��������

A vegetarian diet isn't one embraced by the majority of Americans today. In fact, according to the , most Americans exceed the daily amount of recommended protein by a significant amount, with much of it coming from meat and animal products every day. However, many public schools are hoping to change that trend by introducing "Meatless Mondays" to their students and faculty.

According to an article last year by , numerous schools across the country have begun offering vegetarian selections to students on a daily basis. These choices were provided in addition to meat entrees, giving students both diet options. However, Meatless Mondays are a new concept that was recently introduced by Baltimore City Public Schools and is quickly spreading across the nation as other school districts are hopping onboard the vegetarian bandwagon.

This TEDTalk discusses the concept of Meatless Mondays.

Going Meatless in Baltimore

A report in the stated the Baltimore City Public Schools launched their Meatless Mondays campaign in October of last year. Instead of the usual fare of hamburgers, pizza, and "pigs-in-a-blanket," the schools are providing students with healthy, meatless options like cheese sandwiches, cheese lasagna, and mixed vegetable bowls.

Melissa Mahoney, a chef and dietician with the Baltimore school district, said the idea started as an element of a themed approach

Apps for the iPhone range from car locators to recipe helpers and every other tool in between. Now, iPhone apps are even making their way into public classrooms, allowing students, teachers, and parents more effective ways to keep in touch with one another. Instead of fighting cell phones in the Classroom, some school administrators are learning to make the most of technology to enhance the classroom experience.

An Academic Test Run

According to a recent report on , one mobile phone provider is breaking through the ice and bringing the iPhone into the Classroom. MacroSolve, a provider of mobile phone apps, has recently announced that they will be creating a new phone app specifically designed to make the job of educators a little easier. Edison Preparatory School, a public school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will test the app.

According to MacroSolve CEO and President Clint Parr, schools need to connect within their community. Communication lines between administrators, teachers, parents, and students must allow for real-time exchanges that keep everyone up on the latest happenings at individual schools and within the district.

This is where iPhone apps specifically designed for this purpose come into play. This technology will help the academic community communicate more efficiently, ensuring that information is exchanged at a rate that does not hinder the student's education or the communication between parents and school staff.

Benefits of iPhone Apps in the Classroom

There are plenty of opportunities that the iPhone apps might offer.

Two factors have given way to a shift in the focus of technology in the classroom. The need to cut state and district education budgets nationwide forces school administrators to find cheap yet effective ways to educate their students. Educators also realize that many students are already immersed in the technology slowly introduced in classes. By bringing technology into the classroom, teachers can hone in on methodology that students are familiar with, leading to more effective teaching strategies and better results.

These two factors are now ushering cloud computing into several classrooms across the United States, allowing teachers to use the technology for conducting lessons, performing student assessments, and developing homework plans in a virtual teaching space.

Subscriptions for cloud technology usually cost less than the purchase of software to facilitate a similar environment, and students and faculty alike usually adapt to the online approach much better than grappling with software installation and implementation.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing uses the Internet for much of the functionality that software installations traditionally offer. The term "cloud" refers to the Internet and is similar to the network diagrams used by phones and computers in the past.

Here is a list of cloud-based apps commonly used by public K-12 schools:

Google Workspace for Education
Includes tools like Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Meet. It is widely used for collaboration and classroom management.

While much of our culture minimizes fundamental differences between boys and girls, some schools embrace these disparities to create a more robust learning environment. All-girl public high schools may not be the norm in most school districts, but the existing schools appear to thrive. These schools cater to female students much differently than traditional co-ed classroom settings, and research indicates that the single-sex approach may have significant advantages.

Learning Differences by Gender

To understand the potential benefits of an all-female education, we must begin with an overview of the learning differences between genders. According to Scholastic, girls and boys enter school using parts of their brains quite differently. Girls use their left hemispheres in early grades to excel in writing, reading, and speaking. Right-hemisphere development helps girls tune in to the feelings of teachers and other students.

On the other hand, boys in the early years use their left hemispheres to recall important facts, while the right hemispheres are used for visual-spatial and visual-motor skills. This may, in part, explain why boys tend to excel in math, science, and geography in the early years, while girls perform better in basics like reading and writing. These generalizations do not always apply to all children, but they indicate essential strengths and weaknesses that tend to differ between the two genders.

When hormones start revving, they can also affect how girls perform in school. Michelle Russell, co-director of the Young Woman's Leadership Charter School in Chicago, told

While the Montessori Method has been quite popular in early education, more and more public charter schools from kindergarten through middle school are adopting Maria Montessori’s philosophies as well. In fact, there are more than 300 public schools in the United States that currently utilize the Montessori Method, and specifically, there are 150 Montessori charter schools. In an age of standardized tests and intense academic pressure, it seems that a growing group of parents and children are turning towards the Montessori Method.

What is the Montessori Method?

In a stark contrast to our traditional education model, the Montessori philosophy is a more holistic, individualized approach that places an emphasis on “following the child.” One-age classrooms are replaced by multi-age environments, and the prevalence of paper and textbooks is traded for multi-sensory educational tools. Instead of adhering to strict lesson plans, children are allowed to select their curriculum, spending as much time as needed in mastering the subject matter.

In addition, unlike traditional schools, Montessori schools do not believe in issuing report cards with numbers or grades, as outlined by the (NAMTA). Progress is not measured through quantified numbers, but rather through a “reporting and record keeping system” that details observations made throughout the quarter. Rather than seeing an “A” grade for math or a “B” for science, parents of Montessori students will see qualitative evaluations on the report cards for variables including attitude, sense of order,