¿Desayunos Nutritivos en la Escuela?

En las últimas dos semanas de clases de este año se les ocurrió en la escuela empezar a dar desayuno a los chavos a la 9:30 de la mañana, porque antes de entrar a la escuela muchos no tienen hambre, pero después empieza a darles hambre cuando muchos no tienen qué comer, ya sea porque les da hambre en horas que no son de comida y/o porque no les toca la hora de comida hasta más tarde.  El desayuno siempre ha sido gratis para todos los alumnos, pero muchos no lo aprovechaban. Al ser ahora nosotros los maestros los que damos de desayunar, siento que la conducta ha mejorado un poquito, pero ¿son nutritivos los desayunos?

Siempre ofrecen cuatro cosas. Siempre hay ¾ de taza de leche sin grasa, que pueden tomarla con chocolate o con fresa, una fruta, una media taza de jugo de fruta y algún pan o cereal dulce. De esto tienen que tomar al menos tres cosas para que salga gratis, y pueden tomar ya sea 3 o 4 cosas distintas siempre y cuando no tomen dos cosas iguales (por ejemplo, no se vale tomar una leche normal y una de chocolate) a no ser que quieran pagar. Al ser nosotros los que damos de desayunar, podemos los maestros tomar un desayuno gratis como nuestros alumnos. La mayoría de mis alumnos ha preferido desayunar casi a diario, pero creo que hay áreas de oportunidad. En esta foto se ve el pan o el cereal que dimos en siete de los últimos ocho días de clases. Me ganó la tentación y me comí una barra de Cocoa Puffs del mismo tamaño que la barra de Trix.  

Cuando nos explicaron cómo iba a funcionar esto, pregunte: ¿no es demasiada azúcar y harina refinada y muy poca proteína? A lo que la representante de nutrición del distrito me dice: “la leche es la fuente de proteína, y en cuanto a la harina, se usa la mitad de harina integral y la otra mitad es harina refinada. Los proveedores de alimentos saben enmascarar lo integral para que tenga un sabor que a los chavos les guste y que no lo desperdicien. Si no lo has hecho, deberías probar las donas cubiertas de chocolate para que veas que buenas están.” Pensé en hacer más preguntas, porque aunque no soy nutriólogo, como químico que soy, pienso que ¾ de taza de leche no es suficiente proteína. Por otra parte, hay gente intolerante y/o alérgica a la lactosa.

A los que me conocen saben que me encanta la comida chatarra, pero si este es un programa que ofrece el gobierno federal de Estados Unidos para nutrir a los alumnos y mejorar el desempeño académico ¿no sería mejor ofrecer alguna opción más de proteína como el huevo? Otra cosa que puede hacerse es no dar opción de leche con chocolate ni de fresa para reducir el consumo de azúcar.

Curiosamente, lo que los alumnos no se comen, se tira. A una empleada de una cafetería del distrito la despidieron por agarrar fruta entera que los chavos no se comían, con el pretexto de que tenía que pagarla.

New Look, Same Great Taste!

It's the kind of madness right before and right after STAAR testing.

I'll probably have to apologize to these kids for preparing them to take these tests. White rice, blueberry cheesecake, and apple cheesecake taste just the same.

Nueva Orleans

Era un viaje que no estaba contemplado, por tener ya planeado un viaje a Europa el mes que entra, pero ¿cómo decir que no a una despedida de españoles siendo yo el único mexicano invitado?

Al llegar me di cuenta de que Nueva Orleans no es la gran cosa, pero fue agradable caminar un rato. Al llegar a la calle Canal, se me figuraba la calle Madero en Monterrey, pero lleno de tiendas de regalos y farmacias en lugar de ferreterías (en la esquina de Juárez y Xicoténcatl). De un lado estaba el “French Quarter,” del otro lado estaba el centro. En el French Quarter estaba lleno de edificios disque estilo francés (voy a comprobarlo el mes que entra), pero las calles muy sucias.

En el “French Market”, dentro del “French Quarter” me tocó probar un queso manchego español auténtico. Como no me gusta el jamón y no había sándwiches de puro queso se me hizo fácil pedir un platillo de queso manchego. Para mi sorpresa, era platillo de reyes. Las almendras españolas saladas saben mejor que los pistaches, el pan estilo europeo delicioso y las aceitunas ni se diga, y de postre uvas y ate de membrillo.

La “Hand Grenade” es la bebida más potente en todo Nueva Orleans supuestamente. No me encanta el sabor lima-limón, pero estaba buena. Puede que sea más eficiente trabajando de noche que de día, pero no tengo la energía española que te deja estar despierto toda la noche. Al llegar al punto donde todos se dispersan entre la multitud, el alcohol te tiene en el “punto más feliz,” y el ver que un amigo quedó temporalmente como gaznápiro no te queda de otra más que solidarizarte y llevarlo al hotel a dormir. Nunca he prdido la cabeza y sigo con el firme propósito de no hacerlo nunca.

Después de unas 8 horas me despierto, y estando todos dormidos me bañé y llegué a tiempo a misa de 11:00 en la Catedral de San Luis.

Crucé el río Mississippi en barco, fui al “Aquarium of the Americas,” nos echamos una coca frente al río Mississippi con jazz en vivo, luego a un masaje de chinos o japoneses.

Y sí, aunque esto no es Castellón, Valencia, España (donde está Villarreal), sigo pensando ir algún día. En la noche estuvimos en el casino Harrah’s. Un buffette bueno, y lo más importante aquí es que había soñado ya antes con un lugar muy parecido a esta foto:

No gastar más de 20 dólares es disciplina. Al día siguiente fuimos a los pantanos y luego de regreso a Odessa. Ha valido la pena y por mucho esta convivencia. Gracias a todos que hicieron esto posible y ¡que se repita!

Frases del viaje:

“Necesito un helicóptero medicalizado”

“¿Dónde estáis?” 

“¡Os repetís más que el ajo!”

Así hablan en España

Math Standardized Testing in Texas

This is barely my third year being a teacher in Texas (and elsewhere), and as most teachers, we feel that "good teaching" is all about having kids either pass and/or show significant growth on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Or not really, but that is the only immediate way to measure teachers' as well as students' progress. There might be a majority of teachers wondering, how do we really measure teacher and student growth? I can only share what I've seen in my 7th and 8th grade math classes.

Math standards in middle school changed last year, moving more things down from high school. Who would've thought that a high school student struggling with two-step equations and inequalities in 10th grade would be teaching those topics to 7th graders fifteen years later? Yes, that's me. That topic is probably the most difficult one in 7th grade math, but luckily, most other topics (not standards) are rather easy. Luckily? Maybe not so much.

Most topics, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers, decimals, fractions, as well as any other form of rational numbers might not be too bad for 7th grade, as they're expected to know a lot of that by the time they get there. The problem is that you have to cover all those in a four week period, along with lengthy and confusing word problems. I remember spending almost a whole semester doing that when I was in 7th grade, and word problems were not the whole part, or even the majority of the test.

After that, you could spend about three weeks teaching kids how to solve two-step equations and inequalities, graphing them, knowing how to write them out of a word problem situation (or vice versa), and using equations to solve problems involving missing angles in a triangle, unit angles, complimentary, and supplementary angles. Another four weeks for proportional relationships, including graphing, unit conversions, problems involving percent increase and percent decrease, and similarity. You'll have the finals, along with a few days to review at the end of the semester.

For the second semester, you must cover probability of different kinds of events and situations, area of composite figures, area, surface area, volume, data interpretation (dot plots, pie charts, and box and whisker plots), and financial literacy. I am thinking that if I had been raised with this system I would've struggled. I feel it's too much information in a short period of time and questions are very tricky for middle school students. I have noticed that test performance is not always correlated with a kid's intelligence. Guessing and lucky days might have some kids do well on a multiple choice test when they don't even know how to add decimals correctly, while students who are generally good might have a bad day and fail the test with one of the lowest scores.

After taking college level math, middle school math is a piece of cake. I feel that those kids who have the capability to go to college will naturally learn how to learn by themselves without the need of having too much information given to them in such a short time period. If teachers and other college students who are currently working were successful without those tests, then these kinds of tough tests are probably not needed (I have a feeling that they might even be disruptive to some of these kids' education). While there has to be a way to measure students' and teachers' progress, these kinds of tests might not the best way to do it.

While I'm in this system, I hope that with what I teach, students learn more than just get ready for a test. If there is any other way to make students do better on these tests without teaching to the test, I would like to know how it's done. All I've thought of is going deeper into the finance part after STAAR without a STAARlike format, as well as constantly reminding them about the importance of getting a school diploma and a college education. While I agree on the fact that we need high order thinking in schools, making this the only form of assessment has clearly not made students show growth, and that is why the passing scores are so low, especially in middle and high school math.

Fairbanks, Chena Hot Springs, The Northern Lights, The Arctic Circle, and The Ice Park in Alaska

Describing Alaska, even with a camera might be nearly impossible. People in Texas think that the Lone Star State is like a whole other country, which is true, but considering that Alaska is more than twice as large as Texas, we might think that Alaska is like a HUGE country by itself, but almost without a living soul.

After getting to the airport, I was taken directly to Chena Hot Springs. It was my understanding that the Fairbanks area was GENERALLY not windy, and while I was still just wearing jeans and a hoodie, it did not feel cold in Fairbanks, but after driving 56 miles to Chena Hot Springs things changed. I checked in and almost immediately went to my room to put on thermal underwear, wool socks, a vest, a jacket, snow boots, and feet warmers.

At 7:00 PM, when the sun had barely set, I went to the ice museum. The outside thermometer read 9°F (-13°C). As it was 27°F (-3°C) inside and the wind was not blowing it felt warm inside.

I decided not to try the apple martini that was offered in an ice glass, as I wanted to stay awake and see the northern lights for the first time.

At around 10:00 PM a military snow coach drove us to the top of a hill. This took about half an hour. Up there it was still breezy, so we waited inside a cabin to see the aurora. As I waited outside for a few minutes, I noticed that I’d never seen so many stars before, but as beautiful as the night sky looked, it felt terribly cold. I still consider myself cold natured, but the tripod that I was holding was freezing my fingers despite the mittens, and wool socks and feet warmers were not enough to keep my toes warm. I felt like I was about to get frostbite.

I decided to stay inside most of the time, until someone saw the aurora borealis. At around 1:30, a few streaks of green light were visible on the east side, but not enough to be captured on my camera.

The next morning I was allowed to try some other activities until 3:00 PM. When I made a reservation, there was only one night available (thank God, as it saved me lots of money!). Luckily, I was able to do everything I would’ve done if I would've stayed longer between that night and the day after. I would’ve missed lots of things if I had not gone back to Fairbanks.

I went into the hot springs. I smelled some sulfhydric acid (H2S) which smells like rotten eggs, but I’m good at breathing with my mouth. The water is supposedly at around 110°F (43°C) year-round. It comes out much hotter, but it is cooled by water from the river in order for people to bathe. The water vapor immediately turned to snow that deposited on the spruces, the wind carried it back to the spring and did not melt until it reached the surface of the of the hot water. As I was going out, a guy told me I had snow on my hair. How the snow managed to stay in my hair and how the water made me feel warm even though it was probably in the teens (-12° to -7°C) I still can’t explain.

After I had dried most of my hair, I went dog sledding. The musher said that the black and white dog that is seen in the front had saved her life, as she was lost and guided her and the rest of the dogs back home. I do not remember how long it took them to get back, but I believe it might've been days.

I had one last tour after lunch. Chena Hot Spring’s goal is to reduce or eliminate its carbon footprint, so they use the energy coming out of the springs to heat the cabins and maintain a temperature near 25°F (-4°C) at the ice museum. They grow their own lettuce and tomatoes, and they might someday use only meat, eggs, and milk from their own animals.

I was driven back to Fairbanks. I had missed several hours of sleep, as I had woken up at 2:30 AM central time (11:30 PM in Alaska) to get on a plane at 5:00 AM. I had gone back to bed nearly at 3:00 AM (Alaska time) trying to see the Aurora. Thant means I had been awake for nearly 28 hours the day before, only to sleep for 6 hours. I got back at around 5:00 PM, it was time for a light snack for dinner. I asked the lady at the front desk if she could call me if the northern lights were visible. She said yes. I got a wakeup call at 11:30 PM, and this is KIND OF what I saw:

No, what the camera captured is not exactly the same as what my eyes saw (except for the moose who showed up as the lights vanished), and surprisingly, I learned that both the stars and the northern lights are captured better when there are some city lights around. While I love my Canon Powershot SX50, it was not made to capture the true beauty of the night sky and the aurora borealis. 

Next day was the day of the Arctic Circle tour, a 16-hour tour that would go to the Arctic Circle and come back, stopping multiple times along the way to have a potty break and to take some pictures. The tour departed from Fairbanks, a city where you find most major US stores, businesses, and restaurants such as Sam's, Carl's Jr. (instead of Whataburger), H&R Block, Pizza Hut, Walmart, Lowe's, etc.

On the highway, instead of restrooms we had outhouses. As I'm no fan of germs I prepared myself to keep visits at a minimum and to make them as quick as possible. An outhouse is basically a toilet on top of a hole, where everything that goes to it freezes this time of the year. Sanitizing wipes were available inside the bus. 

Temperatures were nearly steady around 12°F (-11°C) all day long as we drove north and northwest. Near the Arctic circle, you can see the Brooks range to the north. The Yukon river was completely frozen and covered with snow.

As the sun set near the Arctic Circle, temperatures quickly dropped to 0°F (-18°C), and as we were going back, the thermometer had dropped to -3°F (-20°C) when we stopped at the White Mountains, it was also breezy. An icy dew formed on the windows inside the bus, the aurora was visible on the highway but I was unable to capture it with this camera.

We stopped in Joy, and just like they did at Chena Hot Springs, the promised hot soup was simply ramen noodles. The temperature had risen to 14°F (-10°C) and it was not as breezy so it felt "pleasantly warm" for a few minutes. 

I went to bed at nearly 3:00AM and woke up right before 9:00AM to get some breakfast, went back to bed, ate lunch, took a shower, and walked to Pioneer Park. Temperatures were in the upper teens (around -7°C), but as it was sunny and the wind was calm, I felt comfortable walking with two cotton shirts, thermal underwear, mittens, and a hoodie.

After ordering Pizza Hut I got ready to take the Sirius Dog Aurora Cabin tour. I initially thought I shouldn't've done it as I would not be able to capture the pictures as they looked like without the city lights, but as it was already paid, I decided to go anyway. The owner lives in a cabin near Murphy Dome, and this shows some of the lights that I saw (both the lights and the stars looked much better):

The last day in Fairbanks had to include the city tour and a visit to the ice park at night. We started at the Morris Visitor Center, then the Pipeline that goes from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay ( the same one I saw all the way from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle two days before), the Museum at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and finally Santa's house in North Pole:

And yes, reindeers do shed their antlers in the winter, but it seems to be no big deal for them. At night, I got a cab to visit the Ice Park. This started in late February, as volunteers and people who work on single block ice sculptures begin scraping the ice. 

People working on multi-block sculptures were still not done:

Visiting Alaska in March should definitely be the best time if you want to see both the northern lights and the ice park. This is something I'll never regret. Even though I would've loved to go with friends or family, it's not always possible, but it's better to travel alone than not traveling. 

If you like candies and chocolates, every time you travel you might find something new to try and/or something you have not seen in a long time, like Brach's Fruit Orchard Jelly Beans (in my opinion, the others are not good). Not all of these tasted good, though.