Congratulations to three impressive young artists from our local schools.
With a ceramics portfolio titled “Fire and Ash,” senior Adam Miller won a regional Gold Key award and national Silver Key, as well as a scholarship. Miller also won a National Heritage Scholarship nomination and a Gold Key for a porcelain and stoneware fountain.
With a soda-fired ocarina titled “Singing Armadillo,” junior Kayna Smith won a Gold Key. Her work placed second in the American Museum of Ceramic Arts 2022 Nation High School Gallery, and won Smith a first place art scholarship in the Oregon Potters Association Showcase.
With a digital photograph titled “Alone,” junior Ethan Chang won a regional Gold Key and National Silver Key. Another Change photo titled “Lines” was awarded a regional Silver Key in Scholastics.
Gold and Silver Key awards are given to students locally and nationally for excellence in artistic fields. On average over 300,000 entries are made each year, and only 1% of those entries are chosen for Keys. All Gold Key works are considered for national recognition.
Dual Language Immersion Update: It’s been seven long years since the last update from these remarkable teachers and staff members, so here’s the latest, beginning with a few facts.
In 2014, Corvallis was one of 17 cities in Oregon to pilot the Seal of Biliteracy program.
This program began as a means of improving graduation rates for Latinx students. Prior to the Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program, Latinx students in Corvallis had a 50% chance of graduating high school. Last year, 92% graduated.
In 2001, the Corvallis School District began to form a DLI program that would see students involved in classes from kindergarten on through high school in which students could learn to be able to speak and be literate in two languages as well as having cross cultural competence in both languages within “culturally just and socially responsive classrooms.”
The schools in which students are able to take part in these classrooms are Garfield Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Linus Pauling Middle School, and Corvallis High School. Interestingly, curriculum was written first in Spanish then translated into English.
Currently, 59 different languages of origin are represented in CSD – the five most common are English, Spanish, Chinese/Mandarin, Arabic, and Mam which is spoken in Guatemala. For the 2022-2023 school year, there are 1,297 students participating in the DLI program across all grades – approximately 20% of the student population.
In the 2021-2022 school year, 95% of Corvallis students passed the Spanish AP exam at the end of high school, most of whom were in the DLI program. In Oregon as a whole, only 80% passed – which is comparable to global student success for this exam.
In 2014, 9th grade Laintx students at CSD had a 72% on-track to graduate rate. By 2022, 83% of Laintx students at CSD are on-track. In that same time frame, the percentage of Latinx students graduating has gone from 65% in 2014 to 92% in 2021. The graduation rate for all CSD students in 2021 was 88%.
From 2014 through 2021, there have been 448 CSD students to graduate with a Seal of Biliteracy in multiple languages. The schools expect to see 90 more seals issued at the end of this school year, bringing the total to 538 seals.
Check out the full report on the CSD YouTube channel.
Porter Park Reopens: The construction on the Porter Park playground is nearly complete. If it’s your neighborhood park and you’ve missed it, then come on over Sunday, October 23, at 11:00 a.m. for the ribbon cutting.
The new playground has two structures with shade to allow children from different age groups to play at the same time with less worry about skill and size levels for mom and dad. There will also be new swings with engineered wood fiber surface below to meet safety standards.
Special props go out to Kiwanas Club of Corvallis Sunrisers for sponsoring the project when labor and equipment costs soared, to Benton County Commissioner Nancy Wyse for kicking off this project, and to City Councilor Laurie Chaplen for keeping that ball rolling until we’ve landed here at a ribbon ready to be cut.
Odd Toddler Behaviors: Kids do odd things, even after you’ve explained to them why they probably shouldn’t do certain things. They sometimes even regress and do those things again. So what should worry you?
Let’s start with food. Have you noticed how your toddler will love one food like carrots for every single meal to the point you’re worried they’ll turn orange, then some random Tuesday they chuck those little orange morsels right off the edge of the highchair? According to Dr. Candice W. Jones, author of High Five Discipline: Positive Parenting for Happy, Healthy, Well-behaved Kids, picky eating is completely normal. It can be due to changing taste buds, a new aversion to texture, or even be just that your kiddo’s not hungry right then. As the parent, you need to not make a big deal about it and offer alternative healthy options. Those carrots will likely come back around to the favorites list.
On the other end of life, there is bathroom behavior. If you’ve been working on potty training your child and things are going really well, don’t be too thrown if they regress a bit and have a day with multiple accidents. Look around and see if something has changed in your family life – maybe there’s a new baby in the house, or parents are stressed about something at work, or they’re noticing for the first time the hard rains that hit the Willamette Valley. Kids can tell when something’s different, and they’ll control the one thing they can – their bladders. Don’t panic and don’t punish, just explained to your kid what’s going on and that you’re proud of the progress they’ve made using the bathroom. Then remind yourself that very few 21-year-olds aren’t potty trained – meaning this too shall pass.
Speaking of potty things, many parents have walked into a room to find the little one with a hand full of poop and unfortunately decorated wall. Don’t worry too much – beyond, of course, the worry about how to get poop out of the texture in the bathroom wallpaper. This is about discovering your body, and it is kind of disgusting but normal. Explain to the kiddo that this isn’t something to play with and redirect their efforts to something else like PlayDoh which has a similar texture but is easier on the wallpaper. Also if you haven’t begun potty training, this might be your child’s way of letting you know they are ready.
Another thing to not make a fuss about is when your toddler puts their hands into their diaper area. Some adults will be very alarmed about this, they’ll make a big deal, they’ll freak out, they’ll even shame the child because it is inappropriate behavior… for adults and older children. As the parent of the toddler, take a breath and keep your hand away from the panic button. Think of this behavior not as something to be ashamed of, but as the next thing their finding out about themselves – remember when they found their feet? Avoid shaming, then just redirect them to something else. If your child is able to understand simple reasoning, then tell them that it’s inappropriate to put your hand there in front of others.
Nose picking can be placed into the same category as the two above. It’s normal to look around the ole body and check things out, and as long they don’t make things bleed up there, they should be fine – although this might be another case of explaining inappropriate to them. However, let their pediatrician know if it seems like the kiddo is rubbing their nose regularly as this could be a sign of allergies, nose pain, or in some cases that they’ve put something up there that hasn’t come out yet.
Nudity can be a thing for some kids. They just don’t seem to want to put on a stitch of clothing as they run naked about the house or even take their clothes off in public. Sometimes, this is because there’s something unpleasant about the clothes they’re in – an itchy tag, a tight fitting sleeve, or too many layers on a warm day. Sometimes, this is all about how mom or dad reacts. If the kid is at home, let them be naked, then remind yourself of what we said above because few 21-year-olds wander the planet in their birthday suits. If it’s in public, well most folks will simply laugh it off; most other parents have been through this too.
There are always these stories in parenting groups about imaginary friends, and the questions always arises about how to “handle” it. A child who is talking seemingly to themselves – even when they are sitting beside another child – is generally exhibiting normal behavior. They’re learning how to use their words and honing social skills in the space where they feel most comfortable – their own minds. They are also developing their cognitive and motor skills.
When your little one becomes a teenager, you’re possibly expecting a little head banging at a rock concert or two, so why does your one-year-old look like she’s rocking out to AC/DC? Dr. Jones says that it’s because the motion is rhythmic and can be soothing to some kids. Again, redirect their energies to something less likely to cause them pain or drive their visiting grandparents to distraction.
Then there’s the other kind of rocking, where a child moves their entire body back and forth. Many parents will see this behavior and immediately think autism, but don’t go there. This is also normal soothing behavior – not unlike how you probably rocked them as a baby to get them to sleep as infants. If this rocking continues past the age of three or if your child exhibits other signs of autism, do talk to their pediatrician about it.
Always remember, if you have any doubts or concerns about your child’s health or behavior, speak to your pediatrician. Open dialog between you and your child’s doctor is the best thing for your kiddo.
In Case You Are Worried: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signs of autism include:
- Avoiding or not maintaining eye contact
- Not responding to name by 9 months of age
- Not showing facial expressions like happy, sad, angry, and surprised by 9 months of age
- Not playing simple interactive games like pat-a-cake by 12 months of age
- Using few or no gestures by 12 months of age (for example, not waving goodbye)
- Not sharing interests with others by 15 months of age (for example, showing you an object that they like)
- Not pointing to show you something interesting by 18 months of age
- Not noticing when others are hurt or upset by 24 months/two years of age
- Not noticing other children and joining them in play by 36 months/three years of age
- Not pretending to be something else, like a teacher or superhero, during play by 48 months/four years of age
- Not singing, dancing, or acting for you by 60 months/five years of age
By Sally K Lehman
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