"The STANDARDS"

Teachers these days do not "teach" what they want to or what the students "need".   Instead, the goal is to cover the standards.  The STATE dictates what the teachers teach, through these standards, then the school administration gives teachers a curriculum with which to follow.  Testing is mandated, standardized and checked with even more "benchmark testing".
Can you imagine being an elementary student in today's schools....

We are all so important

Social Networking and Cell Phones...

We all are so important now.  How many "friends" do you have...?  [ oh wait, they aren't really friends, but just connections made on the internet ]  It's a FACE book they say,  not a friends book.  I once started a face book page and then turned it off for 1 hour.  When I came back 17 people who I did not know wanted to be my friend.
R  E  A  L  L  Y?
I have to admit - I'm  really am not so that important that someone would want to call me, or mygod -  send me a  T  E  X  T....  Naw, just not that important.
But soon we will all be sitting in front of the terminals, maybe not being able to communicate verbally.

Sorry for the delay ! LOL

Just can't see the point of it. Well, I do but its so much work to futz with the computer

But here it is... a winter photograph from "the root garden" which is housed on the property in Martinsville. There is also a video of the root garden @ http://cattanach.org/moviepage/rootgarden.wmv I have added to the garden, and hopefully will add a pic or two.

Visiting the BLOG

It's really tough when you realize that you "blog" less than twice a year. But, then again, I don't have that much to say that anyone would want to read. As most of you know, I teach in an Elementary School. I will say that the students are coddled beyond belief. They are so spoiled that if they every even tie their shoes on their own... the adult near by will utter the universal chant... "good job". Most students get a "good job" for simply breathing or walking. It's a sad situation.

Moving Snow

The Government takes over Public Schools

It was bound to happen. The government creates their list of "standards". These are absolutes demanded by the state. They then codify these standards and all schools must write lesson plans which use these standards and only these standards.

Where is the club? The government does inspections and evaluates the plans. If the the plans are not to the standards that the government require they list the school as failing.

The government can require the school districts to use proprietary software to write the plans. The plans are then stored on server farms. This gives them more control over monitoring the teachers and making sure that the predetermined standards are followed.

What is really odd - this isn't Communist China, or North Korea. It's New Jersey in the United States of America.

Mad Men take the Lead

To the Lakeview "Study Group"
With the loss of "24" and " L O S T " there are no really great shows to follow[IMHO] so, the study group will now follow

MadMen

a fabulous period piece with excellent acting, directing and writing. Since MadMen is being shown Sunday @ 10 pm we will need to DVR and have our discussions on Tuesday.