Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Wednesday HodgePodge

1. Did you know there is a National Day of pretty much everything in the universe? February 23 happens to be National Inconvenience Yourself Day...when was the last time you were inconvenienced?

Yes, I knew there was a National Day for pretty much everything. The last time I was inconvenienced was 2 weeks ago when I had to get a refill for my medicine. I had to go to the pharmacy three times before it was filled. Why so long? The prescription was written by a doctor that I no longer went to! So I inconvenienced myself.

2. When a room in your house needs painting who does the job?

L and I painted the garage together but when we had all the upstairs rooms (4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms) painted, we hired a painter.

3. Are you friends with your cousins?

I would like to think so although I only keep up with them through Mom or facebook.

4. Do you use an alarm clock? If yes-is it an actual alarm, music, or something else?

I use one with three alarms or two. The three alarm sounds that annoying beeping noise, ocean sounds, and the radio. The other two: a beeping noise is one and the other is my cell phone which beeps also.

5. What do you put ketchup on?

meatloaf and french fries

6. What smells make you nostalgic?

fresh cut grass and rain right before it starts to fall...makes me think of baseball fields when the boys were small

7. Have you heard about the high school English teacher recently suspended as a result of some things she wrote in her personal blog? You can read the story here but in a nutshell she vented a lot of frustration onto her blog. She didn't mention individual students by name but she did make some harsh comments about kids in general and their parents.

What are your thoughts-If you're a parent is your child's teacher online and are you 'friend' or 'follower' there? If you're a teacher are you on facebook and do you accept or friend students on fb? How about their parents? If you're a student are you friends with your current or former teachers online? Do any of them have blogs you read? If you're a teacher or a parent do you ever use your blog as a place to vent your frustrations with our educational system? So much to discuss...

As a parent, I only followed the teacher's school webpage. As a teacher, I am on facebook but not as a teacher. When my students asked if I was on facebook, I told my students not to ask me to friend them, I am not a their friend I am their teacher. As for their parents, I do not have a personal relationship with any of them so I do not follow nor friend them.

I have tried not to vent my frustration about the educational system nor any frustration with my class. I know that I have mentioned my frustration a few times, but it was not the topic of my blog. And I would certainly not vent my frustration on my facebook page. (To be continued with #8.)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

(continued) Joyce started this! I will vent my frustration with our state political system and their attempt to shut down the state's education association. If you follow me, you know that I am not from Wisconsin. But some of our state congress people must be because they have started legislation that is very similar to Wisconsin: trying to get rid of bargaining power, changing tenure rules, eliminating payroll deduction for dues, making seats on retirement board political assignments, and a couple of others. These bills have nothing to do with improving the education of our children. I believe that it will hurt the education system in the long run. The governor of Wisconsin remarked, "We are in debt. I have nothing to bargain with." Money isn't the only thing that can be brought to the bargaining table. That isn't a reason to eliminate bargaining entities. I actually live in a "right to work" state so we don't have a union. We have a teacher organization. We can not strike (which I don't agree with as a teacher...I'm a teacher to educate the students). You cannot recruit good people if there is nothing to offer them.

3 comments:

  1. She is probably wishing shed made her blog private. I think a rant here and there is not the same thing as what she did. It's murky but I guess schools will soon start putting fb policies in writing when they hire new teachers.

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  2. I forgot how much I like the scent of rain, thanks for reminding me. I am in 100% agreement with #8. I am retired teacher and union pres. so I believe in the necessity of unions as well.

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  3. It is going on here too. We cannot have our AEA dues deducted from the payroll anymore. It has to be done as an Auto bank draft. It is ridiculous. They believe that a tenured teacher cannot be gotten rid of....they should read the law...and if administrators did their job and documented...it would be a piece of cake....and there is always RIFfing a job. We have done that a couple of times. I am so in agreement with your number 8...and now my blood pressure is up.

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