Online Art School

Reedville Elementary School students (from left) Jonathan Balle Rodriguez, Henry Chavez-Sepulveda and Sofia Mendoza-Cruz get ready to water vegetables they helped plant at Reedville Presbyterian Church.It takes a community to build a community garden.

Eight new planter boxes behind the 100-year-old Reedville Presbyterian Church are the result of cooperation among the church, a Boy Scout troop, an elementary school teacher, urban gardening experts, Clean Water Services, residents and others.

“Without the community, it would still be an idea,” said Patty Smith, a Reedville Elementary School teacher who suggested the community garden two years ago.

Smith suggested to the church, which is next to the school and has partnered with it on other projects over the years, that it build a garden on unused land. The garden, she said, would bring the community together and give residents of nearby apartment buildings an opportunity to grow their own vegetables.

The church reached out to the Hillsboro Parks & Recreation Department, which could not help because the church, at Southwest Johnston Street and 209th Avenue, is outside city limits.

So the church formed a garden group and organized to make the garden a reality. The group won a $1,000 grant from the Aloha Garden Club and a $100 grant from Tualatin Valley Garden Club and used the money to buy gardening tools and materials.

A resident donated the soil and then the Boy Scouts came in. Eagle Scouts Jared Myer and Michael Whitby of church-sponsored Troop 225 built the planter boxes in April, as part of their Eagle projects, and planting began.

First- and second-graders from Reedville Elementary School hug their teacher, Patty Smith, on the last day of school. Some students promised to come back to help with the garden over the summer. Smith’s integrated first- and second-grade class sowed cabbages, peas, strawberries and carrots in two of the planters this spring. Smith uses the garden as a way to teach the children about nutrition.

The cooperative effort is continuing. The church and Clean Water Services, Washington County’s sewerage agency, are talking about building a way to capture rainwater for the garden. There is discussion of putting in more planters.

Students, church members and a school parent are among those using the planters. The garden group is still looking for an area resident to fill the remaining planter for a $25 maintenance fee, said Phyllis Kirkwood, a volunteer at the garden.

Tim Lanfri of Community Garden Creators, a nonprofit that helps communities build gardens in the Portland area, said there is a big demand for gardens and waiting lists are common. Lanfri advised the church to use plots instead of planting directly in the soil.

“Having the planters is the first measure of success,” Lanfri said.

On the last day of classes at Reedville Elementary, Smith’s students were busy crushing soil and watering the plants. When Smith asked who would come in during the summer to help with the garden, a couple of dozen students raised their hands.

Smith has been transferred to another school for next year, but said she would continue to come to the garden over the summer to see the project through.

“My hope is that it’s going to rival any community garden,” Smith said. “And bring our Reedville community together.”

Inappropriate post? Alert us.

Gertrude Stein has been making a comeback of sorts. She appears in Woody Allens new movie Midnight in Paris has spurred sales of her books. Her childrens book To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays was also recently published.

Offering a different and more complicated picture of Stein emerges in the forthcoming Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Fay, and the Vichy Dilemma, by Barbara Will. In the book, Will describes Steins life under Vichy rule in France during World War II, which included her role as a translator of Pétain’s speeches into English, including those outlining the Vichy policy barring Jews and other “foreign elements” from the public sphere while calling for France to reconcile with Nazi occupiers.

The book was recently reviewed in Publishers Weekly:

What was Gertrude Stein, that inimitable Jewish-American doyenne of experimental writing, doing translating for American audiences the speeches of Marshal Philippe Pétain, the head of the WWII collaborationist Vichy regime? In this brilliant and fascinating study, Stein specialist Will (Gertrude Stein, Modernism, and the Problem of Genius) answers this question through a close reading of Steins writings, a detailed examination of Steins and Bernard Faÿs attraction to Pétains conservative politics, and Steins friendship with Faÿ, a Frenchman who moved in both artistic and far right-wing circles and collaborated with the Nazis. Will demonstrates that the pair were reactionary modernists who believed that the democratic ideas of the French Revolution ushered in the decadence characteristic of the early 20th-century French Republic and that the U.S. was going through a similar decline. Pétain captured the pairs imagination and allegiance by articulating a program for returning France to the vitality and pioneering spirit of its pre-Enlightenment agrarian roots. Will shows that Stein never publicly affiliated herself as a Jew, especially after she moved to Paris in 1903. This exceptional study provides new insights into previously hidden corners of Steins life.

I cant quite believe it, but my kids go back to school on Tuesday. (AP Image)

A parent sent me a note about the frequent breaks in the school calendar.

His questions on whether frequent breaks stymie learning intrigued me as I am in a system Decatur that resumes classes Tuesday and has week-long breaks in September, November (Thanksgiving week), February and April, in addition to the standard holiday break in December.

(As a New Jersey native, I still cant get used to returning to school at the beginning of August, but Decatur is one of several districts opening next week.  And the temperature is supposed to be 99 degrees, which will make for a long mile-plus walk home for my twins. )

As I have said many times, our balanced calendar, which made its debut last year, does not work well for me, but I am resigned to it since the system believes it is more appealing to teachers.

I chatted with a teacher today who told she hates the calendar as a parent and as an educator because she has to re-establish routines in her classroom after every break. As a parent herself, she spends more money on travel vacations since there arent any good camp options during the September and February breaks.

However, another teacher told me that he loves the frequent breaks because they keep him sane and rested.

But do they hurt learning?

Here is the note from the APS parent about the calendar:

Why dont you take a close look at the APS school calendar? It isnt organized to enhance learning. The longest time the kids are in school is a six- week stint after spring break. Im just a parent, but it seems to me that if you want to improve test scores and learning, you do so through routine.

The calendar as it currently exists does anything but establish a routine for learning. The average length of time without interruption is three weeks. It seems to me that if you want to improve test scores, then the best way to do it is to have more solid school time before testing, not after.

UPDATE: Another parent sent me this note this morning, which I wanted to add as I think it gives a broader perspective to this discussion:

Your articles are usually insightful and thought provoking but this one is not true. Im sorry but the facts arent researched. Research the facts on this one. My children attend school in Rockdale county and they have a balanced calendar where they are out every six  weeks or roughly thereabout. We love the calendar. It keep the kids fresh along with the teachers. We are able to schedule family vacations spring break, a week in the summer, and usually one the first week of October during fall break (when lines are shorter at Disney )

But APS has the same calendar about 90 percent of the schools in Georgia have. School starts Aug 8th, and the first day off is October 10th and 11th, whereas in Rockdale they have a week off in October after starting August 1st. This doesnt seem to hurt their test scores. That idea and thought is simply off base, and just a shot at APS.  Are you honestly saying the two days off in October (10th and 11th), and two days off in February (17th and 20th) affect test scores. Really? The schools systems such as Rockdale who made AYP every year until this year (and still may make it after re-test have been calculated) have been on real balanced calendars for a while and they dont affect test scores.

Our kids have a week off the same time as APS and other school systems give their kids two days off. Youve got be kidding that any parent w/any gripe whether is based in facts or not can just get you to publish that.

In response, I shared the original parent note because I thought the overarching question of time off is worth discussing. I had no intention of taking a shot at APS as I saw the question raised as a universal one relevant to all schools.

I went to a bare-bones Catholic schools where we had no breaks whether a week or two days beyond Thanksgiving and Christmas. No spring break. No fall break. No teacher workdays. Any my niece and nephews in private schools up north also have fewer breaks than we do, although they have one Friday off each semester when teachers meet with parents.

I also wonder about the impact of partial weeks. Teacher friends tell me that partial weeks where the kids have off two days lead to lost learning time as less gets done in those remaining three days. Not sure why kids are more distracted and why time is lost, but I have heard that complaint.

This was e-mailed in Monday evening, and I wanted to make sure it was posted on the blog.

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Rams will open training camp on Friday in preparation for their preseason opener Aug. 13 against the Indianapolis Colts.

The team made the announcement Monday on its Twitter site. A team spokesman said the team would provide camp details later.

Running back Steven Jackson tweeted: “I’m very happy the lockout is over.”

Rams Park facilities will open at 9 a.m. Tuesday, when players may report for physicals and voluntary workouts. The Rams’ first preseason game, the Aug. 7 Hall of Fame game against the Bears, was canceled last week due to the lockout.

Keep up with the latest Rams news – Download the FootballStL app -  It is free and available for Droid, iPhone and Blackberry devices

5 Myths of Remedial Ed Developmental education is a K-12 problem, costs colleges dearly and proves that some students shouldnt go to college. Bruce Vandal from ECS and Jane V. Wellman from the Delta Cost Project challenge these misperceptions. They also offer simple steps that most states can take to reform remedial education and increase college completion rates.