Parade by The Southern Illinoisan

S U N DAY, AU G U ST 3 , 2 0 1 4 | PA R A D E .C O M

WHAT MAKES

MEET

Sean MCComb

HEAD OF THE CLASS:

McComb, 31, at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts in Dundalk, Md.

T ’S

WALTER SCOTT ASKS…

DAVID FEHERTY

The irreverent CBS golf reporter and host of his own Golf Channel show will be roaming the fairways Aug. 7–10 at the PGA Championship. Will Tiger be great again? Yes. The mistake I’ve made is underestimating him. If he plays well, good luck to everyone else. He’ll be No. 1 again. Is golf good TV? People who watch golf still play it. You can’t throw a 60-yard touchdown pass, but you can do what golf pros do. And they can screw up royally, just like you can. (Get Feherty’s secret swing tip at parade.com/golf.) You host Feherty’s IED (Improvised Explosive Day) for wounded vets. It’s all based on humor. Everyone is always 100 percent nice to these courageous Americans, which offers them no challenges. So I make fun of them, and they laugh. They say to me, “Thanks for being such a jerk.”

Q: “Charlotte’s Web” is often cited in the medicalmarijuana debate. What is it? —George K., Miami A: It’s a strain of cannabis named after 7-year-old Charlotte Figi of Colorado Springs, Colo., who suffered severe epilepsy until doctors treated her with a variety of the plant that produces no high. The oil extract, added to her food, dramatically reduced her seizures, and hundreds of kids have since beneﬁted from the same strain. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” says Dr. Sanjay

Gupta, who featured Charlotte in his 2013 documentary Weed. “This is legitimately working for some patients. Charlotte seems to be doing really well.” Her case has spurred several states to legalize medical marijuana. Should it be legal nationwide? Vote at parade.com/poll.

Charlotte Figi

Does chef Carla Hall have any good recipes using root beer? –Harriet S., Atlanta

Ninja Turtle Leonardo

Q: Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is the most popular? —Edie W., Boston A: Judging by action-ﬁgure sales, it’s Leonardo—with Raphael close behind. But the half-shell heroes are back in theaters Aug. 8, so don’t count out the other pizza-loving turtles.

Q: Does Cher have an alltime favorite song to perform? Judy T., Wichita, Kan. A: The iconic singer, 68, still on her Dressed to Kill Tour, says “it’s hard because there are songs that I really like to perform that aren’t hits, like 2002’s ‘Song for the Lonely.’” Her least favorite? “Just Like Jesse James” (1989).

A: Aug. 6 is National Root Beer Float Day, and while you can’t go wrong with a scoop of ice cream and a straw, root beer works wonders in the oven, too. The Chew’s Carla Hall swears by her “cold, ﬁzzy, and creamy” root beer bundt cake. Get the yummy recipe at parade.com/rootbeer.

–

SUNDAY

FREEBIE

Enter for a chance to win a copy of Divergent (out 8/5) on Blu-ray/ DVD, signed by Shailene Woodley, at parade.com/win.

Read our classic interview and see her best tour costumes at parade.com/cher.

2 | AUGUST 3, 2014

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ver the years, digital electronic technology has made the way we live easier, safer and more convenient. In many cases, it’s even made many products more affordable… (remember how much the first VCR’s used to cost?). Unfortunately, the cost of many digital products, including the hearing aid never seemed to come down. Now, a new option has been invented… it’s called Perfect Choice HD™.

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The

Coolest Gear for School

Start the year off smart with these fun and functional (and affordable!) essentials. For 10 more musthaves, go to parade.com/class.

Search engines can be a smart learning tool—and a source of distraction. Microsoft’s Bing in the Classroom program helps keep kids on topic: Participating schools get a free Bing search engine that removes ads, blocks inappropriate content, and protects students’ privacy. For more on this and other initiatives, go to www.microsoft.com/edu/student.

1 COOL CHARACTER Keep lunch cold, these ice packs will. Freeze a BPAfree Yoda, Darth Vader, or Batman, then tuck it in with a sandwich and snack— they’ll stay chilled until the lunch bell rings. ($9 for 3; potterybarnkids.com) 2 MOVABLE TYPE At the library, on a lap, or at home—students can tap out essays anywhere with this Bluetooth-enabled, foldable keyboard that connects to tablets or smartphones and runs for 40-plus hours between charges. ($40; qvc.com) 3 MEAL PLAN Four microwave-safe, stackable bowls ﬁt neatly in a stainless steel, temperature-controlled canister to cater a hot and cold multicourse lunch on the go. ($66; amazon.com) 4 LEADER OF THE PACK Herd all the notebooks and pencils your little bookworm needs in a cute creature knapsack in the shape of a fox, elephant, lion, panda, or mouse. ($29; landofnod.com) 5 HAPPY FEET These comfy, bargainpriced canvas lace-ups come in six vibrant hues that’ll kick up her schoolyard style whether she prefers pants or dresses. ($6; Walmart stores) 6 MEASURE UP Yep, slap bracelets are back—only this time, unlike the ’90s version, they double as handy rulers. ($2 each; Target stores) 7 TEACHER’S PET This sweet sweater will be top dog in her closet, with a clever canine graphic for on-trend style and cozy cotton for warmth. ($38; Kmart stores) —Wendy Manwarren Generes

4 | AUGUST 3, 2014

PHOTO: DIMITRIS STEPHANIDES/GETTY IMAGES

Happy & Healthy

Word Teaser

Can you guess the meaning? pseudologist

By Marilyn vos Savant

i’ve heard that aluminum pots are toxic for cooking. if a pot has no markings, how can i tell whether it’s aluminum or stainless steel? —Julie J., Irvine, Calif. First, let’s put this myth to rest: Aluminum pots and pans are perfectly safe. About half of all cookware is aluminum, usually coated with a nonstick surface or treated for some other purpose. And because stainless steel conducts heat so unevenly, most stainless cookware has an aluminum or copper bottom, anyway. Aluminum is the most abundant metal on the surface of the planet; it’s found in water, food, and common medicines such as aspirin and antacids. We ingest a tiny amount daily. If aluminum pots (or copper pots, for that matter) are untreated, they will react to cooking highly acidic foods such as tomatoes or sauerkraut. This may cause corrosion of the surface and allow a minute amount of aluminum to

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(b) a counterfeiter of play money (c) a professional who administers polygraph tests (d) a person who babysits children’s invisible friends

(e) a specialist in things that don’t exist, e.g., flying saucers, Bigfoot

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be released, but less than even an aspirin may contain. Aluminum toxicity requires ingesting or inhaling large amounts. That said, there’s no simple way to tell an aluminum pot from a stainless one unless you have identical pots to compare. (Aluminum sounds duller if you tap it with a spoon, and it scratches more easily, etc.) With only an unknown pot, you could see if a magnet sticks to its surface. If it does, even weakly, the pot is stainless steel. But if it doesn’t, you still don’t know. The pot is either aluminum or it’s not magnetized.

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Building

A Better

Teacher

What makes a great teacher—one whose classroom is inspiring, exciting, imaginative—stand apart from the crowd? Over the past few years, researchers have been asking that very question, and what they’ve found may surprise you. By Elizabeth Green • Cover photograph by Melissa Golden • Illustration by zohar lazar

pen the door and walk

in. Remain standing. Or maybe you should sit? This crowded rectangular room is yours. It has 26 chairs with attached desks, and a rowdy fifth grader to fill each seat. Your job is to make sure that, an hour from now, the students have grasped the concept of “rate”: If a car is going 55 miles per hour, how far will it have traveled after an hour, two hours, 30 minutes, 15? The lesson hums along, everything going relatively smoothly when, just as you ask the final question—about how far the car will go after 15 minutes—up pops the last hand you expect, from a boy named Richard. You know

that the other volunteers can probably produce a solid answer. But Richard is something of a mystery. Earlier in the year he informed you that math is his “worse subject.” Now he’s volunteering to answer the most difficult question of the day—and you have no idea what he’ll say. What do you do? Luckily, the person facing this question is not actually you. It’s Magdalene Lampert, then a Michigan teacher whose techniques have been used to train educators across the U.S., and who inspired a PBS show, Square One TV, aimed at teaching young kids math. When she called on Richard, he made the mistake she feared he would—answering, nonsensically, that the car would travel 18 miles in 15 minutes—but she was able to turn a lapse into an opportunity. Instead of immediately declaring the answer incorrect, she pivoted, asking if anyone agreed. The redirection granted Richard time to reconsider. And indeed, after a pause, he broke the silence with a change of heart. Alas, Richard’s new answer was also incorrect, 13.5 instead of 13.75. But Lampert handled that slip masterfully, too. Calmly ignoring the students clamoring to tell Richard that he was wrong, she instead asked Richard why he changed his mind. He knew 18 couldn’t be

right, he explained, because doubling it doesn’t get 27, the approximate distance they agreed a car would go if it traveled for a half hour. He noticed, in other words, that traveling double the distance but at the same rate should take twice as much time—a sophisticated observation. Turning the class’s attention to Richard’s aha moment, Lampert transformed what could have been a demoralizing episode for a child

6 | august 3, 2014

Cartoon

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“Remember—kindergarten is an excellent place to make contacts for first grade.”

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“Sometimes you gotta stop and dig up the roses.”

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From leFt: maria scrivan; jonny hawkins

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t eachers transform their students through brute charisma. Bad teachers, conversely, are portrayed as e ither deliberately terrible (as with the Sue Sylvester character on Glee) or incapable of being anything else (Ben Stein’s nasal droner in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). We want to believe there are natural-born teachers, and that if we can identify their common personality traits, we can build a better school system. It is the bedrock idea behind our prescription for improving education. We need to grant the great ones the freedom to channel their inner genius, and fire the laggards. The natural-born teacher, though, has proven to be a myth. Those studies looking for the personality traits of great teachers? They don’t pan out. Researchers have found that the most effective teachers can be extroverts—or they can just as easily be introverts. Some are humorous, but others are serious. Some are as flexible as rubber; others are as rigid as a ruler. It’s not personality that makes a teacher great, but a specialized body of knowledge that must be learned—and that often goes against what comes naturally. Here are five examples, taken from the findings of the best education researchers, of what great teachers do differently:

into a chance for all 26 students to learn something deeper about math. And she did it all in less than 15 minutes. What makes for great and nimble teachers like Magdalene Lampert? The Hollywood view is that they’re born that way: Like Michelle Pfeiffer’s ex-Marine in Dangerous Minds and Edward James Olmos’s Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, brilliant

The most effective teachers, researchers have found, can be extroverts or introverts, humorous or serious, flexible or rigid.

1. They can right a wrong. In 1999, researcher Deborah Loewenberg Ball, now dean of the University of Michigan’s school of education, and her colleagues created a simple math test—not for students, but for teachers. Instead of asking only for the right answers to math problems, the test also asked teachers to analyze the missteps of students who had given wrong ones. Why, for example, would a third grader think that 307 minus 168 equals 261, when the answer is actually 139? In order to help correct this common error, teachers needed to know that students often take the difference between each pair of numbers, subtracting 7 from 8 rather than 8 from 7, and so on. When Ball and her team gave the test to elementary school math teachers, they found those who scored highest also managed to help their students learn the most math. The

class act 2014 Teacher of the Year Sean McComb says involved parents are key in helping students succeed

Sean McComb vividly remembers the moment a teacher changed his life forever. Raised by a single, alcoholic mother, McComb was 15 and a high school sophomore when he began spending long stretches after class at the school television station to escape a difficult life at home. Working until 8 or 9 p.m., he grew close to the station’s charismatic faculty supervisor, Brian Reagan, a young teacher who ultimately became the adult role model McComb never had. “Mr. Reagan was so happy, so joyous,” McComb recalls. “He made me feel valued, believed in, and capable. And I felt compelled to go do that for other kids.” Today, Mr. Reagan would be proud: Last April, McComb, 31, became one of the youngest teachers ever to be named the National Teacher of the Year. “I tell kids that I’m their teammate, and that they can make it,” says the language arts

2. They never say “Shhh!” For the past 10 years, Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion, has studied the most effective teachers to see what they have in common. What he discovered is that their success depends not on personality, but on a

teacher from Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts, located in the working class Baltimore suburb of Dundalk, Md. At Patapsco, McComb is beloved for his energetic teaching style and his selfless commitment to kids. In the past, he’s given clothes, school supplies, and groceries to students who can’t afford them. “Even after high school, I know he’ll always be there to help me out,” says McComb’s former pupil, Austin Brauer, 18. While a great educator can help put a child on the path to success, parents play an important role, too, says McComb. Here’s his advice for cultivating positive relationships with your kids’ teachers: Be Proactive “Some of the best conversations I’ve had are where the parent starts out, ‘I know my daughter, and I know she’s likely struggling here. What can we do about it?’ ” he says. Help Them Help Your Child “To have a parent come in and say, ‘My child really responds to this, this doesn’t work for them, and they’re really interested in this’— that’s gold for a teacher,”says McComb. stay Open to Constructive Criticism “A conference where I have to defend every point taken off of an essay—that’s not something I look forward to,” says McComb. “But if I can turn that conference into [showing] how we can work together, that’s really powerful.” Stay Connected McComb recommends a free texting app called Remind that allows teachers to communicate with students and parents without having to know their personal cell phone numbers. —Wendy Grossman Kantor

consistent set of techniques—ones that sometimes defy most teachers’ natural impulses. “Shhh!” is a common adult r esponse to a group of noisy, off-task children. But the command suffers from what Lemov calls a “fundamental ambiguity.” “Are you asking the kids not to talk, or are you asking the kids to talk more q uietly?” he asks. The best teachers, Lemov found, eradicate ambiguity and respond to misbehavior with specificity, describing the desired behavior rather than the problem. “We’re following along in our books,” the teacher might say, gently reminding the distracted students to get back to work.

3. They encourage deeper thinking. Typically, when international standardized tests come out, American students rank surprisingly low, scoring more poorly on math and reading than their counterparts in other developed countries like Singapore, Finland, and Japan. But how do kids in those nations manage to learn so much? In the 1990s, psychologist James Stigler began studying Japanese and American math classrooms, scrutinizing videotapes of lessons in each of the two countries. One of the b iggest differences he found had to do with the kinds of questions that teachers asked. In J apan, the most common type was what S tigler called “explain how or why”: How did you find the area of this triangle? Why is the area here 17? In the U.S., by contrast, the most common type was what Stigler called “name/identify”: What kind of triangles have we studied? What is the length of this shape? The nuanced difference in how the questions were framed influenced the participation rate among the students. In American classrooms, students helped initiate the solution to a problem in 9 percent of lessons; in Japanese classrooms, the figure was 40 percent. By asking questions that pushed students to think on their own, Japanese teachers taught them more.

8 | august 3, 2014

photo: melissa golden; cover and inside: Grooming, LEAH SARAH BASSETT

best teachers even outscored math Ph.D’s on the test. Mastering a subject was not the same as knowing how to teach it. The best teachers put themselves in their students’ shoes—and grapple with how they arrived at the wrong answer in order to set them right.

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4. They “cold call”—with purpose How do the best teachers ensure that students stay engaged? One effective technique that Lemov uncovered during his research reminded him less of grade school than of the stint he spent at Harvard Business School. It’s the dreaded “cold call,” when a teacher asks a question of a student who hasn’t raised her hand. The goal is to extract the maximum possible mileage from each question. By introducing the possibility that anyone can be asked to speak at any time, teachers decrease the chances their students will tune out. Some teachers even added variations to the technique. Instead of naming the student destined to give an answer before stating the question (“Sophie, tell me, why does 10 make sense here?”), a teacher might switch the pattern (“Why does 10 make sense here … Sophie?”). The longer the pause between the question and the child’s name,

SupporT your local Teacher!

Staples and Katy Perry are teaming up to Make Roar Happen, a $1 million effort to support DonorsChoose.org, which funds classroom projects. Go to parade.com/makeroarhappen to learn how to donate and to enter for a chance to win a guitar signed by Perry.

the more time every other student spent formulating an answer—and, therefore, thinking.

5. They show more than they tell. Great teachers might need to be mind readers, but

children should never have to be. To help students learn to complete tasks that require a lot of detailed thinking—understanding a complicated novel, for example, or constructing an argument— the most effective teachers practice what Stanford education professor Pam

Back-to-school season is here Microsoft takes learning to the next level with tech tools designed to help students succeed Visit your local Microsoft retail store or microsoftstore.com to learn more

Grossman calls “modeling.” To model the thinking that underlies complex literary tasks, teachers begin by analyzing what skilled readers or writers do. It is not enough, after all, simply to tell a student who can’t understand a text to “read it again” or to ask a student whose essay is weak to “make it better.” The teacher needs to be more specific, showing students what this kind of thinking looks like by illuminating the invisible mental steps that go into it. Grossman calls this “making your thinking visible.” By taking students though each mental leap, one at a time, teachers can help them see the exact processes they’ll need to complete to be a better reader, write a better essay, or make a better argument. Adapted from Building a Better Teacher (W.W. Norton & Company) by Elizabeth Green, out this month.

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SPECIAL REPORT

The

Youth

Hormone... Everyone’s talking about it. But can it really reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass, boost mood, heighten sex drive, give you plenty of energy, get rid of wrinkles and tighten saggy skin?

Barbara just had another birthday.

She watches her diet, exercises when she can, and is in pretty good shape. In fact, she could be the poster child for the “Fountain of Youth” headline we see on the covers of fashion mags around the globe. What’s her secret? It’s not just the occasional Botox, peel or ﬁller, or even her assortment of skin creams that could rival the anti-aging section of your local Sephora. Barbara, who was always “cutting edge,” has become a believer in what is fast becoming the most popular (if not the – By Tiffany Strobel * most expensive) anti-aging treatment in the USA… Growth Hormone Therapy. t seems everyone is talking about human growth hormone lately. No less than the famed Dr. Oz began a recent show by asking his audience, “How many of you want to start feeling 20 years younger right now?” Allure magazine, in its “Anti-aging Special” issue, highlighted growth hormone as its 2013 call-out. Shape magazine began a recent growth hormone article with the provocative lead in: “When you see a 50-year-old actress who can pass for 35, you can bet that good genes aren’t the only things

responsible for her youthful glow.” Fox News, The Today Show, CNN, ABC, and CBS have all contributed to the current frenzy.

VANITY FAIR says: “A 20-year-old produces more than twice as much hGH as [she] will when [she’s] 40... hGH, by turning back the body clock, turns back the aging process.”

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

DR. OZ says: “I have been searching for this from the day we started the show. I’ve been looking for ways of increasing hGH naturally because I don’t like getting the injections.” Why all the fuss? Simple. hGH disciples… and to many like Barbara, hGH therapy is truly a religious experience... believe hGH can help reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass, boost mood, heighten sex drive, give them plenty of energy, get rid of wrinkles and tighten saggy skin… making them look and feel decades – not years, but decades – younger. Celebrities, CEOs, Wall Street execs, models, housewives, athletes and even some high-ranking politicians all seem to be drinking from the same pitcher of Kool-Aid. There’s no doubt about it; in our current fastpaced, “youth-oriented” culture, hGH therapy is hot.

The controversy The controversy isn’t over whether or not hGH plays an essential role in our health and aging (virtually everyone already agrees on that). Instead, the controversy lies in the best way to maintain our body’s supply of human growth hormone. Until recently, most felt the best way was through expensive prescription injections (although costs can run as high as $1500 per month). However, some experts argue against the use of these synthetic injections, because they fear introducing synthetic hGH into the body may upset natural hGH production.

The breakthrough Because of growth hormone’s potential, researchers have spent the last thirty years searching for a reliable, clinically proven way to promote pituitary health, thereby increasing human growth hormone levels naturally. So it’s no surprise that when an oral compound capable of increasing mean, endogenous, bioactive, serum (blood) growth hormone levels... by 682%... was presented at the prestigious Obesity Society’s most recent Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, The Academy of Women’s Health’s 21st Annual Congress

in Washington, D.C., and then again at The 9th World Congress of Cosmetic Dermatology held in Athens, Greece, it created a serious stir.

The revolution The formula that was the subject of these research findings is now being sold by SanMedica International™ under the trade name SeroVital.® And when Dr. Oz disclosed that “a recent study [on SeroVital-hgh] showed patients given a special blend of amino acids saw their hGH levels spike more than 6 times...” and added, “I have been searching for this from the day we started the

So what’s the catch?

issuing not one but six U.S. Patents to protect the SeroVital formula from imitators.‡ Thanks to the release of SeroVital, the hGH revolution has finally arrived. Now that there’s an easy-to-swallow capsule that can raise growth hormone naturally, an awful lot of people have stopped asking if they should be increasing their hGH levels and started asking which hGH-boosting option is right for them.

Is it worth it? To me, anything that may reduce wrinkles, tighten saggy skin, decrease body fat, increase lean muscle mass, strengthen bones, and boost mood, while giving you plenty of energy and improving sex drive, is a

SHAPE says: “When you see a 50-year-old actress who can pass for 35, you can bet that good genes aren’t the only things responsible for her youthful glow.” show. I’ve been looking for ways of increasing hGH naturally because I don’t like getting the injections,” you can imagine the frenzy he created. Before long, SanMedica was having trouble keeping SeroVital in stock. It went from underground sensation to full-blown phenomenon. Even the United States Patent Office has added to the SeroVital mystique by

SeroVital-hgh is protected by U.S. Patent Numbers 8,551,542; 8,715,752; 8,722,114; 8,734,864; 8,747,921 and 8,765,195. *Tiffany Strobel is an author, columnist, and beauty editor for MyFreeDiet.com. † Free standard shipping in the continental U.S.A. only. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

“Second, for proper absorption, you have to take SeroVital-hgh on an empty stomach. That means you either have to take it ﬁrst thing in the morning and then not eat anything for two hours, or take it at night, at least two hours after your last meal... before you go to bed. “And last but not least, while SeroVital is far less expensive than prescription hGH injections, it’s still not cheap... SeroVital will cost you about $100 a month.”

Where can I get it?

no-brainer. However, make no mistake about it, the “established” medical community (and of course, they know everything) would say its benefits are largely anecdotal, and based on research that’s preliminary. But there’s no denying that something that has a chance of making you look and feel decades, not years, but DECADES, younger, is... at the very least... irresistible. Frankly, I’m ready to try it... How about you?

RETAILERS say: “Frankly, we haven’t seen this much customer excitement in years.”

Dr. Amy Heaton, PhD, Director of Scientiﬁc Affairs for SanMedica International, says: “There are three. First, as with hGH injections, SeroVital is not a ‘magic bullet,’ but one part of a healthy lifestyle choice including a sensible diet and exercise regimen.

Having a hard time ﬁnding SeroVitalhgh? It’s currently available at all Ulta stores, Kohl's, and select GNC locations. Over the next few months it will be available on a limited basis at prestige retailers across the U.S.