Ok so I read this editorial in the NY Times today and I had to post something about it. Parents in NY City are concerned about losing communication with their kids...while they are at school. If the student is in school then there is no reason for the parent to have a direct communication link. What is more important? Did you take out the trash this morning or learning about Julius Caesar or Huckleberry Finn? Seriously, Americans have been officially overcome by communication. We have a need to be in direct contact with people at all times. We have done without this instant communication for decades. I think it is appalling that parents are fighting for the right for their children to have the ability to send text messages and make phone calls during school hours.
What is worse is that I have seen this in action. At the high school I just finished student teaching students were constantly receiving phone calls and text messages from their parents. It was irritating to say the least and if it wasn't their parent then it was their friends texting back and forth during class. High school is not the place to learn multi-tasking. Too many students struggle just to pay attention in class - to have a cell phone vibrating in their pocket every five minutes just makes this worse. I say good for NY Schools take the phones away and make the punishments stiffer, so students can do what they are meant to do at school...learn.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Sod Project
I know I have been slacking a little bit since my last post, but I'm doing better than some people I know...wink, wink - you know who you are.
I spent Easter weekend with my sister and her new boyfriend. They seem to be very happy and he is a nice guy. Went to a MLS game while I was there it was fun! Listened to Fahrenheit 451 on my way home and I love it. It really made me think. Censorship is something that will definitely affect me if I ever have the chance to teach something fun like literature :-). The afterword by Ray Bradbury was especially interesting as he gave Literature text book anthologies a well deserved kick in the pants about cutting so much from their books that it is difficult for students to really grasp the meaning of what the author has to say. Quite the dilemma for a teacher...do you use novels and expose students to a small portion of literature or a text book and expose them to parts of a variety? Then again at many schools you don't have a choice you do as your told.
This brings me to my next topic. Finding a freakin' job! I hate looking for jobs more than most anything. I still have not received all of my recommendation letters, so I am waiting for those to come in so I can actually send my information to schools complete. It's really frustrating. I am already sick of filling out stupid applications. Just ask for my resume why all the paperwork? Your killing trees. Does anyone ever really read these things anyway? I am applying here and TX. Hopefully I will have a couple interviews there while I visit J next week. I am going to send the information off soon. I am just ready to have a job and be done with all this. There aren't a lot of job openings in the area right now, so I'm a little concerned. I don't know what to do and it is frustrating and I'm poor and today a bit grumpy as I just wrote a $1,600 check to pay for my tuition.
I have been getting things done around here though so that is good! Jack and I put sod down in my yard this weekend. So I unloaded the truck and then hauled the pieces of sod to the yard. So I did some figuring there were 115 rolls of sod, if each roll was about 25 pds and I lifted each roll 2x then I lifted 5750 pounds on Saturday - not bad for a lightweight :-). To see the pictures you can click the link above.
I spent Easter weekend with my sister and her new boyfriend. They seem to be very happy and he is a nice guy. Went to a MLS game while I was there it was fun! Listened to Fahrenheit 451 on my way home and I love it. It really made me think. Censorship is something that will definitely affect me if I ever have the chance to teach something fun like literature :-). The afterword by Ray Bradbury was especially interesting as he gave Literature text book anthologies a well deserved kick in the pants about cutting so much from their books that it is difficult for students to really grasp the meaning of what the author has to say. Quite the dilemma for a teacher...do you use novels and expose students to a small portion of literature or a text book and expose them to parts of a variety? Then again at many schools you don't have a choice you do as your told.
This brings me to my next topic. Finding a freakin' job! I hate looking for jobs more than most anything. I still have not received all of my recommendation letters, so I am waiting for those to come in so I can actually send my information to schools complete. It's really frustrating. I am already sick of filling out stupid applications. Just ask for my resume why all the paperwork? Your killing trees. Does anyone ever really read these things anyway? I am applying here and TX. Hopefully I will have a couple interviews there while I visit J next week. I am going to send the information off soon. I am just ready to have a job and be done with all this. There aren't a lot of job openings in the area right now, so I'm a little concerned. I don't know what to do and it is frustrating and I'm poor and today a bit grumpy as I just wrote a $1,600 check to pay for my tuition.
I have been getting things done around here though so that is good! Jack and I put sod down in my yard this weekend. So I unloaded the truck and then hauled the pieces of sod to the yard. So I did some figuring there were 115 rolls of sod, if each roll was about 25 pds and I lifted each roll 2x then I lifted 5750 pounds on Saturday - not bad for a lightweight :-). To see the pictures you can click the link above.
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