Monthly Archives: February 2020

Below is a reflection on an on-line article by Nsikan Akpan that appeared September 5th on the PBS NewsHour web site, "The hotter the planet grows, the less children are learning.”  The article examines issues associated with student learning and classroom temperature.   Baltimore City School System is given as an example of a system struggling with lost learning time as a result of extreme heat. The author of this reflection, the teacher wearing the sweatband, taught middle and high School students for over 60 years! "Teacher!  Help!  I'm melting to my desk!  Honest!" Groaning, my teens and I point to the oversized poster which reads: PITY*CATS aren’t COOL!  Firmly adjusting [...]

If you could safely stand in the center of the intersection of S. Washington St. and E. Lombard Sts. you would have a historic view of Baltimore.  Looking north and south on S. Washington St. or east and west on E. Lombard St. your view would be dominated by Baltimore’s traditional borders of rowhouses.   However, throughout the city a number of those rowhouses also contain another unique Baltimore tradition, painted window screens! Painting window screens is a tradition initiated in Baltimore City over 100 years ago and the tradition has a well established history.  In 1913, a Czechoslovakian immigrant named William Oktavec was running a grocery in the eastern section [...]