Buzz Words in Education

Blah blah blah lip service me...by fairytrixy

Talk about that complex far out stuff. Yea and twist your words around me!
When my eyes bulge and my teeth grind, eat me up and then verbally spank me!
Cause it's a rigorous rigorous spiral that I fell into here.
Skinny snappy crappy attitude makes me snarl.
You are the Eva Braun re-incarnate, make me mush
Down the rigorous spiral.
I want to galvanize your vocal cords so I don't have to hear you speak.
Frankenstein's boy will throw you into that rigorous rigorous spiral!
The one that hold me tight in this place!
Sure you can pick out the weak link and betray his last hope!
C-me crawling R-ight back to the pile, E-lectric shock, D-ough, O O O
I be thrown down a rigorous spiral, but I can grow my own,
Vegetables!!! Just like that I stuck in a rigorous mud hole....
I can sustain and it FREAKS ME OUT!!!
You can market the hell out of this place but you can't teach
a smart kid to like it...
Get me out of the rigorous spiral and make sure you include everyone!

smile phoenix!

smile phoenix!, a photo by fairytrixy on Flickr.

He is big and beautiful! He weighs 14 pounds and he is only ten months old.

A Letter to A Charter High School

After almost five months my son's IEP is still hanging and tenth grade is more than half over. I am soured on the way his high school is not supporting his needs. It is a right that he has and as usual no one really understands. Having an IEP means that he should NOT fail a class. It is the safegaurd against failing classes. In a class of under 40 students total there is no excuses for teachers and administration to marginalize any student.

This is a letter which they will get from me this week.

February 9, 2013

To: The Administration and Faculty of Credo High School

 

          I am concerned about the change that was made to the tenth grade curriculum at Credo High School. The change I am referring to is for the tract class Civil War/Civil Rights. It is not clear to me why it is formatted as a test taking skills class. If there is a need for the majority of the students to have tutoring for better study and test taking habits could that be addressed in a separate specific class? Furthermore it should be a class carrying less weight than a major history class needed to meet graduation requirements. Test taking should represent all forms of testing for various subjects.  

Short answer essay and long answer essay are a good method of knowing what a student is thinking. Memorizing names and dates does not show true understanding of historic events and periods. Process of elimination used as a method for answering on the multiple-choice format is very risky and seeds misinformation. The bigger picture is study skills that the students should be able to support each other with so that they know the correct answer rather than ruling out wrong answers. Trick or complicated multiple choice is not a good assessment of knowledge. There are two sides to a test. One is the test taker; the other is the test maker. There is a fine art to making a test and assuring that it serves all of the students in a fair manner. For instance if there are sections which involve matching listed items, it should all be located on one page, likewise for choosing a short answer to match a long statement or passage. I would go crazy if I had to flip pages to locate answers that all need to be used (i.e. match a-m to the correct statements 1-13). When a test requires knowledge based on implication the student should be allowed to justify their answer in a short answer or essay, because there is a wider margin of correct answers.

          I would like to know that the information imparted to all of the students about Civil Rights in the United States inspires them to participate in government by holding their attention. They should be doing a more in depth project to stimulate their awareness. They could stage mock trials based on court cases, write plays about human rights, host Peace Jam. I thought that Credo had designs to create presidential bound students. Sustainability has to reach beyond gardening and recycling. It must reach the deeper intellectual that lives in every student. It must come through by allowing each and every student a chance to shine not just those with a gift for music, or academic achievement. It must include the students who have a gift of organization for activism, alternative ideas that break paradigms, student government, and athletic excellence. Along with science and technology the future of this world will rely on the innovation related to Civil Rights and Laws. All of these are needed to appeal to post-secondary schools as much as GPA and met requirements, and SAT/ACT scores.

          In just a few months from now California will be the first state to have a non-white majority. This is big and Credo has the ingredients to evolve along with this change. There is also the fabulous opportunity of having Noah be a leader in educating about how to communicate with people who have issues with the brain and nervous system. There is no room left for people living with disability to be marginalized in society. Veterans of the Iraq and Middle Eastern occupations are suffering due to the lack of understanding about traumatic brain injury. Many of whom are taking their own lives because they have nowhere to turn for help. Our children at Credo, who will be faced with developing solutions that eliminate the relegation of people born with disabilities, have injury or sickness that creates disability. They will have to think of excellent solutions that will transform education, housing, transportation, medicine/health care, etc., which will be available to everyone.  

          My point is that Civil Rights are too important a topic to use it as a test taking skills class. Please consider changing the format of the class. Please also consider the way that the students chosen to demonstrate the giftedness that exists at Credo. I understand that due to funding some condensation of material is required for a healthy budget. I am always willing to make time to volunteer if I can help to facilitate a study hall or club to help students with study skills or special projects.

 

Sincerely,

Amy Leader

 

What we may never know is why...

The statement that President Obama made in a speech after the Aurora, CO mass shooting gave me some insight about how empty the words of a politician can be. He made known that whoever is guilty will be punished. He stated that they were gathering as much information about the suspect as possible. He then went on to say that what we will never know is why a person chooses to terrorize fellow human beings.

In listening to his voice this statement struck a chord in me. Please know that I in no way condone the use of terror and murder. In fact I am against the way that President Obama is using the drone technology to kill people. I understand he is proud of the high number of Al Qaeda leaders that have been targeted and killed by drone strikes and special force strikes. There are humans who have been terrorized and killed by drones who are not terrorists. The fact is that we the people do not know who is eliminated by proxy. Civilians have died, men, women, and children. A killing machine with no emotion or self regulation that terrorizes my fellow human beings.

Is it acceptable to let our military continue this practice in light of what it was like to have a human act as a machine with no off button in his soul? I think the suspect of what happened last Saturday in Aurora may have tried to express with his action what it must be like for people living outside of the U.S. to be terrorized. No chance to get away from a relentless remote controlled machine.

Mr. President Obama with all due respect to you how can you condone what you condemn about terror and killing? At some point it all must stop and we must be willing to embrace God's will. I was taught that forgiveness, grace, and peace is the truth that holds justice. Use the same ideology to end the killing that goes on in the name of the U.S. Focus on funneling the money from the military to education, housing and food for Americans. Use military to stop things like the epidemic of rape in the Congo. Find it in your heart to end drone attacks. Put an end to the selling of automatic weapons and ammunition in the U.S.

My heart goes out to all of the human beings that lived and died through what happened in that movie theater. No matter what is done it will never bring back the life you knew prior to such tragedy. You are all being told to not let it define who you are. I hope that it does define that there is NO justification for imposing such terror for any reason, ever.

Kooky kittens! Phoenix the Circus Cat and Oso Shady his shadow! They are 9 weeks old and they have won my heart.

They were from a good animal home. We searched in the shelters and saw many cuties. It has become a kind of racket as to everything they do which includes micro chipping and neutering once they weigh two pounds. These two will be indoors we have no outside space for them here.

It was so hard losing my Muddy who was almost 17 years old. I was seriously sad. I have lost cats and loved them dearly but this was very different. I still get all teary-eyed if I start thinking about my last minutes with him. I know I should feel happy and blessed about having all the years with such a beautiful friend. I hope he approves of these babies. some how I think he does.

Muddy Mudskipper

July 28 1995-June 12,2012

I am sorry that we are late....

It is hard to understand compulsive tasks that a child finds comforting.
It is hard wired into the soul and sometimes acts like a thief of time, and stamina.
Sometimes I have to choose between tasks that most people find easy to complete.
Most days I become a ring master of personal needs that have work arounds, and
there is no way to articulate why I made anger and frustration for those who are waiting for me, counting on me...

Organization lives under the chaos around me. It is overwhelming as I keep order for the activity,study,craft, and contact with others.
So what if there is not an inch of shelf space empty. Rocks,minerals,toys,coins,stamps,marbles, jewelry,comic books,....all part of a subconcious collection. The worth is the same as the value of my soul, and if I could and I will try, to remain open to watching the compulsive child live his way into helping other people like his self.  

I just keep begging pardon for my tardiness by explaining that it is an investment for the future.

Photo of Venus Transit

On June 5,2012 there was a Transit of Venus (that is the little dot passing the sun) and the people who will view the next have not been born yet!

Gimme Shelter but Don't Fence Me In

"Do I look OK or do I look like I am frying?" One of my favorite quirky things to say to someone when asked this super silly question was,

"Well, I can almost see right through you so I doubt if anyone will even detect your presence."

This always made people stop and stare for a good 3-5 minutes followed by a huge roar of laughter.

Remaining "under the radar" is not something that today's teen thrill seekers have mastered. It is not even on the basic agenda. This may not be a good trend for the art of staying out of trouble and keeping one another safe.

One trend that I find repulsive is "cutting". It is the action of using a sharp object (knife,glass fragment, razors, etc.) to make cuts on the arms, legs, torso, or other body parts. Some kids do it enough to form big thick ugly scars that will remain for life. The claim of addiction is weak. I was confronted by one teen who we had an intervention for. She said,

"you have no idea what it is like because YOU HAVE NEVER CUT!"

I did everything to keep from losing it. I held my breath as she stared me down. I finally cracked and screeched back at her,

"Wow! Of course, you know this to be true? I have never cut?  You are wrong, I have cut myself many times. It was never on purpose because it hurts and why would I hurt myself on purpose?

"Huh?"

"The accusation of having no empathy because, I HAVE NEVER CUT IS WRONG!"

She said no more and turned away from me. I thought, how cheap to blast me with such accusations and then not even try to argue over it. I felt cheated, and vexed.

"You are addicted to self inflicted pain and mutilating your flesh for the right of passage that I cannot claim?'

There was a pause, then she spoke,

"Did you have fun when you were in high school? Your generation got to play out all of your rushes in the most deviant ways. You drank in bars at age 14, you roamed to all kinds of concerts, you got to take E and LSD, and smoked herbs,cigarettes, you had it all. You cannot even pretend that you did not love every second of fun you had!"

I could not understand what it all has to do with cutting?

"All of those things are dangerous."

She read my mind and then walked away.

My provocative statement to parents is about discovery to replace  experimentation with chemicals in some way. Because our children are cutting and strangling to feel high we must fill in the large gaping hole we left smoking.

It appears that our children can almost see right through us.