Latest news with #Firebaugh
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bills' Josh Allen on PGA pro Scottie Scheffler ahead of US Open: 'Spoke a lot to me'
Josh Allen has experienced some significant life events on and off the field this past year. He finished the 2024 NFL season with a return to the AFC Championship game and, later, received the league MVP award. He then also married actress Hailee Steinfeld, a moment of even greater importance for the 29-year-old from Firebaugh, California. Along with the high points, he also once more experienced a loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs that left him and the Buffalo Bills one win shy of reaching the Super Bowl. And while a championship is what drives Allen to compete, it's life off the field that keeps things in perspective. A big golf enthusiast, Allen explained how Scottie Scheffler's recent comments about chasing accomplishments versus finding fulfillment ahead of The US Open (which he won), "spoke a lot to me." "It's maddening," Allen said to CBS Sports about the feeling that you're doing things right but not yet seeing the desired results. "But at the same time, it helps put things in perspective about what matters in your life, and you figure out what that is fairly quickly. Scottie Scheffler had that really good interview before The Open that spoke a lot to me, and I really appreciate him sharing those words." He also noted some similarity in terms of turning the page in competition to focus on what's next. "Yeah, it's kind of crazy where you're coming out here and doing everything you can for a quick enjoyment of it, and then you're on to the next. It's like the MVP award. I don't look back and think about that night. It happened, and it was over with, and I'll never think about it again, to be honest. I'm so moved on to trying to help this team win football games this year." Allen's comments offer a view into his mindset and the impact Scheffler's comments had on him, in that true perspective lies in finding more to life that exists off the field, and how that allows one to be their best as an athlete. Washburn asked if that mindset helps alleviate some of the angst before playing in those big games, and Allen agreed, noting how the message in the Bills locker room has been less about the outcome and more about the importance of doing the right things and living with the results. When asked whether that also helps prepare him mentally ahead of big games, the QB also provided a view of the Bills' overall mentality as a team as well. "For sure, and going out there and playing free -- and the main thing we always preach here is playing for each other and putting your best stuff out there," Allen said. "And as long as you're doing everything right [that's enough]. You can hope and pray for the best, but sometimes it doesn't happen. But we really do hope it does happen." This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen on Scottie Scheffler comments
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion: How My California Middle School Uses Glyphs to Teach English Learners to Read
In the agricultural regions of California's San Joaquin Valley, schools like Firebaugh Middle School are surrounded by fields. But many of Firebaugh's students struggle to read that word. If they were to see 'field' on the board, they would likely pronounce it as 'filed,' a reflection of their unfamiliarity with the varied pronunciations in English. Firebaugh's student body is 98% Hispanic, and about 30% of its 530 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders are designated as English learners. Based on diagnostic testing, administrators know many of them have limited or nonexistent phonics skills. In some cases, the students did not attend elementary school and lack the basics of literacy even in their primary language. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter If you think of reading as an equation with specific components, you might assume reading instruction is straightforward. But as with any equation, there are variables, and English learners have many of them, from Individualized Education Programs to a diversity of home languages that makes it difficult for teachers to find a starting point for reading instruction. Any supplemental instruction educators provide must be flexible enough to account for those individual differences. This is hard enough at the elementary level, but in middle school, students do not merely need to know how to read; they need to know how to read well, so they can comprehend information, analyze it and synthesize it. But in most middle schools, educators likely do not have comprehensive training in supporting basic reading development. While they may have picked up some strategies, their job and focus is to teach a single subject‚ not literacy. I'm a perfect example. I was a history major, and I am credentialed in social science. I was trained to teach ancient civilizations, modern government and economics, and everything in between — but not reading. Related Time is also a limiting factor. At Firebaugh, students rotate through a seven-period school day. Teachers cannot adapt their schedules the way elementary educators can, making it challenging to spend extra time catching up students who are not reading at grade level. We had attempted many approaches to improving literacy at Firebaugh. We added English language development classes. Educators tried to emphasize reading strategies and target specific students who were two or more grade levels behind in literacy. However, none of these efforts proved effective. Along the way, we realized many students needed pieces of the reading equation that we did not know they needed, such as decoding words. Then, we discovered an unusual approach to adolescent literacy that uses glyphs as a resource to foster reading fluency and boost comprehension for English learners. The system consists of 21 glyphs, or diacritical marks, that function as a pronunciation guide for each word. These marks (think accents or umlauts) are widely used in languages other than English to aid with pronunciation and comprehension. The system indicates which letters make their usual sound, which make a different-than-usual sound and which are silent. It also denotes syllable breaks. We implemented this glyph approach for English learners who had no experience sounding out words. In the first stage of implementation, students worked with teachers to learn the glyphs and complete core skill-building activities. In the second stage, the diacriticals — which are available for more than 100,000 words — were integrated into students' daily reading practice to build fluency and comprehension. With the markups, words like 'field' and 'filed,' for example, were no longer a problem.
