Friday, January 29, 2010

THAT'S IT! I'M SO TOTALLY SWITCHING TO KPFA!



I usually start my day getting ready for another fun adventure at Camp Nickleby by listening to Morning Edition on quasi-liberal National Public Radio. Thursday morning, while listening to a report on the Sundance Film Festival, I almost kicked a whole through one of my vintage JBL L100 studio monitors!

Lisa Kennedy, a film critic for The Denver Post, offered a review of this year's Sundance Film Festival. Here is what she had to say about the latest, anti-public school propaganda from the lunatics on the right.

“The other film that I really loved was Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for Superman," which is about the sort of disaster of our public education system (huh?). And I think one of the amazing things about this film is that he followed five children who wind up in five various lotteries for charter schools. And by the time you get to the lottery, if you aren't a parent, you feel like a parent, and if you are a parent, you feel like these are your children.


And it is so unnerving watching any of these children wait to find out whether they're going to be saved from their failing schools and afforded an opportunity for a great school (huh?), and I think it's such a great articulation of the unfairness of where our public education system is right now. It's a really good film.”


Good job, Lisa! Yeah, just use the same, unquantified rhetoric that the wingnuts use. Where did you study journalism, in a Cracker Jacks box?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

REALLY? NO, REALLY?

More proof that we truly have become a nation of morons!

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/01/fox-leads-for-trust.html




And a staff member of ACORN really thought this loon was a PIMP? REALLY?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

NEW ADDITION TO OUR CAMP LIBRARY


With some of our stimulus money, our librarian was able to purchase some new books!
Thanks to Jesus' General blog!!! Bless you!!!


Monday, January 25, 2010

BOOK REVIEW



Received this book as a Christmas gift and have finally found the time to sit down and start reading it. Book review to follow this week!


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Don't ask the question if you don't want the answer

Nothing warms the heart of a teacher more than when asking a tardy student why he is late to class, he responds with the answer, "I was talking to my parole officer!" Happened to me this morning. Just a nice warm and fuzzy to start the day.

I have also noticed the proliferation of IN LOVING MEMORY OF . . . t-shirts being worn by the little darlins, as they exit their family's IN LOVING MEMORY OF . . . SUVs. Usually, these become quite ubiquitous at the camp during the spring semester, especially after Easter break, when many of the darlins' poor driving, not to mention poor drinking skills, become apparent.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Can't wait to get back to camp

After three weeks off for winter (Christmas?) break, it is time to put the shoulder to the grindstone again. I spent my last day of freedom grading a stack of student work! What fun, and I still have a load to finish up before Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. Not sure why, but I looked at my emails and found this lovely.

Indiana Board Approves New Teacher Licensing Rules.

The AP (1/7, Martin) reported that the Indiana panel "overseeing teacher licensing has approved new rules Indiana's state superintendent says will allow future educators to spend less time learning how to teach and more time focused on subject matter*. The Division of Professional Standards Advisory Board on Thursday approved the proposal, which had drawn sharp opposition from universities and others who said Superintendent Tony Bennett shouldn't dictate college curriculums." The "rule approved Thursday allows students who want to be high school teachers to major in secondary education, but only if a college's secondary education program meets or exceeds the content requirements of a specific subject major, such as math or physics."

*Yeah, why the hell would we want teachers to know 'how' to teach. Hell, anybody can teach! It's easy. As long as they know the subject matter, right? Hmmmmmm, not so much. I've run into a bunch of brainiacs who know their stuff, but can't teach a kid with a learning disability if their lives depended on it. Gawd, it just gets better and better, don't it? Thanks YHWH I don't work in Indiana.