RE: General coughing and rousing

[Civil_War_Buff]

 Cottonwooder

ORIGINAL:  Cottonwooder
 
 

" someone might get offended" .

 I do the school newsletter each month.  At the end of each month, the school gives a new book to each child who had a birthday that month.  They are known as " Birthday Books" .  However, the school secretary said I couldn t put " Birthday Books"  in the newsletter in case it offends the Hari-Krishners (I think), who don t celebrate birthdays.  Grrrrrr!!!   [:@]
 

 
 My POINT exactly!!!!!
 OH FLIP AGAIN!!!

[Cottonwooder]

 Civil_War_Buff
You re on a flippin  roll, my friend!  Forgot to ask in my last post: What can be considered offensive re. the Civil War?  (Coming from another part of the globe with minimal U.S. history which I ve forgotten anyway, I truly ask this in all sincerity.)
 
 Tania, I didn t know you were a teacher.  Wonderful!   You d have a good answer for my question too, I m sure.   (Our daughter will be Grade 5 in a couple of years.   History is history, good or bad.  We will fill in for her anything the schools don t teach.)
 

[Nick]

 Civil_War_Buff

 

ORIGINAL:  Civil_War_Buff
 
 My POINT exactly!!!!!
 OH FLIP AGAIN!!!
 

 Hey Larry, Do I hear a Battlecry forthcoming?

[Ca-girl]

 Cottonwooder

Tania, I didn t know you were a teacher. Wonderful! You d have a good answer for my question too, I m sure.

 Uh oh....now you ve all gotten me started....[CA-girl pulls out her soapbox while her fellow teachers help her step up to start the tirade....husband Kevin says, " Oh God" ]
 
 I think that in most schools, history is covered pretty well...at least in my kids  school it is.  The problem really comes in when you teach in a school like mine...inner-city, high poverty, limited English, etc. There is a HUGE push to teach nothing but reading and math so that the students can score higher in the all important (please bow as I say the words) STANDARDIZED TESTING...testing...testing. What the " they"  that work in the district office (far far away from any children) don t seem to realize is that THESE are the kids that need the MOST enrichment!!  If you are interested in this topic, I have a thrilling first 25 or 30 pages of my masters thesis on how poverty limits a child s prior knowledge base and therefore reading comprehension.
 
 Unfortunately, there are many teacher who are either afraid of what will happen if they question the district/board s decision making or just don t care, so they don t make waves.  I, (I don t know whether to say fortunately or unfortunately here...it probably depends on who you ask) try to always keep foremost in my mind what will benefit my students the most.  I cover all the stuff I m supposed to cover and try to prepare them for the damn STAR testing, but I also put as much other stuff in there as I can possibly manage, and I have a room full of kids from every grade level every day after school just to hang out and talk....sometimes that can make the biggest difference of all for these kids.
 
 [CA-girl steps down and puts away her soap box......FOR NOW]
 
 P.S.

the Hari-Krishners (I think), who don t celebrate birthdays. Grrrrrr!!!

It s actually the Jehova s Witness....I have one in my class this year as  a matter of fact....I tell him (and his parents) that I will not force him to celebrate, pledge, acknowledge, or do anything against his religion....he s welcome to leave the room anytime we are doing anything they are against. []
 

[gsm x2]

 Civil_War_Buff
G-Whiz....we have in incredible opportunity coming up in June.  It s kind of like being on the earth someplace that is CLOSE to a FULL SOLAR ECLIPSE, and just staying where there is a partial eclipse.  We just can t let this opportunity pass us up.  Especially since we have just had the title " Supercampers"  bestowed on us.
 
 We could, can you believe it---attend TWO RALLIES in one weekend.  Here s the plan.
 
 Arrive Thursday afternoon at Vail Lakes.  Stay on Friday and leave right after the " Unplanned but listed breakfast"  on Saturday.
 
 Now it is a bit of a drive up to Fort Bragg, but...
 
 [image]http://home.earthlink.net/~gsmx2/ttofb.gif[/image]
 
 ... we could make it JUST IN TIME for the Saturday Pot Luck dinner in Northern California.  We could stay in Fort Bragg on Sunday, watching the mere mortals packing up, then drive the short distance home on Monday.
 
 What do you say?  Ready to make history.  Maybe we can even convince Surfcal to do it in the opposite direction.  We could meet at the In and Out in in Buttonwillow for lunch.  What do you say Surfcal?
 
 gsm x2

[Ca-girl]

 Ab Diver

Lemme know if that sounds about right, and I ll start a thread with the particulars tonight.

 Dave~
 
 Sounds fabulous to me....we ll be there Friday night and be leaving Sunday.

[Ca-girl]

 Guest

 

But the sad news is, I think I have to back-out (pull a Sacto) of the Superbowl of Rallies, the Gold Rush Rally.
 
 Regards from a very sad Surfcal
 

 no, No, NO
 
 You simply MUST find a way to attend....who will I giggle with??  Who will I make my " inside"  jokes with??  Who will remind me of the difference between PRIVATE and PUBLIC comments??

[Cottonwooder]

 Ca-girl

Who will remind me of the difference between PRIVATE and PUBLIC comments??

 Me. []
 
 

If you are interested in this topic, I have a thrilling first 25 or 30 pages of my masters thesis on how poverty limits a child s prior knowledge base and therefore reading comprehension.

 Very interested.  Can you post/send a condensed version of this?
 
 I attended a district PAC meeting in October, during which the district superintendent showed various bar charts of English and math results, broken down by schools, grade level, economic level, and who knows what.  The one clear thing that emerged was that money seems to have a direct correlation with results.  The schools with kids who were better off had better results.  The schools with poor kids had poor results.  If that s the case, according to our 9yo s STAR results from last year, we should be millionaires!  Yet we re right at average, if not a little below.
 
 I really don t understand how $$$ = brain cells.  Libraries are free.  Reading and math are all around us.  Even before we enter the store, our 2yo is reading off the letters in the store name, which I sound out for her.  She s been naming fruits and veggies in the grocery stores since she was a year old.  With our 9yo, we compare prices and percentages off, price per ounce, etc.  We can happily drown in a sea of " learning"  if we open our eyes and see it in front of our faces.  What am I missing?  Isn t a stable family life more relevant than the size of the family bank account?
 
 BTW, kudos to you!  We could do with more teachers like you.  []

[otter]

 Cottonwooder

quote:
 
 If you are interested in this topic, I have a thrilling first 25 or 30 pages of my masters thesis on how poverty limits a child s prior knowledge base and therefore reading comprehension.

 Tania, First let me give you a hug and a big thank you!  Teachers anywhere , but especially in the innercity, poor districts, have my unending  respect.  I taught and lived, in the Ravenswood District for 20 years.  I would love to see you draft thesis.  Poverty is chain around our children s neck.   To be illeterate in the 5th or 6th grade is a death sentence.  The statistics are crushing.  Our system fails these kids.  I am hoping to make the June 7-8 mini rally.  We will talk!.
 

[otter]

 Cottonwooder

I really don t understand how $$$ = brain cells.

~patricia~  
 $$$$= nutrition
 $$$ =a bed of your own
 $$$=  your own clothes
 books to read and a place to read them, a desk, paper and pencils, educated parents, health insurance, dental insurance,  and on and on.  Poverty is sufficating.  It sucks the hope out of children and the adults around them.  
 We are so fortunate.  Give those wonderful girls a hug from me[]

[otter]

 Civil_War_Buff
AB:  I have asked Lon to check his calendar.  And will let you know as soon as I hear from him.
 
 SurfCAl:  Get a grip!   Make some time to check in at the chat room tomorrow night.  We ll all be waiting?  Right folks? [8D][8D][8D]
 
 G_Whiz and GsmX2:  There is a CA (campers anonymous) group you might want to check into. [8D]

[Ab Diver]

 gsm x2

Arrive Thursday afternoon at Vail Lakes. Stay on Friday and leave right after the " Unplanned but listed breakfast"  on Saturday.
 
 Now it is a bit of a drive up to Fort Bragg, but...

 See, this is where you get into trouble, Scott. According to YOUR OWN RULES for long distance travel on one of the other threads, you should never eat breakfast on a big travel day. Skip the breakfast, hit the road, and we ll see you for dinner.[] Or, since you each have your own name and puter, you could each go to a different rally. (How s that for introducing a touch of schizophrenia to their camping adventures?[])
 
 See you later on June 21st, Bro.
 

[Ca-girl]

 otter

 

ORIGINAL:  otter
 
 

I really don t understand how $$$ = brain cells.

~patricia~  
 $$$$= nutrition
 $$$ =a bed of your own
 $$$=  your own clothes
 books to read and a place to read them, a desk, paper and pencils, educated parents, health insurance, dental insurance,  and on and on.  Poverty is sufficating.  It sucks the hope out of children and the adults around them.  
 We are so fortunate.  Give those wonderful girls a hug from me[]
 

 Well put Otter []

[Cottonwooder]

 otter

$$$$= nutrition
 $$$ =a bed of your own
 $$$= your own clothes

 Ohhhh... []

[Surfcal]

 Civil_War_Buff
I think I can pull off an appearance by coming to the Saturday night potluck and staying overnight with just the truck.  I can leave San Jose (that s where the event is) in the late afternoon, jam to the Gold Rush Rally and come in just in time to eat everyone s food and drink Nick s homebrew.
 
 But for me, it won t be the same because the greatest fun about attending a rally is arriving at the oddest time in the wee hours of the morning or getting there in time to inadvertently throw off the site assignment line-up, or hanging out by Larry s stove and gleaning off the best pieces of the chicken before they make it to the table or starting campfires that become ragers that Scott Miller has to stand guard with a garden hose.
 
 Or learning from CWB that old Civil War Reenactment Soldiers never die...and they don t even fade away.  They just keep coming back over and over again, like in Sweet Home Alabama, definitely a chick movie.
 
 GSM and G-Whiz:
 
 We ll continue your historic camping biathlon arrangement with a discussion in the Wavin at da Beach thread.
 
 Surfcal