« August 2006 | Main | October 2006 »

September 19, 2006

School Visits

Every year about this time I try to get out to the schools in our area and find out what's going on. Part of this is because it's my job, or at least what I perceive my job to include, and the other part is because I need to go see what kids are doling. You could call it my "kid fix."

When you've been working with children as long as I have, I need to see them and be around them every once in a while to know if I'm on target or not. They always bring me back to a reality that is important for me to have in order to make decent decisions. Today was no exception.

I visited two small schools, Capay and Plaza. Both have new superintendents who are excited to be there and full of energy and enthusiasm. It was such a pleasure to talk with them about their plans and where they see their schools going.

At Plaza, we took a quick tour, and that's where I got my kid fix and new ideas. One of the teachers was doing a math lesson on greater than and less than. For those of you who don't remember the symbols they look like < and >. Remember now?

Anyway, the teacher had a secret number between 100 and 200. The kids were to try to guess the number. The teacher would then tell them if their number was greater than or less than the number they guessed. Of course she would use the symbol, put it on the board with the number, repeat the terms and ask for another number. 150 was greater than the number she had in mind.

It was fun and the kids were enjoying the activity as well as learning math. What could be better than that?

Posted by Dr Joni at 06:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2006

What's a Vole?

A few evenings ago I had dinner with Nick and his family. While Nick's sister fixed dinner, his mom and I talked about a variety of things, not the least of which was gardening, something we both enjoy. She mentioned she had just lost a number of plants-12 to be exact. She didn't know what had happened, but they looked as if the bark had been eaten right off of them. She talked to a gardener who told her it was voles.

Now usually when I hear a word I've heard before, a picture pops into my head of what the word looks like or means. Nothing popped up. I'd heard the word, but I had no image of what a vole looked like. Since the damage done was to the bark, I sort of went to locust. I could see a swarm of insects, maybe like termites, eating away at the plants.

Nick, with all the curiosity of an eleven-year-old, asked, "What's a vole?"

His mom said the expert had told her is was something like a mouse and that it lived in burrows in fields. We all looked at each other for a minute, then Nick headed for the Internet as his mom was saying, "Why don't you look it up."

Three minutes later the two of us were reading over Nick's shoulder as he went from website to website. We'd already seen what they look like, the burrows they make, and had information on reproduction. Do you know they can have as many as 87 offspring a year? That's a lot of voles! We also saw the kind of damage they inflict on plants, but we already had good examples in the backyard.

Next, of course, was how to get rid of them. Nick was searching for ways to erradicate the little varmits, but he also had to consider the family dog. Poison was not a good idea so we had to find another way. Nick had a couple traps he wanted to try so he began looking for possible bait and best traps to use.

Within 20 minutes we had researched the Internet, found out about something none of us knew anything about, had come up with several solutions, and Nick was out setting traps to see what would work.

I love learning. It's so much fun to watch in action. It means there's a question to be anwered or a problem to solve, a bit of research, some trial and error, but eventually there's a solution to the problem. It means someone is willing to take on the question, do the research for answers, and try things out. Learning happens on purpose or by accident whether you're eleven or seventy. It's the attitude and the involvment that make the difference. We had a problem to solve. Nick took the action and worked to solve it. His family encouraged and supported him while he did it. That's when learning is fun.

Now for those of you who haven't yet got a good picture of a vole, here's one of Nick's websites that might help you out: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html. Happy hunting.

Posted by Dr Joni at 06:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 07, 2006

That's My Son

Christopher, my med tech Air Force kid, is home this week. I've really enjoyed spending some time with him and seeing how much he has grown up in the last few months. My biggest and best surprise was when he turned into a bit of a hero-at least to me.

We were driving down a side road near the park in Chico in the early evening a couple days ago. Christopher had just tried to get me to make a U-turn a few minutes before when he saw a girl he thought he knew. I'm sure it was a cute girl, but I didn't want to trun around. When he said, "Mom, turn around, turn the car around." I though it was another cute girl.

It wasn't. He had seen someone fall off thier bike. She was lying on the ground and he knew she was hurt. I looked in my rearview mirror and realized there was someone down.

I turned around and pulled to the side. Christopher jumped out while and went to see what happened while I pulled the car back around to the otherside of the road where the woman was. Christopher was already checking to see how badly she was hurt. He yelled at me to call 911.

When I got to the fallen rider, I realized it was someone I knew. My phone wouldn't go through so Christopher finished seeing how badly hurt she was and called 911 giving directions and vital information while I talked to her. When he finished the call he checked again and I watched him do things I never knew he could do. He was gentle yet knowing how to handle the situation without panicking her or me.

The paramedics arrived shortly and Christopher gave them the information he had. I've often been the one in charge of situation because of the work I do, but this time I wasn't. He was and he handled the situation extremely well. My friend was helped on to a gurney, but wanted to make sure her bike got home.

Christopher and I took her bike home and told her family what had happened and where to find her. She seemed to be doing well when we left her and both of us hoped she'd just taken a nasty fall and would be up and around very quickly.

My part, was watching my son be who he is. I am proud of what he's become. It's nice to know you can raise good kids.

Posted by Dr Joni at 07:28 AM