Food for Kids "sends backpacks home filled with healthy meals.... Second Harvest says Midtown, Midway and Dyllis Springs elementary schools still need sponsors." Read more: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

Kristin Rawls has a piece in Alternet that is well worth the read, especially for us in Tennessee: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

Do we need our tax money going to hired guns in our schools?

The RC-robotic team of RCHS is going to St. Louis for the Robotic Championship competition, and they have a very small window of time to raise enough money to take approximately 20 students, including 1 from Midway, to the 5-day competition in St. Louis on April 24-27. Please check out their web-site!

See, and consider supporting, the cause below. No, it's not political - in fact, it's apolitical. But the fact is that it could benefit all of us:

(link...)

RB

DelanceyPlace.com has the story: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

Check out the cultural, artistic, citizenship, learning and other positive things going on in Paraguay... based on a unique way of recycling trash. I dare you to spend the 11 minutes with this video and not be moved.

(link...)

RB

The Board of Directors of Donorschoose.org is matching funds during the week of October 7-13. Please visit (link...) to make a tax free donation. Use the promo code INSPIRE and the Board of Directors will match any donation that you make!

Updated: A Ridge View Elementary class is hoping for classroom organizational and display supplies but has only until October 31 when their project expires. They have $164 to go. Please consider becoming a first grade hero by giving even a small donation: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

Please go to this link and place your vote for this classroom project. The project with the most votes gets funded by SONIC through their Limeades for Learning! You can also get codes for 2 additional votes on your SONIC receipts!! Help these local students get classroom supplies!

(link...)

Update 9/20: Success! Donors from Maryland and Arkansas stepped up to help this local school, just in time. :)

Original post: Students in a local middle school class had only 12 days remaining in their fundraising effort to get books for their classroom. Their teacher at Rockwood Middle School, Mrs. Mead, has raised most of the funds needed, but still has $89 to go at DonorsChoose.org ((link...)) before their project expires.

A first-grade class in Rockwood and a kindergarten in Harriman are among the classrooms in Roane County seeking help from our community at DonorsChoose.org: (link...)

Please consider chipping in something, even $5? Every little bit helps and it is all tax-deductible.

-- OneTahiti

"Focus Schools are the 10 percent of schools in the state with the largest achievement gaps between groups of students, such as racial and ethnic groups, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, students with disabilities and English-language learners." (Source: tn.gov/education/accountability/)

Four schools in Roane County made this list: Harriman High School, Midway Elementary, Midway Middle School, and Rockwood High School ((link...) (PDF)).

-- OneTahiti

Classrooms in Rockwood, Harriman, and Oliver Springs are asking for help on DonorsChoose.org, the excellent 501(3)(c) charity site for public schools.

Supporters of education, please consider giving even a little: (link...).

"It takes a village to raise a child."

-- OneTahiti

Mrs. Burgess's 1st grade class needs your help in raising funds for our projects on donorschoose.org. Starbucks is helping out in May by matching your donations. Just use the promo code: MORNINGJOE and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar. Help us reach our goals and get these supplies into our classroom!! (link...)

The concert and show will take place Thursday, May 10th at 6:30 p.m. at the Princess Theater in Harriman, TN.

-- OneTahiti

You can help out a local 1st grade classroom by donating funds for this project. Use the code BLOOM and they will match any funds that you donate this weekend!! (link...)

Deleted by the boss.

Some folks will go to a lot of trouble to post spam. It won't work here.

Fifth-graders in Harriman, Tennessee, are hoping to learn to play the soprano recorder this spring. They are looking forward to giving a concert!

However, as yet they have no instruments. Their teacher has asked for help ((link...)) on DonorsChoose.org. All donations are tax-deductible, but hurry--their request times out in 7 days.

Please consider helping these students learn to read music and learn the joys of performing!

-- OneTahiti

There are only 17 4 2 days 17 hours left to the DonorsChoose.org funding request of a class for Oliver Springs students. They are hoping for books to read.

Please, won't you consider giving at least a little? We can let these would-be readers know we care: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

A class of Ridge View Elementary students is asking for help on DonorsChoose.org: (link...)

Other Roane County classrooms need help as well: (link...)

Please consider donating to these deserving local classrooms.

-- OneTahiti

DonorsChoose.org lists requests from public school teachers across the country.

Right now two classrooms in Roane County are asking for help. See the current list of needs at: (link...)

Please consider stepping up to give a tax-deductible donation to help our local classrooms. These students deserve our support.

-- OneTahiti

These are gifts that help not only the recipient but also our community by fostering a love of reading. These books will be read again and again.

1. This gorgeous, high-interest book is for grade 3 and up. Eighth-graders in the county are devouring this; it is "flying off library shelves." It's good for grownups too: D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths ($11.91 oversized paperback, $19.77 oversized hardcover). Read the reviews at Amazon: (link...)

This should be old news, but it was new to me.

New Orleans' public schools were never rebuilt after Katrina. Instead, the Bush administration pushed for a voucher system to help students pay part of the tuition to private schools. New Orleans went from 123 public schools before Katrina to 4 (in link) or 5 (their website) now. Read more . . .

-- OneTahiti

I am new to RoaneViews, but I'm not new to Roane Co. I was raised in Harriman and attended school there from the 6th grade til graduation in 1972. I had many, many excellent teachers. Probably my most favorite from high school was Nancy Thompson. She instilled in all of us that there was no such thing as a dumb question! I live by that principle today and expound on it by saying often, "The unasked question has NO for an answer! Always, always ASK!"

I do not dispute that teachers have an incredibly difficult job. Discipline is much more difficult today than when I attended elementary school. If I were to get a spanking (NEVER happened) at school, I knew full-well that I'd get one when I got home, too. That is, IF my parents deemed that the teacher had not erred in doing so. Yes, teachers can and do err! And, accepting a child's side of the story is very important, and my parents would listen any time I had an issue with one of my teachers.

I had my share of teachers who were not quite so thrilled to have such a spirited debater in their class. But, on the whole, most all of my teachers knew that I was not a trouble-maker. One of my teachers, Mrs. Ballard, (home economics) at Cumberland Jr. High, asked another student what she had done to make me react with a slap across the face with an eraser. Mrs. Ballard knew I would never do something like that without adequate provocation. I wouldn't start a fight, but I surely wouldn't care to finish one if you wanted to start one with me. And, that extended to a few teachers, too. I often respectfully disagreed with a teacher because I KNEW there was more than one answer, and more to the point, I was never afraid of being called stupid!

We must instill in our children that authority is to be respected, but also to be questioned and not followed blindly. My grandchildren do not live in as safe a world as I did. To teach them NOT to question authority is just plain dangerous.

I believe firmly as Hillary Clinton said so many years ago, "It takes a village!" All of society bears the burden when a child or entire generation or several generations encounter teachers who have lost the desire to teach. When I hear talk in the community of elementary school teachers making statements such as "Why would you ask such a stupid question?" or connecting in any way the words dumb or stupid with the word question, I just come unglued! What IS that teacher thinking? OR IS SHE/HE THINKING AT ALL? This is pure and simple bullying at it's most basic level. AND, it's not fair and should not be tolerated! Do other teachers know of this? Are they equally guilty by not speaking up? Has the administration done their own form of bullying so that good teachers are afraid to speak up?

And, so it is, that I have come to ask to review a certain teacher's file. Many, many people, so I've heard, have encountered this particular teacher in the past. If the teacher denies making such statements, then that's easily verified by asking past and present students and their parents. AND, it should be verified. We don't want teachers to be falsely accused. But, if a teacher DID do so, then disciplinary action is called for - tenure or not!

If there is no reference to such a problem having been reported in the past, I question just what are PARENTS thinking. When your child comes to you with information such as this, you have an obligation not only to your own child, but to every child who encounters this teacher to validate their concern with a letter to be permanently placed in that teacher's file. Good teachers won't mind if you place letters of commendation in their files, and, too, it's equally important to praise as well as criticize.

A teacher will not be successful in teaching if they don't practice what they teach. You cannot stand in front of children and tell them not to call each other stupid if you're doing so yourself! And, saying a child's question is stupid IS the same as calling that child stupid. They hear the word "stupid" and the desire to ask questions is cut off possibly for life.

Thankfully, I no longer have children in the school system. Unfortunately, though, I do have grandchildren who are being home-schooled, and I am quite fearful they will not receive as well-rounded an education as they deserve. That's not my call, though. Homeschooling - that's another story all by itself!

If you have concerns, please don't wait to ask to see the teacher's file. And, place your written concern in that file so that anyone who comes after you will be able to point to it and ask the administration - why is this STILL a problem all these years later. Then, write your letter for the administration's file! They have one, too, and they are all open for public viewing. Assert yourself, be an advocate for all those who can't or don't know how to stand up for what's right.

A Roane County High School classroom has 12 badly broken chairs and needs new ones. If you can help, go to (link...) or (link...) at DonorsChoose.org to give a tax-deductible donation.

-- OneTahiti

A classroom of students at Roane County High is in need of books. For more details, see: (link...)

-- OneTahiti

Our county's schools started the 2011-2012 school year today. Let us wish our students all possible success through the coming year.

We should do all we can to help our students. Become active in officially approved school support groups ((link...)). If you see a school that does not have an approved support group, then take steps to start one.

Encourage local teachers to register their needs at online charities that help individual classrooms, such as DonorsChoose.org ((link...)) and AdoptAClassroom.org ((link...)), then go ahead and donate to make sure they get the help their students need.

Source: (link...)

So, more than 3 out of 5 students are not proficient in math and virtually half are not proficient in reading.

What can we do? Every year this continues is a great loss for the students and indeed for all of us.

-- OneTahiti