I 100% agree ðŸ‘

N/a

I was completely baffled too!!! lol I just wanted to make sure that this side of the experience is "out there" so at least parents can take it into consideration when considering this class & maybe handle it differently right off the bat if they have a similar experience. And hopefully he's much better this year for those taking his classes. I sort of think the lower-level class(es) maybe are where he had more problems last year? Maybe he's better able to keep his patience with the later-level classes full of kids he already mostly knows? Like he is so sick of teaching "2+2" that he had very little patience for it? We thought, maybe, he was having personal issues that were affecting things - and gave it some time & patience thinking he might chill as the year progressed, but no such luck. He was always VERY polite to me in emails. For dd? Email responses were always ALL CAPS and misspelled words. He most often wouldn't even answer the question she asked, but would say something very random and off topic - leaving her to decide whether or not to bug him again to get the answer she needed. I just re-read through her emails to make sure I was remembering correctly. It was odd, to say the least. I researched a lot beforehand and asked people questions before picking the Spanish class. We were prepared for "high expectations," etc... In fact, that was a big reason dd chose his class!! She wanted a teacher with clear guidelines add high expectations in class. She felt that, as long as she did her part, the class experience would be worth the effort. But the bullying attitude we were not prepared for at all. He made fun of kids for asking "stupid questions." He was disorganized with assignments and scattered during the classes. (And dd is a not-sensitive-to-criticism kind of kid who is great at communicating with instructors and getting the most out of online classes. She can manage a room full of chaos and bend it to her will. This class was just jaw-dropping at times. She was just... agog. lol)

Chiming in- dd had leven last year and he WAS mean! Not just to "unprepared students" either. Yes, the unprepared students would start the angry-ball rolling sometimes - but he would then vent at ALL of the students. There was name calling, threats about calling everyone's parents, etc. Things that a teacher with zero control of a situation would do. Worse, imho, were the times HE was the unprepared one!!! SO many computer problems last year (his end). He was late to class several times due to those issues and when he was?? Woe to the students! He immediately started out yelling at them because of HIS error. On more than one occasion, HE had the wrong flash cards or was on the wrong week's assignment. Started yelling at the class for being so lazy and not doing their homework. Calling students out and giving personal details as to their homework completion status (again, he was on the wrong week... not the kids) He gave them each .5 seconds to bark out a word, and was truly nasty when they tried to explain they had never seen the term before. Midway through, he realized he had the AP Spanish class flash card words/terms (dd was in a lower-level class...). Did he apologize? Nope. Just continued barking at the kids about their lousy homework assignments and ended the class early. He has more than one time/day for each level of Spanish. He would seem to forget which class he was teaching (eg. Teach Concept A to Monday's class. Then get frustrated with Tuesday's class because he would think he had already TAUGHT Concept A... but he hadn't! That was Monday's class!). Total nightmare class. Worst online experience we've ever had - hands down. DD is taking Spanish this year locally. More than one class wound up with one or more students crying. Teens crying. ON camera IN class. I'm sorry, but there is no way that is "normal" or okay. Dds "favorite" moment was when she realized he could control himself. There was an observer one class (a parent/student watching to see if they wanted to sign up for the next school year). She said he would pause, breathe, gulp before speaking to the kids - reigning in his urge to yell at them for the slightest error. He made jokes and gave helpful corrections. Only our sense of humor got dd through that year. And I'm posting here because ALL I could find before signing up were *glowing* reviews. Ppl said "as long as your student is prepared for class, he will be fine! He will learn so much!" That was NOT our experience in the slightest. DD was always prepared and ready to go. She never found the homework to be overwhelming or too much. But she dreaded the class time and felt horrible for some kids that he especially seemed to visibly loathe.

We all absolutely loved it! Parents and teens (who ranged from 13 to 16 today) alike. Loved that it was so different from the HP movies/plot, so it was really easy to separate them in my head and not make comparisons. One character's storyline broke my heart (is this the guy you guys are talking about the no eye contact? I'm trying to figure out who you're talking about. Must be him, but I only noticed in an abstract character-development sort of way & didn't register it on a concrete level, I think). But the fantastic beasts were magnificent! Loved Newt!!! Loved the setting!! Could've watched Queenie all day (she's captivating!!). Loved the baker!! We laughed, we didn't cry even once, and all gave it two thumbs up. Nice to have had another HP movie to go see!

Love this idea!!! Jotting down the ideas!

I very rarely wear my rings anymore. I had them re-sized with pregnancies and then downsized again after the last baby. The set needs yet another downsizing and I just don't want to mess with it because wearing jewelry bugs me.

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Totally binge-worthy. Although, after each season was over, dh & I were like, "Why did we just put ourselves through that agony? Geez, that was depressing!"

Never. I'll ask him about the ultrasound. It's my current understanding that they didn't do one- but from reading last night, an U/S seems to be pretty routine...

A specialist means... what? Whom? What type of specialist? I honestly don't know who to call! :/ Would this be the neurologist? I told dad that, when the neurologist's office finally does call to set up an appointment, they will probably give him a date several weeks away, and that he is to tell them, as nicely as he possibly can, that that date will not work because he is still symptomatic and needs to have the evaluation done as soon as humanly possible. And to ask them to please check their calendars to see if, possibly, there has been a recent cancellation somewhere so that he could, please, get in very soon.

Thank you guys SO much for the replies - looks like I'm not crazy for thinking things should be a little more ... progressive... with his care. I'm going to call him first thing in the morning regarding blood thinner. He specifically said that they gave him a steroid only. So I will ask him about that directly. My mom and dad live together, so he isn't alone. Unfortunately, mom has her own health issues going on right now, so together, they're kind of a mess at the moment. :/ I'm thinking that they've each reached the point that I need to go to the doctor WITH them. I KNOW that, in my mom's case at least, the doctors don't take her seriously at all. When she gets flustered, she doesn't express herself clearly, which frustrates the doctors, which, in turn, flusters her further. Dad is half-deaf (but refuses to admit it), so it's entirely possible that he missed a possibly-crucial question that was asked of him at some point. My parents didn't tell me about ANY of this until this (Wednesday) evening. They "didn't want to worry me." UGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ER he went to was at the heart hospital. Like, that is what the entire hospital does - cares for heart issues! And yet they told him to "see his primary care doctor if he felt he needed more tests" instead of just "further tests" right there - AT the heart hospital! :/ That is the hospital that wanted him to take the flu shot. This hospital has excellent ratings. Therefore, we are so confused. :huh: His symptoms seem so classically warranted for further, immediate, testing - and... there's no urgency from either the ER or his primary care doctor. They just sent him home to wait - still feeling entirely numb on half of his body. :/ This man rarely goes to the doctor and has NEVER conceded to go to the Emergency Room. This was a Very Big Deal in our world - dad voluntarily going to the ER? That means something is very, very wrong.

My dad woke up Tuesday morning and his entire right side felt numb and tingly. He says it feels like there is a distinct line from the tippy top of his head and all the way down to his toes his right side is numb. Even his tongue felt numb. He is dizzy when he moves around and, for the past two mornings, nauseus in the morning. He says he is not in any real pain - just "feels funny." The ER ran a CT scan and it showed signs of a "previous mini-stroke," but gave him no details as to whether or not they could tell if it was a recent event or not. (I'm not sure if they even CAN tell that information, but it sure would be nice to know!) He said they took blood samples and sent him home with a steroid for "inflammation" which made no sense to him at the time, but I googled and apparently anti-inflammatories are commonly prescribed in this situation? This morning (Wednesday), he went to the primary care doctor, who told him "good luck" and scheduled an appointment for an MRI (next Thursday) and said that a neurologist will call him with an appointment time (they didn't call today). He's on blood pressure medication and, within the past 6 months, also on medication (I believe) for high cholesterol. Family history includes a long line of heart attacks and strokes. Within the past 6 months, he has noticeably slowed down activity-wise and dh and I have noticed he's not been "quite right" when we talk with him sometimes (he isn't comprehending as quickly as he used to). He is almost 70 years old (omg, when did THAT happen??). (We haven't seen him as frequently as we are used to for the past couple of months because of the election, so unfortunately, I haven't seen firsthand if this has been "coming on" for a few weeks, or just suddenly... :/ ) ------ So - any advice or suggestions for what we should do next? Waiting a week for an MRI while he is STILL having these SAME symptoms seems... well... eternally far away. I have heard that neurologists are often backlogged for weeks and weeks and weeks, so I'm not hopeful about his ability to get an appointment in a timely fashion. The primary care doctor just said that if his symptoms "change or worsen" to go back to the ER. I'm feeling like we need to be more proactive about this - but none of us are sure where to start! :/ Do we just wait? -------- Side complaint: WHILE dad was at the ER, they tried to convince him to get a flu shot. Seriously? Do they do that routinely when a person is coming to the ER with concerns about being in the midst of a stroke? Just get a flu shot "while they're there?"

What I am very afraid of is that, after this 2016 debacle, the potential of a Kanye / Kardashian-as-a-First-Lady 2020 run isn't all that Krazy. :mellow:

We also ran into this last year. My first plan was to have the preferred recommender just fill it out as a "teacher" ... just saying in the form itself what it was that she actually DOES... but the form actually has some very specific questions before they get to the part where they get to fill out the recommendation itself. They have to "rank" the student for several things that are definitely classroom related, they're asked how well they participate in classroom discussions, etc. We didn't feel comfortable asking the recommender to fill that information out "wrongly," so it threw a loop into dds recommender plans. Luckily, her recommender figured out a way around it, slightly (she HAD been a teacher of dds in a co-op setting... but her recommendation really had nothing to DO with that relationship, but rather another working relationship dd and this person had established through the years. So, she filled it in as the teacher for the subject that she had taught, and then wrote her recommendation briefly alluding to that experience, and included the other, more substantive information as well). Luckily, some of the colleges DID accept "other" recommenders, so she had her other recommenders fill in the "other recommender" form and then just picked-and-chose which person's recommendation to send to which schools as she applied. I had always assumed that most schools would require, at minimum, 3 personal references. I was stumped when we realized that many only wanted the a) counselor's letter and b) a teacher's recommendation.

I'd vote for Brandon Somethingoranother. The guy who started Humans of New York. :patriot:

First, ewwwwwwwwwww. Yep - means what you think it means. :ack2: Second, I am literally laughing out loud at the "420" misunderstandings and LucyStoner's brother's Tinder ads. :lol: Needed a good chuckle tonight. :P

Adalia is such a beautiful name (AND has the family tie-in) that it would be worth all the times you'd have to pronounce it for people. FWIW, when I read it, I pronounced it correctly the first time in my head. :) Second choice is Sylvia - also a beautiful name. Sophia, while very pretty, is so, so, so, so common right now. If you prefer uncommon names, I think it would become exponentially more annoying to have your dd be one of five Sophias in a playgroup or t-ball team, etc.

We used sample questions from the sample tests she wasn't using (for instance, she didn't do the practice tests from the Princeton Review book or the Barron's... so we just pulled questions from that section of their practice tests). We divvied up an approximate time allowed for each section of the reading test and she would sit down for *that many* minutes and just do that one section of passage/questions. (she only did the full practice tests from the Red "Real" ACT book). She did do the reading section of the first couple of those several times over at various times (the familiarity gave her confidence - she started to see and understand how to find the answers more quickly without having to read through every single tidbit of information they gave). This book was also very helpful for her: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-ACT-Reading-2nd/dp/0997517824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475903023&sr=8-1&keywords=act+reading This book has high reviews, but we haven't used it - looks like it is set up for daily drills already: https://www.amazon.com/Increase-Your-Score-Minutes-Day/dp/0071456678/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475903023&sr=8-2&keywords=act+reading

Agreeing with ^^^^. That's what we had to do with dd1. She wound up scoring nearly perfect on the reading portion the final time she took the test (her reading score was originally considerably lower than the other sections of the test) Just lots and lots of timed drills and practice tests.

It wasn't any problem when I called last year (in fast, it was a positive insofar as "guaranteeing" a college-prep education). Always call and ask them directly though, if you're not sure. They change things allllllll the time. ðŸ‘

We live IN town and still drive hours each Tues, Wed, and Thurs. and weekends. Mondays and Fridays are sacred around here. The kids don't even want to do anything with friends on Friday nights, because it means more driving and having to leave the house! 😂

Most universities require the FAFSA to be sent in every single year, right? DD isn't receiving any finance-related aid from her school, and they haven't sent me anything regarding the FAFSA, so I'm wondering if it's always pretty much required? (Because I don't want to bother filling it out if I don't have to! hahaha!!) (now that I'm thinking about it... I probably need to ask DD, don't I? They might have emailed her about it and she just didn't think to tell me)

:iagree: This is where we fell. Our in-state flagships offered puny merit aid (even for a dd with sufficiently high stats to have earned significant scholarships elsewhere) - and they offered ZERO financial aid (unsubsidized loans, maybe...). The more exclusive the school, the better the financial aid package dd was offered. To go to those schools would have, in the end, cost 1/4 of what it would have cost for her to go to our state flagship!! :huh: It blew my mind!!! FWIW (not necessarily to you, OP, but to others maybe reading this) - we were really impressed with University of Alabama's Honors College and their Fellows Experience and Computer Based Honors programs. For those with high-stats students... maybe take a deeper look into their programs. DD applied to the Fellows and made it to the final round of interviews before withdrawing her name (she'd chosen to go elsewhere due to her sport by that point in the process...) - but we were really impressed with what they had to offer, especially considering it would have been tuition-free due to their automatic scholarships.