Text 10847, 123 rader
Skriven 2007-01-22 22:58:50 av hap newsom
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly
Ärende: RE: Flat Stanley                                             [1]
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Mawnin Mizz Ruth!
-> 
-> -> She keeping a short timer's calendar?
-> 
->  hn> LOL nope, she's too busy doing her best to get this group as ready as
->  hn> possible! Wednesday night we went to the School Board meeting as 
they
->  hn> were honoring the 6 teachers in the district that passed the National
->  hn> Board Certification process. It was a very nice ceremony and they 
gave
->  hn> certified, as research has shown that the people who do it really have
->  hn> a large impact on the students, school and even the district's level
->  hn> of achievement.
-> 
-> So let's hope they seriously recognise her work and implement her
-> suggestions.
-> 
She already is known quite well for her skills, this will give her a little
more 
poundage when she expresses an opinion though. 

-> ->  hn> gaps we filled em in ourselves. A childs first and most important
-> ->  hn> educators are the parents...sadly most parents shirk that job to a
-> ->  hn> great extent and the kids are the ones who suffer for it.
->  hn> ->
-> -> Sad, but a lot of parents now don't know the basics themselves.  I was,
-> -> for the most part, a stay at home mom (worked part time a bit in
-> -> Germany) so I was able to keep up with the girls teachers.  Had some
-> -> high school teachers that we had to talk to, and then they didn't follow
-> 
->  hn> You are so right about the parents not knowing much 
themselves...the
->  hn> school Anne teaches in is a classic example of the district she
->  hn> teaches in as
->  hn> well....the gap between the demographics is huge, the kids seem to 
be
->  hn> from either end of the extremes from a gated community in a
->  hn> "McMansion" or from a trailer with cars on blocks in the front yard.
->  hn> Several of the teachers refer to
->  hn> this group that Anne's teaching now as "the year of cheap crack"
->  hn> because they are so "slow" as an entire grade level. Sadly they may
-> 
-> What a demographic difference!  Rachel had the 2nd group of kids in GA;
-> the two years she taught in AZ, the kids were more like the first group.
-> Not all, but quite a signifigant difference.
-> 
It is a stark reminder of the gap between very very rich and dirt poor. The 
kids in k, 1, and 2nd grade don't pay much attention to it...but by the time 
they get to third grade they start to notice the differences and it's sad to 
see how it works out. 
-> 
->  hn> not be far from the truth! We were lucky in Highschool, Amanda was 
in
->  hn> the I B program and every teacher there had been highly screened 
and
->  hn> only the very very VERY best were teaching in the program. I still am
->  hn> friends with most of them and they are as a group of teachers the
->  hn> finest I think I've ever met.
-> 
-> We don't have contact with any of the teachers our girls had in high
-> school.  Deborah has thought of looking up her main JROTC instructor &
-> letting him know what she's doing. (G)
-> 
As I said, I volunteered in the school and met and helped almost all the IB 
teachers at one point or another. And the kids were special to me as well! 
Didn't matter if you were rich or poor, if you could hack the program you 
were "in" and if you didn't you were back into the general school population. 
It took a lot of work and a huge commitment to stay in the program and by 
the end of it most of the kids were great friends.

-> -> don't have to resort to junk food.  Last night the youth did the prep,
-> -> serving and clean up of our Wed. night supper; it looked like they had
-> -> more in the kitchen than needed but if everybody had a job.......they
-> -> did a great job of spaghetti & meat sauce, salad and brownies.
->  hn> ->
->  hn> As good a start into easy to prepare dishes as you can
->  hn> find...spaghetti is good, did they make the sauce from scratch or was
->  hn> it "Ragu"?
-> 
-> I think it was from scratch; didn't taste like Ragu.
-> 
Scratch is more fun to make that's for sure!

-> -> Then if she learns it well, it may become something a bit more
-> -> enjoyable.  Getting the learning part down so she can do the job well
-> -> may be hard but she'll appeciate it later.
-> 
->  hn> Yes, it's a very complex computer program on statistical population
->  hn> dynamics (I think it got that right) in an ecological community (or
->  hn> food web) and since it has so many variables it's really a hard one to
->  hn> keep grasp of ( I think!). Amanda's reputation as a hard and good
-> 
-> 
-> As a former sociology major/psycholgy minor, that one sounds
-> intriguing.But, I'd be looking at it from a people standpoint, not
-> marine life.
-> 
-> 
it's very intricate I guess, complex variables when the same "subject" can be 
predator to one species and prey to another.

->  hn> worker has spread, she's got three job offers going right now; (1) to
->  hn> offer as well and so I looks like she's going to have a LOT of funding
->  hn> choices for the rest of the year. She's trying to see if she can do
->  hn> the TA'ing this next quarter, and the RA'ing the quarter after that,
->  hn> and hold off on the teaching of the class till next year. Seems she in
->  hn> great demand now that they know how good she is (proud daddy 
grin!).
-> 
-> She sounds like a daughter to be proud of.  I've got an elementary
-> school teacher working on her Master's for one daughter and a soldier,
-> with some college but not near a degree yet for the other.  Second one
-> never had high school chemistry but just scored 90 (out of 100) on a
-> chem based test for a military class she's taking. Couple of smart
-> cookies there.
-> 
I'd be proud of her no matter what...but she sure makes it easy to be the 
proud dad, she has a great work ethic.

chat with you soon
hap 
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