(no subject)
Aug. 27th, 2013 02:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* It's sounding like there is going to be outside intervention in Syria in the near future. Odds are it will be air strikes rather than invasion or a no fly zone.
* Yosemite and environs continue to burn with only 50% containment. The reservoir that provides a large portion of water to San Fransisco, but at West Coast dinner time was still okay.
* Why we need Medicare for all or Single Payer: Hospitals continue to claim that it is totally reasonable to punish people with private rather than public insurance by charging $546.00 for a $.44 cent bag of saline.
* Louis Gohmert it is screwing up our foreign policy with his nonsense:
* "Sequestration as government malpractice:" http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/07/30/sequestration-as-government-malpractice/
* Melissa Harris-Perry did two days of Civil Rights coverage around themes from the 50th Anniversary march on Washington. There were two many important figures and conversations for me to choose just one or two to represent the whole. If you are interested, go here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mhp/46419672#52840817
* "Where The Whale Sharks Go:" http://www.npr.org/2013/08/22/214136140/where-the-whale-sharks-go
* "23 Signs You're Secretly An Introvert:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/introverts-signs-am-i-introverted_n_3721431.html
* "School is no Place for a Reader :" http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2013/school-is-no-place-for-a-reader/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+ThePassiveVoice+%28The+Passive+Voice%29
This is a system they sell to schools.
The Districts where I taught, you could take comprehension tests and when you passed, you test out of a specific level or the leveling system entirely. Kids went at their own speed. They could take anything in a range of three dots: their level, the level above, and the level below. Sometimes a kid might want to stretch their vocabulary by reading something harder, or take a break and read something less challenging. Kids could test out entirely, and generally did at some point. They could then read whatever the hell they liked. It was not a ad system and it did help kids, find stuff that was challenging without being frustrating.
Unfortunately, a lost of Districts turn it into an incredibly oppressive machine designed to suck all the joy out of reading. I've had friends who had to move because their district refused to accommodate their novel reading first grader. This is incredibly cruel. Children are individuals who have different learning styles and learn different things at different rates.
Back in the '70's the system was less solidified, and we could test out. I was around 4-6th grade level in first, so they let me pick anything I wanted out of the lower school library and let me order from the Middle school library, or bring stuff from home or the public library. I was reading; that was the goal. I third I was testing college level, so they just got out of my way. It's a shame so many schools don't take that approach.
There is a similar phenomenon with ESL teaching. they sell a school a system where the kids have to follow this incredibly boring script each day. Teacher and students must sit around a table chanting. We aren't allowed to deviate by a single word, let alone have conversational practice or do anything fun despite the massive weight of evidence showing language learning is faster when it's social and more relaxed. The kids and I hated every minute and the whole process was cruel and inhumane.
This is the problem with a lot of Educational "reform" imposed from without. The assumption is the teachers are the enemy, so they suck all the joy and common sense out of it. Children are not identical widgets to be put through and assembly line, they are individuals who don't all learn the same way and the same speed. we do not teach the children of the rich this way, but people insist that we punish the children of the poor by grinding them in the wheels of a system that ignores what they actually need.
As teachers, we should be doing everything in our power to make them love books, not hate them.
* "Straightwashing GBLT Characters:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/05/straightwashing-gblt-characters.html
* Ebay. 5 Days left. 2 no bid.:
BPAL: 31 Imps (LE and GC) and 4 Goblin Squirts: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952481786
BPAL: OL’ ROSWELL CEMETERY & PENIS ADMIRATION (LE) Partial 5MLs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952490627
BPAL: ANNE BEANY 2010 (LE, Forum Only): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952498398
BPAL: LAWFUL (RPG) & MR. VANDEMAR (Neverwhere) Partial 5MLs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952503457
* Dragon Cave:
* Yosemite and environs continue to burn with only 50% containment. The reservoir that provides a large portion of water to San Fransisco, but at West Coast dinner time was still okay.
* Why we need Medicare for all or Single Payer: Hospitals continue to claim that it is totally reasonable to punish people with private rather than public insurance by charging $546.00 for a $.44 cent bag of saline.
* Louis Gohmert it is screwing up our foreign policy with his nonsense:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* "Sequestration as government malpractice:" http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/07/30/sequestration-as-government-malpractice/
* Melissa Harris-Perry did two days of Civil Rights coverage around themes from the 50th Anniversary march on Washington. There were two many important figures and conversations for me to choose just one or two to represent the whole. If you are interested, go here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mhp/46419672#52840817
* "Where The Whale Sharks Go:" http://www.npr.org/2013/08/22/214136140/where-the-whale-sharks-go
* "23 Signs You're Secretly An Introvert:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/introverts-signs-am-i-introverted_n_3721431.html
* "School is no Place for a Reader :" http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2013/school-is-no-place-for-a-reader/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+ThePassiveVoice+%28The+Passive+Voice%29
This is a system they sell to schools.
The Districts where I taught, you could take comprehension tests and when you passed, you test out of a specific level or the leveling system entirely. Kids went at their own speed. They could take anything in a range of three dots: their level, the level above, and the level below. Sometimes a kid might want to stretch their vocabulary by reading something harder, or take a break and read something less challenging. Kids could test out entirely, and generally did at some point. They could then read whatever the hell they liked. It was not a ad system and it did help kids, find stuff that was challenging without being frustrating.
Unfortunately, a lost of Districts turn it into an incredibly oppressive machine designed to suck all the joy out of reading. I've had friends who had to move because their district refused to accommodate their novel reading first grader. This is incredibly cruel. Children are individuals who have different learning styles and learn different things at different rates.
Back in the '70's the system was less solidified, and we could test out. I was around 4-6th grade level in first, so they let me pick anything I wanted out of the lower school library and let me order from the Middle school library, or bring stuff from home or the public library. I was reading; that was the goal. I third I was testing college level, so they just got out of my way. It's a shame so many schools don't take that approach.
There is a similar phenomenon with ESL teaching. they sell a school a system where the kids have to follow this incredibly boring script each day. Teacher and students must sit around a table chanting. We aren't allowed to deviate by a single word, let alone have conversational practice or do anything fun despite the massive weight of evidence showing language learning is faster when it's social and more relaxed. The kids and I hated every minute and the whole process was cruel and inhumane.
This is the problem with a lot of Educational "reform" imposed from without. The assumption is the teachers are the enemy, so they suck all the joy and common sense out of it. Children are not identical widgets to be put through and assembly line, they are individuals who don't all learn the same way and the same speed. we do not teach the children of the rich this way, but people insist that we punish the children of the poor by grinding them in the wheels of a system that ignores what they actually need.
As teachers, we should be doing everything in our power to make them love books, not hate them.
* "Straightwashing GBLT Characters:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/05/straightwashing-gblt-characters.html
* Ebay. 5 Days left. 2 no bid.:
BPAL: 31 Imps (LE and GC) and 4 Goblin Squirts: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952481786
BPAL: OL’ ROSWELL CEMETERY & PENIS ADMIRATION (LE) Partial 5MLs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952490627
BPAL: ANNE BEANY 2010 (LE, Forum Only): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952498398
BPAL: LAWFUL (RPG) & MR. VANDEMAR (Neverwhere) Partial 5MLs: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300952503457
* Dragon Cave: