Distance Learning What Students are Saying by nick morris Schools remain nearly empty as class continues virtually. Let us not waste the experiences from last spring and instead use them to learn how to improve the quality of distance learning this year. As part of a project to record this moment in history I have had the privilege of interviewing graduates of Santa Cruz High’s class of 2020 and listening to what they have to say about distance learning. Three themes that ran through every conversation include communication, structure, and flexibility. Communication Communication provides the foundation for learning both academically and in the social-emotional sense. Teachers’ communication with students should…
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Local Artist Emma Gilbert
Emma Gilbert Local Artist AGE 10 | Fourth Grade Hi, I’m Emma! I am ten years old, as of Halloween! I like things like riding my bike around our driveway and down in our cul-de-sac, and I also love playing soccer and softball. I also really enjoy playing with my friends and siblings! I love animals, can you guess my favorite animal? It’s a Cat! However, my very favorite thing to do is art!! And that is what I’m here to talk about! My favorite type of art is drawing. Here are a few drawing styles that I like:CARTOON DRAWINGSI like drawing cartoon types of drawings because it’s fun, and…
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Buying a Home in Santa Cruz
What to Know About Buying a Home in Santa Cruz by Seb Frey One of the most popular pieces I’ve written in 17+ years selling real estate in Santa Cruz county is one where I take buyers through the whole process of buying a house in Santa Cruz, from start to finish. But with prices surging to astronomical heights, this real estate market feels so much different than anything I’ve seen before. But what, exactly, is so different about today’s Santa Cruz real estate market? To get a perspective, the median sale price for single family homes in the third quarter of 2020 was $1,050,000 – that compares with a…
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Fighting an Invisible Invader
How the Office of Education Fights an Invisible Invader By Suki Wessling Jennifer Buesing is a mom who really hopes that her two kids can go back to school soon. She’s also one of the people in charge of deciding when that will happen. “Things always seem easier on paper,” admits Buesing, Director of School Safety for Santa Cruz County Office of Education (COE). “You think you have a great plan, but until you actually go to the school and you walk through your day, then we realize that we have some pieces to work out.” Until March of this year, Buesing had a very different job. “All of the…
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Inside Ed November
Inside Education Monthly This month two teachers of young children presented about the joys and challenges of teaching online courses for our youngest TK-12 students. Alicia Romero teaches in Live Oak’s dual immersion Spanish/English program, which is a new program this year. It’s quite a challenge, she says, not only to teach the youngest children but to try to develop a new program at the same time. Her students are online for 180 minutes a day, and she is focused on trying to make second language acquisition fun and interactive. Kelly Liebenthal teaches transitional kindergarten for the youngest set at Santa Cruz Gardens. She points out that the adults are…
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Wanderlust Family
Wanderlust Family Carolyn Kelley and her family split their time between Santa Cruz and Nayarit, Mexico. They live aboard their 50ft sailboat in the Santa Cruz Harbor and are members of the local yacht club. Carolyn is a wedding and portrait photographer and runs a studio in Live Oak. You can see her work at SoilandSeaPhotography.com by carolyn kelley To this day, I’m amazed that we didn’t give up. In January of 2018, we sold our house and moved with our three daughters onto a big ol’ 70s cruising boat with the goal of renovating her and sailing to Mexico. Naturally, almost everything on our bargain boat was broken before…
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The Golden Hour
The Golden Hour By Laura Maxson The first hour after birth is known as the golden hour for good reason. A newborn is at a heightened level of alertness during this time, more alert than it will be again for a few weeks. Babies are born with an internal checklist for survival that attentive parents can observe while marveling over just how smart their little one is. There is no hurry to get the baby to breast and the reality is that the first attachment often goes a little smoother when the baby leads the way. Immediately after birth the baby goes skin-to-skin now on the outside of the baby…
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Partnering with Habitat for Humanity
Partnering with Habitat for Humanity On Accessory Dwelling Units By Zach Friend, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Throughout California there are discussions about how to address the significant affordable housing crisis. The recent fires also highlight the need for displaced residents to have access to safe and affordable housing. Recent studies done on home affordability have shown that in some coastal communities less than a quarter of people earn enough income to be able to purchase a home in their community and many can’t afford rising rents. Our parents and grandparents also are struggling to stay in the homes they own with a rising cost-of-living. In fact, there are over 15,000…
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Minimize Sugar Impact for the Holidays
The Holidays are just around the corner. This year being the challenge presenter it has been, has many of us out of routine, having to think outside the box to recreate workout structure lost by the restriction on gyms during the pandemic. As the holidays approach, it is worth giving them some consideration and having some tools and strategies to keep our sugar consumption to reasonable levels. As delicious and satisfying as sweets are, the effects of sugar on our bodies, brains, and even moods do not go unnoticed.
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New Smart Phone
Do you Really Need That New Smart Phone? By Luigi Oppido Apple just released its new iPhone 12 series and if you haven’t noticed, the buzz wasn’t as crazy as it was every other year. Many people didn’t even know that the iPhone 12 had not been released yet and when it did get released, people didn’t seem to care about its features and its updates.When do you buy a new (to you) smart phone?When do you need a new smart phone? My rule of thumb is to not fix something if it isn’t broken. With the way the world is today, it’s smart to save your money when you…
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Crazy Decisions
Crazy Decisions in a Crazy Time Can stressed parents also take care of themselves? By Jeanette Prather What’s overly emphasized during this pandemic is the in-person versus distance learning decisions that parents are faced with, especially as childcare facilities and private schools open (or have been open), and public schools remain closed. It’s been stated and seems to be the first, sometimes the only, topic of critical decision-making among parents, but what about everything else that we are giving up (i.e. loss of wages, personal time, orderly home, quality family time, etc.) to host not just distance learning but the continuing pandemic, SIP orders, and everything in between? “We make…
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Connected Holidays
Physically Distanced but Socially Connected Holidays By Nicole M. Young, MSW I love fall and winter holidays. I look forward to celebrating with lots of food, decorations, gatherings with friends and family, and other traditions. But holiday celebrations in any given year can be hard. It’s a challenging and overwhelming time for many families, especially if money is tight or stress and family conflict overshadow the spirit of joy and giving. In 2020, the holiday season will certainly be different because of COVID-19, but we can still find ways to be physically distanced while staying socially connected with friends and family. This monthly column provides tips for raising children, based…
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Favorite Podcasts for Kids
Favorite Podcasts for Kids by Krista Tankoano I’ll admit we are a little late to the wonderful world of podcasts but during this time of staying home, we have discovered some amazing ones. The list below includes our family’s current favorite podcasts for kids.Aside from the story and educational side of the podcasts, they have also become something that we can do together or alone when we just need a little downtime. We listen to them in the morning before school, while building LEGO, at lunchtime, during bath time, and sometimes for bedtime when I am just a little too tired to read. Half of the time when we are…
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In-School Learning
Children are Parched for In-School Learning By Lisa Catterall I’ve learned that terror doesn’t happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren’t being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death. – Greg Mortensen, 2009 My feet were dry and dusty. The heat was almost unbearable, and the smell of untreated sewage rolled along the dirt parking lot in clouds. The wall around the school in West Africa was the same dun brown as the dried out earth around it, with sharp metal spikes on top and a chain link…
