Jeni Ann Flores

      “I accidentally  kicked  him,” my student said.      "You were both standing there and your foot, without your knowing it, accidentally kicked him."       This is a typical exchange between me and my second grade students. Hopefully this “by accident” plea is not something I use when it comes to teaching and learning in my classroom - that my students are not learning “by accident,” but rather, they are learning by design, or purposefully.      Or are they? Thankfully, there is a way to find out through a t-test using paired samples.     It sounds complicated but it's really quite easy. Dr. James Carroll of the University of Portland taught me how to do it with EZanalyze,  a free add-on to the Excel spreadsheet program. I type in my two sets of scores from a pre test (test given before instruction) and post test (test given after instruction). With a few clicks, (plea...

   Derek Redmond was favored to win the 400-meter race for Great Britain in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. However, midway through the semifinals, Derek's hamstrings tore. He dropped to the ground in pain. Then he got up. He pushed past race officials trying to help him.    "Everything I had worked for was finished. ... I hated the world. ... I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 meters to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder."    Derek's father had run from the stands to his son. He caught up with Derek and put Derek's arm over his shoulder. "I saw my (son) having a problem and it was my duty to help," he said later. As Derek hung on to his father, there was a burst of emotion in Derek's face, as if every fiber of his is being exploded with an altogether different kind of pain. He was no longer just an injured runner -- at that moment he was a little boy again, tellin...

Maybe it was the movie “Julie and Julia”, where a young wife cooks daily from a Julia Child cookbook. And watching   too many TV episodes of   Top Chef, Barefoot Contessa, Rachel Ray,   and Next Food Network Star (“I’m plating now,” I would shout to my husband from the kitchen).   Or simply   a desire to meet the special dietary needs of my family. The result was   a summer kitchen filled with the aroma of Three Pepper Quiche, Fruit and Oat Pancakes, Chili Con Carne, Scampi Linguini, Zucchini Bread, Pasta Salad Nicoise, Meat Loaf, Broccoli- Cauliflower-Carrot Bake, Salt-Free Pizza, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Egg Fried Rice, Chinese Almond Cookies, Lemon Curry Chicken Salad, Pineapple Fruit Whip, Cajun Pork Chop, Hot Fruit Compote, Barley-Rice Pilaf, Raspberry Streusel Muffins,   Sunshine Carrots, Herb Topped Fish, Moroccan Couscous, Country Biscuits and Gravy, Grilled Chicken Sesame, Cottage Cheese Salad, Strawberry Ice Cream , Chicken Veronique. All t...