Please support our junior and senior high school students in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Goleta and Hope Ranch by voting “Yes” on Measure W!  Passage of this local-only measure, which was placed on the June 5 ballot by the Santa Barbara Unified School District, allows for local residents to demonstrate once again that they care about what happens in our schools.

Four years ago District voters overwhelmingly approved over $4 million in local funding for junior high and high school programs. That community investment has enabled students to reap large benefits in math, science and technology instruction, foreign language acquisition, and music, art and theater programs in ways that would not otherwise have been possible. This current local funding is set to expire in June 2013.

This measure will deliver more than $11 million not available from any other source. With a modest cost to landowners of only $54 annually, we can’t afford to pass up this critical investment in our future.

Measure W funds will be used to maintain:

Enriched math, science, and technology education

Music, art, and theater programs

Enhanced secondary foreign language courses

And to offer trade‐related courses to assist students entering the workforce

MEASURE W MAKES SENSE FINANCIALLY BECAUSE IT:

Provides local funding for local schools

Provides funding that cannot be touched by the state

Creates jobs

Builds excellent schools that strengthen property values and maintain the desirability of our neighborhoods

www.YesForSchools.com

Click Here

Many blessings to you and your family this holiday weekend!

1.  Get prepared with questions and concerns.

2. Be on time. This gives respect to the teacher and allows you to have the maximum amount of time.

3.  Don’t be shy with questions. We can’t be fly on the walls in the classroom, however we can get a good picture through questions.

4.  This is the time to address any issues that the child might have with the teacher.

5.  If there is a learning disability, this is a good time to review their Individual Education Plan.

6.  Express appreciation to the teacher(s).

7. On the drive home, think about your home environment and how it can reflect in your child at school.

To read this full article, please click here.

This is a source for so many other sites; anything to do with practicing math. This site refers to other sites for all grade levels of math. And most of them are completely free.

And watched two sculptors there,

The clay they used was a young child’s mind

And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher;

the tools she used were books and music and art;

One was a parent

with a guiding hand and a gentle loving heart.

And when at last their work was done

They were proud of what they had wrought

For the things they had worked into the child

Could never be sold or bought.

And each agreed she would have failed

If she had worked alone

For behind the parent stood the school,

and behind the teacher stood the home.

The topics and lessons go on and on. The practice and reward system is encouraging for children and the range of topics are interesting for grown ups.

KhanAcademy.com

When I think about my children at school seven hours a day, it becomes apparent that teachers play a major role in their self esteem.

Self esteem, “the overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth”, is an important building block to almost everything children do. When a child feels good about himself, he is more likely to put more effort into the task at hand, he is more likely to be kinder to others, and he will be more resilient of challenges. When a child feels liked by others it gives him a sense of belonging, or personal importance. When a child feels confident academically, he will feel achievement. Achievement breeds success.

Self esteem might be the single biggest factor to happiness. Could that be? Do we have that much power in how our children turn out? How important is teaching self esteem in the classroom? Can we, as parents, foster and ingrain self-esteem at home or do we need the help of our schools and teachers?

Dr. Nathaniel Branden, a renowned lecturer and writer on self-esteem defines self esteem as the “disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life, and as being worthy of happiness. Thus, it consists of two components: (1) self-efficacy: confidence in one’s ability to think, learn, choose, and make appropriate decisions; and (2) self-respect: confidence that love, friendship, achievement and success – in a word, happiness, are natural” (Branden, 1994).

Dr. Branden also stresses that self-esteem is absorbed more than taught. We can support and influence self-responsibility, self- efficacy and self-respect. We can help children become more aware of these elements that teach them how to be happy.

So, back to the question: can we as parents foster this or do we need the help of the classrooms?  The answer is both. And very much both. It takes a village of love to pave the road for a child’s happy independence.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

“The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think.”

- James Beattie

“Remember that our nation’s first great leaders were also our first great scholars”.

– John F. Kennedy

“It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” – (unknown)