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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Park fire was first dispatched just before 1:15 p.m. Saturday in the area of 18th Avenue and Old Highway 53, across from Adventist Health Clear Lake.
Firefighters from Lake County Fire Protection District and Cal Fire arrived on scene quickly and within about 20 minutes evacuations started in the Clear Lake Village area.
Cal Fire dispatched air attack and tankers which began to work in the area, where power lines also were reported to be down.
Air attack began to release the tankers from the scene at 2 p.m. and minutes later forward progress was reported to have been stopped. The estimated size was about five acres.
There were no reports of damaged structures.
Evacuations remained in place until just after 4 p.m., while a road closure on Old Highway 53 between Airport Road and Lakeview Way remained in effect, according to the Clearlake Police Department.
While residents were required to stay out of their homes, officials opened the city’s senior and community center on Bowers Avenue to provide them with services and a place to wait.
Information on a cause was not immediately available.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
“As of 4:30 p.m. Saturday, the obstetric bypass period ended and Sutter Lakeside Hospital is again able to provide obstetric services,” Sutter Health spokeswoman Monique Binkley Smith told Lake County News.
The hospital closed the birth center on Tuesday afternoon and went on “diversion” due to lack of an obstetrician, as Lake County News has reported.
While on diversion, Sutter Lakeside referred patients to Adventist Health Clear Lake — the only other facility in Lake County where babies can be delivered — as well as hospitals in Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties.
Hospital officials originally expected to reopen on the morning of Wednesday, July 27, at the latest.
The California Nurses Association criticized Sutter Lakeside for having relied on just two obstetric providers.
The hospital has so far not responded to requests from Lake County News to elaborate on what led to the lack of providers last week.
The birth center reportedly delivers around 300 babies a year, about half of all the babies born in Lake County on an annual basis.
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- Written by: Suzanne McLeod, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Worried your kids will forget what they learned in school over the summer? Scholars have been studying the problem for over a century.
When William White, a New York state mathematics professor, set out in the early 1900s to study how much math students remembered over summer vacation, he checked to see how well they would do at the start of school on a test like the one they had taken at the end of the previous school year.
Whereas second graders on average got nine out of 70 questions wrong in June, after the summer break on average they got 25 out of 70 wrong on the same test. But after two weeks of drills, the number of answers the students got wrong dropped to 15.
White’s study – titled “Reviews Before and After Vacation” and published in 1906 – concluded that “that which is least vital is first to be lost.”
White’s study is also one of the first to identify what educators today refer to as “summer learning loss” – which is the negative effect that a long summer break has on students’ ability to remember facts and skills they had learned the previous school year.
Effects on student achievement
Studies of summer loss increased in the 1990s as Congress began to place a bigger emphasis on holding schools accountable for the achievement of all students.
Over the summer, students typically lose the equivalent of about a month’s worth of learning, mostly in the areas of math facts and spelling. Research has also found that summer learning loss is more severe among students with disabilities, English language learners and students living in poverty.
But researchers’ understanding of summer loss is continually evolving. For instance, one study found that the students who experienced the biggest losses were the ones who had shown the biggest gains just before the test at the end of the school year. This raises questions about whether their gains were true gains or just the result of special preparation for the test.
A longer school year?
Some people have argued that summer loss wouldn’t occur if the U.S. had a longer school year or year-round school. For instance, they point to countries like China, where the school year is 245 days, as opposed to the traditional 180-day school year in the U.S. China is ranked first in the top 20 nations in terms of student scores in math, science and reading. The U.S. is ranked No. 25 out of 77 countries and is several points behind Australia, Switzerland, Norway and the Czech Republic, which are ranked 21 to 24, respectively.
But shorter school years don’t always result in lower test scores. For instance, students in Ireland outscore American students on math, science and reading by an average of 10 points, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, yet attend school for only 167 days, or 13 days fewer than in the U.S.
How parents and caregivers can limit summer loss
Some parents take advantage of school-based programs that can help students keep up their academic skills during the summer. But there are still ways that parents and other caregivers can stave off summer loss that do not involve school. Here are six:
1. Model what you want to see: First and foremost, never forget that you are a role model. Children will do what they see the adults around them do. Summer is the perfect time for you to reduce screen time and increase time reading, writing, taking walks, playing games or having conversations.
2. Visit the library: Children love independence. One of the best ways to allow children to demonstrate independence is to have them browse the shelves of the local library and select books that they can read independently or for you to read aloud to them. Participate in story hours if your local library offers the activity. Establish a habit of visiting the library on a weekly basis or at least several times a month. These library visits will strengthen a child’s reading skills.
3. Play games during trips: When traveling by car, bus or train, there are games – both word and number – that you can engage in with your children. For instance, you can play “I Spy with My Little Eye,” estimate the number of fast-food restaurants you’ll pass or even look for all the words that begin with a certain letter. These activities not only keep children engaged but also incrementally sharpen their skills in a wide range of academic areas such as literacy, numeracy and communication.
4. Encourage your children to keep a summer journal: To get them started, suggest one journal entry of “10 Things I Want to Do Before Summer is Over.” The list can include activities like watching the sunrise, going an entire day without wearing shoes or seeing how far they can spit a watermelon seed. To make the journal more interesting, encourage children to fill it with both writing and drawing.
5. Visit landmarks: Plan visits to acquaint you and your children with local landmarks. Document the visit with a journal entry, drawings or photographs and some research on the history of the site. The excursions can become even more meaningful if you have children do a little research into the landmarks you visit.
6. Plan weekly family picnics: Vary the meals to include breakfast, lunch, dinner or even dessert. Let your children plan the menu and cook with you, as well as select the site for the picnics. Research has found that involving children in the preparation of meals by doing things such as making grocery lists can help improve their reading, writing and math skills.
Suzanne McLeod, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Binghamton University, State University of New York
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian malinois, border collie, bull terrier, Great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever, pit bull, shar pei, shepherd, terrier and treeing walker coonhound.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Hoss’
“Hoss” is an 8-year-old male Chinese Shar-Pei with a short tan coat.
He is in kenne lNo. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-3638.
Shar Pei-pit bull mix
This 9-year-old female shar pei-pit bull mix has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-3622.
‘Missy’
“Missy” is a 3-year-old female pit bull terrier with a black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-3524.
Female shepherd mix
This 1-year-old female shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3705.
‘Autumn’
“Autumn” is a 6-year-old female treeing walker coonhound with a tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-1776.
Male Belgian malinois
This 1-year-old male Belgian malinois has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3694.
Pit bull-bull terrier mix
This 1-year-old male pit bull-bull terrier has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-3644.
Female Great Pyrenees
This 3-year-old female Great Pyrenees has a white coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-3669.
Border collie-Labrador retriever mix
This young male border collie-Labrador retriever mix has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3646.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a tan and black coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-3685.
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