In the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, President Obama honored the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling, from Johnston High School in Iowa, for her creative efforts to treat every student as a unique learner.
As a high school English teacher, she creates individualized podcasts for each student and takes into account a wide array of interests and learning styles. Her students don’t just write five-paragraph essays, but they write songs, public service announcements, film storyboards, even grant proposals for their own non-for-profit organizations.
“With Sarah as their teacher,” the President remarked, “student who had been discouraged and disengaged have discovered a passion for learning.”
A small camera used to look for and remove polyps in the lower part of the colon, helped cut cancer deaths nearly in half, according to a new UK study of 170,000 adults ages 55 to 64.
Researchers found and removed polyps in 40,000 participants and, after following the group for 11 years, saw colorectal cancers in that group drop by one third. Their death rates were 43 percent lower because early detection boosts survival rates if cancers are found early.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered that a million abandoned barrels of Soviet-era fuel be removed from the Arctic because they are polluting the environment.
During the Cold War, the area, which is home to a large population of polar bears, was Russia’s outpost in the Arctic and hosted an air defense base and military air strip.
Losing your job does have its advantages. You can go back to college and pursue a long-lost dream.
Not since high school has Larry played in a real baseball game, but now the 58-year-old pitcher is back on the mound hurling knuckle balls for the Springfield College junior varsity team.
“It was always a dream for me to play college sports”, said Larry Hasenfus, who went undiagnosed as a dyslexic to college, and didn’t have the grades to play sports.
His teammates, who are much younger than Larry’s own children, are in awe when they see the left-hander in action.
Hawaii is standing up for sharks, and in a big way. Despite pressure from a vocal Asian community that insists on eating shark fin soup, the Hawaii legislature passed a bill that would prohibit the possession, sale, or distribution of shark fins of any kind anywhere within the state as of July 1st, 2010.
The governor is expected to sign the bill, which drew praise from Native Hawaiians whose culture reveres sharks as guardian spirits in animal form.
The measure could put a small dent in the total number of sharks killed each year for their fins — some 89 million globally, according to the Associated Press.
Hawaii is standing up for sharks, and in a big way. Despite pressure from a vocal Asian community that insists on eating shark fin soup, the Hawaii legislature passed a bill that would prohibit the possession, sale, or distribution of shark fins of any kind anywhere within the state as of July 1st, 2010.
The governor is expected to sign the bill, which drew praise from Native Hawaiians whose culture reveres sharks as guardian spirits in animal form.
The measure could put a small dent in the total number of sharks killed each year for their fins — some 89 million globally, according to the Associated Press.
It’s hard to imagine a five-story farm in the middle of a city, but if Milwaukee urban farmer Will Allen is behind the idea, anything’s possible.
After all, Allen is a world hero, according to an issue of Time magazine that hit newsstands today. He’s among 100 individuals and small groups picked by Time editors for the annual “Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People,” which honors ideas, innovations and actions that are “shaping our world.”
Allen already has been dubbed a genius by the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, which awarded him a $500,000 “genius grant” in 2008.
Now all Allen and Growing Power’s board of directors must do is find $7 million to $10 million to build the farm that Allen has been envisioning for nearly two decades to take his nonprofit enterprise to the next level.
Locking eyes with a driver in a van led a Connecticut cop to stop a man who was a heavily armed killer apparently headed to slaughter two more people in Brooklyn Monday after fatally shooting a Yale physician.
“It was the greatest feeling in the world,” said Joe Peterson, when he learned the man he had stopped was the wanted criminal who had just minutes before allegedly murdered Dr. Vijander Pal Toor at his home.
Wang was carrying three handguns, 1,000 rounds of ammo, and documents about the location of three people, including Toor, who were all involved in Wang’s 2008 firing from Brooklyn’s Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center.
A London hip hop DC is the face of Radio 1’s Local Hero initiative, aimed at encouraging young people to take up charity work. He was filmed cleaning up the Thames, teaching boxing to teenagers, and sorting the clothes in a charity shop.
“I found this week that it is an incredibly satisfying and fulfilling experience,” said Tim Westwood. “There was this one kid – this hardcore street guy – who actually loved (it). It gave him a real purpose in life.”
The project is part of a new BBC drive to increase social action work. As part of the scheme, Radio 1 announced yesterday that its Big Weekend musical festival, on 22-23 May, will for the first time reserve free places for youth volunteers.
As renowned chef Jamie Oliver wraps up his successful Food Revolution TV show in Huntington, West Virginia where he transformed the school lunch menu — and family habits — for thousands in front of a nationwide audience, the revolution continues, this time in a larger city, where a film crew has been following another charismatic chef on a food mission.
Tony Geraci is leading the charge to overhaul the dysfunctional school lunch system in Baltimore serving as the city’s new food service director.
He wants to replace pre-plated, processed foods with locally-grown, freshly-prepared meals for all 83,000 students. Once a passionate chef in New Orleans, Geraci describes himself as a “little bit lunch lady, a lot P.T. Barnum.” His bold vision includes a vegetable garden at every school, student-designed meals, meatless Monday’s, and nutrition education in the classroom. His mission is as audacious as it is practical.
The feature documentary film, now in production, follows Geraci as the central character in his ambitious effort to ‘green’ the public school diet in A Recipe for Change.
Inner city youth have planted and harvested vegetables at the school system’s 33-acre teaching farm. High school seniors are even developing practical job skills through a new citywide culinary vocational training program.
“If Tony makes this happen here the way he wants to, I think you’ll see this happening all over the country,” says best-selling author and food activist Michael Pollan in the film.
Learn more at A Recipe For Change or watch the wonderful film trailer below.
2011 UPDATE: After catalyzing change around school food in Baltimore, Tony Geraci felt he had taken his role as far as he could, and left in 2011 with confidence that the people and programs were in place to sustain the momentum. He moved to Memphis to try to do the same things there.
As renowned chef Jamie Oliver wraps up his successful Food Revolution TV show in Huntington, West Virginia where he transformed the school lunch menu — and family habits — for thousands in front of a nationwide audience, the revolution continues, this time in a larger city, where a film crew has been following another charismatic chef on a food mission.
Tony Geraci is leading the charge to overhaul the dysfunctional school lunch system in Baltimore serving as the city’s new food service director.
He wants to replace pre-plated, processed foods with locally-grown, freshly-prepared meals for all 83,000 students. Once a passionate chef in New Orleans, Geraci describes himself as a “little bit lunch lady, a lot P.T. Barnum.” His bold vision includes a vegetable garden at every school, student-designed meals, meatless Monday’s, and nutrition education in the classroom. His mission is as audacious as it is practical.
A partnership of states and agencies trying to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay said that bay grasses increased 12 percent last year, a sign that pollution control efforts are working.
The total area of underwater bay grasses was the highest baywide acreage since 2002, said the Chesapeake Bay Program Tuesday.
Bay grasses are an excellent measure of the Bay’s overall condition because they are not under harvest pressure and their health is closely linked to water quality.
A partnership of states and agencies trying to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay said that bay grasses increased 12 percent last year, a sign that pollution control efforts are working.
The total area of underwater bay grasses was the highest baywide acreage since 2002, said the Chesapeake Bay Program Tuesday.
Bay grasses are an excellent measure of the Bay’s overall condition because they are not under harvest pressure and their health is closely linked to water quality.
At age 7, Meredith Iler wanted to buy a bike, so she opened a lemonade stand in her multimillionaire grandparents’ neighborhood. Through innovative marketing, she earned 20 times more than she needed. Today, the powerful persuader won’t rest until every severely injured hero in uniform who needs a handicapped-accessible home gets one.
Since 2005, as chair of the non-profit organization, Helping a Hero, she’s used her powerful contacts with luminaries in the world of politics and industry to raise money to build 25 custom-built homes.
“I wanted to prove that you could do it as a volunteer and never have paid staff or overhead and just inspire Americans to step up and say ‘thank you’ in a tangible way to our wounded heroes,” she told the Houston Chronicle.
Most veterans don’t want charity, so the homes are titled in their names, and they take on a $50,000 mortgage – with monthly payments usually around $300 – and are responsible for insurance, taxes and upkeep.
Project Rejuvenation is a plan to encourage and invigorate homeless women by giving each participant a complete makeover and turning them into models for a fashion show.
Three charitable organizations hosting the event will transport the women, who are currently in transition and live at local shelters, in chauffeured limousines. They will receive gift bags, new hairstyles and clothes, as well as encouragement to continue to move forward. The models will be pampered from head to toe in an effort to show them that, despite their current situations, they are beautiful.
Their current circumstances by no means define their final destinations. No matter the series of events that may have lead these women to their current situations, a little encouragement truly goes a long way in helping to propel them forward.
The annual RFK Center spring auction is in its final day, with online bidding closing tomorrow. Do you want to meet Oprah, have lunch with Robin Williams, win an internship with a famous magazine, or score a pair of seats atop the Red Sox dugout?
Thirteen pages filled with celebrity donations and enriching experiences have tempted visitors to the Web auction that raises money each spring in support of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. An A-list of athletes, politicians, celebrities and corporations have created items that offer an instant dream-come-true for the highest bidder.
One of the unique opportunities at the online auction (hosted at www.charitybuzz.com/rfk) is the range of internships available. You can launch a new career with an internship at the Huffington Post, National Geographic Society, Esquire or Diane Von Furstenberg.
A walk-on role in the next Ben Stiller movie will cost you more than a meeting with Oprah — both garnering bids over $17,000. The current bid for lunch with Martin Sheen is $2,300, while VIP tickets to Elton John’s Oscar party will top $15,000. 28 people have bid on two tickets to attend a White House Christmas Concert hosted by President Barack Obama and the First Lady, with the current bid at $9,250.
“By bidding on these incredible experiences, people will be supporting cutting-edge human rights defenders from around the world, including those fighting for the right to water and reconstruction in Haiti, the victims who still suffer after Katrina, farmers’ rights in the U.S and much more,” said Kerry Kennedy, founder of the RFK Center’s Speak Truth To Power.
Last year, the Center’s 2009 spring auction raised a record amount for vital human rights work. The auction is closes tomorrow. (Visit CharityBuzz to see the auction.)
The annual RFK Center spring auction is in its final day, with online bidding closing tomorrow. Do you want to meet Oprah, have lunch with Robin Williams, win an internship with a famous magazine, or score a pair of seats atop the Red Sox dugout?
Thirteen pages filled with celebrity donations and enriching experiences have tempted visitors to the Web auction that raises money each spring in support of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. An A-list of athletes, politicians, celebrities and corporations have created items that offer an instant dream-come-true for the highest bidder.
One of the unique opportunities at the online auction (hosted at www.charitybuzz.com/rfk) is the range of internships available. You can launch a new career with an internship at the Huffington Post, National Geographic Society, Esquire or Diane Von Furstenberg.
In an ideal world, everyone would have first aid training. But according to St John Ambulance, the British first aid charity, up to 150,000 people die needlessly in Britain every year; from the 29,000 killed by heart attacks to the 2,500 victims of asphyxiation. That’s why the charity has launched a campaign to remind us how to cope in common situations.
Do you believe that If an arm or leg is bleeding heavily, you should tie a tight tourniquet above the injury?
That is just one of the 10 widespread misconceptions about first aid that often stop us from doing the right thing to help save a life.
In the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, President Obama honored the 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling, from Johnston High School in Iowa, for her creative efforts to treat every student as a unique learner.
