News Notes

We have Tickets to Grease and A Day Out With Thomas Give Away!

Would you like to take the family to see Grease? Or how about A Day Out With Thomas?
If so, now’s your chance to do it for FREE!
We have family packs of tickets to give away for both events, so we’re hosting a couple of contests:
—For Grease tickets: Take a photo of yourself, or your kids, or your dog (basically anyone or anything!) dressed-up as your favorite character from Grease and email it to us here at the magazine (Editor@ParentWiseAustin.com). We’ll draw a winner from all of the cool photos we receive. Hurry! Deadline is Oct. 9.
—For A Day Out With Thomas Tickets: Download the Thomas the Tank Engine coloring page on our webpage (www.ParentWiseAustin.com) and have your child color it and email it to us. We’ll draw a winner from all of the colored pages we receive. Do it soon, though: the deadline is Oct. 2!

Austin Produces Texas History Teacher of the Year

If you want to know anything about the Texas governor’s mansion, just ask fourth grade teacher Sally Hunter.
Her ancestors lived next door to the mansion back in the 1800s and saved every scrap of paper having to do with it—including letters and other important documentation about Sam Houston.
So when Ms. Hunter wanted to teach her kids about the mansion, she went digging through her family’s old boxes, ferreting out information she thought would help her students learn about the mansion and Texas history in an interesting and personal way.
The curriculum she developed, This House is Your House, not only is used at Highland Park Elementary, but also was promoted throughout the state by First Lady Anita Perry after a 2008 fire destroyed part of the governor’s mansion.
Now, it also has garnered Ms. Hunter $1,000 from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of Amerian History, which selected her as the 2009 Preserve America History Teacher of the Year. In addition to the cash award, the organization will donate an archive of history-related books, technology pieces, and historical documents to the Highland Park Elementary School library in Ms. Hunter’s name.
Congratulations to you, Ms. Hunter!

New National Center for Learning Disabilities Web Site

If your child has a learning disability, the National Center for Learning Disabilities wants to help.
To that end, the group recently revamped its webpage to provide more information to parents.
The new site now features a “Basics” page, which will introduce you to various learning disabilities and the latest research about them; an “In the Home” page, which offers real-life suggestions on how to help your child; and an “At School” page that will walk you through the various ways to advocate for your child; a “College and Work” page, with strategies for older kids; and an “On Capitol Hill” page, which tracks the latest education and legislation makings its way through Capitol Hill.
The site also provides a wealth of other information, including free resource guides, publications, worksheets, and newsletters.
For more information, log on the www.LD.org

Speaking of New Websites…

We here at Parent:Wise spent the Summer revamping our own webpage and now it’s up and running for you!
The new page includes all of the articles in the current issue, plus polls, contests, and blogs by Editor Kim Pleticha, Art Director Nisa Sharma, Webmaster Brian Stankiewicz, and Briefcase Mommy Julie Chen Allen. And we’ll be adding more in the next few months!
The beauty of our new page is that you can interact with us! Just create your own login and post responses to the stories we have online. We love a god chat, so stop on by and leave a comment!
We’re also working on a brand-new interactive Calendar, which we expect to get online in the next few months. In the meantime, you can still see all of the great events going on around town by accessing our current interactive Calendar — just click on “Calendar”. (If you want to enter a Calendar event, just click on “Create Calendar Event” in the drop down menu.)
If you have any suggestions for the web site —different things you’d like us to include, for example— we’d love to hear from you! Just send an email to our editor, Kim Pleticha, at Editor@ParentWiseAustin.com.

Slow Food Movement Holds “Lunch-In”

Proponents of serving healthier food in the nation’s schools held a lunch-in on Labor Day to draw attention to the importance of using locally grown produce in schools.
Members of Slow Food Austin joined some 300 chapters nationwide to host the event. Locally, they held a potluck at Rain Lily Farm, which drew a crowd of people and an array of dishes made from locally grown food.
The organization wants schools to serve food that is “nutritious, good for farmers and good for the planet,” according to a press statement.
Sari Albornoz, the Grow Local Program director for Austin’s Sustainable Food Center, spoke about how Austin is attempting to do this through its Farm-to-School “Sprouting Healthy Kids” project, which aims to increase the use of local produce in school kitchens.
The event also raised awareness about the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. The current Act, which provides a host of rules and regulations regarding school food programs, was set to expire on Sept. 30, 2009 (at press time, a Congressional vote was pending).
For more information about the Slow Food Movement, or to sign a petition encouraging schools to provide healthy food to children, log on to www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch.