Sheen, after all, is one of my favorite actors. I’ve enjoyed his film work over the years and put his epic war movie “Apocalypse Now” towards the top of my list.

Sheen was the special guest at the fundraiser for the university’s Dorothy Stang Center, which serves as a resource for social-justice issues and promotes community-engagement programs. Here’s the story.

He gave a short speech but hung out afterward chatting with people and signing autographs for a good while.

He also took time to answer questions from me and Noelle Garcia, a reporter for the campus newspaper The Argonaut.

I didn’t expect it, but I also got a free, filling meal at the event. Just one of the few perks of being a journalist, I guess.

San Francisco-based Lua Hadar, an eclectic world jazz vocalist, and the sophisticated band TWIST play two homecoming shows Dec. 6 at Angelica’s Bistro, 863 Main St. in Redwood City.

“The Redwood City community has been a huge part of my life,” said Hadar, who worked with teachers, students and families on stage productions at Garfield and John Gill Elementary schools. “I can’t wait to see everyone. I hope all the teachers and families will come to meet the band and have a great evening together.”

As a performing-arts teacher, Hadar created and directed more than 50 original school productions in Redwood City from 1993 to 2003.

When state funding involving her work was cut, she set off on her own to produce two solo CDs and embarked on tours taking her from the Bay Area to New York and Thailand, where she recently made her worldwide debut at Bangkok’s 10th International Festival of Dance and Music.

The local shows start at 7:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Admission is $15.
For tickets and reservations, call 650-365-3226.

Check out more of Hadar’s music and bio in her MySpace page here.

I personally enjoyed her music - definitely jazzy with bits of Latin rhythms and a cabaret vibe sprinkled here and there.

The songs I listened to were sung in English, Italian or French. I particularly liked the Italian-sung “In Qualche Parte del Mondo.” It was like Ella Fitzgerald meets Andrea Bocelli.

Ok, so that was my quick music review.

If you remember, I wrote about Chu in July. She won a five-year grant of $655,000 from the National Science Foundation. The money will support her research on the role of proteins in sperm production.

Here’s part of a press release from SF State about her research article:

The article demonstrates how proteomics, a relatively new field focusing on the function of proteins in a cell, can be successfully applied to infertility, helping identify which proteins in sperm cells are dysfunctional.

“Up to 50 percent of male-factor infertility cases in the clinic have no known cause and therefore no direct treatment. In-depth study of the molecular basis of infertility has great potential to inform the development of sensitive diagnostic tools and effective therapies,” write co-authors Chu and Tammy Wu, a post-doctoral fellow at SF State.

The study is included in a special Oct. 10 issue of MCP dedicated to the clinical application of proteomics.

“We suggest how the study of proteins is useful in the clinic, to help people move from infertile to fertile and ultimately to help couples have a baby,” Chu said. “The ultimate goal is that a doctor would be able to say to a patient, ‘This is the protein that is misregulated in your sperm and this is the drug that corrects it or decreases the level of that protein.’ Understanding sperm proteins also means that a doctor could be able to inform patients of the likely success rates of different fertility therapies, an important factor given the high cost of fertility treatments.”

More than 2 million couples in the U.S. are facing infertility. While many scientific studies examine the supply of sperm, its mobility and its ability to fertilize, Chu argues that a wider array of sensitive tests, including studies of cell proteins, are needed to determine the root causes of male infertility.

The project is part of the university’s service-learning and social-justice focus, which encourages students to get involved in the community.

First Year Experience coordinator and professor Vince Fitzgerald expects the trip to benefit his students.

“We want this to be a learning and eye-opening experience for them,” he said.

Staff workers from Dorothy’s Place, which coordinates many programs in the Jimenez and Camphora farm-labor camps, will help out in the event, but the majority of the carnival is planned and run by the students.

About 150 children from the camps are expected at the festivities, which will go from noon to 3 p.m. and include a bounce house, face painting, chalk art, basketball and soccer clinics, and mini-pumpkin designing.

The carnival will also have medical screening for adults, and some students will serve as translators.

The camps house 80 adults and about 200 children age 15 and under in 40 units, according to an annual census by Dorothy’s Place.

He is the 2008 Educator of the Year for the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District.

Federighi (the guy with the plaque in the photo) has served at Ralston for more than 30 years.

Students know him as a tough but fair teacher, said Principal Jennifer Kollmann.

“The parents view him as a phenomenal instructor,” Kollmann added. “His colleagues respect him and rely on his support.”

Federighi was cited as being able to provide numerous opportunities for his students to learn history beyond simply lecturing from the front of the classroom.

“Classroom conversations include elements of history and life lessons inserted in the discussion,” Kollmann said. “Rick’s students feel empowered to discover more of the local history after taking his class. They have a desire to learn additional history topics and often return to Ralston to share their high school history success with Rick.”

As the district’s top teacher, Federighi received an engraved plaque and a donation of $500 for use in his classroom from Tom and Eda Diridon, owners of Carlmont Associates real-estate services company in Belmont.

He also got a gift certificate for dinner for two at Vivace’s Restaurant.

During that span, the department sends out the latest reports on STAR, API/AYP/PI and CAHSEE, that is, state test scores, academic-performance yardsticks and the high-school exit exam.

The last was the exit exam a week ago, and I’m still recovering today.

Analyzing these reports has gotten a little easier just by the fact that I’ve done stories on them over the years and kind of know what to look for.

Still, these reports spit out a lot of data, and spotting interesting details and trends out of nearly 200 public schools in San Mateo County is always a challenge.

But for the most part, the reports tell the same story each year but with different numbers:

The county’s students perform better than their peers statewide, but like those across the rest of the state and country, schools here are struggling to close the achievement gap, which shows that Latinos and African Americans, in particular, continue to lag far behind their white and Asian counterparts.

Here’s the package if you missed it Saturday. It includes a profile of a Latino family in Redwood City that is in the middle of this ongoing fight to close the achievement gap, which shows a performance disparity among students of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

I’ll continue taking a look at the achievement-gap issue from various angles as this has become a top priority with local, state and national education leaders.

The state Department of Education has a section on the achievement gap you can check out here.

This week, the department will release results of the Academic Performance Index, a yearly yardstick based on student test scores.

As with other performance measures, the API will likely show that minority and disadvantaged students have improved but that Latinos and African Americans, in particular, continue to lag far behind their white and Asian peers.

But here’s a story that has broken that blogging lethargy - at least for a while:

Dave Mandelkern was the classic couch potato just a few years ago.

He sat in front of the television and “ate crappy food — junk food,” he said. Sure, he tried various activities such as racquetball and aerobics.

“But nothing caught on until I found this crazy sport,” said Mandelkern, who serves on the board of the San Mateo County Community College District.

That “crazy sport” is the triathlon, an endurance event consisting of swimming, cycling and running.

Mandelkern loved it so much he went on a quest to become perhaps the first person to complete a triathlon in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by age 50.

He’s done just that by finishing the Nautica New York City Triathlon on July 20.

“It felt pretty good,” Mandelkern, 49, said Thursday as he trained with members of the triathlon group Team Sheeper at Burgess Park in Menlo Park. “It was a five-year project. It was a lot of states, a lot of odd places and a lot of airports.”

But it was all worth it, he said, especially when it was part of raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and two groups supporting disabled athletes.

His goal is $150,000. “I’m a third of the way there,” he said. “The triathlon is easier to get done than the fundraising part.”

You can read more of Mandelkern’s feat in Monday’s print edition of Chalk Talk.

I’ll be headed to Mexico for some fun and relaxation but don’t plan to completely tune my brain out (at least that’s the hope!).

The trip will be an opportunity for me to catch up on some reading and hone my Spanish with the locals there.

I’m kind of taking a cue from state schools chief Jack O’Connell, who encourages families to help their kids keep up their learning and health during the summer lull.

So I’ll leave you with his Top 10 list on what parents and their children can do in that regard:

1. Turn off the television and computer and play outside. Encourage your children to join a city league to play team sports like baseball or swimming. Physical activity helps prevent the silent epidemic of childhood obesity. Teamwork teaches children about the values of helping, sharing, listening, respecting and participating. Contact your local parks and recreation department for team sports and summer activities.

2. Get puzzled. Play Sudoku or Scrabble with your children. These types of activities encourage children to think and solve problems. Find Sudoku puzzles or Scrabble on the Web, in bookstores or in game stores.

3. Collect stamps, coins or other historical items. Encourage your children to start a collection that may spur their interest to research facts about their hobby. Start at the post office for stamps. Search through antique stores or your attic for collectibles.

4. Start a journal, diary or scrapbook. These types of activities encourage children to write, organize their thoughts and spur creativity. You can start simply with a notebook and pencil. Or for more elaborate journals, craft stores often have a selection of scrapbook materials.

5. Make plans. Let your children help you schedule your day, plan a meal or assign chores. This helps children structure their activities and learn to meet deadlines.

6. Take them grocery shopping. Adding up the grocery bill helps your kids practice their math skills. Let them choose the fruits and vegetables to teach them how to make healthy choices.

7. Plan dinner. Learning to cook will teach your kids to be self-sufficient and independent. Preparing meals requires math and reading skills. You never know - your child could be the next great chef.

8. Set aside time each day to read. Read the morning newspaper with your children or find them a good book at the library. Reading keeps their minds active and engaged and ready to learn when they go back to school. Search the California Department of Education’s Recommended Literature database, which will help you find age-appropriate materials.

9. Encourage children to create their own job. Children can get training to be babysitters. Or they can pet-sit, house-sit or take care of your neighbors’ plants while they are on vacation. These activities help children learn about responsibility and financial literacy. The American Red Cross offers training for babysitters.

10. Volunteer. Encourage your children to help some elderly neighbors or a charitable organization. These activities help children learn about sacrifice and good citizenship. Find volunteer opportunities at CaliforniaVolunteers.

Let me know what you think about these ideas and if you plan to try any. Or if you have some other suggestions, by all means share them here.

Otherwise, nos vemos y cuidate!

For years, people have parked their vehicles at Cañada College lots in Redwood City to watch the pyrotechnics from Redwood Shores to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.

But construction work will close the campus during the holiday - the first time in recent memory that will happen.

The college is located at the top of Farm Hill Boulevard just off of Interstate 280, and the school’s parking lots have offered panoramic views of the Peninsula.

“We apologize to all the people who annually plan to view fireworks from the campus parking lots,” said college President Thomas Mohr, “but those lots will be unavailable due to construction around campus. It’s a safety issue. There will be heavy equipment parked in one lot, and the other will be undergoing reconstruction.”

Security will be posted at both the Farm Hill and Cañada Road entrances to the school, he said.

No one will be allowed to enter campus that evening.

“We’ll be back open again next year,” Mohr said, “and the parking lots will be improved.”

The work at Cañada includes a $10 million project for entrance, lighting, sign, road, walkway, parking and drainage improvements.

It is just part of ongoing renovations across the San Mateo County Community College District, which also encompasses Skyline College in San Bruno and College of San Mateo.

If anyone has some good alternative locations to catch the fireworks, send in your recommendations.