Oh Al Gore haven't you learned yet that all the global warming myths you have been talking about for years now are starting to be debunked? Maybe you have that's why to get some attention back to you, you compare global warming to racism;
“I remember, again going back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding, there were two things that really made an impression on me,” Gore said. “My generation watched Bull Connor turning the hose on civil rights demonstrators and we went, ‘Whoa! How gross and evil is that?’ My generation asked old people, ‘Explain to me again why it is okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different?’ And when they couldn’t really answer that question with integrity, the change really started.”
The former vice president recalled how society succeeded in marginalizing racists and said climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner.
“Secondly, back to this phrase ‘win the conversation,’” he continued. “There came a time when friends or people you work with or people you were in clubs with — you’re much younger than me so you didn’t have to go through this personally — but there came a time when racist comments would come up in the course of the conversation and in years past they were just natural. Then there came a time when people would say, ‘Hey, man why do you talk that way, I mean that is wrong. I don’t go for that so don’t talk that way around me. I just don’t believe that.’ That happened in millions of conversations and slowly the conversation was won.”
“We have to win the conversation on climate,” Gore added.
Wow...just wow. This man could have been president. How you can compare racism to global warming is beyond me. One is morally wrong. God said to love one another, pretty cut and dry. The other, not so much. It seems like every day now we hear another report that debunks his crazy "end of the world" scenarios.
Let's face it teachers and education in general are under constant scrutiny and attack right now. So it doesn't help that a movie called Bad Teacher is coming out. I saw a huge cut out of this poster in a theater.
Yeah that's classy..."eat me". The trailer isn't any better. Cursing, drug references, and sexual innuendos are just the tip of the iceberg. I know it's a movie and it's totally fake, but unfortunately people are going to see this and think it's real and teachers are really like this. Hey just one more reason to get into education right now. How about a new slogan for the department of education, "Education: we used to be a respectable profession."
Clearly the student is in the wrong. The teacher tells him to sit down and he uses his body to push her in the corner and then screams at her. Teacher's response? Punch him.
I think the worst part is the girl who actually yells at the teacher saying she had no right to hit him. Boggles my mind...it really does.
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.
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?
Cheating happens. It always has and unfortunately, it always will. But what should a school do about it? At our school if a student is caught cheating on a test, sorry "violating test conditions" (we aren't allowed to call it cheating anymore), or copying homework for the first time, nothing really happens to them. In fact, all they have to do is get a piece of paper signed by their parents. Not even a detention. No one really understands why that policy is in place, but it is.
Anyway, I mentioned this story from a couple of months ago about the whole Facebook group/cheating scandal. And now there is some fallout, if you will. There were a total of 70 students in the group, out of about 100-110, at least 29 are on Facebook as cheating. When the teachers took the information to the administration, they didn't get the response they were looking for. At first they were told that the students that created the group, but the others wouldn't be called in for cheating. One counselor said that the teachers would need the assignments to compare answers. That is hilarious that they would take that stance, considering online the student literally said "hey I need the answers to the homework, who wants to help me out?". And then you saw a bunch of responses with the answers. I guess that isn't enough proof.
The group has been shut down and now all of the cheaters are being called in. The sad part is that no one knows what their punishment is yet. It's one of those "you cheated, we know you did, but we don't know what we are going to do yet." and send them back to class. We have only like 9 days of school left, you would think there would be a policy in place as to how to handle this.
One last thought, the teachers drafted a letter to the parents explaining what happened and how they should monitor their kids a bit more. They sent it to the administrators for approval and...they were told to hold off on sending it out. I'm not sure why, but talking to the teachers they feel frustrated at how long it is taking to figure this out.
Worst part, the students don't think they did anything wrong.
...and surprisingly she is suspended by the school. Not surprisingly though, the mom thinks the punishment is too harsh.
Dell'isola said she agreed that the post was offensive but thought the punishment was extreme and her daughter was entitled to free speech.
"In hindsight, she's mortified that she said that, but she's a 13-year-old kid," Dell'isola said. Dell'isola said she usually monitors her daughter's use of the social networking website but found out about the post when she received a phone call from the school's principal. She said a parent of one of the girl's friends reported the comment.
The concerned mother was urging the school to remove her daughter from class and give her a private math tutor instead of the suspension.
"You are denying her an education based on something she did at home. That's my business, not your business," Dell'isola said.
So if someone wished her daughter dead, do you think she would say that was "freedom of speech"? Once again a parent is making excuses for their children, instead of teaching them right & wrong.
I don't think people outside of education realize how much has changed from even 10 years ago. It used to be if you wanted to go to prom, you asked the girl. Now? It's a whole big production, seriously it's like these guys are asking the girl to get married. It's a joke and a waste of time. Think about how much time went into this. Now, that is how much time that was spend not studying for a test or doing homework for a class...yeah let's tie test scores to teacher's salary.
By the way, this took place at the other high school in our district, so this is what we deal with. Good times, right? I always tell my male students not to make a big deal out of asking a girl to prom. And if I find out they did, I will take their "Man Card" away from them. Funny thing is, years after I started saying this, I saw this Scrubs episode...with Man Cards...classic!
So yesterday my students were taking a test and I will loan out a calculator if a student forgot theirs. So during the test a student came up and asked, "Where's the radical button on this calculator?" I thought it was pretty obvious...just sitting there next to the x^2 button. So I pointed it out to the student to which they responded, "that's the square root button, I need the radical button." I must have gave a pretty funny expression because my TA started to laugh a little. I told the student, "you do realize a radical is a square root?" To which the student said "oh yeah...I forgot."
Funny, but at the same time a bit sad. This is a Geometry student. I have had a lot of "really?" type questions and this one is now one of my favorites. It's up there with the student who put in 0 * (-4) because the student wanted to make sure it was 0 and not -0. Good times.
So as the U.S. and the world are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, Rashard Mendenhall (a running back for the Steelers) decided to share his views;
What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side...
Wow...that's pretty amazing. I wonder what bin Laden's side was? Oh yeah...it's because we are Americans. This genius decides to keep on rolling though into Charlie Sheen type territory;
We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style
conspiracy theorist!!! I know the NFL is in lock out right now, so maybe if Mendenhall isn't too busy he can go ahead and read this Popular Mechanics article that explains how a plane can "take a skyscraper down".
Seriously, how hard is it to make a movie based on a comic book that has such a vast history to pull from. And when you call a franchise "First Class", seems like it would be pretty easy to just look up who the "First Class" was and go with it.
Of course, I am talking about the new X-Men movie. I talked about it HERE once already. And I just can't see how they messed up the team. Everyone knows Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast (human form), and Angel.
Seems easy enough right? Well here is a screen capture from the new trailer. Let's see;
WTF?!?! Banshee? Havok?? Who is now Cyclops' dad instead of younger brother???? Magneto? Mystique???? Seriously HOW CAN YOU SCREW IT UP!!!!
And what is up with Havok's costume? He looks like a character in Tron that has his Identity Disk on backwards. At least they got Emma Frost's suit somewhat right.
On it's own it might be a fine movie, but come on too many X-Men fans are familiar with the back story to believe something like this.
I was reading off grades to my students the other day. Our computer program also gives us the ability to see their entire schedule and grades, so if they want to know I tell them. Usually there is a strong correlation between math & science. The grades are usually similar.
This one student asks for the grades of all his classes and I see that the student has an A in science and an F in my class. I ask the student why, because they are usually the same. The student looks at me and says, "Honestly, Mr. W? I can't cheat in your class, you make it too hard for me to do it."
The first "two-time" Free Speech for the Dumb award goes to our former governor of CA.
For those who haven't been paying much attention in CA our governor decided to reduce the sentence of a convicted killer right before his term expired. The attention grabbing part was that is was Fabian Nunez's son, Fabian was the former speaker. Schwarzenegger has tried to defend it, but he finally let his true feelings show;
“I feel good about the decision .... I happen to know the kid really well. I don’t apologize about it,” said Schwarzenegger, who noted in his commutation order that Esteban Nuñez, 21, did not deliver the fatal wound that led to Santos’ death. “There’s criticism out there. I think it’s just because of our working relationship and all that. It maybe was kind of saying, ‘That’s why he did it.’ Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend.”
Wow...wow. I got nothing...seriously, this is why CA is messed up and why no one trusts politicians.
I don't know if this is funny or what, but in CA the Legislature would get to a car to use at the tax payers expense. They are looking at cutting that out or back. Anyway, the Sacramento Bee looked at the claims made by the CA Legislature and compared it to the national average. Here's what they found;
Of 122 claims lawmakers filed from 2006 through 2010, 59 involved what the insurance industry would consider collisions. For a fleet that ranged between 103 and 111 vehicles, that's about 11 collision claims each year per 100 vehicles.
The national average for collision claims in 2008-10 was 7.5 per 100 passenger cars each year and 6.1 per 100 SUVs each year, according to Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president at the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry data center.
These are our elected officials getting in all of these accidents! How can this be?
Lawmakers are required to carry their own liability insurance for the personal use of the cars, but the state nonetheless paid three claims over the past five years that involved relatives of legislators driving the state car.
• The state paid claims of $19,037 in 2006 after Maria Robles, wife of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, rear-ended another car in Núñez's state-issued car, causing injury.
• The son of former Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, drove her car into oncoming traffic in 2006, causing an accident and $22,546.52 in damages. Garcia told the Orange County Register that her son was sick and she could not drive him home from the Capitol, where he was attending a ceremony with her.
• The wife of Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was driving him to an airport in the state-issued car and hit a disabled vehicle, causing a $32,678 claim.
So wait, why are we paying for relatives? That makes no sense. They are elected officials how come they get the perks? No wonder CA is screwed up.
Because instead of focusing on education & helping students the California Federation of Teachers decided to pass a resolution to support a convicted cop killer...nice.
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) last month passed a resolution reaffirming their support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was sentenced to death in the 1982 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner during a routine traffic stop.In the resolution, the CFT alleges Abu-Jamal’s trial was unfair and calls the former radio journalist a civil rights hero.
Seriously, what business does a teacher's union have passing a resolution like this? Anyone?
Just a couple of "quick hit" stories that helps you understand why people are fed up with education.
First up, Chicago. Seems that the principal of an elementary school was tired of seeing kids bring "unhealthy" food into her school, so what does she do? Bans all lunches from home. The principal thinks she is being a savior to these kids;
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.
"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."
Can anyone say "nanny-state"? So now the school has to pay for everyone's lunch? Yeah that makes sense. You can't force someone to not bring a lunch unless you are going to pay for one.
Next up, Maine. Everyone talks about how education needs to bring more technology into the classroom. Sounds good right? Well why not give every kindergartner a brand new iPad2? Sure what's the big deal it's only going to set the district back $200,000.
Just a couple bone-head decisions that make everyday people hate us just a bit more.
Via Joanne Jacobs; Some high school students volunteered at a local elementary to pass out Easter eggs, but since we live in the time of political correctness and having anything relate to Christianity is wrong, they passed out spring spheres instead; "I went to the teacher to get her approval and she wanted to ask the administration to see if it was okay," Jessica explained. "She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat 'spring spheres.' I couldn't call them Easter eggs."
Rather than question the decision, Jessica opted to "roll with it." But the third graders had other ideas.
"When I took them out of the bag, the teacher said, 'Oh look, spring spheres' and all the kids were like 'Wow, Easter eggs.' So they knew," Jessica said. How stupid have we become as a society. First off a sphere is a round ball, not an oval shape. And when...nevermind. Just nevermind. When are people going to stand up and fight stuff like this?
People don't understand that things like this happen all the time. We had a special ed student last year who had it in his IEP that he could not have anything searched without the parent's permission first. Apparently, the student was "forgetful" and might put something bad in there.
Special ed is certainly a beast of its own. Like Buckhorn's story, the one above, or mine from earlier in the year in which the parents were able to get the 50/50 grade split they wanted, despite my best efforts. And one question I would have to all politicians who want to link my pay to test scores would be; what do we do with special ed students? Are they going to be counted "against us"?
Discipline in high schools and education everywhere is out of control, but when you put an IEP into the mix, teachers have zero chance of doing what is right. Administrators don't want to take on special ed and it takes away any authoritative power we might have.
Got this from Ricochet yesterday. A teacher was in her room when a robber came in took her purse, roughed her up, and left when she threw her hot tea on him.
When schools, especially before school starts, aren't safe anymore you know we have no respect.
Seems that an 8 year old student in Colorado was misbehaving and when the teachers went to remove him he started throwing chairs, spitting at them, cursing, and even picked up a sharp piece of wood. The teachers felt that it wasn't a safe environment so they went into another room.
What did the student do? Well he did what any 8 year old would say,
"I said I'm going to kill you once you get out of that room."
hmmm I don't remember saying that when I was 8.
Well the police showed up to take control of the situation. Clearly, any young child would know that when the police are around it isn't fun and games anymore and it is time to be serious. So what did young Aidan say?
Lakewood Police Officer Steve Davis said that when they arrived on the scene Aidan told them, "I will kill you mother effers," Davis said.
Ouch. Looks like someone isn't going to become a junior officer anytime soon with that response.
So the officers pepper sprayed him to get him under control. Extreme? Nope. Clearly this kid has no boundaries and he needed to have that done to teach him a lesson.
So how could the school be wrong here? I mean here's a student going nuts, threatening teachers and other students, so they call the police. Well the mom sees it a bit differently;
"I think there is a problem, but it's with school and Aidan," Mandy Elliot said. "It only happens at school. It doesn't happen at soccer. It doesn't happen at swimming. It doesn't happen with babysitters, with family members."
Here's a great quote that totally contradicts that statement though;
Aidan's mother said that she's tried putting her son on medication to improve his behavior, but it didn't work.
So wait? If it only happens at school, why put him on medication?
Well mother of the year isn't done yet. She is also an expert in negotiations...who knew?
"I think they should have approached him, tried to talk to him, even if it was from a distance. You talk to him and you find out what it is that's botherhing him as well. You don't just walk in, ask him to stop and then spray," Elliot said.
So she admits they told him to stop, but he didn't so they sprayed him. This is what most parents would recognize as following through. Obviously this is the kind of mom that threatens to take away and never does. The kind of mom that says if I count to 3 and then say 2 and a half, 2.... How many times should the police have to tell someone to stop doing something? It's the police!
If the mom's quotes weren't great enough, the kid clearly comes from the same gene pool. Here's his reason for threatening the teachers in the first place;
"I was rowdy on the bus...They didn't let me do something I wanted to do. We needed to do stuff, but they wouldn't let me. They put me in a corner with chairs and they called my mom," he said. "It was really the teachers because I just got really upset with them."
So it's the teachers fault. Of course, if they would have just let him keep misbehaving then none of this would have happened. Geeze, how rude of the teachers to try and make him behave.
Here's the story from Good Morning America;
I ask again, why would anyone want to be a teacher now? Here's a kid out of control to the point of police needing to use pepper spray and the mom blames the school.
Before anyone says, he is 8, the teachers could have controlled him. First, if they would have and the kid got hurt, then they are going to get sued. So I don't blame them for not doing it. Secondly, my mom was an elementary teacher and I would call her a pretty no nonsense teacher. She raised 3 boys and she had an 8 year old throw a desk at her. She told her principal that he needed to be removed from her class or an officer would need to be in there all the time because she didn't feel safe. Of course, the principal told her she is over-reacting. She eventually got an officer in her room for the rest of the year. But the point is 8 year olds aren't perfect little angels and can harm someone physically.
I'm fed up with parents like this. They never hold their kids accountable. And once again you have the old saying, "and if this kid isn't advanced or proficient, then the teachers are considered bad teachers." Right...
I am a mathematics teacher at Walnut High School. I graduated from Walnut in 1995 and began teaching here at Walnut in 2004. I am married to my high school sweetheart (who happens to be a teacher in the disctrict as well) and have a beautiful baby girl. In 2008, we had a new addition to our family, a baby boy. I enjoy my job, love my family, and I can't complain because I have a great life. And I thank God as often as I can for it.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG ARE MY OWN, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF WALNUT VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT.
