Showing posts with label caring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caring. Show all posts

Friday, June 05, 2020

Fwd: The First Friday | American Chestnut Trees • New Blooms • A Note from Your Gardener

Face plant. And I am not talking about summer bulb planting. 
Talk about a total lack of nuts, except chestnuts. 
These people take $20M of city taxpayers money each year. 
Hello!
PS: My gardener do not write this crap. What about "your gardener?"

Mark R

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy <awenk@pittsburghparks.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 7:19 AM
Subject: The First Friday | American Chestnut Trees • New Blooms • A Note from Your Gardener


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The First Friday Email

THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREE

The American chestnut was once considered the largest, tallest and fastest-growing trees. The wood was rot-resistant, straight-grained, and suitable for furniture, fencing, and building. The nuts fed billions of wildlife, people, and their livestock. It was almost a perfect tree. That is, until a blight fungus killed it nearly a century ago. The chestnut blight has been called the greatest ecological disaster to strike the world's forests in all of history.
Pittsburgh serves as the home to 30 American chestnuts, residing in Frick and Highland Park. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy continues planting this rare species for research and experimentation. 
"I am replicating breeding work that the American Chestnut Foundation is embracing by taking advanced genetic hybrids and planting them out with surviving chestnuts trees and letting open pollination occur," Phil Gruszka, Parks Conservancy director of horticulture and forestry said. "I will never see the benefits of this, but my grandchildren might." 
Parks Conservancy advocate and supporter, Kitty Brunkhorst, took a particular interest in this project. 
"I learned that Phil was working with (Parks Maintenance Manager) Dick Wilford to plant American chestnut tree seeds about two years ago. It was somewhat funny to me to think of these two men finding a secret place to plant and tend these seeds, planning to see what did and didn't work," Kitty said. 
"I've been concerned about trees in Frick Park for a long time, as I live nearby and spend many hours in the park. The fact that they were attempting to revive a native species seemed worthwhile," Kitty explained.
To learn more about the American Chestnut and how genetic engineering can potentially revive these trees, click here. If you'd like to explore the work that the American Chestnut Foundation is doing to restore this species, click here

The First Friday tiles (6)
"So you do a lot of planting?" 
This is a question I receive often when people realize I'm a professional park gardener.
Fun fact – we spend most of our time pulling weeds! 
Yes, we plant trees, bulbs, and annual flowers, but this is a small fraction of what we spend our time doing within Pittsburgh's parks. The types of vegetation we plant in the parks have very specific windows in which they can be planted. 
Planting trees takes approximately five days in the spring and five days in the fall. We also spend approximately two days in the fall planting bulbs and spend four-to-six days in May planting annuals. However, we spend days - actually, weeks - pullings weeds!
The flower beds in the parks are planted with perennial plants that bloom year after year, so they don't require planting, but they do require regular weeding. We even pull weeds during the winter months.
In the park woodlands, pulling vines from trees and removing woody invasive shrubs is a form of weeding and this is how we spend our winter months in the parks. We don't use herbicides to control weeds, so it's up to our team of park gardeners and volunteers to remove them. 
Your Gardener,
Angela Yuele 

The First Friday tiles (5)
A compilation of the Parks Conservancy's Horticulture and Forestry team's (also known as the 'Sassies') favorite plants. 
Let's talk about summer flowering bulbs! Plant these underground structures in the spring and enjoy colorful blooms through the summer! Learn about some of our favorite plants below.
Jaci Bruschi, Gardener | CANNA 
This cultivar is a 'South Pacific Scarlet.' It's a great cultivar of Canna from the South Pacific series; it will grow to about four-to-five feet it can be planted in a container and in a garden bed. Though it is not hardy to our zone, you can dig the bulbs up at the end of the season and save for next year's planting.
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Angela Yuele, Horticulturist | GLADIOLUS 
Gladiolus are an old-time favorite. I fondly remember my grandpa being very proud of his Gladiolus!  These are a tender summer bulb, which means they need to be dug up, or purchased, every year and replanted. The bloom time is brief on theses beauties. To prolong the bloom time you can stagger plantings in two-week intervals. This is a popular plant for flower arrangements as well! 
Robin Eng, Restoration Gardener | GRAPE-LEAF ANEMONE
Grape-leaf or Japanese anemone produce great mounding heaps of lush dark green foliage year-round. Then as the major blooms of summer appear to be dying back, they put out great cloud-like plumes of blossoms, raised above to foliage on graceful flower stalks. Although not native to the United States, these great perennials are well worth a spot in any sunny garden. Colors vary from white to shades of pink, and blooms can last for weeks on mature plants. If you're looking for a perennial addition to prolong the flowering season of your garden, this one comes highly recommended! 
pastedImagebase640 (12)
Maggie Herrick, Restoration Gardener | MONTEBRETIA 
A member of the iris family, Montebretia (Crocosmia spp.) is a late summer bloomer that will give your garden interest into the fall. Hummingbirds, butterflies, and birds will be especially happy with the flowers and the seedpods that follow and provide a food source. The strappy, sword-like foliage demonstrates the relation to irises and provide a texture contrast to other plants. These flowering corms come in a range of heights up to five feet and a variety of striking colors. They are salt and drought tolerant, prefer full sun, but can tolerate some shade and make great cut flowers. Mulch these plants heavily or bring them inside during the winter to help them survive. 
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P.S. Remember, parks and greenspaces have never been more vital. The time you spend outdoors during rejuvenates your body and mind. Honor that time and the essential role nature plays in your daily life by choosing to make a donation today to support the parks you know and love. 
Every little bit counts.

My Post-2

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Thursday, April 07, 2016

For the ages! The water does not know how old you are.

Swimming, What a Wonderful Sport to Learn - SwimEasy Ltd. UK

Tosd@s, tod@s amamos nadar... Discover more here: www.swimeasy.co.uk

Posted by NataciĆ³n on Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Keeping Kids Safe, Clearances and new PA Laws

Insights from a session hosted by The Forbes Fund and others about clearances, reporting of child abuse and other new trends with law changes in PA.


We have a ladder of engagement drafted that deploys Digital Badges for adults to assist with this process. A position paper from my is forthcoming.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Change!

What a rant!




Tuesday, December 03, 2013

PR memo to swimmers at PPS Elementary Swim Meet

MEMO:

FROM:
Mark Rauterkus, Executive Head Coach for
Swim & Water Polo Camps at
PPS Summer Dreamers


TO:
Swimmers, Parents, Guardians, Coaches
PPS Elementary Swim Meet

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Way to go in the swim meet today! It is not easy to invest time and energy into swimming or supporting swimmers. But, swimming has its own set of rich rewards. Swimming as an activity and a sport is well worth the efforts for all growing young people.

Everyone should be a strong swimmer as that skill and fitness may some day save your life of the lives of others.

Swimming and Water Polo Camps have been a wonderful experience for lots of PPS students as part of the annual Summer Dreamers Academy. Last year nearly 200 students became aquatic athletes. We were at every Summer Dreamers site and kids got to improve swimming skills, run for fitness and races including the Liberty Mile, and play inspiring water polo.

To help further your swimming opportunities, do these three things:

1. Consider getting yourself, and your siblings, cousins and friends to sign up for Swim & Water Polo Camp as part of Summer Dreamers 2014.

2. Check out the new swim team about to start at the recently opened Thelma Lovette YMCA at 2114 Centre Avenue in the Hill District, just up 8 blocks from the Consol Energy Center. An organizational meeting for parents and guardians is slated for 6 pm on Wednesday, December 18, 2013, in the conference room of the YMCA.

3. Send an email, text or phone call to Coach Mark Rauterkus, 412-298-3432,Mark@Bloomfield-Garfield.org, for updates and news about opportunities in Pittsburgh for extra swimming and water polo fun.

Our varsity boys swim team at Obama Academy is the defending champions of WPIAL Class AA Section 6. Two of our recent graduates are using their Pittsburgh Promise scholarships and also swimming on their college swim teams. Two others are playing water polo at colleges outside of Pennsylvania. (Lock Haven, Swarthmore, American Univ. and Univ. of Minnesota) The students in today's swim meet should plan on being high school swimmers in a few years.


Monday, November 04, 2013

Red Cross Lifeguard Certificate / Certification for Mark Rauterkus


Thank you for attending the American Red Cross Lifeguarding course on 10/27/13.

Please click on the link below to verify your information and access your digital certificate.

https://classes.redcross.org/Saba/Web/Main/goto/MyCertificate?certId=GPI7EW

Saturday, June 29, 2013

In education: It is one thing to cut budgets. It is another to cut opportunities.

The good news about this 2014 PA budget that is nearing passage is that the cutting of funding for education and education-related items has stopped. Lawmakers are getting the message that Pennsylvania voters are very dissatisfied with the way state lawmakers have treated education funding in recent years. But actions by the Governor and state legislators to date do not begin to restore the massive cuts made during the past several years, and the subsequent harm to learning opportunities for students of all ages in the Commonwealth.
School cuts are a top concern for Pennsylvania voters, especially women voters. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (PBPC) and Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) released on June 24 the results of a poll of Pennsylvania voters conducted mid-June. Of those polled, 28 percent ranked education funding for public schools as their top priority for the Governor and Legislature to take action on. Economic development and jobs ranked second with 27 percent, and other issues such as healthcare, taxes, and roads and bridges were identified as priorities by 15 percent or less of voters. There are more voters who favor restoring funding to public education than voters who favor maintaining no tax increase. Fifty-five percent of voters would support a proposal that would include a small sales tax increase of .25 percent and delay a planned corporate tax cut; voters are more supportive of increasing their own taxes to restore public school funding when corporations share in the investment.
To see the PBPC and PCCY's joint press release, click here.
 
What worries me is that we can still swim, even with the tiny bit of funding that remains, or without funding in some areas, but we are not allowed to swim because administrators don't get it done.

In Pittsburgh it is way too hard to get the signed pool permit for a facility that is already built, already functional, already staffed, already filled with water, already with its pumps running and filtration in progress. The costs are next to nothing. The upside is amazing.

We need to do more with less. When we do, we want everyone locally to be pulling for the kids. We want wellness to win. We want action for the sake of our kids. We want them to have fun and thrive on learning. We want hands on activities. In the summer, we want to go swimming as the weather permits. Red tape that gets in the way of those that want to dream big needs to be evaluated.

Most of all, I knew it. I told folks months ago and weeks ago that their system had some flaws. This is why we built http:Guard.CLOH.org.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Guard.CLOH.org is updated

http://Guard.CLOH.org

Code named, Guard_Input, this service helps Lifeguards, swim coaches, camp coordinators and others involved with the Swim & Water Polo activities to communicate about health insights of students in our programs.

This process puts information to the coaches within the programs and not in a file box deep within the school's office behind the nurse's desk.

This is not a secure process, but rather a practical one. Communicate only the information that you feel is important to the coaches and lifeguards, not pharmacy specifics, please.

Links:

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

PPS Attendance matters, plus Senior night at pool. H2O = Hail 2 Obama!



Hi Friends,

With all the noise about attendance at PPS in the media, it is good to know of a bright spot. See below as we honor 14, devoted senior swimmers.

Plus at 6 AM swims practice this week we had 20, 17 and 12 each on M, T and W.
FYI, three boys in Summer Dreamers Swim and Waterpolo Camps in past years are on the Varsity Swim Team now. Six more worked as staffers.

One other tidbit on attendance, our biggest trouble point in Summer Dreamers Swim and Waterpolo Camp was guarding the door to prevent kids from sneaking into our sessions. We had waiting lists. We got scolded for recruiting, but really so many were having fun and learning they told their friends. PPS record showed Waterpolo at 95% attendance in 2012, and that included the need for all kids to run 1 mile over and back to the pools in The Hill.

I really wish we were offering, robust year round, "Dreamers" at PPS with Swim and Waterpolo so our kids could get invested in their teams, fitness, schools and academics. Let's all replicated and empowered what is proving to really work wonders in our community and hooked to athletics.

Go, go, go!

H2O

Coach Mark Rauterkus
412-298-3432

PS: Heard that high school students in National Honors Society have been asked, because of funding issues, to tutor middle school kids now. Rather, let's get those senior and smart students, our swim team really, to teach swimming and play waterpolo with the kids. Then greatness can happen with self esteem, relationships, mentoring, sportsmanship and rule following. Then the academics can flow for the individuals and institutions.

PSS: Friday's visit with USA Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer, Cullen Jones, with black history month, has the potentials to be special. He is at Obama at noon and UPrep at 2 pm. FYI, in April, three other USA Olympians, Waterpolo players, visit Pitt for a weekend clinic with Tiger Waterpolo (community, club program that supports our Summer Dreamers), and we will get our kids and the media to interact as well.
Footnote: Sam's fist season of swimming this year, as a senior, happens as he is registered and training for the May 2013 Pittsburgh Marathon, his first.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Mark Rauterkus" for Morning Announcements
Date: Feb 6, 2013 7:01 AM
Subject: Senior night

The last home meet for the swim team is tomorrow, Thursday, at 6 pm against Bishop Canevin. This is our senior night and we honor our greatest class of seniors ever in the city swim scene.
The team as 14 seniors including three time PIAA swimmer Erik. Plus:
Annie
Hannah
Wendy
Nicole
Rene
Jonah
Tobias
Max
Mat
Demetri
Daniel
Ben

And, Sam Lapp who will compete in his first ever swim event on Thursday.
Win the section.
Go Seniors!
Swimmers have AM swim on Thursday and should be at the meet by 5 pm.



Saturday, December 15, 2012

Some thoughts about the school shooting

D.V., on KDKA Radio, was talking about the school shooting and I posted these thoughts on Facebook.

Just listening to KDKA Radio show with D.V. Posted much of this to his wall, but since I have not sounded off on the recent school killings, here goes.

KENT STATE's trouble (4 dead in O-hi-o) had ARMED Guards at the school and THAT was the problem. School shooting. Bad scene. That is perhaps what set the course for no guns.

Pgh Public Schools has both School Security AND School Police. The police are not generally full time at any certain schools, unlike security that has regular gigs at the doors of the schools. The POLICE have guns, I think. The security does not.

A problem with paid, armed security guard(s) at schools means one less librarian, or one less school nurse, or one less teacher or 10 less crossing guards. I'd rather have 20 kids per teacher and not one grade with 40 and an armed guard.

Another situation that could unfold at a school is that the crazy gunman goes first to the armed guard and then goes on a spree without any other armed guard to thwart the rest of the killing. If armed guards were 100% insurance -- why are there still bank robbers?

Another solution: I'd much rather have working K9 at schools. Some are GUN dogs and others are DRUG dogs. We could even train the dogs at a magnet school as part of the zoo! The dogs would be a lot more affordable and would, generally, be more dependable too.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Teachers do, a nice story in the P-G.

P-G article with a nice story

But it is built on a falsehood that the school yards empty now that school has begun.

My $.02 posted via FB:

Great story and article. Many in my family have been teachers and I get those questions on a regular basis about my dad, uncle, cousins, grandparents. Fun and rewarding.

One quibble, the start of school does not and should not mean and end to school yard times. School sports and recreation at school facilities after and before the bells ring are IMPORTANT. We as parents and community must coach our kids below their heads. Fitness, metalwork, and the heart are too often discounted in non academic times, and we all are less because of that evil practice.

Now that school has started, get fit, let's use the schoolyards, let's coach play and sporting opportunities.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Bike Pittsburgh tells story of death to a cyclist in East End of Pgh

Police on the look out for a white car with front-end damage
Another hit-and-run took place in Pittsburgh, this time on Penn Ave in Point Breeze.

We have very little information at this point, but we are saddened to report that at 5am, 46-year old Homewood resident, James Price, was struck from behind and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Penn Ave at Penfield Ct in Point Breeze.

Witnesses say that the driver was in a white car, which sped off toward East Liberty at about 60 mph and now has front end damage. So far, a description of the driver has not been released.

As reported by WPXI, a witness said that "on the side of the road was a bicycler. He had his headlight on and everything. Then two cars ahead of us, going 50 or 60 mph just blew him off his bike." Further reports detail that the victim was wearing a helmet and had a rear light and reflector as well.

According to the Post-Gazette, Mr. Price was the father of an 11-year-old daughter, and that he had gotten in shape over the last two years by riding several times a day, helping to alleviate his diabetes.

"He was going on a positive path," said his niece, Briana Jackson, whom he was encouraging to ride.

Mr. Price was the first person killed within Pittsburgh city limits while riding a bike since June 2010, when 6-year old Tyrique Snowden Hill was killed in the Knoxville neighborhood. Previous to that, Timothy Kish struck and killed Rui Hui Lin in Oakland in 2009. That crash was also a hit-and-run, but Kish turned himself in after several days. We can only hope the driver of today's crash does the same.

Please be alert: If you see a white car with front end damage or have information on the suspect, please call Pittsburgh homicide detectives at 412-323-7800.

Putting an End to Hit and Runs
Earlier this month, Governor Corbett signed "Sean's Law," closing the loophole for fatal hit-and-runs. Spearheaded by Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana), the law Sean's Law is named after the Indiana County cyclist, Sean Pearce, who was killed by a hit and run driver in Burrell Township.

The bill closed a loophole, that unintentionally gave a hit-and-run driver an incentive to flee especially if the driver is intoxicated. It increased the penalty for a fatal hit-and-run accident from a third-degree to a second-degree felony.

A fatal hit-and-run carries a mandatory prison term of at least one year, with a maximum sentence of seven years. By comparison, a fatal crash that involves a drunk driver is a second-degree felony with a much stiffer penalty range of three to 10 years.

Because of this difference, drunk drivers involved in a deadly crash would face less punishment if they leave the scene and turn themselves in later (when they are sober).

The bill signed by the Governor on July 5, unfortunately won't be in effect until September.

We'll keep our readers updated as details of this tragedy unfold.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Winning Swimming Rookie Camp, a position paper and rant

My latest rant is below and also in a 10-page PDF without photos at http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/aforathlete/images/3/39/7-year-olds-v3.pdf.



Presentation to Educational Leadership and
Dr. Linda Lane, Superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools
By Mark Rauterkus, swim and waterpolo coach.Mark@Rauterkus.com, 412-298-3432 = cell. http://Rauterkus.blogspot.comAfter an educational conference call on Early Childhood Education and the value of play, I wrote this article.
Calling for an overhaul and expansion of high-quality aquatics in times of budget cutbacks is possible because the plans deploy what is already available. Simply, use what we have and deliver what Pittsburgh kids need.


We have massive problems that are pressing hard against the Pittsburgh community. We've got:
  • violence,
  • academic achievement gaps,
  • obesity,
  • so-called school reform trends with doubtful standards and accountability, and
  • sustained cutbacks that have lasted for a decade and continue to grow.
The best news is we have everything we need. We have:
  • swim pools,
  • support of nonprofits,
  • proof of concepts with astounding success,
  • volunteerism,
  • a defined, documented vision with specific plans, and
  • a growing political will.
We must do what is best for the kids given these tough times of both
  • budget cuts, and
  • educational reform.
I think this aquatics overhaul for Pittsburgh delivers what the kids need, is achievable in the current fiscal climant, and is the right thing to do.

Time to Play

One aim is to defend children’s right to play, grow, and learn in an era of school reform focused on standards and accountability.

Cuts within schools, the city and at social service agencies have changed experiences for kids. These are different times. Today's kids spend more time with TVs and video games.

Music, physical education, and even outdoor recess has contracted greatly. Pittsburgh used to have many “language magnet schools” introducing foreign vocabulary words in Kindergarten settings. Pittsburgh kids used to get string instruments in the third grade. Gone. Pittsburgh's, city-wide, “Centers,” classes for arts and music, once held on Saturdays at CAPA, is no more. It isn't always safe for kids to play pick-up ball on the streets or in the parks like 'back in the day.'


Mayor Ravenstahl and PPS Superintendent, Doctor Lane, can join with the citizens and promote play-based early education and common-sense policy making. A push back for the sake of kids comes with actions and by standing with others in this fight, including:

The mayor and the school superintendent must ask, 'What are the kids not getting?'

Negative Forces:

A dark side of reform scares many parents and educators. A 'reform overdose' can generate 'deformed outcomes.' The miss-informed would rather build prisons than invest in educational programs.
The push to inappropriate standardized testing is happening. The re-writing of state standards for young children have led to the heavy use of standardized tests in kindergarten and the lower grades, despite their unreliability for assessing children under age eight. Current proposals from the miss-informed (National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers) go beyond most existing state standards. An absurd example: Every kindergartner must be able to write “all upper- and lowercase letters” and “read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.”

It is misguided to intensify inappropriate testing in place of broader observational assessments that better serve the needs of young children. New research is showing that didactic instruction of discrete reading and math skills has already pushed play-based learning out of many kindergartens. Blocks and dress-up corners in many kindergarten classrooms are getting replaced by desks and worksheets. Testing in schools is moving to crowd out other important areas of learning. Overuse of didactic instruction and testing cuts off initiative, curiosity,and imagination. It limits their later engagement in school, the workplace and responsible citizenship. And, it interferes with the growth of healthy bodies and essential sensory and motor skills—all best developed through playful and active hands-on learning.

The miss-informed educational reform standards are superficial. Counting to 100 by 10 is rote. Rather, seek conceptual knowledge, not superficial skill sets. Some adults seem to be more comfortable seeing young kids in chairs being neat. Making a mess and then doing the clean up should be a part of the play and learning.

There is little evidence that the newest trends lead to later success. While an introduction to books in early childhood is vital, research on the links between the intensive teaching of discrete reading skills in kindergarten and later success is inconclusive at best. Many countries with top-performing high-school students do not begin formal schooling until age six or seven. The miss-informed agendas conflict with cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education. Groups of educators have called on the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to suspend the drafting of standards for children in kindergarten through grade three.

A new wave of testing is washing over preschool activities in a bad way. It has become fashionable to give lip service to the importance of play. The reality: Play continues to disappear in many schools, even for the youngest.

Learning must go beyond literacy and math. Our kids need to learn how to play well with others, how to swim, how to listen and interact with a team. They need to learn about getting fit, how to follow a schedule, how to pace, race, finish and score. They need to know how to be defensive, aggressive, and offensive. They need to understand sportsmanship, running, time trials and car pools. As our kids learn all the above, the literacy and the math becomes a breeze.

Kids learn mighty lessons through their bodies and senses and with self expression. Kids need to have experiences where learning happens in three dimensional spaces. Just entering the swim pool, especially on winter days, gives total immersion. Natural ways of learning happen in the water. The swim pool is a learning laboratory unlike what may be happening in rigid classrooms where there are rules against running and other expressions of enthusiasm.

Many kids learn to wonder through a coaching voice that resonates within families and communities. Swimmers develop physical, social, emotional, problem-solving, self-regulation, and perspective-taking skills.

Rookie Camp Swimming is good for young children and every kid in Pittsburgh at the age of seven can be included in a free program at the Oliver Bath House starting in the fall of 2012.

The Winning Swimming Rookie Camp, geared to those age seven, provides a swim team setting that “amps up” typical swim lessons. The Rookie Camp delivers bigger, bolder, better benefits with buzz. Everyone still learns how to swim. Swimming is a great exercise, but to be a swimmer is to change character.

All learn, but especially young children, by being with others who are more experienced and older. The Rookie Camps' daily dry-land times have story-time visits with guest coaches that include middle school and high school swimmers. Kids learn by placing themselves in the shoes of others. Rookie Camp swimmers learn social awareness, how to care, how to solve problems together, and how to negotiate together.


Swim teachers are keen observers of children. Coaches pay attention to where the students are. Aquatic teachers work on what they see that the kids are able to understand. At the swim pool, we model, evaluate and give fresh beginnings to kids in new surroundings. Plus, kids have time to play and act it out at the pool. Rookie Camp serves plenty of opportunities for self regulation for kids. Kids get into roles, and they control themselves. They stay in their character and learn self control. Rookie Camp is for learning many concepts and becoming comfortable with each other.

Scaffolding, inventing from each other, demonstrations, teamwork coaching, making rule-based games and playing them are serious happenings. Seldom are children allowed to have outdoor discovery time with low structures. Rare are the chances for kids today to organize their settings. But that happens at swim practices as kids pick their own lanes, make up lane orders and choose to play goalie or not.

In hours beyond the regimented school day, we need to bump kids away from screens and get them to play together. Sitting passive before a screen weakens the capacity to imagine and have inventiveness for oneself. We don't know what damages are being done as our children don't discover their own sense of self. Today's kids are too often looking outside of themselves to be entertained with apps and screens. Rather, in Pittsburgh, lets allow the stories and the creative ideas to come from within. So much of life today is with virtual reality, let's create our own reality.

Numbers

Play situations, true number concepts, classifications and serialization forms the basis of being able to understand the concept of number.

Classroom sizes used to hover around 20 students. In 2012, PPS contracts swelled physical education classroom sizes for high school students to 44 students per class with one teacher. Best practices in swimming, especially with seven-year athletes, won't allow those inflated numbers. The Rookie Camp can give more attention to more kids with more coaches than is possible these days in our public school classrooms.

It takes time for children to come to understand symbols. We rush children, and if they don't understand right away, we start to think that they are different. The difference between “d” and “b” might be maturity. Consider how math is detached in the mind of a four-year-old who is shown a card that reads:

(3 + 1 = ?)

Inappropriate demands are coming to young children from assessments in schools at the age of four.
Bogus testing is unreliable at young ages. For example: One test given to five-year-olds asks the kids to identify as many numbers and letters in a minute. That's puzzling. Wee kids do not know how to race yet. Swim coaches know how strange it is to get five-year-olds to race. Rather, success at five comes with a float and bouncing off the bottom across the shallow end of the pool. Then at age seven, join the Rookie Camp. Staging races of merit can happen by age 8. After kids know how to race, those “academic” identification tests in time periods become meaningful.

Kids are intrigued by things that hold their interest. With interesting topics, they ask about things that are harder to understand, if we follow their interests. What is this? How is this? These things are passions and serve as openings to more knowledge. Rookie Camp Swimming is a choice and for diving deeper. Swimming becomes a giant gateway to good, thoughtful debate. Fans are fanatical. Rookie Camp makes swim and sports fans. Rookie Camp is a portal to discover, discuss and clash among our favorites. Is it Phelps or Lochte? Why does that work for him? And, can it work for you too? At Rookie Camp, we certainly watch and re-watch the Olympics and cheer.

For the young lives, this concept of swimming serving as an intimate bridge to a vast unknown world might be a first-time encounter. Kids can get into it because swimming is deep, wide, personal and foreign. The clumsy kids as well as both the early and late-blooming kids can appreciate swimming's challenges and find a home within themselves with swimming too. A rich and fulfilling life has many such encounters where inspiration plants its seeds and brushes with greatness occur. Everyone should have that 'something' by the age of seven.
Seemingly, the lowest, most scripted curriculum and drill-based testing is headed to the poorest parts of society. Drill-based teaching is at odds with what happens at the Waldorf Schools. Wealthy families and the well-to-do-and-privileged emphasize that no child is like any other child. They all grow. Kids don't touch reading in the Waldorf system until they are seven. Likewise, in Finland, they don't teach reading until age seven. Kids learn to read at later ages in Finland, but by third grade, those in Finland are ahead of where the American kids are in reading.

What happens in the PPS school day is up to the school board and school administrators to decide – and not a swim coach with a blog. However, what happens at the public pools is up to taxpayers, advocates and professional swim coaches to influence. We must insure that the public pools are used for holistic instruction by the entire community – rich and poor alike. Sadly, in my humble opinion, too many of Pittsburgh's youngsters go through life without ever having a solid introduction into anything with a foundation for supporting long-term enrichment. Swimming is a great lifeline that can pull thousands into an exciting future of discovery and wellness. Of course everyone is not going to “get it.” But, with the help of the mayor and the superintendent, we can make it very difficult to ignore.
Language development occurs meaningfully through play.

Swimming opens a glossary of meaningful interactions with language. Rookie Camp participants often learn more than 10 words a day. Drills like 'catch-up' (one arm catches up to the other arm in the freestyle stroke) are described and done. In the stroke drill called catch-up, hands have to touch together, and the coach jokes that mustard and ketchup are not allowed in the pool.

The achievement gap is not a distraction in the middle of the deep end of a swim pool.

Swimming presents an equal opportunity for all kids. Needs are few: a swim suit and a pair of goggles. Both are affordable items and can be provided with organizations or facilities as necessary. To be sure, some of the poorest kids are the most independent. The poorest kids can be very confident and gracious and with higher level of problem solving. At Rookie Camp, we won't knock that out of them. The harder-edged expression, “I can't do that,” gets replaced with, “I'll try.”

In American communities, water polo is traditionally a sport for wealthy, older kids (ages 13 and older) in deeper water pools. In Pittsburgh, we can change that premise by structuring an affordable (if not gratis) program with younger kids in shallow waters. In a few years, as our kids grow, our city all stars will be able to match up with anyone, anywhere. On two consecutive years our city kids played tight games against an exclusive prep schools from New Jersey. In our third year, in September 2011, our city kids beat Upper Arlington's JV team in Columbus, Ohio. UA is one of Ohio's top public schools, and also quite affluent. Worldwide, waterpolo is wildly popular with younger kids.
Concrete manipulatives hatch math wizards on the swim team.

Swimming gets students to use manipulatives, a central mathematics concept. Manipulative use increases scores on retention and problem solving tests. Attitudes toward mathematics are improved when students have instruction with concrete materials provided by teachers knowledgeable about their use. Kids and classes that have great grasps of manipulatives outperform those who do not. This benefit holds across grade levels, ability levels, and topics. Many manipulatives and, in turn, math "makes sense" for swimmers.

Below is an example of one simple swim practice set that Rookie Campers would master:

Swim: 10 (repetitions) x 50 yards on 1:30 interval.

These forumlas, the one above in shorthand is, 10 x 50s @ 1:30, are the common building blocks for swim practices. I've published books filled with pages of workout numbers, sequences and formulas. (Tide Teamwork, SprintSalo, A DAM Good Year, Coaching the Young Swimmer, Organizing Swimming Practices)

Swimming coaches emphasize learning with understanding. Swimming instructions from the coach to the team give the young athletes new vocabulary richness with actions and experiences. Swimming coaches blab a foreign yet fun lingo packed with numbers, standards, records, zones, cuts, thresholds, qualifiers, sets, repeats, intervals, decimals, times (in tenths and hundreds of seconds to minutes, plus days, weeks and months). Coaches give kids descending, contrasting, tempo and intensity instructions. Expectations with heart rates help with self understandings and healthy awareness, but also make clear to the kids the difference between 55, 65 and 75 in beats per minute/BPM or in weight or in distance in meters.

Constructs and minipulatives jazz the swimming experience and makes more fertile ground for academic scholarship. An age-seven swimming team experience gives individuals an arsenal of transferable skills. The benefits are countless when one examines the collective impact with the families, car pools, lane leaders, team buddies, training groups, coaching staffs, junior assistants, volunteers, boosters and various institutional elements of support.

Swimming makes a new setting for young minds to absorb different, meaningful elements. Sadly, some students sometimes learn to use manipulatives only in a rote manner. They perform the correct steps, but have learned little. Daily encounters with the swim coach forces kids out of their comfort zones and beyond rote manner manipulatives. Swimming gets kids to live among numbers and be the agent of change to move their realm of being. As things click at the pool, that clicking cascades elsewhere. And for the faster swimmers who get it, the stop watch clicks sooner as they pick up speed, earn praise and grow.

Some day, PPS teachers may come to use swimming and sports manipulatives as an extra pathway for mathematics teaching. Swimming talk can pour into the classrooms as teachers reflect on their use of representations of mathematical ideas with students who swim. Aspects of their instruction can change when the classrooms are filled with swimmers. Not only are the kids knowing their numbers in an intimate way, but their bodies are settled, relaxed and defused from the prior exertion of yesterday's workout and its twenty-five twenty-fives on twenty five. (Shorthand: 25 x 25s @ :25.) That's my favorite swimming practice set to coach. We deploy that with my teams often. Each kid swims 25 times the distance of 25 yards on an interval of 25-seconds.

Educators of mathematics indicate that "concrete" is good and “abstract” is bad. Swimming diminishes the nasty "abstract," which is much more difficult for the wee ones to understand. Students that swim get a wide range of understandings and tools. Research suggest that instruction begin "concretely." It also warns that in-school-teaching of manipulatives are not sufficient to guarantee meaningful learning. So, swim teams are needed for kids for benefits of both play and brain-developmental homework.

To understand the role of concrete manipulatives and any concrete-to-abstract pedagogical sequence, we must further define what we mean by "concrete." Most practitioners and researchers argue that manipulatives are effective because they are concrete. By "concrete," they probably mean objects that students can grasp with their hands. This sensory nature ostensibly makes manipulatives "real" and connected with one’s intuitively meaningful personal self, and therefore helpful.

Swimming gets students to make connections between manipulatives and nascent ideas. Two classroom tools that helps kids perform addition are the classic “number line” and the abacus. The students make external actions with each. Meanwhile, at the pool, the number line comes to play as the team does an intra-squad match with bodies wearing numbered waterpolo caps. Likewise, at the pool, the mental activity of counting is done by using the lane-line beads to keep everyone in the water straight as to the number of repeats completed. Lane lines and water polo caps are playful abacus and number lines.

Swimmers reflect on their actions with manipulatives with team meetings. Although manipulatives have an important place in learning, their physicality does not carry the meaning of the mathematical idea. Kids need both teachers and coaches who can reflect on their students’ representations for mathematical ideas and help them develop sophisticated mathematical representations. "Although kinesthetic experience can enhance perception and thinking, understanding does not travel through the fingertips and up the arm."
Swimming presents a myriad of ways to get young people to learn through play and active experiences. Swimming in a holistic program makes meaningful and engaged learning. Swimming makes a contrast to superficial, mechanical learning with its testing and disjointed implications. Swimming can't be disjointed, really. Swimming at age seven is about being joined in a fun way.

At Rookie Camp, we connect the dots, and we connect various swim sites as well. The Swimming Rookie Camps deliver short lessons with videos often via teleconference at poolside. The team, standing or sitting on kick boards while dripping wet, interact with expert coaches at other sites to recap lessons. Often, other kids are in on the interactions too.

Further, these concrete understandings in swimming are not always referring to physical objects nor to those just to the swimmers at age seven. Benefits continue with digital assets, technology and for the ones in the later grades. Science fair projects, swimmers' think-a-thons and postal swim meets are a few of the middle-year activities to promote in a dynamic, smart, aquatics program.


In higher grades, biology, physics and kinesiology all offer great sport-specific, concrete manipulatives. Swimming provides a ton of Sensory-Concrete Knowledge that could fill an entire academic career, if desired. But, as the kids mature, other sports often call. Ex-swimmers enter other sports and activities stronger -- physically, socially and academically. Swim coaches are thrilled as kids grow out of swimming and into other athletic pursuits. For the program to flourish, it should have a wide base of participants. The Rookie Camps for seven-year-olds is a springboard to other things yet to come. After youngsters out-grow Rookie Camp, individuals engaged in other aquatic specializations, growing year-to-year. Waterpolo, nippers (i.e., junior guards), lifeguarding, underwater hockey, triathlons, cycling, syncro, modern pentathlon and kayaking are in the mix.

These other journeys are still within the Pittsburgh aquatics landscape that must be part of the global overhaul. Leadership must plan and be expected to press forward with other budding programming challenges for the sake of capacity. The 750 7-year-old swimmers in the Rookie Camp program in 2013 are expected to value quality programming and crave a variety of activities in 2014 and beyond.
Aquatics can catapult athletes to other sports. Baseball, basketball, football, golf, cross-country, hockey, to name a few, would benefit greatly as confident participants join their ranks already aware of sportsmanship and good team behaviors. Plus, life offers countless pursuits beyond sports: music, theater, dance, outdoors. All in all, the Rookie Camp experience needs to be a bedrock for whatever else is to come in life in public spaces, parks and schools. Swimming can be the model to set the stage for the theme of “plays well with others.”

Summary
It is fine to survey teachers, program directors, and child development experts. It is fine to speak out with well-reasoned arguments against inappropriate standards, assessments, and classroom practices. It is fine to protest a governor's visit to demand more educational funding. However, it is much better to just fix the problem. Let's provide Pittsburgh kids with a competitive swim team experience (Winning Swimming Rookie Camp) that is rich with play and promotes appropriate activities for childhood times while costing little to accomplish.

Even naysayers who trumpet rigor for early childhood would agree: Swimming builds stamina to assist kids so that they are better able to focus on the long hours of instruction in literacy and math.

Citiparks Summary

Healthy environments for youngsters must be developmentally appropriate. Padded ground-surfaces under swings, play structures for climbing, free lunch programs and even the newer spray parks are fine amenities for tykes. A free week of swim lessons and an afternoon encounter with the art cart is fun. Taking a dip on a hot summer day at the local public pool with friends is refreshing.

But the Rookie Swim Camps take developmentally appropriate healthy environments to a new level. The Rookie Swim Camps further root kids to community along a course of an engaged life within Pittsburgh's public spaces. The enormity of the Rookie Swim Camps, and what spawns from them as children grow, should impact thousands every year. The Rookie Swim Camps and “playing well with others” is what's needed next in the struggle to reverse the migration out of the city, the academic achievement gap and youth violence.

Age 7 has traditionally been the "age of reason" for most activities. Regardless of swimming ability, a 7 year old is still often not capable of making good safety decisions on his or her own; "Am I tired, dehydrated, in too deep, is the play around me too rough by the older kids?" Of course we will teach water safety and plain old survival floating. But by the third week we can be doing butterfly and gearing up for waterpolo tournaments.