators use the network's programming. She also made a presentation at the C-SPAN Educator's Conference, and she developed preliminary classroom material for a new White House documentary.

“The C-SPAN Fellowship was truly an amazing experience,” Hunt says. “One of the remarkable things I was able to do was go to the Rose Garden for a bill signing.” Other highlights included attending a White House press briefing and meeting with both Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative John Yarmuth.

Hunt offers the following tips to parents who want to help their child understand the upcoming election. Although Hunt is a high school teacher, most of these tips are appropriate for students at all grade levels.

• Help your child examine campaign coverage from a variety of sources—newspapers, magazines, and Web sites as well as network, public, andcable television news. Talk about how and why the coverage is different in different media.

• Ask your child which candidates appeal most to him or her. Ask why. Challenge your child to get to know the candidates better by doing research online or at a public library.

• Talk to your child about the issues that the candidates raise. Discuss how the issues will affect your family.

• As you watch campaign commercials with your child, discuss the techniques used to try to persuade the viewer. Pay special attention to commercials sponsored by groups other than a candidate’s campaign. Encourage your child to think about such questions as “Who are these groups?” and “Why are they paying to support one candidate or one party instead of the other?”

• Help your child understand the term sound bite. Encourage your child to identify sounds bites in the news. Talk about how hearing just a few words out of context can distort or oversimplify a candidate’s message.

• Help your child understand the similarities and differences between the political parties. Encourage your child to seek out more in-depth information on each party’s platform and to compare and contrast the parties’ stances and points of emphasis.

Help your child get in the habit of voting
Children can go to a polling site with a parent/guardian on Election Day to cast their own ballot—thanks to Kids Voting Metro Louisville, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office and the Jefferson County Board of Elections.

For more information—including a list of polling sites that offer Kids Voting ballots and details on how to volunteer for the organization on Election Day—visit www.kidsvotinglouisville.org.Kids Voting also offers a Myspace page: www.myspace.com/kidsvotingmetrolouisville.

File photo: Students vote at Shacklette Elementary. Many JCPS schools hold Student Council elections and mock elections to introduce students to the democratic process.

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Students practiced running the government
Five students at three Jefferson County public high schools were selected this year for American Legion programs that teach young people how government works. Ballard High student Nick Kilby and Eastern High student Erik Apel were selected to participate earlier this year in Boys State. Chapin Fausel (Eastern), Nakeesha Maddox (Ballard), and Alexis Gillenwater (Iroquois High) were selected for Girls State.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear meets Boys State Governor Nick Kilby.

The students participated in activities that emulated the operations of Kentucky’s government. “We were completely immersed in the political process,” Nick says. “We were divided equally into parties and then had to set up our party platforms from scratch. We then nominated candidates for office, held debates, and voted. After the offices were decided, all remaining participants took the role of senators, and we went on to create 39 bills—the most successful Boys State that Kentucky has had in recent memory.”

Nick was elected governor. At Girls State, Chapin was elected commissioner of agriculture. Both Chapin and Nick also were elected to attend the national versions of the programs—Boys Nation and Girls Nation—which were held during the summer in Washington, D.C.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Chapin says. “I took an Advanced Placement government and politics course last year and really developed a passion for the subject.”

Besides citizenship, the programs teach leadership, confidence, and public speaking. “The experience taught me an invaluable amount about coherent, efficient leadership,” Nick says, “and, most importantly, it taught me a lot about myself as a leader.” For more information on the programs, visit www.boysandgirlsstate.org.

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High schools get $1.5 million for small learning communities

Doss and Iroquois High School Magnet Career Academies have received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Smaller Learning Communities Program.

“This funding will ensure that students will be able to get the personal attention and individual instruction they need to maximize their potential in school and build strong, successful lives,” says Congressman John Yarmuth. “This is an investment that will pay off in the lives of the students of Doss and Iroquois and benefit our entire community.” Doss launched its Smaller Learning Communities initiative this school year.

Iroquois already has five years of experience with the concept through a system of student academies. The grant will help the schools more effectively use building space and provide integrated instruction. The grant also supports the development of freshman academies, which help students adjust to the high school environment. At an August news conference announcing the grant, student Jon Conen spoke about his experience in the Iroquois Freshman Academy last year. Here’s an excerpt from Jon’s remarks:

When I started high school, I did not know what to expect. I anticipated a school filled with teachers who would only know me as a number. The Freshman Academy changed the way I learned and thought about my education and future teachers. In the small learning community, I became accountable for my learning and my actions. Also, I forged strong relationships with my teachers. Every day that I went to school, I knew that I would be challenged by the teachers who worked together in the Freshman Academy. The small learning community made me more accountable because I had personal relationships with the administration and staff, which gave me a greater opportunity to succeed.

For more information on freshman academies and other small learning communities, see the superintendent’s column.

K-9 unit helps keep students safe
An English as a Second Language (ESL) third grader never showed up at school on the first day of classes this year. At about 4 p.m., JCPS received a report that the student was missing. He was last seen near a bus stop, and his backpack and shoes were found under a nearby tree.

The JCPS Security and Investigations Unit and the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) began an immediate investigation. They were joined by a search team available through a new partnership between JCPS and Kentucky K-9 Search and Reunite Services. The K-9 unit arrived quickly—just as the missing student was found walking down the street.

Because the child was already found safe, the K-9 unit decided to conduct a practice search. It began at the last place the child was seen at 8 a.m., but was the trail cold? There had been heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic all day, including many parents walking their children to and from bus stops. Was the path the student took too contaminated?

The search dog, Scout, a 4-year-old Parson Russell terrier, was given an item with the student’s scent. Scout started tracking, and at one point, he detoured behind a building to a spot where the student had borrowed a bicycle earlier in the day. Scout then followed the student’s trail back onto the street and to a park where workers had seen the child playing. Next, Scout trailed the student to a spot where he had returned the bicycle to a friend. Scout then led his handler to the student, who was sitting on the steps of his apartment building. The total distance was about a mile.

Stan Mullen, JCPS director of security and investigations, says the K-9 unit provides a “proactive way of reducing the risk of a child being lost.” The unit will be used primarily to search for a missing student who is less than 10 years old or has a mental disability—or if there are witnesses to an abduction. The addition of the K-9 unit to the district’s security services, Mullen says, shows that JCPS is always looking for additional ways to keep students safe.

How else does JCPS keep students safe?
The new JCPS K-9 unit is only the latest component of the district’s comprehensive security plan. Other components include:

• Every school has a set of procedures for handling a vast range of crises—from an earthquake to an intruder in the building.
• Every school has a customized Emergency Preparedness Plan, which includes steps for evacuation or for taking shelter within the building.
• Students regularly participate in earthquake, tornado, train-derailment, and fire drills.
• Staff members regularly participate in safety and first-aid training.
• A team goes from school to school throughout the year to conduct safety assessments.
• A two-way radio system connects every school with the JCPS security unit.
• In a crisis, a bus equipped with radios and lap-top computers can be driven to a school to serve as a response and command center.
• Law enforcement officers (School Resource Officers) are assigned to 22 middle and high schools.
• A K-9 Unit helps ensure schools are free of drugs, bombs, and guns.
• JCPS maintains partnerships with many community safety agencies, including LMPD, Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services, the Louisville Fire Department, and the Louisville Metro Emergency Management Agency.
• First responders at the community agencies have access to the floor plans of every school.

You can help keep students safe when you visit a school by signing in at the office, wearing a visitor’s badge, and reporting any suspicious activity or safety concerns.

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Student is inspiring kids across the country to stay healthy
“Grocery stores and drug stores are set up with bubble gum and ring pops in easy view. What sometimes looks like food is not really food, just chemicals and dye.”

Lowe Elementary student Sarah Chastain

That’s what Sarah Chastain, a Lowe Elementary student, says is one of the obstacles that kids face as they try to lead a healthy life. Other obstacles, she says, include “limited time, easy access to junk food, and too much TV and video games. For example, parents are often rushed and don’t have enough time to make a healthy breakfast for their kids, so families often eat fast food in the morning.”

Sarah’s observations earned her a spot on the Youth Advisory Board for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a New York-based partnership between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. (See www.healthiergeneration.org). Sarah was selected for the Advisory Board from hundreds of other applicants. Only eight years old, she is one of the youngest members.

She has been working with 19 other students from elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States to develop effective ways to encourage kids to make healthy changes in their lives. Sarah went to a board meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, during the summer, and she continues to meet with the other students once a month through social networking Web sites.

“Getting kids to focus on their health is not an easy task,” says American Heart Association President Tim Gardner, but “we can’t ignore the serious health consequences of kids eating poorly and not moving enough—which include type 2-diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Through the Youth Advisory Board, we hope to empower kids to make better choices now.”

Sarah says she hopes to motivate other kids “to do what they need to do to stay healthy.” She is working with the American Heart Association to promote the Go Healthy Louisville Day of Play. It will include indoor and outdoor activities at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park (3000 Freys Hill Road) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 11. For more information, visit www.heart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3059497.

Eight ways to stay healthy

Sarah Chastain offers students the following tips:

• Eat a good breakfast every morning, especially if you are scheduled at school for a late lunch.
• Keep snacks healthy at home and at school (popcorn, apples, cheese, oranges, and celery, for example).
• Drink water and then drink more water.
• Watch less TV.
• Get outside and play, play, play!
• Raining outside? Then dance, mall walk, visit the library, or clean your room!
• Always remember to brush your teeth and get a good night’s sleep.
• Lastly, slow down a bit, be positive, and smile.
  
  

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Library recognizes readers, promotes preschool program
“I read a lot of books during the summer, but I didn’t read ten books,” Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson told students during an assembly at Rangeland Elementary. “That means you’re reading better than the mayor.”

Every student at Rangeland and three other JCPS elementary schools—Jacob, Roosevelt-Perry, and Mill Creek—read ten books during the Summer Reading Program sponsored by the Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL).

Overall, more than 26,900 JCPS students read ten books for the program. The theme was Reading Rocks, and participating students received a black backpack shaped like a guitar. Other awards included free passes to University of Louisville sporting events and yard signs that say “A Library Champion Lives Here.”

To encourage preschoolers to become library champions, LFPL launched a program this month called Read With Me. Visit any of the 17 library locations to pick up a free Read With Me folder that includes stickers, a booklist, invitations to library events, and tips for instilling a lifelong love of reading in your child.

As part of the program, the library is partnering with Louisville Orchestra educators to provide hands-on musical experiences for children at all library locations. For more information, visit www.lfpl.org/kids/.

Getting ready for CATS: Are you as smart as a JCPS fifth grader?
The following arts and humanities questions have appeared on the fifth-grade Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) assessments. The first three parents who send the correct answers to the Parent Connection office via e-mail and the first three who send the answers via regular mail will receive a free JCPS T-shirt. Please include the name of your child’s (or grandchild’s) school with your answers.

The e-mail address is thomas.pack@jefferson.kyschools.us. The regular mailing address is Thomas Pack, C. B. Young Jr. Service Center, Building 4, Communications and Publications North, 3001 Crittenden Drive, Louisville, KY 40209. You don’t need to write out the questions or the answers. Just send the question numbers and the letters representing your answers, or if you send answers via regular mail, you may mark them on this quiz, cut it out, and mail it.

1. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. When you mix two primary colors together
you get
A. an intermediate color
B. a neutral color
C. a secondary color
D. a complementary color

Use the music below to answer question 2.

2. The notes in the spaces of the treble clef music staff shown above from bottom to top are
A. FACE
B. FGAB
C. CAGE
D. EGBD

3. Which of the following instruments is closely tied to the folk music of the Appalachian region?
A. trombone
B. harp
C. dulcimer
D. piano

4. In dancing, the use of energy while moving is called
A. tempo
B. shape
C. force
D. level

Keith Schroeder

Answers to the math questions in the last issue: 1: A, 2: C, 3: B, 4: C. To review the questions, click here, select the September 2008 issue after you click here to access the Parent Connection Archive.

The first parent to send the correct answers was Keith Schroeder, father of a student at Young Elementary.

Other winners were Patsy Durbin (Blue Lick Elementary), Dave Pohl (duPont Manual High), Carl Hardin Jr. (Kennedy Montessori Elementary), Suada and Zoran Jeftic (Zachary Taylor Elementary), and Stephanie Brown (Highland Middle).

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Free how to pay for college workshop
A free How to Pay for College Workshop for JCPS high school seniors and their families was cancelled last month because of the Louisville power outages. The workshop has been rescheduled for Tues., Oct. 21, at Atherton High from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The featured speaker will be Gen Tanabe, author of several books about paying for college. For more information, contact Dana Shumate at 485-3995.

PTA fact of the month
Only 22 state PTAs have a membership larger than the 15th District PTA.

Visit the Showcase of Schools
There have been a lot of changes at JCPS. The district has developed a new student assignment plan that will be launched at the start of the 2009-10 school year. JCPS elementary schools have been regrouped, and most are now part of 1 of 6 clusters.

The district also will launch 20 new elementary magnet programs. On the middle school level, JCPS now has an all-boys school and an all-girls school, and both will become districtwide magnets. Although there aren’t any new magnets on the high school level, high school students already can select from 70 magnet and optional choices.

Where’s one place you can get information on all of the district’s schools and programs? The JCPS Showcase of Schools. It will be held on Fri., Oct. 24, from 3 to 7 p.m. and on Sat., Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kentucky International Convention Center. Representatives from every school and from many JCPS offices will be available to answer your questions.

“We believe the showcase offers the best source of information for parents making a decision about schools for their child,” says Bernadette Hamilton, JCPS director of Optional, Magnet, and Advance Programs. “In many instances, students participating in optional and magnet programs or magnet schools will be on hand to talk with you and your child,” Hamilton adds. “Elementary, middle, and high schools will be represented, and key employees will be on hand to answer demographic and transportation questions.”

Attend College and Career Expo 2008
More than 300 exhibitors representing associations, businesses, and local and regional colleges will offer information on a range of education and career opportunities at the UPS College and Career Expo. It will be held on Sun., Oct. 12, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the South Wing at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Free seminars will provide details on such topics as financial aid, grants, scholarships, ACT testing, and how to choose a college. More than $500,000 in scholarships will be given away to qualified students. For more information, visit http://upscollegeandcareerexpo.com.

Some students wore milk mustaches during Lowe Elementary’s Second Annual Healthy Kids Parade/Health Promotions Kick-Off.

Direct comments about Parent Connection to the editor, Thomas Pack, at 485-6315 or e-mail him at thomas.pack@jefferson.kyschools.us

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Go to the JCPS Web site