A Kudos!

I received an e-mail from a teacher today thanking me for this post. This is one of the reasons I blog. Her e-mail indicated that she has been a teacher for over 20 years. She used this lesson plan and for the first time in her teaching career she has compare/contrast papers written correctly.

How awesome is that!

"Look happy!"

Those were the words uttered by mom as the four of us kids sat before the video camera attempting to tape a Christmas message to my dad.

My dad on a tour of duty in the Indian Ocean was to receive the video as a Christmas gift.

Video cameras were a pretty new piece of technology and the Navy wives thought it would be a wonderful thing to do for their men at sea. Back then, letters were written and very occasionally, we would receive a phone call home. It was not the day of instant messaging, skype, or e-mail. Months would sometime go by before getting a letter from my dad. Those letters were as precious to us as water during a drought.

As we sat in front of the camera, we put on our happy faces.

I think I was the one that broke first. As I attempted to talk to my dad, I remember feeling this overwhelming sense of sadness. I missed him. Squeaking out my words between big gulps of sobs, my mom hissed at me. Not because she was mean, but for her, she didn't want to make my dad feel bad about being away from his family. She worked hard maintaining the house, taking care of us kids, paying the bills, and doing everything necessary in providing stability during the many months that my dad would be away.

For my mom it was important to show my dad that all of us were okay.

As each of us tried to send our messages love, we each broke down in tears. We gathered in front of the camera, the four of us kids and my mom, all sobbing messes, saying in unison, "Merry Christmas." This was not the video postcard of the perfect Christmas message that my mom wanted, but I'm sure it's one that none of us will forget.

The rest of the story from my mom . . .

I tried to post on your blog but wasn't successful. Anyway, the other aspect of this was that since your dad was third in command on the Kiska, all the other families had recorded their messages before us. So, after us there was only the XO's wife & 2 kids, and then Dee. (Dee was the Captain's wife.) Your dad said that the wardroom had watched the video quietly until our family came on; after that, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

I'm glad you explained my side; it was hard trying to keep everything together during all the separations; I just always felt like I needed to prove I could handle everything I needed to so your dad could do what he needed to.

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This post is my response to this.

It looks as though . . .

I'll meet up with another blogging friend or two! (I received a message from another blogger and it looks like we will be meeting up with her as well!)

Artist Girl & I plan on traveling up to Portland, OR in a few weeks. Since I worked so much of my summer tending to union business, I'm allowing myself to take days off here and there to make up for it. The real intent behind the trip is to meet up with two of my cousins who live in Portland.

I haven't seen either one for way too long and hope that this trip will remedy that!

Please do the right thing . . .

This story sickens me. It has touched me on a very personal level. Even if you do not have the same personal connection that I do, I encourage you to contact Governor McDonnell in Virginia. I cannot sit by silently and hope that you cannot either.

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Governor McDonnell,

I am writing you today to plead with you to not go through with the execution of Teresa Lewis.

My younger brother has Prader-Willi and has an I.Q. that is around the same level of Ms. Lewis. He is what was considered to be "educable" mentally retarded. Jon has been able to live a somewhat independent life with the loving support of his family. However, we are simply unable to be with him 24 hours a day and are not able to monitor everyone who comes into his life on a daily basis.

It does not seem unfathomable to me that a sophisticated con man or woman could come into his life and get him to do something that he would not normally do. People who take advantage of other people routinely get away with conning people with a regular level intelligence every single day in the United States.

Ms. Lewis did not pull the trigger, nor does it appear that she was the mastermind behind this horrific tragedy. If the State is truly looking out for the best interest of the People, then holding Ms. Lewis in jail for the rest of her natural life seems to be the more humane route. What purpose really is being served by executing Ms. Lewis? It makes no sense to most reasonable people.

I am not an opponent of the death-penalty. However, I cannot support the state-sanctioned death sentence of a woman who has already lost so much. Please do the right thing.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, ms_teacher

I've got your Value Added Measures . . .

and why they don't always work.

Scenario:

Say you're a teacher who is teaching at a QEIA school. In California, this means that class sizes are no bigger than 20 students in an elementary school if you receive QEIA funding.

Say that you have a combo class of 2nd/3rd graders. There are a total of 20 students (10 2nd and 10 3rd).

Say that all of your co-workers' classes in both 2nd and 3rd grade are all at 20 students.

Say that knowing that 2nd graders are tested on the CST's, your principal comes to you with a brilliant plan.

The Brilliant Plan

The plan calls for all the 2nd graders to be parceled out to all the other 2nd grade classes. Each class now has 22 students. In order to keep the funding, the principal doesn't officially make the switch on paper. The original teacher of the combo class still shows on their roster all 20 students. The teacher never sees the 2nd graders as they now go to their "new" class.

The combo class (CC) teacher is still responsible for grades because after all, the roster shows that these students belong to the CC teacher. The other teachers will relay the information to the CC teacher who will then record the information. CC teacher will sign his/her own name to the report card.

During CST's (testing), the CC teacher's name will be attached to the 2nd graders even though the CC teacher has never taught them.

The Question . . .

Anyone else see the ethical problems with this? Anyone else amazed that this principal actually thinks that this is a good idea and will probably be shocked when this is brought to the attention of the District?

HALO by Alexandra Adornetto

Below is the YouTube video of trailer of a new book, Halo, by Alexandra Adornetto. Ms. Adornetto had her first book published at the age of 14. I received an e-mail asking if I would like to receive a free copy to review and I'll admit that I was most intrigued by the description of this book.

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone—especially herself—from the Dark Forces.

As soon as I read the book, I'll write about it here.

I'm not being paid to do this review.

Irritations and Contentments . . .

(photo courtesy of Wresting Fan©)

Irritations

• cars blasting their radios that have a heavy bass. Does it really sound good to you? For whatever the reason, my ears are sensitive to heavy bass - it is worse to me than nails on a chalkboard. I don't mind playing songs loud on my radio, but I also am mindful that not everyone around me will want to hear what I'm playing.
• not stopping for people (especially kids) trying to cross at a crosswalk. This past week, I was on my way to picking up Wrestling Fan. As I drove down the street, I saw this kid that looked to be about WF's age (13 or 14) at a crosswalk. I stopped and fully expected that the people coming in the opposite direction would stop as well obviously wanting to believe the best in people at all times - silly me!. Three cars failed to stop & the last car was an older couple and the guy actually looked right at me as he was driving by!
• people who seem to believe that just because they have their turn signal on that they have the "right of way." What I mean by this is two days ago, I was at a stop light in lane number one. I was behind another car. In lane number two, there was a SUV next to the first car in front of me. When the light changed, the SUV apparently was in the wrong lane. As I started forward, the next thing I know, the SUV is making its way into my lane, forcing me to hit my breaks so that I wouldn't hit them. Now, the turn signal was on after they started going into my lane. Silly me, that turn signal turned on after the fact must give the SUV the right of way.
• Bullies. There is a teacher in the District who is trying to make me miserable by questioning everything that I'm doing. For instance, I'm pretty damn familiar with our contract, being fairly intimate with it for the past few years due to my work on the bargaining team. This person, otoh, only has a passing familiarity with it. He called me the other day asking me a question about a section of the contract. I gave him my response and he disagreed with my point of view and bluntly stated, "I think you are interpreting it wrong as that's not how things were done in the past." My response to him was "fine, file a grievance and will see if it flies." He has yet to do so.

Contentment

• meeting WF's teachers on "Back to School" night and having almost every single one telling us how polite he is and how much they enjoy having him in class. (WF only had one bad report from his science teacher, which I don't think is that big of a deal and yes, we did talk to him about making sure he was acting appropriately at all times - even if he doesn't like the teacher.)
• receiving several phone calls and e-mails from different teachers over the last couple of weeks thanking me for my hard work on their behalf. I actually have had people call me on the phone for no other reason than to say, "thank you" thus somewhat restoring my belief that most people are inherently good.
• driving home with the top down yesterday on our fourth day of real summer weather and having Guitar Teen help at a function that I was hosting. It's always a pleasure getting to show off your kids and simply put, driving in a convertible on a nice sunny day is a great stress buster!
• having a prayer said with my permission in the middle of the parking lot. It was a teacher who was in need of my assistance and was very pleased with the outcome. I'm not a religious person, but was not offended when she asked if she could do this. Her prayer was one of empowerment and strength in my current position as union prez.
• (for Jenn) my little peke is okay and only cost me this !!! as opposed to !!!!!, which is what it was the last time he was yelping out in pain like he was this morning. Ear infection as opposed to a herniated disk is a much less costly fix.