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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 2020)
8A | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS CREDITS from page 7A “If you fail Algebra 1 as a freshman, then you have to take Algebra 1 as a sophomore, which means that Geometry and Algebra 2 get pushed fur- ther. Well, if you really struggle with math, and you either de- lay taking math a year or you unfortunately don’t pass it two years in a row, now in your ju- nior year, you’re taking Algebra 1 and Geometry simultaneous- ly, while you also have other prescribed classes that you’ve pushed off to your senior year.” That’s when a student en- ters “credit bankruptcy,” which could cause a whole host of is- sues for a student’s future. “If you’re a freshman who signed up for seven classes and failed five, even if you got As in the first two, you’re going to start off with a horrible GPA,” Grzeskowiak said. “And it takes a phenomenal amount of time to build that back up,” which can cause problems for college admissions. The issues are compounded for transfer students. “You regularly have soph- omores and older that come in who have very few credits,” Grzeskowiak said. “You start laying out a plan. When you talk to a junior and say, ‘You have three years of high school to do in a year-and-a-half,’ tech- nically they can do it. Between alt schools and regular classes, they can do it. But that means all they’re doing for the 18 months is school. And a lot of our kids contribute to the fam- ily with a job. So they literally can’t do that because their time is occupied earning a living to help a family.” Frustrated, some of these stu- dents see only one alternative: “Drop out, go to work, get frus- trated again, go back to com- munity college years later and get a GED,” Grzeskowiak said. Getting students to under- stand the importance of pass- ing a class like Algebra 1 while they’re freshmen is difficult. “I know when I was 14, you couldn’t tell me anything, other than when dinner was,” he said. “Trying to have kids make that big of a decision at that point in time that could impact the rest of their life, that’s hard. That’s why high school staff pay par- ticularly close attention to the freshmen, and make sure they get as many kids as possible to get six credits by the end of their freshmen year.” Fixing the Algebra 1 issue is challenging, though there are schools that are thinking out of the box. “Elmira High School is trying something new,” Grzeskowiak said. “The traditional sequence is Algebra 1, then Geometry, then Algebra 2. Elmira is taking Geometry and putting it into the freshmen year. Algebra is nonlinear, abstract thinking, but kids are concrete thinkers, and if it doesn’t go A, B, C, D, they can get lost.” Geometry, on the other hand, is more linear, so Elmi- ra has flipped their geometry to freshman year in hopes that it can introduce mathematical principles to students without overwhelming them. Siuslaw will be watching Elmira closely in the next year to see how that program works out, with the possibility of adoption if Elmira finds success. Another way to fix the Alge- bra 1 problem is to start earlier. For Siuslaw Elementary School, only 39.1 percent of all students passed the state’s an- nual math test in the past three years. This is actually on par with the state, which only has a 42.9 percent passing rate for the test. The reasons for this are also multiple. According to Harklerode, “This has changed somewhat in recent years, but a good number of people are drawn to elementary education because they have a passion for teaching and reading, and people who are good at math tend to go do other things with their math skills. I can also say we’ve had big investments in professional development to raise teacher efficacy so they feel more con- fident teaching math.” The elementary has also aligned its curriculum with the Common Core standards, which Harklerode believes will help with raising the elementa- ry numbers. “The intensity of math in- struction is something we’re constantly working on. Dif- ferent strategies, more time on math,” he said. “Time is one of the biggest things. Either a lon- ger school day, school year, or structuring the day differently.” But it’s a double-edged sword. “What we’ve done in the eighth grade is now being re- quired in fourth grade,” School Board Member Dennis King said. “Then you’re looking at developmentally, can they ab- stractly hold some of these things? The answer is no. The problem with pushing it down is that we couldn’t expect kin- dergartners to do algebra. That’s an exaggeration, but we’re try- ing to figure out how to build the curriculum.” And they’re trying to figure out how to best teach mathe- matical principles to younger students, which leads to a dis- cussion on Career Technical Education (CTE). CTE “I was a middle school teacher special educator,” said Siuslaw’s Special Programs Di- rector Lisa Utz. “My colleague, who was teaching the math side of things, really put application on the front burner for math. They had dice, they had balanc- ing, they had all sorts of ways for kids to understand algebraic equations. The kids really re- sponded to that.” One of the largest barriers to learning mathematics is a stu- dent’s inability to see its func- tionality in a book. “You have to have a practical application piece, otherwise it makes no sense,” Grzeskowiak said. “If they can mark it out, measure it and cut a piece of wood, they see it. But doing that on a piece of paper doesn’t make a lot of sense.” He recalled a time when he was teaching chemistry and physics and coordinated with the algebra teacher. “If he was doing quadratic equations, I would do gravity equations. And then we would do gravity experiments,” Grz- eskowiak said. “Kids would come in and see, ‘This is the same thing that Mr. Reiser is doing with us. Now we’re going to shoot this rocket in the air.’ They would see it as a mechan- ical function, then an applica- tion and go out and test it.” Throughout all grade levels, the district is looking for ways to demonstrate math in a prac- tical manner. At the elementa- ry level, it is through activities such as science fairs. “At the entry level science at high school, we’re going into pattern physical science. It’s all application math,” Grzeskowiak said. Siuslaw High School stu- dents can also take classes such as woodshop for math credits, which is where CTE comes in. Currently, the high school offers five CTE programs: auto, culinary, health sciences, com- puter science and construction. “And we’re building our busi- ness program,” Siuslaw High School Principal Kerri Tatum said. “Likely, by the end of next year, we’ll have six. And we’re hoping to expand our construc- tion so it’s full time as well.” The benefits of CTE can be enormous for students. Stu- dents that complete a CTE pro- gram, on average between four and six semester classes, gradu- ated at a rate of 89.3 percent, al- most 10 points higher than the overall state average. “The students that do com- plete a CTE program of study and go on to a four-year col- lege also complete college at a higher rate,” Grzeskowiak said. “So the impact is bigger than just pre-service training for jobs, apprenticeships and trade schools.” The district has expanded its CTE offerings with SSA funds, including restoring a metals and fabrication program and pushing CTE prerequisite elec- tives in middle school. The dis- trict is already in the process of hiring a second computer infor- mation and technology teacher. And the programs are paying off. “With CTE, if people find out they’ve been a part of the culi- nary program, they’re swooped up,” Tatum said. “Most of the kids that are in Kyle Lewis’ Culi- nary program have jobs around town and are working in the field as high schoolers. We have a business and computer sci- ence program that just started last year and almost doubled in size in one year.” However, building CTE pro- grams can be challenging, par- ticularly when it comes to find- ing teachers. “When I started here in 2010, there were 40 applicants for each position,” Harklerode said. “Now, there’s 10 to 12. We’re still getting good applicants, and the 40 before weren’t necessarily all great, but it’s noticeable.” That’s for elementary teach- ers. For CTE programs, where teachers are required to have real-world experience in what they teach, the hiring process can be even more difficult. “We have struggles recruit- ing people to come over,” Tatum said. “A lot of times, when we have different positions, maybe one or two applicants apply. It’s very rare that we have a large pool, and so often we’re strug- gling to bring people in. We don’t have some of the social scene and some of the activities for some of our younger teach- ers. Especially our single teach- ers, it’s hard to get them to come and live in Florence. There’s not really a whole lot, even for teen- agers.” And then there’s the stigma surrounding CTE courses, such as woodshop. “There’s this idea that some- how CTE is somehow less than the university track,” Grzesko- wiak said. “It used to be, you’re either going to college, or we’re pushing you into woodshop. The joke was, ‘I’m a moron because I know how to wire a lamp, you’re a genius because you can’t.’ If it was so easy, ev- erybody would do it. We have people who say, ‘Well, they didn’t go to college.’ Well, they have no college debt and they make three times the average wage in town. So tell me, who’s the genius now? It’s the plumb- er and the electrician. That has to be respected in the school setting and the community. It’s just a different way of looking at things.” While the district is doing well in creating the CTE pro- grams, the staff can often be overwhelmed with the number of classes they have to teach. In the next edition of Siuslaw News, the relationship between hiring teachers and keeping graduates in the region will be explored, as well as cultural dif- ferences within the school and how the success of the district is vital to the health of the com- munity. Applications available now at Backstreet Gallery or online Backstreetgallery.org, Due Feb. 20, 2020 Show at Florene Events Center February 27 – March 31, 2020. Reception on March 4: 5 – 7p.m. FRESH CRAB CRAB STUFFED MUSHROOMS INGREDIENTS: 1⁄4 cup olive oil or 1/4 cup melted butter 24 large white mushrooms 12 ounces fl aked crabmeat 4 tablespoons fi nely chopped onions 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese 1 cup soft breadcrumbs or 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs 2 teaspoons parsley, chopped 1⁄8 teaspoon ground red pepper 1⁄8 teaspoon black pepper 1⁄8 teaspoon garlic salt 1 egg, beaten 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 1⁄2 cup melted butter 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic salt 2 cups shredded parmesan cheese DIRECTIONS: Spray a 9x12-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Use an additional baking dish if needed. Drizzle olive oil or butter in the bottom of the bak- ing dish. Happy Vaentine’s Day food.com Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel to clean. Remove stems, set aside caps and chop stems to add to fi lling. In a medium bowl, mix crabmeat, chopped mushroom stems, onion, dry mustard, 1 cup parmesan cheese, SOFT bread crumbs (fresh bread frozen and then shredded), parsley, red and black pepper, and garlic salt. Mix well and then stir in egg and mayonnaise. Use a small cookie scoop to mound fi lling onto each mushroom cap. Melt butter and mix in garlic salt and drizzle over the fi lled mushrooms. Mound a generous portion of the shredded parmesan cheese on top of each fi lled mushroom. Note: For softer, melted cheese, you may want to use mozza- rella cheese or brick cheese for the topping. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 425°F. Best served hot. Can be prepared ahead, refrigerated and then baked just before serving (add 7-10 minutes additional baking time). FRESH IN THE CASE THIS WEEK: Crab, Petrale Sole, Rockfi sh, Dover Sole, Steamer Clams, Oysters… smoked fi sh and more. THE KRAB KETTLE 280 Hwy. 101 (2 Blocks N. of Bridge) Florence MONDAY-SUNDAY 10-6 • 541-997-8996 Congratulations, MaryAnn! 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