Posts

Showing posts from August, 2010

Chilling

Image
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...so goes the old JAWS promo. I thought the water for teachers would be a little safer when the Bush administration packed it in. First came Obama's "Race to the Top," (why must it always be a competition with winners and losers?) and then this bizarre notion of "value added" teachers from an article in the L. A. Times. Now you know by the sound of that phrase the business model applied to public education is alive and well. A small amount of research leads you to this wonderful paragraph from the Rand Corporation's study linking achievement tests to teacher "performance." (Hey, we're not trainin' seals heah!") What Is a Teacher Effect? Applications of VAM often model growth or gain scores as a means of measuring the effects of incremental inputs on incremental out- come—as the definition of value-added suggests (Hanushek, 1979).2 Appropriate interpretation of VAM results re

Grocery Store 2010

Image
I walk half a mile to my local the grocery store, I leave with one bag of popcorn and 38 words on a receipt; 4 inches of paper that includes the time and date, my cashier today's name, and reminders that if I click, they deliver, Today I returned to to the "friendliest store in town" to buy a paring knife. It came on a card shaped like a green apple and included a protective blade cover; Pictured were one lemon, one orange, one tomato, and one green apple because the knife comes in "Colors Inspired by Nature." The green apple nature inspired card also told me that my new paring knife is a Swiss innovation made from Japanese stainless steel It warns of sharp edges and to keep out of reach of children in English, Spanish, and French, The paring knife, like most everything I purchase was Made in China

Announcer Larry Collmus calls the 7th at Monmouth Park

Who says there is no magic in horse racing? This call will put Larry Collmus in the books...in the folklore...in the Hall of Fame.

Face the Music

Image
I suppose it's no surprise that Facebook has morphed into so many networking splinters. It seems like every time I go to a new food cart, it already has a Facebook page. A disgruntled airline flight attendant has a melt down and by that afternoon he has a few hundred followers on Facebook. This can't be good. And yet, there are some unpredictable side effects of posting a Facebook profile that are at once both fascinating and frightening. I guess we all have a few "friends" who aren't really. They have bored their way into our collection of people like small wild fish who enter any body of water that will have them. Irrigation ditches, farm ponds, isolated streams, creeks, lakes. Moved in like flood water, there they are and we really have no idea how they got there. Oh I know we could put the pieces together and probably figure it all out. Somebody's brother or sister, friend of a friend, follower of a follower, or even "accidents." People

Did The Bell Ring?

Image
The Back to School commercials couldn't even wait for August 1st this year. They slipped in before the last day in July. These are the days that mark the end of summer for teachers. It's the second week of August and already some are in their classrooms, attending meetings, adjusting schedules, making changes. Some are already teaching, so a former colleague told me last week. This 2010-11 school year will mark the 4th year now I won't be going back with them. My semi-retirement has been successful. My full-time days are over. I succeeded in securing a part-time position as Supervisor/Mentor for beginning teachers. STILL...I feel the pull. Of course, my "teacher dreams" continue, with new motifs. For awhile there, it was the I didn't really retire dream, I just did for a short while. I usually end up in these dreams in another school, often a MIddle School not high school, and always there is one class, the last in the day, that I somehow haven'