Q. My daughter is a technology geek. Of course, she spends a lot of time on games, but I’d like to make sure she’s learning this summer, too. Ideas?

Summer Blues:  There’s an app for that

As your kids are cheering summer – dreaming of endless hours of TV, Elitches, the pool, and hanging with friends –you, as a parent, shouldn’t despair.  You know skill retention during these long summer months is important. Now how, you ask, am I going to interest my kids in school-like activities while summer sun and fun beckons out the window?

Fortunately, your answer is in your kids’ other great love: technology.  Summer is a great time for your child to explore their interest and passions and work on core academic and 21^st Century skills.  The mobile device is the perfect tool to make this happen.

So, where do I start?  Your first step is to identify three to five of your child’s top interests. If you are unsure, simply take some time to ask him or her questions about what she is thinking or doing, observe your child at play, and be aware of what they are talking about.  Once you’ve made your list, narrow it to the top three.  These will be your areas of focus for iPhone or iPad applications.

Next, have (or help) your child download at least four e-books on those three subjects. Make sure that the books are grade-level appropriate or just above his or her current skill level.  Try to get a mix of non-fiction and fiction so your child practices reading both styles.

Then, visit YouTube and have your child (with your help as needed) find videos on his or her areas of interest and save them. You can use these videos to supplement or extend on the e-book content or simply as a change of pace when “I’m-bored” starts to echo through your halls.

Finally, download apps that are available for your child to use either for your Android device through Google Play or your Apple device through the iTunes store. The following are some apps to consider:

• Top ten classroom math apps (primary education) http://teacherswithapps.com/top-ten-classroom-math-apps-2/

• 40 iPad Apps for science students (secondary education) http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/06/15/40-most-awesome-ipad-apps-for-science-students/

• 5 ways to be green with your iPad (primary and secondary) http://www.techchef4u.com/?p=3192

• Various secondary education level subjects http://www.techchef4u.com/?p=3192

• If you give a teacher an iPad (primary education) http://ifyougiveateacheranipad.blogspot.co.uk/

• Foreign language apps (primary and secondary education) http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/Foreign+Language+Apps

• 1,000 educational apps club, organized by subject and price for primary and secondary education) http://edudemic.com/2012/02/1000-apps/

• Assorted by subject area (primary and secondary education) http://appsineducation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/1000-recommended-apps-sorted-by-subject.html

Summer can be a great time for learning to happen outside the hustle and bustle of the school schedule.  Enjoy this time with your child and add to your child’s summer break fun by exploring new learning worlds.

 Q. My child is signed up for various day camps this summer, but I’m already worried about possible learning loss. What other tips or programs are you aware of to keep his love of learning going?

Don’t forget the library

Studies repeatedly show that children who do not read during the summer demonstrate a significant loss in reading skills, while students who read just five to six books throughout these months perform better during the following school year.

Denver Public Library’s (DPL) Summer of Reading Program is a fun way to incorporate reading and related activities into summer family time to help avoid “summer learning loss,” a problem that affects kids of all ages and income levels.

Denver Public Library has offered summer reading programs for local residents over 80 years. Summer of Reading is one of the Denver Public Library’s most important programs for children and teens and is offered from May through August annually at the Denver Central Library, the library’s 23 branch locations and through two bookmobiles. In 2011, DPL had a record 39,000-plus registrants.

The Summer of Reading Program provides hundreds of free summer activities, suggestions for summer reading, and cool incentives for all ages. It is divided up into three age-appropriate themes:

• Birth – Preschool: Read with Me Encourages parents to read to their very young children, provides helpful information about the pre-literacy skills that children need to learn before entering school and demonstrates interactive techniques to help caregivers prepare their children for a lifetime of learning. As parents/caregivers complete a variety of early literacy activities together they earn prizes. At the end of the program, all Read with Me completers will be entered to win a pair of tickets to the Children’s Museum of Denver (one winner per Branch).

• Kids (K – 5^th grade) The program offers rewards for reading independently or with an adult. Exciting prizes are given to each participant at designated reading milestones, including a ticket to Elitch Gardens.

• Teens (6^th – 12^th grade) Teens are given a cool journal, and are rewarded with prizes at designated reading milestones.

Get messy, too

Nearly three-fourths of Colorado third-graders are reading at grade level, a slight increase that matches the highest proficiency mark achieved in the past ten years, according to results released Wednesday.

A student at work in Sheridan's Fort Logan Elementary, where Wednesday

Results of the first administration of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, which is replacing the Colorado Student Assessment Program as the state shifts to new academic standards, show 73.9 percent of third-graders scored proficient or advanced.

Proficiency rates have hovered between 70 and 74 percent since at least 2003.

That leaves 25 percent of the state’s third-graders – more than 16,000 mostly 9-year-olds – struggling to master basic literacy skills.

More boys than girls need literacy help as third-grade tests provide the first look at a reading gender gap that persists through high school. A seven-point gap separates girls from boys on the 2012 third-grade exam; the most recent tenth-grade exams revealed a 13-point divide.

Gaps are similarly revealed by income and ethnicity on the third-grade reading tests, with 26 points separating students eligible for federal lunch aid and their more affluent peers. And 25-point gaps divide Hispanic and black students from their white classmates.

Those gaps have been cited in recent legislative debates about a literacy bill but the bill is not linked to statewide exams. Instead, the bill – approved Wednesday by state lawmakers – calls for existing early childhood literacy tests to assess whether third-graders meet a “significant reading deficiency” standard to be set by the State Board.

Highs and lows among schools

Some familiar school names show up at both ends of the spectrum in gains and declines on the TCAP results.

Center’s Haskin Elementary, recently profiled by EdNews, saw its scores rise 35 percentage points in a single year, from 41 percent of students achieving reading proficiency to 76 percent.

Haskin Elementary Principal Kathy Kulp works after school with students as part of an intense literacy focus in the Center School District.

The 310-student school in the rural San Luis Valley is wrapping up its second year of a three-year, $1.6 million federal School Improvement Grant, awarded to the nation’s lowest-performing schools.

Last year’s scores also saw a big jump, from 28 percent proficiency to 41 percent.

Center Superintendent George Welsh, a key player in the recent Lobato school funding lawsuit, said the results show more money spent well can make a difference.

“I think the results we are achieving are a real life indication that a significant infusion of dollars, spent wisely in targeted areas, can produce the kinds of results the state has striven for through the education system it has designed,” he said.

“Without the training and resource opportunities that were afforded to us through our turnaround grant, we would probably still be where we were in 2010 when only 28 percent of our third-graders could read at grade level.”

Part of Center’s federal funding went to Lindamood-Bell, a for-profit company focused on intensive literacy training, including implementing summer and after-school academies for struggling readers. The company moved a trainer into Center for 18 months.

At the other end of the spectrum, Denver’s Beach Court Elementary saw its third-grade scores drop by more than 40 percentage points on both the English and Spanish-language reading exams over the past two years.

Beach Court, a high-poverty neighborhood school in Northwest Denver, has been publicly lauded over the years for its high performance.

This year’s, 40 percent of the school’s third-graders scored proficient or advanced on the English exam, down from 78 percent last year and 85 percent the year before. On the Spanish version, the proficiency rate was 48 percent, down from 73 percent in 2011 and 92 percent in 2010.

Beach Court’s veteran principal, Frank Roti, did not return a call seeking comment.

“The district regularly reviews all test scores for any signs of unusual patterns and takes the necessary follow-up action,” DPS spokesman Mike Vaughn said.

Asked if the district sent monitors to Beach Court during TCAP testing this year, Vaughn responded that monitors were in “a couple dozen schools” to ensure “proper testing procedures” were followed.

He said he did not know if Beach Court was among them and declined additional comment.

Results of school reform efforts

In terms of growth, Center’s Haskin led all 14 of Colorado’s SIG elementary schools – meaning they’re the recipients of federal grants after having been deemed among the lowest-performing in the U.S.

But Westminster Elementary in the Adams 50 Westminster school district wasn’t far behind, with a 34-point gain over last year.

Five other SIG schools also posted double-digit gains in 2012; only one SIG school, Mapleton’s Meadow Community School, saw a decline.

Sheridan’s Fort Logan Elementary, another SIG school recently profiled by EdNews, continued its gradual but steady increase. Its reading proficiency rate grew to 52 percent, up 7 points in the past two years.

Nathaniel Stuart, a student at Sheridan's Fort Logan Elementary, focuses on literacy.

Denver Public Schools touted gains at several schools undergoing major reforms, including two receiving federal SIG grants.

At West Denver’s Greenlee Elementary, part of a contentious 2009 reform proposal, third-graders posted a 21-point gain over last year. Fifty-five percent of third-graders were reading at grade level on this year’s exams.

Greenlee’s principal was replaced in fall 2010 when a new literacy program was adopted. The school also was restructured, shifting from a K-8 to an elementary school.

In Far Northeast Denver, two elementary schools that were part of another controversial reform plan approved in 2011, also saw gains.

Both Green Valley and McGlone elementaries saw 17-point increases in third-grade reading proficiency over last year.  Reform efforts at those schools included the requirement that teachers reapply for their jobs this past fall.

Another Denver school reform effort, the teacher-led Math and Science Leadership Academy, also saw strong gains. MSLA third-graders nearly doubled their reading proficiency, from 24 percent to 52 percent.

School district ups and downs

DPS continued to lead the state’s largest districts in reading proficiency growth, with 59 percent of third-graders performing at grade level.

That’s the highest result achieved by the district since state testing began, according to a press release.

Results from the state’s ten largest districts ranged from a 3-point bump in Denver to a 2-point drop in Fort Collins.

Rankings for the big ten districts align closely, though not completely, with poverty rates – Boulder and Douglas County, with poverty below 20 percent, produced the highest scores. Denver and Aurora, with poverty rates topping 65 percent, produced the lowest scores.

Among all metro-area districts, Adams 50 Westminster had the biggest single-year gain.

The district, which has eliminated traditional grade levels and advances students based on proficiency, saw its third-grade reading scores increase six points, from 41 percent proficiency to 47 percent.

Littleton Public Schools produced the highest results of all metro-area districts, with an 88 percent proficiency rate. Its growth also continues, improving six points since 2010.

Another district of interest, the state Charter School Institute, saw its overall third-grade proficiency rate decline eight points, from 77 percent to 69 percent.

Two other trends are evident in the TCAP results, with fewer students taking Spanish-language exams and small districts reporting no public results because they have few test-takers.

Colorado state exams are available in Spanish only in grades 3 and 4. The number of third-graders taking the Spanish version of the reading tests has declined from 1,500 in 2008 to 1,200 in 2012.

And the number of Colorado school districts with no public test scores – meaning they have fewer than 16 third-graders taking the state exams – continues its gradual climb. The state doesn’t report scores for fewer numbers because of privacy concerns.

In 2011 and 2012, 48 of the state’s 182 districts reported fewer than 16 young test-takers. This year, the Agate school district reported a single third-grader. In 2010, 44 districts had no public third-grade scores.

The kids in rural Center, Colo., in Saguache County, are still drying out after Monday’s rain turned their march through downtown to promote their anti-bullying campaign into a soggy slog. But it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.

Students from Merino High School test some of the items in the "indoor recess boxes" they prepared for the elementary school students to keep them active on rainy days. Photo courtesy of Buffalo School District.

“I think we’re having an effect,” said Kevin Garcia, 16, a sophomore at Center High School, and a member of the school’s bullying prevention group. “When I walk down the halls, I hear people repeating our slogan: ‘Be a buddy, not a bully.’ I think things are going in a positive direction.”

Across the state in Merino, in Logan County in northeast Colorado, the rain just gave teachers a chance to test out the indoor recess boxes that the older kids put together for the younger ones.

“We had noticed that when the weather was bad, they would just stay inside and read or play games that didn’t involve much physical activity,” said Lynn Zemanek, family and consumer science teacher at Merino High School. “So my students surveyed the elementary school teachers about what they’d like to have included. Now, on rainy days, they can pull out those boxes during recess, and the kids can do juggling, or have relay races in the halls, or other active stuff.”

Telling the story to Washington

Meanwhile, Helayne Jones, president and CEO of the Colorado Legacy Foundation, is in Washington D.C. this week to tell federal officials all about what’s happening in Center and in Merino and in more than a dozen other rural school districts across Colorado where innovative health and wellness efforts are blossoming.

Jones will be talking about the work of the Legacy Foundation and the Colorado Coalition for Healthy Schools’ Healthy School Champions Scorecard, which rewards schools and districts for implementing health and wellness practices. Last month, 32 districts from around the state were awarded a total of $42,000 as part of the Scorecard program.

“Almost half the scorecard winners were rural districts,” Jones said. “Colorado was invited to present at this conference because of our work for rural school districts. Anecdotally, there aren’t a lot of others doing this kind of health and wellness work for rural schools, especially in the Rocky Mountain West.

“Our goal is to have rural superintendents learn from each other,” she said. “So often, superintendents say ‘We can’t do that because we’re a rural school district.’ We try to show them that, actually, rural schools districts ARE doing this work.”

Among those who will be hearing about what’s going on in Colorado are U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

“This is one of the first times they’ve taken the approach of having two Cabinet members come together to develop recommendations. It reiterates that these topics – education and health – should not be siloed,” Jones said. “Colorado and the Legacy Foundation were invited because we’re gaining recognition as a national model for improving student outcomes and boldly talking about the connection between student achievement and health and how safe students feel in school.”

The Colorado National Guard brought a climbing wall to a recent health fair that the Buffalo School District organized, in partnership with two other community health agencies.

Students come up with ideas adults wouldn’t

The Buffalo School District – home to roughly 300 students, including about 100 at Merino High School – is a case in point.

“We’re as rural as you can get,” said Zemanek, who serves as advisor to the district’s health and wellness committee.

What’s unique about the district’s wellness committee is its makeup: It is composed entirely of students. Zemanek is convinced that that’s made a difference in the ideas they’ve come up with and implemented. Ideas like the indoor recess boxes.

“Another thing is music,” she said. “We stumbled onto playing music purely by accident. We found that listening to music reduces snacking because it addresses the same part of the brain. So during breaks, we play people’s favorite songs, from classical to rock. And the mood of the school has changed. I think adults might not have come up with that idea.”

Ditto for the water infused with lemon. When Zemanek took her students to a conference at a hotel in California last year, the hotel served water with lemon slices in it. The kids were awed. “When we came back, it was something they wanted to do every Friday, just to increase the amount of hydration. I don’t think adult would have come up with that, either.”

Other accomplishments by the district’s wellness committee include building a school garden and greenhouse, and writing the protocols required by the local health department to use the produce grown in the greenhouse in the school’s salad bar. They also labored to insure that 50 percent of the foods served at the concession stand during sporting events are healthy choices, and they began a series of daily physical activity and nutrition challenges.

“Every teacher has x-number of students for the challenges,” Zemanek said. “I have 15 kids on my team. The kids push the teacher and the teacher pushes the kids.”

Students in Merino built a greenhouse, with help from a grant from the Colorado Legacy Foundation, and wrote the protocols required by the health department to use fresh produce grown in the greenhouse in the school cafeteria.

Kids chose to focus on bullying in Center

In Center, the focus has been on bullying.

“We have a peer group of students that meets all year long to address various health and prevention issues, and bullying is one of those issues,” said Katrina Ruggles, the prevention and health education coordinator for the 575-student school district. “They’ve done a variety of things, and the high school students are in charge of everything, from snacks to curriculum. They created their own survey about bullying, and they’re using the information from that to create a social norming campaign.”

They found that 17 percent of students reported being bullied.

“It’s not that big of a thing, but it’s here,” said Garcia. “I’ve been bullied. I’ve been affected by it, and it hurts. I don’t want other kids to go through that. If I can make an impact with this campaign, then I’d like to do it.”

Creating learning laboratories for the state

Jones said the Legacy Foundation’s partnership with the Colorado Department of Education is key to promoting initiatives such as these, both in rural as well as urban and suburban school districts. “In some ways, we help the department to have a learning laboratory. We create pilots to test out, get early adapters for the work the department is trying to get done statewide. We’re really a new breed of public/private partnership,” she said.

While places like Center and Merino are far-removed from the Front Range population centers, what happens there is just as important as what happens in Denver or Jefferson County, Jones said.

“As a state, we have to focus on every child. We can’t focus only on the large population centers,” she said. “Education shouldn’t vary by zip code. Besides, a family in metro Denver today could be relocated and wind up in a rural school district tomorrow. Why should their quality of education be any different?”

The percentage of Colorado third-graders reading at grade level improved slightly this year, according to results released today by state officials.

Across the state, 74 percent of of third-graders achieved at proficient or advanced levels on exams given in February this year, up from 73 percent last year. This year’s exams have a new name, TCAP rather than CSAP, but results are comparable.

Among the state’s ten largest districts, Denver Public Schools posted the biggest increase in reading proficiency, up three percentage points over last year. Since 2007, DPS, which also has the highest poverty rate among large districts, has boosted reading proficiency by nine percentage points.

Q. My son is naturally inquisitive and questions everything all the time. I worry about keeping him engaged in learning over the summer. He loves water, btw. Any ideas?

A. Drip, plop, splish, trickle, whoosh! There is nothing as delightful, compelling, or endlessly variable as water. Water is irresistible for children, all the way from babies on up – and why not? Children have plenty of experiences with water; they bathe in it, drink it, stomp in puddles, and get wet when it rains.  Water is a richly satisfying sensory material, ideal for open-ended play, and offers infinite opportunities to explore science in a fun, active, challenging way.

As fun as plain old water can be, an intentionally and expertly designed environment can take children’s natural fascination with water to the next level of exploration, experimentation and discovery. This summer, the Children’s Museum of Denver will do just that with the special summer exhibit, “Just Add Water.” In “Just Add Water,” children will explore the properties and characteristics of water, investigate flow, and play with complex ideas about buoyancy, density and displacement. They can create a geyser, direct a river, and even paint with this extraordinary substance. “Just Add Water” will provide the tools, access and inspiration for children to focus their spontaneous explorations and their natural drive to experiment with water, and help them notice, question, test, and think creatively about the properties of water.

You can also recreate the fun and learning of “Just Add Water” at home with some simple materials. Try a few of these fun and easy water activities at home this summer for some wet and wild learning.

The cork challenge

Try this brainteaser: Ask your parents if they can place a cork in the middle of a bowl of water and have it stay in the center. Fun-loving folks that they are, they’ll probably take up the challenge, placing the cork ever more carefully in the center of the bowl, only to have it drift to the side again and again.

How to make it work: Very slowly add water to the bowl until the water level actually rises over the rim of the bowl in a wiggly curve (for extra points, explain to your parents that the water is held in place by surface tension). This time, when you gently set the cork in the water, it moves to the bowl’s center, the place where the water level is highest. Since a little water may spill as you do this, you might want to put your bowl on a plate. (If you forget, explain to your parents that you’ve just demonstrated displacement.)

OBSTA-COOL course

If you are planning to water your lawn, you also can set up a get-wet obstacle course with a sprinkler centerpiece. Stations could include drop-kicking a water balloon, jumping rope in the sprinkler spray, shooting a squirt gun at a predetermined target, or any other creatively wet challenges. You can use a stopwatch to keep track of time for each player or run a relay with two teams going through in opposite directions.

Water color painting

This backyard mural project lets you combine the art and cool summertime fun, transforming an old white sheet into a monumental canvas.

How to do it: Start by soaking an old sheet in water and then hanging it on a clothesline or draping it over a fence. Get out various tempera paints and applicators–sponges, paintbrushes, squirt bottles–and go at it, creating pictures, tic-tac-toe grids or just colorful designs. You can also mute and mix colors with a water-filled spray bottle. Whenever you don’t like what you see, simply hose down the canvas and start over. For art on a smaller scale, try the same techniques with a pillowcase or an old T-shirt.

Frozen fossil dig

First, you’ll need to freeze an animal figure or dinosaur in water in a large plastic container. Then set your young paleontologist to work with metal spoons, forks, (or for older ones – a hammer and screwdriver – and don’t forget eye protection), chipping away at the icy tomb. Be sure to be present when he frees the ancient artifact and discovers that it’s perfectly preserved.

Now, go out there and enjoy the warmer months.

OK Colorado, time to vote for our hometown boy (by May 10!) who is a state finalist in the national Doodle 4 Google competition.

Jimmy Ferguson, 14, a seventh-grader at Bayfield Middle School located near the Four Corners in southwestern Colorado, submitted a doodle he would like to see as the banner of the ubiquitous Google homepage – you know, the page viewed by millions every day.

Of 114,000 entries from across the U.S., 50 finalists were selected. Now, he and his family get a trip to New York City for a final event on May 17. And, his groovy doodle will be displayed at the New York Public Library.

For a kid who has only visited the metropolis of Denver four times  – and who has never stepped foot in the Big Apple – what a trip it will be. He might even get a Wacom digital design tablet.

So, how did a young man from a small Colorado town win so big and become the pride of Bayfield?

How a mom nudged her artsy son

Well, he’s always been into art. And he likes computer gaming, too. But this is where the role of a parent comes in. His mom, Lynn, wanted to push her son more in art – beyond the experiences he would get in his school’s art class. She told him he had to enter some competitions this year. But she knew he might not listen to her if she encouraged him to enter Doodle 4 Google. (We parents are so sneaky, sometimes, aren’t we?). So, she talked to his art teacher, who gave him the hard sell.

Jimmy took the bait and drew a picture under the theme, “If I could travel in time I’d visit…” Jimmy picked “the future.”

He learned Wednesday he won. And so did his entire school with a balloon-filled, Google-T-shirted all-school assembly.

His idea came from his fascination with futuristic technology.

“I really like drawing robot stuff,” Jimmy said.

It should not surprise you that his mom might even be more excited about this news than her son.

“I was over the moon about this,” mom said. “I was just happy he did it.”

So, what happens if he wins the national contest? He receives a $30,000 college scholarship and his school gets a $50,000 technology grant, his picture will appear for 24 hours on the Google homepage on  May 18. Oh, and his artwork will appear on a limited edition of Crayola’s 64-crayon box.

You can vote for Jimmy through May 10. (http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html). Let’s all give the Colorado kid an edge.

History of Google’s eye-catching “doodles”

Google’s first “doodle” was published in 1998 when Google founders Larry and Sergey were attending the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the second “o” in the logo to let users know they were “out of the office.” (This is what’s nice about being the founder of a company…)

Google reports that its users were surprised to see a change to the standard and simple Google logo “but enjoyed it and the playful nature of, what was then, a very young company.”

Since then there have been more than 1,000 doodles on Google’s homepages around the world celebrating characters from Big Bird to Batman. Some doodles run globally (across all the Google homepages) and others are specific to just one country. Sometimes there are even multiple ones running at the same time, so our users in France may see one while in Japan they see another.

The doodles have become more complex. Check out The Anniversary of Pinocchio’s Publication. In 2011, users got to explore 20,000 leagues under the sea with Jules Verne and create and record a tune on the Les Paul guitar. If you didn’t see these “doodles” when they were published, the Les Paul guitar is worth playing with.

Thanks to Google for cultivating creativity, the key to our collective future. And congratulations to Jimmy Ferguson.