Saturday, November 22, 2003

I think it was the headband
Yesterday morning, one of our friends handed Mallary a copy of a local paper, apologizing that it took her almost a week to get it to us. Mary said she figured we probably had several copies already --- were we taken by surprise to see Clara's picture on the front page!

I called the newspaper office and talked to the very kind editor, who managed to round up a few extra copies for us. You can click on the image to get a closer look, but I'll quote the text here in case the scan isn't too clear.

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It's never too early to learn good manners

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The Westfield Recreation Department and the Jolly Trolley teamed up to sponsor a class in dining etiquette for youngsters aged 7-12 Sunday. At left, Clara Smith shows one of the proper ways to hold a knife and fork while dining. Below ... [ well who really cares about the picture below ?! ]


This reminded me of a Boy Scout event from my childhood, and seeing the photographer for the Pine Bluff Commercial. He rented his garage apartment from my grandmother, and had had Christmas dinner at our house a couple of times (since he had no family close by). He was surprised when I spoke to him by name, and then he realized who I was. At that point he smiled and snapped a few photos... and I ended up above the fold of the Sunday paper. In this case, I'll bet the deciding factor was Mom's cornbread dressing, not my Scout-geek charm.
posted by Tom 7:34 AM

Monday, November 10, 2003

eye candy
I finally added some photos to my Timberlock blog.
posted by Tom 10:07 AM

A Paddle for the Mainstream
This article from a recent NYTimes Education supplement echoes the way that Mrs. Thomas teaches Clara's 3rd grade class. One example: each student has a custom-crafted list of spelling words each week, culled from mistakes in her writing the previous week. The students trade lists and test each other. Oh, and some of the students have vocabulary words rather than spelling, as that is what Mrs. Thomas thinks those children need to emphasize.

Mrs. Thomas puts a lot of emphasis on making good choices of reading material, factoring in maturity as well as skill in decoding words.

I think she's a pretty remarkable teacher. All four "G/T" third-graders from the school are in the class, as well as some special education kids, and everyone seems to get appropriate and challenging work.
posted by Tom 10:02 AM