VeritasMama
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Posts posted by VeritasMama
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I would like it better if they went back in time, erased those Bad Episodes, and did it all over again. No more backwards talk, midgets, dream sequences, screaming, white slavery, incest, and that horrendous....Bob.
Bring back the coffee, plaid, finger snapping, and cherry pie.
Fire, Walk With Yourself.
LOL!
I don't think David Lynch can even imagine working on a project that didn't involve gratuitous screaming, white slavery, or at least a little person walking backwards. Disturbing is his whole motif. For me, having Kyle McLachlin on screen to look at can cover a multitude of sins. But I'll still never watch Blue Velvet again.
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Shutting down gossip is easy.
Person A: Did you hear about XYZ? I can't believe that XYZ did that. XYZ is so mean. I can't stand him. (and about a thousand other ways that people start in on bashing someone else)
Me: Have you gone to XYZ and discussed your concerns/worries/criticisms with him/her?
Person A: No (9 times out of 10 this is the answer)
Me: Then I don't want to discuss it either.
This works for me, and the folks you this strategy with will eventually learn not to attempt to gossip with you at all (unless they are really dense).
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I would add in narrations from his literature/free reading choices. Not every day, but once or twice a week I would have him give me an oral narration and ask questions on something he had just read independently to check for comprehension.
You could also throw in formal comprehension questions and/or study guides for literature. These are helpful in teaching students who struggle with comprehension learn how to pick out which details in a passage are important. If you search literature guides you'll find there are plenty of options.
The first year will always be hectic, don't be too hard on yourself. It looks like you have a full work load, good luck and enjoy :).
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A nurse in spain has contracted ebola. Two patients with ebola died at the hospital she works at. The yahoo news story didn't know whether the nurse had worked directly with those patients.
Here's the BBC story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29514920
eta: According to this Discovery news site, it's actually a nurse's aide, and the hospital doesn't yet know if she cared for anyone diagnosed with ebola: http://news.discovery.com/human/health/nurse-contracts-ebola-in-spain-141006.htm
How could you not keep close tabs on everyone who worked with or came into contact with Ebola patients? It seems like the kind of thing would keep close tabs on.
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At 3 we just do the date on a large calendar. I'll point to the day say "today is Monday, October 6." If there is a special day coming up I might say "only 3 days until Halloween," etc. And then we'll sing a days of the week song, and do some seasonal songs. We also talk about what the weather is in general terms (sunny, cloudy, raining, etc).
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Having done both, I know that afterschooling is very different from homeschooling. Homeschooling is much easier.
I think this depends on the situation, it varies wildly from student to student and school to school, and parent/student dynamics play into it as well.
I'm currently doing both as well. I have two kids in school. My son who has always homeschooled would be difficult to afterschool, afterschooling him would probably be more difficult than homeschooling him, he has some special needs. My oldest middle schooler is now in a private school and does some afterschooling at home. Afterschooling with him has been much easier than homeschooling with him ever was, he is gifted and is very independent.
About the use of terms, I'm tired of the Mommy wars. Parenting well is hard, no matter how you choose to go about it, it's a hard job. Own your decisions and don't worry about being validated by others.
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We also use the Confessions of a Homeschooler calendar notebook.
Homeschool Creations also has some nice free printables to make a "Morning Board."
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Every school district I've worked in had rigorous standards before common core.The Common Core math standards pretty much read as if they were written with a Singapore Math text in the hands of the authors. :)
And I think that the multi-faceted approach taken by Singapore Math (and by the Common Core, which encourages teachers to, over time, teach the kids multiple ways of solving problems so that each student can find the best way for him to solve the problems, precisely because not all students are alike) is one way in which both programs do fit learners of different abilities brilliantly.
Not all teachers and schools are yet *implementing* this terribly well, but that is what the standards actually say to do.
Now, I am a bigger fan of tracking students by ability than the core seems to encourage. I think it helps all students of all ability levels achieve to their best potential, when done correctly. But I also don't believe in chucking the baby with the bath water. I think tweaking is better than tossing altogether.
The common core math curriculum my sons school adopted was nothing like Singapore Math. In theory Common Core standards sound like "hey, it's Singapore Math!" But implementation is everything, and Houghton Mifflin common core math texts are terrible.
As a previous poster pointed out, Singapore Math has been rejected by many districts because the sequence of the topics does not line up with the year by year standards that CC has mapped out. This is simply a fact.
My son's school is actually private and had decided to drop Common Core after starting to implement it. But that was after they had already purchased the brand new, expensive textbooks, and so we were stuck with the terrible math.
Luckily, they don't have to stick with the math track laid out by common core, and so my 8th grade son is able to take Algebra II. The middle school curriculum is much better. He has a friend that specifically stayed in the private school in middle school instead of transferring to the public school as he had planned to because the public school district here no longer allows any students to take Algebra II before 9th grade. They list Common Core as the reason.
Both my son and his friend are gifted and love math.
You can argue that the standards aren't to blame, it's the implementation. But when it's your child's education, the implementation is what matters.
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[quote name="BushMommy" post="5960841" timestamp="
I had toyed with the idea of sending my child to school and afterschooling on important subjects like history, science, writing, and spelling. (No, we do not teach these because they are not tested; our district does make the laughable statement that history and science are integrated in the reading program, but my students still think Columbus came over on the Mayflower.)
However, based on the testing that has only become more intense through just the last 4 years, I am working diligently to get to the point of being able to stay home. I HATE teaching anymore and I can only imagine how much my students hate learning.
So, there's my little rant. haha
This is what I've heard and what I've witnessed, that the amount of testing is so much higher. Considering all the anti-testing rhetoric I heard in college during the roll out of NCLB, I can't imagine why teacher unions aren't speaking out like they did against NCLB. It all seems so policital, how do you even begin to fix that.
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This is the issue, who would coordinate a ban? The WHO? I don't know if there is a way to do this.I don't think many people are flying into these countries for fun right now so I don't think the flying in part matters much.
For the flying out part, there are ways to make a travel ban work relatively well, although it would be almost impossible to make it a true quarantine where no one could get out. There's still the question of authority though. I don't think anyone can impose a quarantine on Liberia. Not the US, not WHO, not the UN.
And that's still avoiding the fact that most people in these countries have never been exposed to Ebola and aren't a risk to anyone. I can't agree to restricting the travel of so many people for no reason.
I think it is much more realistic to try to quarantine the local areas where the outbreaks are occurring. But as others have mentioned, this would mean surrounding towns and villages with armed guards and barracades, and being willing to use deadly force. I am of the opinion that outbreaks should be quarantined, but I have no idea what the appropriate level of force is to enforce a quarantine. It's a problem with no easy answers, and I won't pretend to have them.
But people need to remember that even under a quarantine people can obtain medical clearance to leave, and certain people such as aid workers do come and go. The travel is highly monitored and controlled, but when only a small amount of people are coming and going this is doable. Again, the issue is who is going to coordinate it? I think the local governments certainly can't handle this, so who would be given the authority?
I don't think I saw anyone mention the fact that US troops are being sent to help the situation. While it is a humanitarian mission, I can't help but wonder if they will be called on to enforce local quarantines.
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Common Core doesn't bother me, as a caveat (if you're going to have a national public education system, minimum standards are appropriate).
But no, despite some of my curriculum being Common Core compliant and some not, I was planning to homeschool long before it ever hit the scene. And every argument I've seen against Common Core is an argument I'd use against public secular education in general - systemic and fundamentally ideological issues are the reason I avoid institutional education, and they are well over a century old.
Common Core, as well as the original version of NCLB before all the benefits were stripped out of it, are attempts at fixing something already broken, not the cause of the issues I am personally concerned about.
We don't have a national system of public schools. In the state I grew up in each local school district was completely autonomous. Common Core is supported by many people who also support nationalizing the school system in the US, and many who oppose Common Core also oppose it because they oppose the nationalization of public schools.
I oppose the math standards because they are not developmentally appropriate for most children. I think that the classical education model that breaks education down into various "stages" (grammar, logic, etc.) is actually very well suited to how typical students grasp mathematical concepts.
Of course, there will always be gifted children whose development does not follow the path of typical children. They should have advanced options available to them, of course.
The idea that you should explicitly teach the average child to think the same way a gifted child naturally approaches things sounds great in theory, but doesn't work in reality. Accelerate the gifted children and allow neurotypical children to develop at an appropriate pace.
My oldest child is gifted and is on an accelerated math track at his private school. My son with learning disabilities has always homeschooled. My average 2nd grader is homeschooling this year because the developmentally inappropriate common core aligned math curriculum his school adopted made him hate math, and the fact that he was expected to read at what would have been a 2nd grade level when my gifted oldest DS was in first grade, meant that my average son hated school with a passion.
We are now using Singapore Math and he is much happier.
I say this as a former teacher. NCLB was implemented while I was still in college and was universally panned by all my professors. I see Common Core as having most of the same problems as NCLB, only worse. Everything is tied into testing. I don't understand why Common Core doesn't have more vocal opposition from teacher's unions.
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Private flights, military flights, etc. can still occur under a ban, just not commercial flights. Aid workers and soldiers can certainly still be transported where they are needed. The point is to control access, not totally eliminate it. Of course the UN, WHO, and other organizations would have to step up and coordinate and fund all of this. Who would be in charge, that is one problem. Likewise, bringing aid workers and others home in a controlled manner that wouldn't expose the general population is also doable, it simply takes coordination.They cannot go help if there are no flights.
I don't know what the answer is, if travel should be restricted. But it isn't an either or, where everyone gets in or no one gets in.
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If it's a refusal issue, it's a relationship problem, IMHO, not an obedience problem.
I guess I don't see the difference between the two, a good relationship will lead to obedience if the parent values obedience.
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Many employers will not hire someone who is not currently employed. There is especially a stigma against those who have been out for 6+ months. It is super-frustrating when the headhunters' calls come pouring in when the individual is employed but then dry up when the individual is actually looking for a new position. It's like the old stereotype that having a girlfriend/wife makes the guy more attractive to other ladies.
The headhunter that recruited my husband to his current job, which he landed while still employed, told dh that companies prefer individuals who were willing to take low paying jobs rather than take unemployment. He said it is better to work at Pizza Hut while you search for a better job than to just collect unemployment.
I don't know if that is fair, but that is what the employers were telling this particular head hunter.
My hubby is an engineer in a very high demand field. He'll always be able to find a job, but that may also entail having to move across the country. Manufacturing has become more sparse, fewer and fewer factories spread further and further apart.
Which reminds me, please support the American paper industry. It is one of the last things we still make here, it provides excellent working class jobs, and the industry relies on recycled paper products for the most part now. Please buy American made toilet paper (yes, there is Chinese TP sold in America now) :)
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My beloved Reese's peanut butter cups that I have been enjoying since I was 3 years are much smaller now, and the chocolate to peanut butter ratio has been ruined. It makes me want to cry, the old and delicious Reese's got me through so many pregnancies.
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Sadie, I don't need a study to tell me that there are good frats out there, that is something I've experienced first hand.If you're frustrated with how this conversation is going, I'm doubly so.
If there is research showing that particular types of fraternities, with particular types of interventions, work to create social groups with prosocial attitudes to rape and women in general, especially when compared to peers not in a fraternity, then I personally would find that very interesting and would love to read it.
And maybe that could move the conversation on from some very over-the-top defensiveness.
The burden of proof is on the prosecution. If you want to claim that all frats are bad for society, you have to prove it. You can't, because they aren't. There are good frats with good people who cause no harm and serve the community.
The problem frats need to be dealt with harshly, abolish them if need be.
Why is this so difficult to agree with? It seems you are just digging in your heels.
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I read it then, skimmed it again, and believed it.
Most schools with greek systems aren't going to get rid of them, they're too good to the schools. Fraternity and sorority members are more likely to graduate and more likely to be donors. They remember school fondly and stay more involved. There's too much Alumni money involved to turn them away.
I don't think this would be the issue at my University. There was a frat at my school a few years ago that had some illegal things going on and were booted from campus.
Honestly, if the Greek system were abolished then I think some other organization would be created to take it's place. It is about socializing, but there is also a huge emphasis on community service and giving back in a lot of frats and sororities that can appeal to certain types of people. My friends had a lot of mandatory service projects they had to attend. I think the types of people who get up early to pick up trash on a Saturday are the type who will donate and contribute to their Alma Mater even if they don't experience "Greek life."
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NZ has always had full day school starting on your fifth birthday. Ds5 has 24 kids in his class - 6 reading groups at 10 mins each plus transitions = 1 to 1.5 hours. Four writing groups -ditto, 3 maths groups - ditto. A couple of outside games and jump jam to get the wriggles out, PE, art, music. 1 hour for lunch and 20 mins for morning tea. I can't see how they could do what is required of them in less than 6 hours.
That is the debate, how much should be required in Kindergarten. Studies have shown that the benefits of pushing academics at an earlier age are all short term, the advanced gains students make in reading level off by middle school.
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This isn't a deeply held family tradition, lol. Exact opposite. I only rushed because my friends were doing it and I'm fairly open minded, but it wasn't for me. Too many rules.Look at the literature and you will see an emerging pattern of correlations between being in a fraternity or sorority, and less prosocial attitudes towards rape and women in general.
I understand that people don't like to hear others 'trash' their dearly held family traditions. But the pattern exists.
Of course within that pattern, individual differences will exist. But the argument isn't about individual or even family experiences...it's about a pattern of belonging to a fraternity or sorority being correlated, along with other factors, with less prosocial attitudes about rape.
I mean, seriously. If there is research out there disputing this convincingly or suggesting a confounding factor that completely blows the fraternity factor out of the water, I'd love to read it.
Before anyone starts shouting about how now I'm accusing all men in fraternities of being rapists, I'm not. So don't go there.
The research shows that too many fraternities and too many campuses have a culture that needs to change.
Fraternities aren't inherently bad, they can be good or bad depending on how the organization is run, and this varies wildly from frat to frat and from chapter to chapter.
That is one reason why it is so hard to lump all frats together, they all have different by laws, policies, culture, etc. Some are more similiar than others.
Some frats have banned hazing and alcohol altogether, and the ones on my campus that had took that very seriously.
I simply don't think the solution to the problem is to demonize every frat.
Deal with the bad ones. If that means that a campus needs to ban frats, so be it. It all needs to be dealt with according to the situation and needs of the local community.
That is my only point, and I don't understand why it is being argued with. Deal with the bad frats without demonizing the good ones. If you are arguing that there are no good frats, well I can't take you seriously because I've experienced some first hand.
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The fact that there are some fantastic fraternities and sororities out there does not negate the fact that (in my somewhat educated opinion that is backed up by many sources as a quick search of the literature will show you) as a whole fraternities and sororities have negative social impacts.
A pet hate of mine is the idea that unless someone has directly experienced something they could not possible know anything about it and are not entitled to an opinion. I actually believe that people who are outside of something can sometimes offer greater insight because they are not caught up in their own particular experience of said thing. (Notice my use of the word sometimes, I am not dismissing he idea that experiences can help in knowledge of something).
And how exactly does disliking the Greek system come across as being anti-American, surely it is one small part of US culture?
(Another pesky outsider who agrees with Sadie that fraternities are stupid)
I don't think it came across as anti-American, it came across as rude to the great fraternities and sororities that are out there.
Whether or not a Greek system has an overall negative impact depends on the community. That is the point, it varies from frat to frat and from campus to campus. My campus had an overall positive impact from the Greek system, it really depends on the local culture as well.
There are sororities an fraternities out there whose main purpose is community service. They leave a very positive impact on the community.
I don't think it would be a tragedy if the Greek system disappeared, I just don't think it is fair to lump in all the good organizations with the bad ones. It shows a very shallow understanding of the issue. I don't understand why this is so black and white for some. I can't hate all fraternities because I know too many good people who were in good fraternities and sororities. There were bad ones too, I'm not naive, I just have first hand experience.
And I agree with Mrs. Mungo, if an entire Greek system at a campus is rotten to the core, they should just abolish it.
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As a personal concern ? It matters to me not at all.
As an abstract concern ? Who isn't concerned about any of the multiplicity of factors that play into violence against women and other men ? One of which is suggested to be the socialisation that some men receive in, and are encouraged by fraternities ?
I didn't realise it was such a touchy topic and that's the extent of my cultural naivete....
You all really need to start labelling your posts with US only if you really can't handle outsider perspectives.
No one likes stereotyping. You are stereotyping all fraternities based on the negative actions of some fraternities.
I already explained to you up thread why your comments are not accurate. Now you are being insulting to all the people who were involved in wonderful fraternities and sororities which are nothing like, and have never been, anything like what you describe.
You don't understand the issue as well as you think you do, you should stop insulting those of us with actual first hand knowledge.
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Yep, just those pesky bad seeds. Nothing to do with the culture at all.
The "culture" of the frat depends on the frat. As someone who attended a University with a very diverse collection of frats, I can tell you don't know what you're talking about.
My friend joined a frat because he wanted a more academically oriented place to live than the dorms. His frat was known for being very focused on academics and community service, a lot of engineers and pre-med students, etc. They had very few parties, the ones they did have were very tame. They were all "gentlemen." That sounds so quaint but that's what they were. He jut wanted a calm environment to study and work hard in, the dorms on our campus were rowdy.
Down the street was the frat that exactly resembled Animal House. Wild bunch of misfits, parties every night, everyone would go. A few of my friends from this frat ended up flunking out.
These represent opposite ends of the spectrum, our school also had everything else in between.
Of course I attended a public University in the Midwest, we only had enough "elitists" to populate one frat house. I'm sure at Ivy League schools the population of "elitists" is much higher, hence the concentration of "elitist" frats.
America is really not homogenous at all, you can't make sweeping assumptions about anything here.
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I've never seen a fraternity movie, so if you think I'm basing my ideas on Frat House 4 you're all sadly mistaken.
But go ahead, defend archaic and elitist social organisations...I'm sure y'all know best.
My working class high school friend who joined a frat was not an elitist. There are elitist frats, but frats as a whole or not elitist, and the people I knew in frats were quite diverse. The frats on my campus also threw plenty of parties and events that were open to anyone, of course some of them did this more often than others.
The bad actors are the ones who make the news.
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That wasn't my implication.
That is what I took away from your comment. That co-ed living arrangements help us avoid being anti-social. That would seem to imply that those of us who do not like co-ed living arrangements are risking being anti-social. If that wasn't what you intended to imply, it would be great if you could elaborate, I don't see what point you are trying to make. Is it just men who need to be forced to live with the other sex to learn tolerance? Is that what you are saying?
Your snarky comment about joining the 21st century was condescending and annoying to me, since I am someone who attended college in the 21st century and do not care for co-ed dorms.
Help me find a reading/literature program!!
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I think Memoria Press teacher books provide answers to comprehension questions. They have student workbooks.