Opinion

EDUCATION BEAT: Stopping the Slide

Summer is a time for kids to kick back, take a break from routine, and enjoy lazy days. It also, in many cases, is when learning lossaka “The Summer Slide” can take place. Summer setbacks are nothing new regarding academics and the phenomenon has been researched by educators since the beginning of time. On average, student achievement can decline over the summer by up to a third of a prior year’s learning gains. Loss is usually greater in mathematics than reading, and higher grade leveled students are more noticeably affected than younger learners. The summer slide can be measured in both social skills and classroom discipline, in addition to academics.

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Violet’s Floyd

Floyd and brother Frank were out 16 days counting beaver houses for the government and at night they would use a three-gallon galvanized steel water pail with some hay and kindling in it to create a smudge to keep the mosquito’s out of their cabin, leaving the door open to filter the smoke. They had a gal lon of lard outside the cabin and one night Floyd half-way woke up in the middle of night and in kind of in a daze he watched as a big bear tried to enter through the cabin doorway, he finally uttered some thing like “a bear is coming in” and the bear bolted. Frank slept through the episode and didn’t believe him and thought that Floyd had been dreaming until he went outside and saw a big bite taken out of the lard bucket.

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Violet’s Floyd

Violet’s Floyd Chapter 15 Living in a remote area such as the Kielczwski family, a main method of transporting nearly anything was to pack it out. Floyd’s first pack sack was a burlap gunny sack that cut through his shoulders, so he had to put mitts under the straps.

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ASK AMY

Ask Amy: Anxious driver is compelled to take the wheel Dear Amy: I have this “thing” about needing to drive, no matter whose vehicle it is. I have to drive.

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Beyond Reason

In the cooler months, Uncle Tony is a staple around the house. Uncle Tony’s usually up at dawn, sipping coffee, enjoying the sunrise, reading the paper. Then you might not see Uncle Tony until the evening. More often than not, Uncle Tony skips happy hour and dinner altogether, emerging to read to the kids, helping with bath time. On the weekend Uncle Tony might cozy up for a movie. But Uncle Tony is not a fan of the warmer weather. One of the first unofficial signs of summer are when it heats up outside and Uncle Tony goes to the basement until fall.

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@ Your Library

Summer reading is here! Hope you caught our first week of programming with plenty more to come. The best part of all is that kids can earn up to eight free books this summer thanks to an unexpected donation from United Way.

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ASK A TROOPER

Question: I have noticed that some of the local express shuttle buses do not stop at railroad crossings. I thought all buses were supposed to stop before crossing railroad tracks. Can you talk about this?

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Set the hook!

High water makes the angling interesting. We have been successful fishing traditional spots and have experienced a larger than usual size average. This is surprising after the previous two seasons with the Canadian border closure that put significant added pressure on the Rainy Lake fishery.

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