Inside Four Walls: This is our future...

A teacher was telling us a story about some senior in her class. Apparently, he ran a Stop sign and missed a day of school to fight the ticket. He took in a picture of the Stop sign and told the judge he couldn't see it because it was blocked by overgrown trees. The judge looked at the picture and agreed with him and dismissed the ticket. Here's the kicker, he told his teacher and friends at school that he just ran the Stop sign, but didn't want to pay the ticket. So he took a picture of the sign and photoshopped in a bunch of trees to make it look like he couldn't see the sign.

So here is a senior going into the real world who obviously sees nothing wrong with lying in court and then bragging about it.

I don't know what is wrong with this generation, but this behavior to me doesn't make sense. Maybe it is our school, because we are hearing rumors that someone broke into the room with the AP exams to steal a test. That's pretty extreme, except we have heard now that this person went through the ceiling to get into that room...true story.

The Last Laugh: Patriot Act gets Extended

Now The Huffington Post isn't a site that most conservatives would go to on a daily basis, but I do. Why? Because I love to see the hypocrisy in the liberal way of thinking and freak out when the President actually does something "Republican-like".

Which brings us to the Patriot Act. Obama signed an extension of it last night. Now two things are funny here; first Obama blasted Bush on Gitmo and things like the Patriot Act and yet now since he has become President, he understands the importance of it. Second, the reaction of the liberals on The Huffington Post site.

Inside Four Walls: Seniors 2011...gone

Today was the last day of school for the seniors this year, of course they will still be at school for graduation practice, but classes are done for them.

I have a class of all seniors this year and we took our final on Monday, so that gave us 3 days of "extra time". So instead of throwing parties or letting them screw around for 3 days straight I had them watch some of the best episodes of Scrubs. These are the ones we watched, funny thing is that these are considered some of the best episodes, and for good reason. You can click the link to watch the full episodes on youtube or just watch the clips.

My Old Lady


My Five Stages


My Screw Up


My Lunch


My Fallen Idol


My Finale (not on Youtube...sorry)


All great episodes. By the time we hit today and watched My Finale, the students were tearing up and crying because of course My Finale is about JD leaving Sacred Heart and the students are leaving school. Believe it or not, a couple were able to see the reason for me choosing that as the last episode to show them.

Music Non Stop: New In Flames - A New Dawn

Well maybe this song will stay on youtube longer than Deliver Us did. Anyway, another solid song. I can't find anything to complain about here. After A Sense of Purpose, I had lost hopes for another solid album, but this one is shaping up to be something special.

Thoughts Without Words: And yet another reason why...

...people hate education.

When most people went to school, they went to get an education. They showed up on time because they knew every minute counted. They showed up everyday because they didn't want to miss a day and fall behind. So why and when did those expectancies change? And more importantly, when did educators/parents/politicians give up on holding kids accountable to learn?

In Texas, a district is going to raffle a car off every year for students who show up to class and earn good grades. Why does everything come with a bribe? Why can't students just do it because it's important for their future, not because they can get a new car out of it?

And we wonder why this nation is falling apart?

Inside Four Walls: L.A. Unified catches up to the rest of the state...

Maybe that's a little harsh, but we have been changing final grades based on their CST scores for about 5 years now.

The concept is pretty simple, if the students improve from their previous year they get some extra "enhancements" to their grade. Now at our school that's pretty hard to do, since most of the students are proficient or advanced. In fact, all we want is proficient or advanced, so if they want that enhancement then they need to score advanced or proficient.

And I think we should remember this quote when politicians and others want to tie test scores to teacher salary;

"We're always looking for a way to motivate kids to do better in school," said Jefferson High Principal Michael Taft. "I'd see them bubbling in carelessly and say, 'Are you reading that question?' They would say, 'No I'm tired.' They had multiple excuses." 

He estimated that 50% weren't trying hard.

That's right...50% don't try. So tell me again how fair and logical it is to tie my pay to someone that isn't even trying?

The other thing in the article that peaked my interest was this little line;

The L.A. Unified plan also applies to Advanced Placement tests, which are nationally administered. L.A. Unified students who take AP classes already benefit from "weighted grades," meaning that they receive more points per class, which can significantly raise grade-point averages. Under the new plan, a "passing" score on the college-level AP exams will allow students to achieve an automatic A in that course.

Anyone else hear that? That's the sound of the ACLU knocking on your door telling you this is illegal.

Thoughts Without Words: Final Wonder Woman costume...

I think.

You would think I would have run out of Wonder Woman costume posts by now (HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE), but apparently not. Now for those somewhat out of the loop, NBC piloted a new Wonder Woman TV show. They released one design, with the blue boots, that pissed off the entire comic nerd world. So they touched them up and made them red. The other travesty was that she was wearing pants instead of shorts. Now I actually didn't think the blue pants with red boots was all that bad, it was a good update. Now at the time the producers claimed she would wear shorts, but no one really thought they would do it...until now.

That is hands down the best version of the suit. I looks like Wonder Woman came off the pages of a comic and into real life. The plot was kind of stupid, but at least they got the costume right...and then they cancelled the show before it aired.  Nicely done.

Music Non Stop: New Sepultura - Kairos

I have always had a soft spot for Sepultura. When this blog was created, they were basically the first band I talked about, HERE & HERE & HERE and one more HERE. Honestly, since Max left they have had one good album, Roorback. When I needed some tribal metal I went to Soulfly.  Well that may change.

When I heard that Roy Z. was going to produce their new album, Kairos, I was excited and cautiously optimistic. You see Roy Z. is one of my favorite producers of all time. His work with Halford, Bruce Dickinson, and Helloween has given us some great modern power metal. Whatever the man touches sounds like gold. It's always crisp and heavy.

So that brings up to Kairos
Kairos by sepulturacombr
pretty impressive. The second half of 2011 is sounding pretty good right now. In Flames, Trivium, Nightrage, and now Sepultura. This is probably the best year for music since I started this blog in 06.

Music Non Stop: New Trivium - In Waves

Wow...this is good, not as good as Shattering the Skies Above, but still better than most of The Crusade. As of right now, I still have Mercenary or Times of Grace as my favorite album, but this might make the top spot.  Trivium is easily my favorite "new band" out there right now and this new song is hopefully the tip of the iceberg.

Thoughts Without Words: Preach on...

I found this on Joanne Jacobs site. I won't add anything else except AMEN.

They (state tests) are even less reliable as indicators of teachers’ performance. For reasons that have been brought up again and again, reasons given by scholars, teachers, policymakers, and others, test scores should not decide a teacher’s fate or override human judgment. There are simply too many unstable factors–the tests themselves, the students’ lives, conditions on the day of the test–that make the scores inaccurate indicators of what a teacher is accomplishing. 

In an op-ed in the New York Daily News, Arthur Goldstein points out that students’ efforts are not uniform: “For example, how much television does a student watch? … If my students don’t know how to read, haven’t been in school for the past six years or refuse to put a mark on a piece of paper, is it my fault? If a kid was dragged to the U.S. against his will and simply won’t learn English, should I be penalized?” (Having taught ESL, I have seen these situations.)

It's a good read and the comments are thoughtful as well.