Wild Things festival, low-cost mammograms, bats program, more: Community Connection
Wild Things Festival
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will celebrates National Wildlife Refuge Week with the Wild Things festival on Oct. 18 from 10 a. m. to 4 p.m. The event has become one of the most popular nature/conservation events in the state.
In addition to showcasing the area's eight National Wildlife Refuges, Wild Things welcomes other wildlife and conservation-oriented organizations and individuals to share displays, presentations, and hands-on activities as part of a recreational and educational experience for the whole family. Now in its 17th year, Wild Things expects to draw more than 5,000 visitors. Admission, parking, boat rides, tours, and programs are all free. Come and share your passion for the natural world.
The event will be held at the Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuges Headquarters in Lacombe at 61389 Hwy 434.
Registration for Project Christmas
Applications will be taken, beginning Oct. 15, for St. Tammany Project Christmas, which provides holiday adoptions for children no older than 18 and still in school, living with their parents/legal guardians, and to senior citizens who are 65 and older living in St. Tammany Parish.
St. Tammany Project Christmas was established in 2002 to give needy children in St. Tammany Parish a complete Christmas. Along with gifts for the children, families receive food, including a ham or turkey to share a Christmas meal.
To register, a person must provide a valid picture ID of the applicant, original birth certificate for gift recipients, social security cards for all household members, proof of income for all household members (pay stub, SSI documents, etc.), food stamp eligibility letter or current print out (showing all household members), custody papers (if applicable), and proof of school enrollment, including a report card if a child is 18.
St. Tammany Project Christmas registration dates and locations are as follows:
St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church, 910 Cross Gates Boulevard., Slidell (10/15, 9 a.m.-noon; 10/22, 3pm-6pm; 11/1, 9am-noon); Northshore Pastoral Center, 69090 HWY E. Service Rd., Covington (10/15, 9am-noon; 10/28, 3pm-6pm; 11/1, 9am-noon); Village Church Lutheran, 29180 HWY 190, Lacombe (10/13, 3pm-6pm; 10/20, 3pm-6pm; 11/1, 9am-noon).
Please call 985.259.5770, email information@stprojectchristmas.org or write us at Project Christmas, PO Box 4043, Slidell, LA 70459 if you have any questions, or are interested in volunteering, adopting or donating to St. Tammany Project Christmas.
St. Tammany Project Christmas is a 501c3 charitable corporation, which operates on donations of money and gifts from the public and private agencies, businesses, churches, civic organizations and individuals.
Low-cost Mammograms at Lakeview
Lakeview Regional Medical Center will celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October by offering routine digital mammograms for $50 throughout the entire month of October.
Breast cancer impacts the lives of hundreds of thousands of American women each year. "As a husband and father, I want to protect my wife and daughter, from the horrors of breast cancer," says Bret Kolman, Lakeview Regional Chief Executive Officer. "As a professional in the medical field I want all women to be protected from this disease, therefore Lakeview Regional is doing what we can to make sure all women learn about their risks factors and get annual mammograms."
Call 985.867.3890 to schedule an appointment.
After 20 years, a teacher reinvents her classroom using technology
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Teacher Valyncia O. Hawkins knew she needed extra time with students who arrived in her classroom behind grade level, but slowing down the whole class risked boring the more advanced students. But even after 20 years as a teacher, Hawkins still didn’t have a good method to keep everyone moving forward. The 21 children in her classroom at Anne Beers Elementary School shared the label of fifth grader, but they arrived with different needs. It was clear she was losing some of them. It was disheartening.
“When I would stand and talk they would be bouncing off the walls,” Hawkins recalled.
Convinced there had to be a better way, this D.C. Public Schools Teacher took a fellowship with the CityBridge Foundation in 2013 to research and develop a new teaching method. She traveled to see other schools in states such as California and New Jersey, and she noticed technology offered a solution. It inspired her to create a new method of instruction. And in the process she found her zeal for teaching returned.
Fifth grade teacher Valyncia O. Hawkins and a student volunteer from Georgetown University work with students at the front of the room to give them extra help on a lesson as other students move ahead at their own pace on lessons on a computer. (Photo: Nichole Dobo)
Today, she is no longer standing in front of the room for a whole class period, trying to keep everyone on the same page. She developed a new style of teaching that gives students a mix of technology and small-group instruction. Online tools, most of them free, helped her customize lessons for students. She periodically checks progress through the year to adjust.
“I am meeting them where they are,” she said.
That’s not to say she found a method that is easier. It requires a lot of advance planning. She must craft several lesson plans for one class period.
On a recent day, when students arrived the first task was correcting the punctuation on two sentences projected on a smart board. Everyone gathered at the front of the room, composition books in hand, and they got to work fixing run-ons. They had four minutes to do it. Hawkins knew some students would move quicker, and her new teaching method meant she was prepared for it.
“I am meeting them where they are,” teacher Valyncia O. Hawkins said. “When I would stand and talk they would be bouncing off the walls.”
After answering correctly, students grabbed laptop computers and got to work on more challenging problems provided by online lessons that allowed them to work at their own pace.
This allowed Hawkins to work with students who took longer to arrive at the right answer.
“After we add a period is the ‘I’ lowercase?” Hawkins asked the smaller group who remained.
“No,” a student responded, a few moments later.
“Right, it is capitalized because you are always important,” Hawkins said.
Related: Is the next Khan Academy star in the D.C. Public Schools?
A blended learning classroom gives children a mix of online and in-person instruction, and some say it offers more personalized learning. There are many ways teachers can do it, but Hawkins created something that is her own model. There is a lot of movement in her classroom, with many students breaking off to work on lessons at their own pace after the starting the class together. Groups of desks offer places for children to gather to work on laptops. A small couch near the front allows for comfy seating for small group-instruction at a smart board. Singular desks in corners welcome children who seek solitude while they work.
The children are often allowed a measure of independence. For instance, they can choose from several vocabulary lessons. They can wear headphones. Or not.
A student in a fifth grade class at Anne Beers Elementary School works on a computer lesson that allows her to move faster or slower than classmates in the same class. (Photo: Nichole Dobo)
Student JaNaia Jackson, 10, said her favorite lessons in English are finding the theme and main idea, she said. She notices that some of her peers like to take the computers off and work quietly on their own. Others like to stay near each other. There are other perks, such as getting to write with a tool that is preferred over a pencil and paper.
“I love to type,” she said. “I just love to work on typing.”
Right now, Hawkins is the only educator using this model of teaching in her school. In other D.C. schools, the district is coordinating blended-learning experiments.
Hawkins has noticed students are more engaged and there are fewer behavioral issues, something other D.C. educators said they have noticed with this model of instruction. The novelty of the technology isn’t the only factor, Hawkins said. Personalized instruction that allows students some freedom to explore keeps them from getting bored or frustrated.
“It just helped me feel like I was contributing to the learning of the students,” Hawkins said. “It helped address those students who don’t necessarily follow the norms.”
Students put away folders at the end of an English and language arts class at Anne Beers Elementary School. Valyncia O. Hawkins found a new use for milk crates – they are the perfect size for storing the folders. (Photo: Nichole Dobo)
That’s not to say the transition was easy or the results perfect. Hawkins considers her classroom a work in progress. She continues to remodel it to fit the needs of the school day and her students.
This year, for example, she had to re-organize her blended classroom because she now teaches English language arts to all fifth graders in the school. Before, she taught multiple subjects to the same 20 students all day. The new schedule means she has more students, so she is customizing plans for about 63 children who transition in and out of her room for English class. The new schedule has also shortened the class-time window. (That’s not to say there is less time for English and language arts at the school — writing instruction is now included across other subjects, such as science class.)
Related: What urban districts need to know to get their English language learners up to Common Core standards
Another challenge: Managing the multiple online platforms, such as quizzes, learning games and online grade reporting for parents. Data on the websites she uses aren’t connected so Hawkins has to juggle them to monitor how her students are progressing.
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