What’s more fun that making a giant Easter Egg out of Rice Krispy Treats?  Making a bunch of little Easter Eggs that you can just pop in your mouth!  Here’s my latest Rice Krispy Treat sculpture. Okay, I’m obsessed… But, when is Kelloggs going to start putting my sculptures on their boxes of cereal? Hello Kelloggs!!!!

When my dad asked me if I wanted to go up to Haleakala volcano to sightsee after he picked us up at the airport in Maui, I told him that I’ve been there and done that. So instead of soaking the rays and sipping pina coladas on the beach, we headed out to Home Depot to buy supplies for the closet organizer in one of his guest bedrooms.

I do love to build furniture – I’ve built just about all of the furniture in my house, office, and school.  So as my dad and I perused the closet organizer section of the store, we got so excited that we bought enough supplies for 3 closets!

That night I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to put these closets together. 

I thought it would take a day to install all 3 closets, but boy was I wrong.  Finding studs in the walls of his old beach house was impossible – I swear the house was built without 2” x 4’s”!  And there were no 90-degree corners! Then, I made so many mistakes, I’m surprised I got it done before I headed back to California 4 days later.

But it was fun.  Doing projects is something that my dad and I have in common. 

Way back in 1991, Nicole built a leprechaun trap in Tess’ kindergarten class.

What fun to watch her drop the can as she tried to capture the little green guy!

Being half Irish and half Japanese, Nicole would ask me what side of her was Irish.  Funny kid!

Experts have been recommending that we turn off our TVs, computers, and mobile phones hours before bedtime to help us fall asleep faster.  Apparently the blue light emitting from our electronic screens suppresses our melatonin (a hormone that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles), which increases our alertness, and keeps us from getting sleepy. 

But seriously, who really does that? I check emails and text messages after I turn off the TV, and then I peruse Facebook to see what my friends are up to until I fall asleep. 

So if turning off these devices is not happening for you, I found a few solutions that can help you get to sleep while having your phones and tablets by your side.

1. Wear amber-colored glasses a few hours before bedtime.  They protect your eyes from the blue-wavelength light.  According to Reuters [source], a Swiss study found that  study participants who wore the glasses before bedtime were relaxed and sleepy at bedtime.
2. Use General Electric’s PM Bulbs that mimic natural candlelight without disrupting circadian rhythm. They also sell AM Bulbs to promote alertness in the morning.
3. Place light-filters on flashlights and other lights in your house. Check out LowBlueLights.
4. Use the Night Shift feature on iPhones. Apple uses your location to determine when to automatically shift from the blue to a warmer amber tone. They’re claiming that Apple has improved the sleep of millions of people each year.  On Android devices, check out the Twilight app, which does the same thing.  It’s free!

Sounds like it’s time to change up our lighting systems to protect our eyes and improve our sleep. Let me know how this works for you!

I just read a disturbing quote from the Boston Globe:

“Thursday, while the nation debated the relative size of Republican genitalia, something truly awful happened. Across the northern hemisphere, the temperature, if only for a few hours, apparently crossed a line: it was more than two degrees Celsius above “normal” for the first time in recorded history and likely for the first time in the course of human civilization.”

Let me repeat that. This is the first time the North American average temperature rose above 2 degrees Celsius. That’s 35.6 degrees (Fahrenheit) higher than normal.

While the politicians focus on distracting issues (with arguably less consequences), our planet is warming up and beginning to cause catastrophic disasters.  We need to deal with reducing CO2 NOW.  

In my opinion, there is nothing more important than stopping the corruption behind politicians, big oil, and manufacturers that deceive the general population into thinking that we have time to solve global warming. It’s time for everyone to get their heads out of the sand and take action to lower their CO2 footprint today.

What are you doing that is more important than this?

[Source]

Rather than scrambling to complete your tax returns in January in order to file your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the feds just announced that they will accept the previous year’s tax returns. 

You can also file in October, instead of January, which means that colleges receive the Student Aid Report (SAR) earlier during the college admissions process.  The good news: you should get financial aid offers sooner! 

In the past, parents had to wait until their 2015 tax returns were prepared before they could file their FAFSA.  That could mean that they would have to wait until February to get their W2s from their employers and rush their CPAs to process their tax returns.  Meanwhile, colleges couldn’t release financial aid packages to prospective students because they had to wait for the SARs to determine each student’s financial aid needs.

With this new plan, parents can file their FAFSA using their 2014 tax returns. Yup, the ones that were processed no later than April 15^th of 2014.  With no excuses like they’re waiting for their W2s or their accountants haven’t completed their returns, parents can easily file the FAFSA, and the SARs will go out to all of the colleges probably before applications are even due. 

This new plan goes into effect for the 2017-2018 college year. 

I found this article by John Ewing fascinating because it dances around who or what is to blame for why so many students struggle in college.

Rather than blaming incompetent teachers as many do, he brings up interesting facts about colleges admitting more students for financial gain (HINT: more tuition dollars means more profit for the colleges).  Check it out!

My high school buddy and college suite-mate, Steven Yoshinaga, came to Merit Academy to teach students chemistry using Molecular Mania, a game he created to make learning chemistry fun. 

Leave it to “Yosh” to make learning about DNA and chemical bonds exciting. Check out all of his ZomeTool science games: DNA, Crazy Bubbles and Molecular Mania on Amazon.com.  http://www.zometool.com/products/molecular-mania.html

As if this waiting period isn’t stressful enough, having to deal with being placed on admission waitlists is just, well, cruel!

You should be receiving admissions letters during the month of March – Good luck! – and sometimes as late as the first few weeks of April.  Yup, I know how stressful this is.  But here are a few tips on what to expect and what to do:

Do:
1.  Definitely accept admission to one of the colleges from which you have received an admission offer.  In other words, don’t decline admission to all of the colleges and cross your fingers that you’ll get off the wait list and accepted to your #1 college.  If you do get in to your top college, you’ll lose your deposit that you paid to the college that you had previously accepted to.

2.  Sign up for housing at both colleges to ensure that you get housing on campus.  Again, you’ll lose the deposit that you paid for the college that you don’t attend, but it’s worth it. (Some colleges will not allow you to apply for housing if you haven’t paid your deposit and accepted admission)

3.  Visit the campuses to make sure it’s the right fit for you.  Sit in on classes, stay in the dorm (if you can arrange that), eat a meal on campus, and talk to students to learn about campus life.

Don’t:
1.  Don’t file an appeal.  Most students cannot appeal a rejection if they were denied admission from the waitlist. Check with your individual colleges to be sure.

2.  Don’t call or send letters to the admissions office declaring why you should be admitted if you don’t have new relevant information.

3.  Don’t let your grades drop!  Any grades that fall below a C- can result in the college taking back their admission offer – even if you paid your deposit!

I hope this helps.  Just think, in just 3 short months, you’ll be a high school graduate and on your way to college!  Yippee! 

As a college advisor, I spend my days talking to students. We talk about their classes, study strategies, their lives, and their dreams. I love looking at the world through their eyes and hearing how they justify their actions. I find their stories amusing, and quite frankly, I think it keeps me young. But over the past couple of years, I’ve heard some disturbing stories from the students about their classroom teachers who have verbally abused them in front of their classmates.

Before I launch into the students’ statements, I want to say that all of the teachers I know, and especially the Merit Academy teachers, are caring and remarkable.

They instill the love of learning and their passion for their subjects is contagious. Teachers are underpaid and unappreciated.  After dealing with pressure from parents to hand out A’s and from administration for policies that make it hard for them to do what they love to do: teach children, I’m surprised teachers stay in this field at all.

Back when I entered education 37 years ago, teachers named reading groups the Bluebirds and Robins, just to make sure that children wouldn’t know how they ranked in the class.  Naturally, all of the kids knew that the Robins were the smarter than the Bludbirds, but the teachers went through great effort to make every student comfortable and encouraged. That’s why I don’t understand what’s happening in the classrooms today. 

Just last month, one of my gentle and sweet 16-year old students “Jake” told me that he was dropping his Spanish class. He told me that he couldn’t take it anymore and refused to be in Mrs. X‘s class.  When I inquired further, I was appalled that any teacher, or human being, would ever degrade a student who was struggling.  Jake was working with a Merit Spanish tutor to fill in the gaps so he could catch up in class.  When he asked her for help to prepare for the final exam, in front of his entire class, Mrs. X said, “Why? You’re going to do shit on the test.” GASP! What teacher uses “shit” in class and why would she condemn him for asking for help?  Then, when Jake walked up to the front of the class to give his Spanish presentation, Mrs. X said, “Pray for this to be over!” Seriously? 

Then just last week, another one of students faced similar harassment from his middle school math teacher. “Joe” has learning disabilities and math is difficult for him.  After the teacher presented a new lesson to the class and gave them time in class to start their homework, Joe raised his hand and asked the teacher for help on his equation. Instead of helping Joe on the problem, the teacher said, “I can’t answer that question; you need to be more specific.” A good teacher might have responded with “Where are you getting lost?” or “Let’s see what you’ve done so far…”.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that Joe will not be raising his hand in class again.  Other students in the class have commented on how the teacher answers their questions but that he is really mean to Joe.

The parents of both of these boys have approached their school’s administration to stop this abuse.  Mrs. X told the VP that Jake’s statement was not true and that she doesn’t recall it taking place. REALLY? He was so mad that he wanted to meet with her to look her straight in the eyes and ask her why she lied to the VP.  He’s also considered having the students in the class sign a petition stating that they heard Mrs. X‘s remarks.  Joe’s mother is meeting with the special ed teachers to get him out of that class.

Are these freak coincidences, or is verbal abuse a new trend in the classroom?