Thursday, October 28, 2004

A chance for my thoughts

I finally get to breathe. We are having an assembly this period, which is my planning period, which means I am not going. I wanted to write yesterday, but I spent my planning period making last minute arrangements for our field trip. I am taking my students to see some plays. I am trying give them some culture. Anyway, homecoming was beautiful! The girls looked so pretty, as did their escorts. One of my co-workers owns a funeral home, so he let us use his limos. We had 9 girls and 2 limos. As each maid was announced, her escort helped her out of the limo. They looked like such gentlemen. Oh yeah, right before homecoming, a group of 8 girls performed a dance routine. It was so cute. They worked really hard. It showed. They performed waaay better than the cheerleaders. I was proud of them. I am going to try to have tryouts and pick about 12 girls so that they can perform during half-time at the basketball game. The girls we already had enjoyed it, but I just planned on it being a one-time thing. We hand picked them and a couple of them cannot dance. We will pick a captain and co from the origional eight and make everyone else try out.

On to other things.....It is almost election time. I am definitely voting for Kerry/Edwards and not because of political parties. Personally, I am not too fond of them, but they are better than Bush/Gore. I have given up arguing this terrorism thing bc both of them suck in that department. Kerry supports pro-choice for abortion; Bush doesn't. With the new law he passed, one of my friends had to carry a dying baby bc of this new abortion law. It jeopardized her mental as well as physical state. Bush has us in the biggest deficit in decades. That's pretty foul. I don't know that Kerry can get us out of debt, but if he plans to use the same tactics Clinton used (to get us a surplus) then I am willing to give him a chance. Kerry's health care plan sounds a bit iffy to me, but Bush's plan was ludicrous. Health care is through the roof and senior citizens and children are being dropped daily from medicaid and medicare. Those of us don't have either are paying out the ass for prescriptions. So I am willing to take a chance that Kerry will do what he says. Bush enacted "No Child Left Behind." It is good in theory, I will admit, but as a teacher it does not work in practice. I know. He is requiring that all students are tested on grade level. Why would I test all my 8th graders on grade level when half of them are on a 6th or below reading level. That is setting them up for failure. It's sad that they aren't on grade level, but it's the truth. All I can do is try to get them there by any means neccessary. Social promotion has gone on too long and now it is biting us in the ass. It's like the bottleneck complex. (I think that is what is called.) All of the children have just been pushed up and now, they are at the top of the bottle and everyone is trying to get out at once and they are all stuck. We can't pass them if they don't pass those tests. They aren't going to pass the 8th grade test if they arent on 8th grade level. I do believer teachers should be held accountable. I do. So I am trying to get them where they need to be. Another thing with Bush and education, I don't understand why you would give one student thousands of dollars to attend a private school when you can invest those same thousands into the public school and help at least 30 students. I can't fathom their reasoning. Kerry wants to create more after school programs, which will help. I know first hand. It not only helps acedemically, but it contributes to one's social development as well. Enough on that.

Enough period, I am about go find something to eat.

Posted by Nik :: 10/28/2004 :: 2 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------