Demo Starts

Hello! My g-ma is out and moved into her new place, I think that she is adjusting allthough now she has alot more visitors. My parents (I should say angels) stayed in the house this weekend and went to town! Carpet is up, wall paper is down and neighbors know we are moving in! My parents got Joe one of those push mowers - no gas or electric, GO GREEN! So that gave him a bit of a work out on Sunday. I helped pull wallpaper and pry vinly off of the hardwood floor. We are plannning to get it painted and the floors done by the end of the month. I hope that we get some visitors after that. Those of you interested in attending a painting party or a moving party please let me know :)

Change in Education

As I get through another year of teaching I start to realize why there are so many older teachers - because the new ones get used, abused and cut! I can not help but compare the education world to the business world. In this business world, you are constantly trying to gain a new skill, get better, improve your "product" - so you can move up, get respected and keep your job. On the other hand, in education all you have to do is stay around long enough to get tenure and then BAM your safe! Then you don't have to get better - but some get BITTER! I am a little irritated with how teachers get complacent accept the status quo of deliver information and hope for the best. Todays child is full of energy and sitting in a classroom is not the way they learn. GRR....

Moving in SOON

Well! May 25 is the day that my grandma will be out and living at her new place - WOW, June will be spent making the place our own! We are very excited! We have to be out of our place by June 30th, NP! No need to stay with those freekin aliens! grrr... We will have alot of painting to be done so if you are interested let us know.

Podcast Review

Geek!Ed! This is a weekly podcast that talks about technology in school. I downloaded one that is 47 minutes long. I guess the easiest way for me to review this is what I liked and did not like.

Liked - I can see myself downloading this to my shuffle and going for a long walk or run and listening to this discussion. It's interesting because the discussion is playful and fun, well as fun as technology talk can be.

Disliked - Tangents, sometimes they get off the subject and they all start laughing and you can not hear what someone was trying to say. On the other hand, it is nice to hear banter, like you are in the circle with them.

Being introduced to this makes me want a Nano instead of the shuffle I currently have.

Content - I learned alot about what other districts are trying out with technology and issues about kids and internet access. I could see listening to future podcasts.

Plastic Bags - JUST SAY NO! (Set to Scarborough Fair)

In memorance of Earth Day April 22

But they are doing this...

So I realize that there is always something to complain about, sometimes the complaining is legit and other times not so much. I also have to consider that everybody's expectation of legit is different - but SERIOUSLY folks it does not take much to get some teachers in a tizzy. Let's take scheduling, which is a nightmare, and each school type (Elementary, Middle and High) has different issues with scheduling. I braved the faculty lounge YET AGAIN and got into a polite disagreement with a fellow teacher who was in a tizzy about scheduling issues. Over the year Elementary has assemblies, Middle has field trips and High School has pep assemblies and finals - NONE of this is a secret. To me it all evens out, but the other teacher did not see it this way. WHY is this something to stress over? WHY? WHY? Someone explain it to me.

Health Care

It started out so positive, talking about what's going on in the Third Ward, good places to eat and then it turned ugly. The other day switching insurance was brought up, and as you probably know health insurance is a sore topic with alot of teachers. I am young, so I don't depend on my insurance as much as others. I figured I need more information, I would like to find out if anyone else has UnitedHealth Care insurance, well do you?

I feel this is going to be a touchy subject and I would like to be able to take a stand on the issue either way.