"Food is an investment," said Luiz Santos Fortunato. "I'd rather spend money on food than on medicine."

The latest piece of fruit to capture my attention is an organic orange from Valencia, California.  Sunkist is located there and the label states that "packed by Porterville Citrus co., Strathmore, California


The farm is certified as organic by Organic Certifiers.

Well, the trip begins...

Where is Strathmore
The city is located about 400 miles southeast of San Jose.  The easiest airport is Burbank by 

What does Organic Certifiers look for in a farm to give its certification?

Irwin Naturals produces a
smooth soft gel sealed with gelatin

While we are on this journey to visit the home of this delightful organic orange (eaten on Feb. 21, 2018), we can also invest in our brains.   I respect Irwin Naturals and their Ginko Smart formula.


So while we are tracking down the remarkable oranges of Strathmore, Calif., we are also headed to see Irwin's factory.

Strat with a tour of the website.   Started in 1997, the company is hosted in Los Angeles.Here's the Facebook page

Use this simple rule for CONVERTING INCHES into CENTIMETERS when you put the words of H. Jackson Brown on the wall and you need to get a special poster frame.

Converting inches to centimeters takes a simple mental trick.  You can use a table (below) or use the "parts" and figure out the result.

For example, 11 by 35 is really   (12-1) by (36-1)

We know that 1 inches is 2.5 cm
12 inches is 30.5 cm

So 30.5 - 2.5 = 28 cm or 11 inches
91.5 - 2.5 = 89 CM or 35 inches.

We are especially attracted to the words of H. Jackson Brown (whose advice might connect with some teenagers).

CLICK HERE to see the poster on Amazon.




Then we needed to get a FRAME that would display the poster.   The size, 11 by 35, is unusual.

RULE for converting INCHES into CENTIMETERS.
You can remember 12 inches is 30 CM or 2 inches is 5 cm or 1 inch is 2.54 cm.



You can also use the following table... but the "subtraction or addition" method is a fun way to use algebra.

The Center for Projects and Portfolios needs two more posters... About EDX and about the procedures to build a Center.

Here are the next two posters that I'd like to see in a Center for Projects and Portfolios

1.  Let kids know that they can take free courses on EDx and other formats.

2.  Let kids know what is happening in the Center... put the list of procedures on the wall and see how long it takes for the students to walk trhough the procedures.

https://twitter.com/edXOnline   Sign up to get updates about the future courses.

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Here are some of the procedures to create a Center for Projects and Portfolios.

Procedures for setting up a Center for Projects and Portfolios

Dr. Fischler often talked about the three parts of the transformation of schools

1. Get kids the right technology
2. Encourage discussions
3. Ask them to show what they learned with projects

You can see some of his presentations and discussions at TINYURL.comFischlerDiscussions

https://tinyurl.com/fischlerdiscussions

Anyone wanting to set up a Center to promote portfolios and projects can download the following ebooks and share them with teachers and students.   The contents will guide the set up of the Center

Matt Blazek’s book of projects (to give students suggestions about how to show their learning)

A Guide to Digital Portfolios to get students started on their own free website to show their projects.

TinyURL.com/FWPstart  for the free start (to guide students through setting up their own website)

Dr. Fischler’s book of commentaries (to inspire patience in the audience.)

1. Posters to spark discussions

2) Discussions to build the culture

https://tinyurl.com/fischlerdiscussions

Free Videos featuring questions posed to Dr. Fischler

For more tips and for professional development about the transformation of education, call +1 954 646 8246

Procedures for setting up a Center for Projects and Portfolios

• Display books to guide students. The “free library” for borrowing books should include books by Dan Pink, Daniel Amen
• Put up posters to encourage reading (looking for Gold Nuggets, the procedure described by Tai Lopez)
• Display posters based on the work of Dr. Daniel Amen (positive thinking) and Dr. Fischler (transformation of education)
• Show students how to make free websites
• Encourage students to show each other how to build positive Digital Footprints
• Display videos from EduTech Foundation (including short videos featuring responses by Dr. Fischler)
• Show students the portfolios of students at Big Picture schools and High Tech High schools    tinyURL.com/
• Expose teachers to the blogs of
• John Spencer  spencerauthor.com
• George Couros  georgecouros.ca
• Ken Robinson   
• Roger Schank   educationoutrage.blogspot.com    RogerSchank.com
• Brilliant-Insane.com and other “creatives”

Encourage students to submit their Word Documents on Createspace.com to create books.   See  TinyURL.com/SunDanielMunoz  (an example of a student who compiled his artwork).

Somehow, somewhere in this mix of procedures, a Center for Projects and Portfolios will emerge.   Students will turn into “makers.”

STEAM or STEM -- the 7 GLobal Skills promoted by Tony Wagner appear important, too

Here's a valuable post from John Spcener at SpencerAuthor.com blog

For years, Google focused on hiring the best computer science students who excelled in their core content area, positing that innovation required the best computer science minds in the world. But when they tested this hypothesis, they were shocked by the results.

According to the article:

In 2013, Google decided to test its hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1998. Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

Don’t get me wrong. Students need to master content standards. But Google’s survey proves that many teachers have been saying for years: that the so-called “soft skills” aren’t soft at all. 

THE BOTTOM LINE:  Let's remember what Tony Wagner has asked teachers to do:  include the seven survival skills in every lesson plan.

Read the Spencer post

Read the 7 Survival Skills article by Wagner

“The idea that a company's senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside…The person who's close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don't take things at face value, don't go in with preconceived ...

Rigor Redefined – Tony Wagner

www.tonywagner.com/rigor-redefined/