What do 57 year olds do on Friday night? After work, some of us go home and read another chapter or two in our books or take a nap.
I enjoyed catching up with Stumper (the newsweek blog at the bottom of this page) as it looks at the inevitability of the campaign trail and the current misfortunes of Hillary as she seeks the nomination by way of super delegate. The will of the people through primaries and caucuses are not going to yield her the win she wants. Obama is ahead by 100 delegates in the primary on the way leading up the March 4th contests in Ohio and Texas. It looks like the best she can do in these is to come out even. In Texas, tonight she is even. In Ohio she is up 6 points.
The primaries have become our new professional sport. There are weekly infusions of information. There are unexpected changes in power. There is a chance to have your voice heard, through your own primary or a caucus, and there will be a winner moved to the a grand and wonderful superbowl (electtion) in November. You know the players. We have been able to see them perform in debate and crowded stadium exposure, you have heard the ney sayers of each. We can listen with our hearts and we can watch a growing tote of how our players are doing. Just like pro football, some challengers fall by the wayside on the way to becoming anointed. And with that there is also the chance even the probability that the best team or candidate will not have a chance to play in the big show.
The Fresno market for TV adds is never considered a viable one for a flood political influence. We are just out of the mainstream. This means that the candidate will probably not stump the valley like they did for Micheal Dukakas. We went down to the train station to watch him give a little speech as the train rolled from one end of the valley to the other.
This is the weekend of the big bike classic in Merced. Pro teams from around the US come here to race around the courtyard square and ran a foothills course that starts in Merced and ends in Merced. This weekend yeilds about 3 million dollars in support for the community. There are racing in the morning for kids and races for women in various categories all morning and afternoon. The big race with the pro mens teams is in the afternoon.
The peach blossoms are out this weekend (just barely) and the apricot trees are showing there tiny little pinks too. The pluots are in high gear with at least 8 bees just working their little hearts out to pollinate the trees.
Take care
Pat
A written expression of a 65year old plus retired Speech and Language Specialist in the Central Valley of California.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
UC Merced and a Medical School
The following is a letter sent to area contituants regarding the need to establish a Medical School in Merced. This is from our US congressman, Dennis Cardoza, This might be a place for Acacia to go to school?
Dear Friends,
The entire Central Valley region suffers from a physician shortage and a lack of adequate healthcare resources. Recent reports tell us that the problem is worse than initially thought and likely to get far worse in the future. The best way to address this healthcare emergency is to promptly establish a medical education program at the University of California – Merced.
Though UC Merced is only five years old, it is critical that we begin to establish the medical education program now. The entire state of California is expected to face a shortage of up to 17,000 physicians by 2015, but in the Valley we are already facing a shortage. Valley residents are medically underserved with 87 primary care physicians per 100,000 people versus the statewide rate of 126 primary care physicians per 100,000. The number of medical specialists per capita is even lower when compared with other parts of the state.
These statistics highlight the seriousness of the problem and we are already in the process of building support for a medical education program at UC Merced. The University of California’s Health Sciences Advisory Council has recommended a 34 percent increase in medical student enrollments by 2020 to meet increasing demand for doctors. The Council also recognized that medical education programs need to be developed in the SJ Valley and the Inland Empire, where projected population growth rates are twice that of the rest of the state. There is strong evidence that new physicians choose to settle into full-time practice near where they train, so establishment of a medical school in the Valley would produce benefits for the health of the region.
The UC system understands the challenge of meeting our future healthcare needs and the community is coalescing around the plan to bring a medical school to UC Merced. The medical school will be founded on a community-based distributed model of medical education, utilizing current medical facilities in the Valley, as well as the resources of UC San Francisco and UC Davis. The first two years of medical education will be on the UC Merced campus, and the second two years of medical education will be in a clinical setting, with the first clinical campus slated to be at the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Center. More than twenty of the largest community hospitals and community health centers in the Valley are eager to collaborate with UC Merced to focus teaching and research on the community health needs of the region.
I am urging the UC Board of Regents to approve continued planning, provide a reasonable timeframe for initiation, and appoint a taskforce to devise a financing strategy for the development of the medical school at UC Merced. We must work collaboratively to establish the medical school and to address our region’s looming healthcare crisis.
Dear Friends,
The entire Central Valley region suffers from a physician shortage and a lack of adequate healthcare resources. Recent reports tell us that the problem is worse than initially thought and likely to get far worse in the future. The best way to address this healthcare emergency is to promptly establish a medical education program at the University of California – Merced.
Though UC Merced is only five years old, it is critical that we begin to establish the medical education program now. The entire state of California is expected to face a shortage of up to 17,000 physicians by 2015, but in the Valley we are already facing a shortage. Valley residents are medically underserved with 87 primary care physicians per 100,000 people versus the statewide rate of 126 primary care physicians per 100,000. The number of medical specialists per capita is even lower when compared with other parts of the state.
These statistics highlight the seriousness of the problem and we are already in the process of building support for a medical education program at UC Merced. The University of California’s Health Sciences Advisory Council has recommended a 34 percent increase in medical student enrollments by 2020 to meet increasing demand for doctors. The Council also recognized that medical education programs need to be developed in the SJ Valley and the Inland Empire, where projected population growth rates are twice that of the rest of the state. There is strong evidence that new physicians choose to settle into full-time practice near where they train, so establishment of a medical school in the Valley would produce benefits for the health of the region.
The UC system understands the challenge of meeting our future healthcare needs and the community is coalescing around the plan to bring a medical school to UC Merced. The medical school will be founded on a community-based distributed model of medical education, utilizing current medical facilities in the Valley, as well as the resources of UC San Francisco and UC Davis. The first two years of medical education will be on the UC Merced campus, and the second two years of medical education will be in a clinical setting, with the first clinical campus slated to be at the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Center. More than twenty of the largest community hospitals and community health centers in the Valley are eager to collaborate with UC Merced to focus teaching and research on the community health needs of the region.
I am urging the UC Board of Regents to approve continued planning, provide a reasonable timeframe for initiation, and appoint a taskforce to devise a financing strategy for the development of the medical school at UC Merced. We must work collaboratively to establish the medical school and to address our region’s looming healthcare crisis.
Four old banannas=banana bread
The classic thing to do with bananas over the hill is to make banana bread. I also have a package of walnuts (sorry Kelly) that are going into it too. My big mixer makes a double batch in no time. The recipe is an old one from the United Methodist Woman's cookbook that Candy gave to us along time ago. Those recipes are really good for bringing back that homemade taste that doesn't rely on the modern day affectations.
Students today were working on a really big matching puzzle on the board. The vocab topic is selling professions. Many of them are based on the car dealership model and all of the selling that goes around that. We have the automoblie salesman selling cars, the insurance agent selling insurance... one of my students explained it in this way. If you have that you don't have to have a car wash when you die.. Thats about how it is around here.
We are slso working on the customer service representative (thats an awfully big word Mr. Brown). I have been teaching them to notice when you are talking about service think "mechanic". When you hear stock, think "putting things on the shelves." We also talked about what a cashier does, and what a route salesman does.
Its amazing what new concepts they are learning and what they will probably forget tomorrow.
They had to guess the job from the group from a scenario at the end:
Jim has a new job selling brooms using the telephone. What job does he have?
Sara says that I should talk to her about the new corvette on the lot. What job does she have?
Paul works for the Dodge dealership in Service. What job does he do?
Makes for an interesting day.
Pat
Banana Bread
Makes enough for a small army
300 degree oven 1-1/2 hours
Mix in order below:
2C sugar
1C of shortening
4 eggs
4-6 ripe bananas
4 C of flour
1/8 Tsp of salt
1tsp of baking soda
3 tsp of baking powder
1 3/4 C of walnut meats
Students today were working on a really big matching puzzle on the board. The vocab topic is selling professions. Many of them are based on the car dealership model and all of the selling that goes around that. We have the automoblie salesman selling cars, the insurance agent selling insurance... one of my students explained it in this way. If you have that you don't have to have a car wash when you die.. Thats about how it is around here.
We are slso working on the customer service representative (thats an awfully big word Mr. Brown). I have been teaching them to notice when you are talking about service think "mechanic". When you hear stock, think "putting things on the shelves." We also talked about what a cashier does, and what a route salesman does.
Its amazing what new concepts they are learning and what they will probably forget tomorrow.
They had to guess the job from the group from a scenario at the end:
Jim has a new job selling brooms using the telephone. What job does he have?
Sara says that I should talk to her about the new corvette on the lot. What job does she have?
Paul works for the Dodge dealership in Service. What job does he do?
Makes for an interesting day.
Pat
Banana Bread
Makes enough for a small army
300 degree oven 1-1/2 hours
Mix in order below:
2C sugar
1C of shortening
4 eggs
4-6 ripe bananas
4 C of flour
1/8 Tsp of salt
1tsp of baking soda
3 tsp of baking powder
1 3/4 C of walnut meats
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Way to Go Kelly
Kelly (my sister) just got a new Mac for her use at school. Its an IMAC of giganitic prportions. A 24inch screen.. just like dad's.
My sis is a movie maker. She commented in her blog, Moving Right Along with Kelly that the new IMovie is not a intuitive as the old one... but they new one has more features. I think that they have changed the metaphor again. The last one was pretty cool. I think that many people thought that it was intuitive. But the reality was that it was intuitive only if you had made a movie from the previous one. Frame by frame editing or sound is never really too intuitive. Somewhere along you have to crack open a book or watch a Lynda.com video to make that happen. My cameras have been missing or out of action since the move to the apartment. They are not readily available since we have moved back.. But there are other things that one can do. Such as put up drapes or unpack containers and figure out where everything goes. Then remember where you put it. I am finally get a beat on the new kitchen.
Last night I made homemade pizzia with the help of a new 11cup Cuisinart stainless steel pro. They have really upgraded the materials and the food chute on the new ones over my 12year + old one. It minced up the onion, it tore in the parma cheese, and it shredded the mozzarella cheeze with ease. The kitchen Aide Imperial red kneeded the crust to handling consistency. With fresh mushrooms and black olives slipped into the convection oven.. we had a couple of pretty good pizzas.
Its really great to have room to spread out.. although Linzi says I will get tired walking from one end of the kitchen to the other.. its the kind of tired that I want. Tonight Sue has offered to go out for dinner.. I wonder how that is going to work.
Take care all
Pat
My sis is a movie maker. She commented in her blog, Moving Right Along with Kelly that the new IMovie is not a intuitive as the old one... but they new one has more features. I think that they have changed the metaphor again. The last one was pretty cool. I think that many people thought that it was intuitive. But the reality was that it was intuitive only if you had made a movie from the previous one. Frame by frame editing or sound is never really too intuitive. Somewhere along you have to crack open a book or watch a Lynda.com video to make that happen. My cameras have been missing or out of action since the move to the apartment. They are not readily available since we have moved back.. But there are other things that one can do. Such as put up drapes or unpack containers and figure out where everything goes. Then remember where you put it. I am finally get a beat on the new kitchen.
Last night I made homemade pizzia with the help of a new 11cup Cuisinart stainless steel pro. They have really upgraded the materials and the food chute on the new ones over my 12year + old one. It minced up the onion, it tore in the parma cheese, and it shredded the mozzarella cheeze with ease. The kitchen Aide Imperial red kneeded the crust to handling consistency. With fresh mushrooms and black olives slipped into the convection oven.. we had a couple of pretty good pizzas.
Its really great to have room to spread out.. although Linzi says I will get tired walking from one end of the kitchen to the other.. its the kind of tired that I want. Tonight Sue has offered to go out for dinner.. I wonder how that is going to work.
Take care all
Pat
Monday, February 25, 2008
Pomegranate
I have been looking all over for another pomegranate for the front yard. The most common version is called "Wonderful". So how do you top that? First I was looking for any variety. Pomegranate juice is considered very "in"for its heart healthy antioxidants. Because of this, there are more people planting these trees. This year I looked for a bareroot pomegranate. The one I have in the front yard with the fabled lemon tree (Cammie) produced 12 mature fruit. We must be in the right plant zone. I think that is why Reza feels like he has come home when he is in the valley especally in the summer. Pomegranates are native to the middle East.
At the Paisley nursery they did not have a pomegranate for sale. Even though they had two varieties of figs, that enticed Linzi. Home Depot, Costco, Lowes and OSH did not have pomegranates in bareroot. So I was at Orchard Supply looking for some other home necessity when lo and behold there was a pomegranate in the potted section. Usually after the bareroot season, (We are on the edge of that now) the nurseries rip open the bags of left over trees and plant them into pots. This allows them to hold stock for much longer. It is usually much more expensive as well. This plant was a "Sweet" a much sweeter cultivator pomegranate or so the label says. Its heritage is the "wonderful". It looked pretty pathetic as does my currently planted pomegranate. Not a sign of life is evident in either tree. It will kick in after all of the other stone fruit have bloomed and they will produce beautiful waxy red flowers on a bright green leaf background.
I am severely pruning both since I do not want them to get any taller than the top of the outdoor patio wall (About 4 feet). They are really thorny plants. It is best to prune them with gloves. There soil requirements are few. Just need heat and more heat and some water every once in awhile. I am looking forward to a couple of years from now to compare the fruit from " Wonderful" to "Sweet" They are usually ripe at the end of September going into October. They will hold on the tree provided we don't get any early rains, until early November. They are a graceful component of a Thanksgiving cornucopia.
Love
Pat
At the Paisley nursery they did not have a pomegranate for sale. Even though they had two varieties of figs, that enticed Linzi. Home Depot, Costco, Lowes and OSH did not have pomegranates in bareroot. So I was at Orchard Supply looking for some other home necessity when lo and behold there was a pomegranate in the potted section. Usually after the bareroot season, (We are on the edge of that now) the nurseries rip open the bags of left over trees and plant them into pots. This allows them to hold stock for much longer. It is usually much more expensive as well. This plant was a "Sweet" a much sweeter cultivator pomegranate or so the label says. Its heritage is the "wonderful". It looked pretty pathetic as does my currently planted pomegranate. Not a sign of life is evident in either tree. It will kick in after all of the other stone fruit have bloomed and they will produce beautiful waxy red flowers on a bright green leaf background.
I am severely pruning both since I do not want them to get any taller than the top of the outdoor patio wall (About 4 feet). They are really thorny plants. It is best to prune them with gloves. There soil requirements are few. Just need heat and more heat and some water every once in awhile. I am looking forward to a couple of years from now to compare the fruit from " Wonderful" to "Sweet" They are usually ripe at the end of September going into October. They will hold on the tree provided we don't get any early rains, until early November. They are a graceful component of a Thanksgiving cornucopia.
Love
Pat
It works on a Shuffle
A big discovery. An Ipod shuttle, yes that little bitty paper clip size of an Ipod may actually hold and deliver an audio book from audible.com,
Over the last year and a half or so I have been enjoying books that I download on audible.com. I was wondering if the format would work on the little Ipod shuffle.
Some people look at my incredulously when they hear that I enjoy readin (listening) to books, Why don't you just read them? They say. There are many times that listening to books is more interesting. One is the use of some very good actors/readers changing voices to relate the different characters in the book. This adds color to the story and sometimes draws the listener in to the character. This is also been sited the reason why some people do not like listening to books. They want to put there own voices to the stories.
I enjoy audible books when I am walking. In quiet areas it allows you to be entertained when you are not in danger of being run over by a car. You may be surprised at how quickly your walk will proceed if your mind is engaged in a good book.
Some people are able to listen to books as they travel distances by car. It is important to remember that your first duty to to drive. Sue, by wife is not so happy about listening to books on the road. She also has difficulty with me listening to sports events on the radio in the car. She has to see what is going on to make since of it. As my dad has noticed in the football season, there is an awful lot of yammering before the next play occurs in football. That is why he has become an expert apple peeler in the season's progress.
For commuters that are not driving. Or me whom is just walking, books in audible are an interesting change from the music.
Happy Listening:
Pat
Over the last year and a half or so I have been enjoying books that I download on audible.com. I was wondering if the format would work on the little Ipod shuffle.
Some people look at my incredulously when they hear that I enjoy readin (listening) to books, Why don't you just read them? They say. There are many times that listening to books is more interesting. One is the use of some very good actors/readers changing voices to relate the different characters in the book. This adds color to the story and sometimes draws the listener in to the character. This is also been sited the reason why some people do not like listening to books. They want to put there own voices to the stories.
I enjoy audible books when I am walking. In quiet areas it allows you to be entertained when you are not in danger of being run over by a car. You may be surprised at how quickly your walk will proceed if your mind is engaged in a good book.
Some people are able to listen to books as they travel distances by car. It is important to remember that your first duty to to drive. Sue, by wife is not so happy about listening to books on the road. She also has difficulty with me listening to sports events on the radio in the car. She has to see what is going on to make since of it. As my dad has noticed in the football season, there is an awful lot of yammering before the next play occurs in football. That is why he has become an expert apple peeler in the season's progress.
For commuters that are not driving. Or me whom is just walking, books in audible are an interesting change from the music.
Happy Listening:
Pat
Spring is on its Way!
We were back to school today. I had no absences, although many of my students are experiencing some pretty sever asthma conditions, Many of my teacher friends were also going through the same issues. The pollen index is relatively low.. 38 today. Still there ware a lot a people out of breath, sneezy itchy eyes the dry cough.
This afternoon the sun is shinning and there is very little breeze. The pluots are in total bloom. I have not been around any almond trees but they could the the cause to this kind of allergic attack.
My two little plout trees, the 5 in lone and the big green/yellow one are giving it all in homes of attracting a bee or two.luots are a cross between a plum and an apricot. I am not really sure that they need to have bees to pollinate. As Alan Wilson the beekeeper and farmer's market man says, the bees have a great union. They only work when the weather is warm and dry. We are finally headed for some dry weather this week. The high today was supposed to be in the low 60's. Spring may be on its way!
: ) Pat
This afternoon the sun is shinning and there is very little breeze. The pluots are in total bloom. I have not been around any almond trees but they could the the cause to this kind of allergic attack.
My two little plout trees, the 5 in lone and the big green/yellow one are giving it all in homes of attracting a bee or two.luots are a cross between a plum and an apricot. I am not really sure that they need to have bees to pollinate. As Alan Wilson the beekeeper and farmer's market man says, the bees have a great union. They only work when the weather is warm and dry. We are finally headed for some dry weather this week. The high today was supposed to be in the low 60's. Spring may be on its way!
: ) Pat
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Data Memory in New Hampshire
Dad just got a new computer with one of those really large screens.. wow! Rumor has it that my sister Kelly is due for one in her job soon. Mikie Sue got ome eariler this year.
One of the ways that Apple tries to stay competitive is to ship new computers without adequate RAM to do what the computer can do best. So.. immediately you are scrounging around for some more memory... we all do this when we get older.. but for a computer that is brand new.. its hard to believe that this has to be one of your first orders of business.
I bought some RAM for Dad at the place I have been getting RAM for years.. even decades.. Memory Data out of New Hampshire. Apple wants around 800 dollars to upgrade your RAM to max on these new computers. Apple has made it easy to add RAM. The complete price for lifetime RAM that maxes our the computer at 4GB is 117$ including shipping.
It will take about 5 days to get here although I could have paid more and had it shipped by next day air. UPS with a ground tracking number is really okay. Post office priotiy mail was free but there is no way to track its progress.
You may link to the referrence at the bottom the page if you would also like to do business with them.
: ) Pat
One of the ways that Apple tries to stay competitive is to ship new computers without adequate RAM to do what the computer can do best. So.. immediately you are scrounging around for some more memory... we all do this when we get older.. but for a computer that is brand new.. its hard to believe that this has to be one of your first orders of business.
I bought some RAM for Dad at the place I have been getting RAM for years.. even decades.. Memory Data out of New Hampshire. Apple wants around 800 dollars to upgrade your RAM to max on these new computers. Apple has made it easy to add RAM. The complete price for lifetime RAM that maxes our the computer at 4GB is 117$ including shipping.
It will take about 5 days to get here although I could have paid more and had it shipped by next day air. UPS with a ground tracking number is really okay. Post office priotiy mail was free but there is no way to track its progress.
You may link to the referrence at the bottom the page if you would also like to do business with them.
: ) Pat
Sprained back
This week I have been suffering from a sprained/strained back. It started last weekend. As near as I recall, I was carrying way too many groceries home from the store. My eyes were bigger than my ability to carry them home, It is easy to do that since the grocery store is just 4 blocks away. We are so lucky to have such a close store of this quality. As I can attest, it may also get you into trouble.
Yesterday we got the first drapes up in the family room. We are still missing the bin that has the others. We have searched high and low for them. We made the mistake of opening them in the apartment. Those seem to have made it.. but their cousins still in the bag are no where to be found.
This weekend I made some oatmeal cookies. They were so good I made two more batches. I have a band new bright red mixer.
Our teacher friend at Western thought that he was living the good life. When he came back to work from his parent's home in Denver, he moved into the professor's apartments. He was so proud that when he picked out his phone he was able to choose a bright red one, We used to meet over at his house and eat archway cookies and play 5 handed spades. He always wanted to be a police officer. At the time he was too short. After leaving teaching at western, he became a minister then a police chaplain, and then a police officer. Now he is retired and living in South Dakota, driving a retirement home bus.. In his Christmas card he says he enjoys driving.
Hope you have a great day.
: )
Pat
Yesterday we got the first drapes up in the family room. We are still missing the bin that has the others. We have searched high and low for them. We made the mistake of opening them in the apartment. Those seem to have made it.. but their cousins still in the bag are no where to be found.
This weekend I made some oatmeal cookies. They were so good I made two more batches. I have a band new bright red mixer.
Our teacher friend at Western thought that he was living the good life. When he came back to work from his parent's home in Denver, he moved into the professor's apartments. He was so proud that when he picked out his phone he was able to choose a bright red one, We used to meet over at his house and eat archway cookies and play 5 handed spades. He always wanted to be a police officer. At the time he was too short. After leaving teaching at western, he became a minister then a police chaplain, and then a police officer. Now he is retired and living in South Dakota, driving a retirement home bus.. In his Christmas card he says he enjoys driving.
Hope you have a great day.
: )
Pat
Friday, February 22, 2008
Elton John, Improving Schools
Today on the rainy walk Elton John was the featured performer. What diversity in songs! Unlike some of my other favorites, Johnny D, Neil Diamond, and Barry Manilow, he does not follow so strictly a formula for his songs. I think what is very interesting is to hear Barry Manilow do some of the oldies from my parent's era. Somehow his style seems in. I must admit that I like his better than Rod Stewart's. I like Kelly's experience with the old torch songs.
When she was doing her internship in San Fransisco, a supervisor would always try to trip up her experience with the old torch songs. She knows them all, as she learned to play piano with them.... plus she is a gifted audio file. She not only receptively remembers everything that was ever sung to her, she can recreate it. Another reason why she is such a great speech and language teacher. The supervisor was never able to stump her with the old ones.
I think that in high school Kelly was able to take a class in music theory. What an opportunity! Do you think in schools of 1200 students this class is offered now? Nope! We have lost our electives. In many ways we have collectively lost our soul, our chance to get ahead in the competitive world.
When some of our new schools were built, there were extensive business departments. There were shop classes and and home ec classes. There were even elective history classes. What have we now? The push to move us vertically instead of horizonally. We now offer classes for 600 student slots in AP classes of English, Math and Science. The schools have 2900 students each. The schools are made for 2000 students. We have 1800 students in these two schools that could easily start a new school. And then they worry about how these schools are going to do on the testing that starts again this Spring. They want 8 weeks of 10minutes lessons to teach part of the test. It looks again like they are blaming the teachers for low performance. They (management and the state) should be looking for conditions that would provide incentives for proficient scores in the all important tests.
I think the state should follow the accredition model for improving schools. This model looks at the students success and follows the diversity and the strengths of a school. It also looks at communication, it looks at how the school interfaces with the community. These are all steps left out of the high stakes testing that is now promoted at the state level and the local level.
Once again a soapbox post.. it can only be a good as the soapbox that I am standing on!
LOL
Pat
When she was doing her internship in San Fransisco, a supervisor would always try to trip up her experience with the old torch songs. She knows them all, as she learned to play piano with them.... plus she is a gifted audio file. She not only receptively remembers everything that was ever sung to her, she can recreate it. Another reason why she is such a great speech and language teacher. The supervisor was never able to stump her with the old ones.
I think that in high school Kelly was able to take a class in music theory. What an opportunity! Do you think in schools of 1200 students this class is offered now? Nope! We have lost our electives. In many ways we have collectively lost our soul, our chance to get ahead in the competitive world.
When some of our new schools were built, there were extensive business departments. There were shop classes and and home ec classes. There were even elective history classes. What have we now? The push to move us vertically instead of horizonally. We now offer classes for 600 student slots in AP classes of English, Math and Science. The schools have 2900 students each. The schools are made for 2000 students. We have 1800 students in these two schools that could easily start a new school. And then they worry about how these schools are going to do on the testing that starts again this Spring. They want 8 weeks of 10minutes lessons to teach part of the test. It looks again like they are blaming the teachers for low performance. They (management and the state) should be looking for conditions that would provide incentives for proficient scores in the all important tests.
I think the state should follow the accredition model for improving schools. This model looks at the students success and follows the diversity and the strengths of a school. It also looks at communication, it looks at how the school interfaces with the community. These are all steps left out of the high stakes testing that is now promoted at the state level and the local level.
Once again a soapbox post.. it can only be a good as the soapbox that I am standing on!
LOL
Pat
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Dollars For Democrats
Once along time ago my dad and I covered our precinct with straw hats on and JFK buttons showing. These were really cool buttons, about twice the size of a silver Dollar. If you looked at them on one side they had JFK and LBJ. On the other angle they delivered a photo of JFK. My presidential pin man John Tilley, who deals in such wares claims they are not worth too much.. Maybe 10-15 dollars nnow because so many where made.
We went house to house of the democratic homes in our precinct, Buri Buri, asking for a dollar or two donation. The democrats were at that time the party that collected from the grassroots. It was the party of the middle class. Our subdivision was a working man's subdivision with firemen and elevator repairmen as our neighbors. We had a list and only knocked on doors with registered democrats living. I cannot remember how many dollars we collected. The money went into a can. Big political influences with pacs were unknown then.
Today there is a groundswell of the same sort. The groups that contact me are not ringing my doorbell, they are pounding my email address. Move on is one or those that recognize the power of the under 10 dollar contribution. If you donate to one of those groups you will be pounded forever. The phone call connection has run its course. I do not donate from the phone. So much phone tree stuff is stopped by caller ID. They charities have learned to use phones that are not identified.. it is still difficult to deal with phone solicitation.
By reading this,and being a part of blog community,open the ties of a new way of communicating. It is a different way to move past old paradigms. You may read this anytime during your day. You have a very direct way to participate in its content... through comments.
:)
Pat
We went house to house of the democratic homes in our precinct, Buri Buri, asking for a dollar or two donation. The democrats were at that time the party that collected from the grassroots. It was the party of the middle class. Our subdivision was a working man's subdivision with firemen and elevator repairmen as our neighbors. We had a list and only knocked on doors with registered democrats living. I cannot remember how many dollars we collected. The money went into a can. Big political influences with pacs were unknown then.
Today there is a groundswell of the same sort. The groups that contact me are not ringing my doorbell, they are pounding my email address. Move on is one or those that recognize the power of the under 10 dollar contribution. If you donate to one of those groups you will be pounded forever. The phone call connection has run its course. I do not donate from the phone. So much phone tree stuff is stopped by caller ID. They charities have learned to use phones that are not identified.. it is still difficult to deal with phone solicitation.
By reading this,and being a part of blog community,open the ties of a new way of communicating. It is a different way to move past old paradigms. You may read this anytime during your day. You have a very direct way to participate in its content... through comments.
:)
Pat
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
juno not Juneau
Sue and I went to see Juno tonight.
We both enjoyed this movie. The sterotypes were there, but the quirkiness of the main character, was hard to to like.
She could rip off the metaphors like no bodies business. At times it was hard to keep track. The high school lingo can me somewhat problematic.
Sue said that the adoptive mother has a real baby in real life and she is never caught not smiling. Her dad is Ben Afflack.
Its a good movie and recommended.
Love
Pat
We both enjoyed this movie. The sterotypes were there, but the quirkiness of the main character, was hard to to like.
She could rip off the metaphors like no bodies business. At times it was hard to keep track. The high school lingo can me somewhat problematic.
Sue said that the adoptive mother has a real baby in real life and she is never caught not smiling. Her dad is Ben Afflack.
Its a good movie and recommended.
Love
Pat
Millennials?
In a recent article in Newsweek, Andrew Romano, himself a millennial describes the movers in the Obama victories as what generational theorists call mellenials. Andrew writes a daily blog for Newsweek that readers here may access from the link section at the bottom of the page. These voters were born in the 80's. Heather, Linzi, Cammie,Dom, and Sean are all considered part of this group. They have different profiles than there Boomer parents. Obama embodies my generation's attitudes and aspirations, for better or worse... quotes the Newsweek article. Andrew Romano is a Newsweek blogger. He is 25, his editor is 31. Andrew was given the green light to follow this segment of the primary elections. In Iowa, Obama has a nimble Iowa youth program. Haunted by the spector of Howard Dean, whose hordes of orange-hatted out-of-state volunteers failed to fulfill the Vermonter's youthful potential in 2004, Team Obama had already hired four times as many staffers and invested five times as much money in the state, opening an unprecedented 31 offices and launching a novel "BarakStars" program to target 40,000 untapped 17 year olds set to turn 18 before Election Day.
What about Millennials? What are they like? Andrew Romano admits that summing up an entire generation with a few brush strokes is always hazardous,especially in politics. But as a millennial, he describes soem of the sterotypes as ringing true. According to Moreley Winograd and Michael D Hais, authors of "Millennial Makeover" MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics," millennials aren't confrontational or combative, the way Boomers (whose generational mantra was "Don't trust anyone over 30) have been. Instead, millennials belong to what social scientist William Strauss calls a "civic generation," drawn to issues of "community, politics, and deeds, whereas the boomers focused on issues of self, culture, and morals." Reacting against the excesses of our parents- especially their efforts to advance moral causes through partisan politics- we prefer to address problems by reforming institutions from within. We're team players, say Winograd and Hais, conditioned through constant social interaction (often online) to "find consensus" , win-win solutions to every problem. We distrust conventional channels of information and prefer to learn from our peers (again, often online). We are diverse. After George W. Bush, we believe, as Obama Youth vote director, Has Riemer puts it, "that it matters who's running government, and that government is a powerful way to make the country a better place. Millenials are more optimistic about the possibility of change than the Boomers.
Hillary Clinton's mesage reflects the Boomer generation. Obama represents the millenial message of the Democratic party.
How does this relate to the students we teach? Are they a different breed apart from the mellanial? How does the group the Acaia fit into the picture?
As usual more questions than answers..
: )
Pat
What about Millennials? What are they like? Andrew Romano admits that summing up an entire generation with a few brush strokes is always hazardous,especially in politics. But as a millennial, he describes soem of the sterotypes as ringing true. According to Moreley Winograd and Michael D Hais, authors of "Millennial Makeover" MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics," millennials aren't confrontational or combative, the way Boomers (whose generational mantra was "Don't trust anyone over 30) have been. Instead, millennials belong to what social scientist William Strauss calls a "civic generation," drawn to issues of "community, politics, and deeds, whereas the boomers focused on issues of self, culture, and morals." Reacting against the excesses of our parents- especially their efforts to advance moral causes through partisan politics- we prefer to address problems by reforming institutions from within. We're team players, say Winograd and Hais, conditioned through constant social interaction (often online) to "find consensus" , win-win solutions to every problem. We distrust conventional channels of information and prefer to learn from our peers (again, often online). We are diverse. After George W. Bush, we believe, as Obama Youth vote director, Has Riemer puts it, "that it matters who's running government, and that government is a powerful way to make the country a better place. Millenials are more optimistic about the possibility of change than the Boomers.
Hillary Clinton's mesage reflects the Boomer generation. Obama represents the millenial message of the Democratic party.
How does this relate to the students we teach? Are they a different breed apart from the mellanial? How does the group the Acaia fit into the picture?
As usual more questions than answers..
: )
Pat
Do You need to know the Words?
Some of my music won Grammies. I just downloaded one that brought back some memories. Ricky Skaggs and the Whites won a Grammy for "Salt of the Earth." It is an album with some gospel songs on it. One of them was sung continually by Grandma Nellie... Blessed Assurance. That hooked me into downloading the entire album. In it also was "the Wings of a Dove." The harmonies will please dad. Imagine a Grammy for my Grandma.
Also on the download docket were Patti Austin's Avant Gershwin,spunky renditions of some of the musical Gershwin melodies and Micheal Brecker's Pilgrimage, he died last year of a very rare cancer. This is a wonderful jazz saxophone set. Rounding out this months selections (I get 90 downloads each month) was a couple of albums from the early 80's by a group called "Firefall." They are know for their tight high pitched harmonies. Also was a live album by Marvin Gaye.
Last night I noticed that Bebel Gilberto had an ITunes exclusive Live selection. It is a short album as some of the Itunes Live exclusives are. But the 3 dollar price was right. The lead off song was "Sweet Dreams are Made of this." A great song earthy and a little unpredictable with a nice bossa nova beat.. except they haven't taught her to inhale away from the mic. I think that finally Celine Dion has discovered this requirement.. or some fancy audio editing has occurred. The other issue for some people, is that many of her Brazilian songs are not sung in English. This decreases the abilty for an audience to sing a long unless they understand Portuguese.
Have a great Wednesday. We are doing catch up stuff today you cannot do during the day when school is in session without hiring a sub.
: ) Pat
Also on the download docket were Patti Austin's Avant Gershwin,spunky renditions of some of the musical Gershwin melodies and Micheal Brecker's Pilgrimage, he died last year of a very rare cancer. This is a wonderful jazz saxophone set. Rounding out this months selections (I get 90 downloads each month) was a couple of albums from the early 80's by a group called "Firefall." They are know for their tight high pitched harmonies. Also was a live album by Marvin Gaye.
Last night I noticed that Bebel Gilberto had an ITunes exclusive Live selection. It is a short album as some of the Itunes Live exclusives are. But the 3 dollar price was right. The lead off song was "Sweet Dreams are Made of this." A great song earthy and a little unpredictable with a nice bossa nova beat.. except they haven't taught her to inhale away from the mic. I think that finally Celine Dion has discovered this requirement.. or some fancy audio editing has occurred. The other issue for some people, is that many of her Brazilian songs are not sung in English. This decreases the abilty for an audience to sing a long unless they understand Portuguese.
Have a great Wednesday. We are doing catch up stuff today you cannot do during the day when school is in session without hiring a sub.
: ) Pat
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Hotel Merced
With Sean's very able help we added another bed to the Brown hotel in Merced. The day bed which was set up in the blue room is now in the art room. The blue room now sports a new full sized bed. It will be available for occupancy as soon is Sue is able to get to a store.. they are all on sale and pick out some sheets and appropriate bed clothes. This is the perfect solution as the day bed will take up less floor space until it is need to house two people. The blue room will have the capacity to house a couple instead of just one that the single bed would allow. We are now ready to stage to Disneyland or cruise ships in LA, or Yosemite trips.
Getting the bed home was a little exciting. Of course we did it Okie style, on top of the Expedition. Carefully (?) tied to the rack we inched down "R" street and people that could not stand the slowness of the driver scooted off the side streets in a hump. We had a little shift at the railroad tracks.. but overall they rode just fine home. We saved the cost of tailer and the time. We looked into having it delivered.. 300 dollars more. This seems unreasonable when the whole thing only costs 466.
We were not alone in our quest for beds. It was difficult to find a flat cart at our local costco. The flat screen TVs were flying out of the store.
Linzi and Sean are considering buying a home in Sacramento. Its pretty exciting.
Love to All
Pat
Getting the bed home was a little exciting. Of course we did it Okie style, on top of the Expedition. Carefully (?) tied to the rack we inched down "R" street and people that could not stand the slowness of the driver scooted off the side streets in a hump. We had a little shift at the railroad tracks.. but overall they rode just fine home. We saved the cost of tailer and the time. We looked into having it delivered.. 300 dollars more. This seems unreasonable when the whole thing only costs 466.
We were not alone in our quest for beds. It was difficult to find a flat cart at our local costco. The flat screen TVs were flying out of the store.
Linzi and Sean are considering buying a home in Sacramento. Its pretty exciting.
Love to All
Pat
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Los Banos Woolgrowers
With Linzi and Sean home for the weekend, we all went to Woolgrowers in Los Banos. It is French Basque and very yummy. The french fries are to die for and to die of. We all had roast lamb which was very garlicy. The side entree, because it was Sunday, was chicken and rice. It is always in a rice pilaf style with bits of mushrooms and buttery sauce absorbed. It was great tonight too.
The day was beautiful. Cool but not an mile of breeze. The sun came out and we all enjoyed a wonderful Sunday.
Hope yours was great too.
Pat
The day was beautiful. Cool but not an mile of breeze. The sun came out and we all enjoyed a wonderful Sunday.
Hope yours was great too.
Pat
Chair Pads at Costco
Lindsay and Sean are over this weekend. We all went to Costco. Sue was shopping for some chair pads. She found a nice set of brown ones. She looked for me as I was getting little and a few other essentials. When she took me back to the chair pads the brown ones in total were gone. She remarked to me that, how can in 5 minutes something in Costco has been purchase by someone else. We proceeded to look for another color. Yest the burgundy ones will do nicely.
Later in the store whom should we discover had the brown onces in her cart.?. miss Linzi. She knew mom was looking for some and she pitched them off the pile so that Sue could get them. Needless to say the brown ones were returned to the pile and we kept the burgundy ones.
Mom and Lindsay had a nice successful shop at Mervyn's. Linzi needs some new clothes for the upgraded job she has. My youngest daughter is wearing suits to work.. who would have thought!
We are missing Heather, she either ate too much gluten (blame the veggie burger) or she is stricken with food poisioning. He youngest cat Stanley is under the weather this weekend too.
Love to all. Hope you are having a great weekend.
Pat
Later in the store whom should we discover had the brown onces in her cart.?. miss Linzi. She knew mom was looking for some and she pitched them off the pile so that Sue could get them. Needless to say the brown ones were returned to the pile and we kept the burgundy ones.
Mom and Lindsay had a nice successful shop at Mervyn's. Linzi needs some new clothes for the upgraded job she has. My youngest daughter is wearing suits to work.. who would have thought!
We are missing Heather, she either ate too much gluten (blame the veggie burger) or she is stricken with food poisioning. He youngest cat Stanley is under the weather this weekend too.
Love to all. Hope you are having a great weekend.
Pat
Friday, February 15, 2008
2 meters and send
One of the things that dad and I did when I was growing up was join a short wave club. It was a civil defense precaution. Amateur Field communication. Dad spent hours at a time listening to a ham radio receiver and sending out messages through it to other "hams." It was fascinating to hear from people all over the world that would bounce their signal off of the space atmosphere and it would land in our basement.
To do this he had to learn morse code. He had to receive it accurately at the rate of 25 words per minute. He also had to be able to send code at close to that speed to get a novice license.
We went to the club meeting at someone's garage in San Bruno every Tuesday night along with 25 other men to listen to code and to build a 2 meter portable rig. The 2 meter would allow for the licensed operator to use your voice.. but the only way you could get a license to run it was to learn the code and pass the test. Some men were there to review the question for the more difficult general operators test. It required more study of electronics and how they could be used without disturbing neighbors with spurious radiation.
In the garage the San Bruno host had set up on the perimeter of his garage a series of listening stations. The code could be listened to by more than one person at at time. I spent many an hour trying to jot down code as it came through the earphones. A couple of wallensack reel to reel recorders were set up to fire the code through the wires. Dad got pretty efficient an actually got his novice license complete with call letters. He set up a station out of old used equipment and he sent out postcards and he received postcards from people that he had met on the air On each of these was an indication of the signal strength. People were not supposed to use the air waves for personal topics, but there were always people talking about all kinds of things that interested them. Sometimes there were more than one person on the other side of the transmission. They would all take turns and give a response. News was often passed along as well as political diatribes. This was the era before CB radios. It took a significant investment of time and money and patience to be a part of this hobby.
In the back of the San Bruno garage was an electronics assembly area with a machine shop and soldering irons and parts. We bought some parts to put together two 2 meter rigs, but unfortunately our interest died before the set was made. Transitors were starting to replace tubes and this also interfered with the pricing and applicablity of making your own two meter send and receive set up.
So now I am here with a computer and doing what many people used to spend hours of preparation doing.. I am broadcasting to the world.. It took just and internet connection and 3 minutes of time to set up a blog. I still cannot do code faster than 12 words a minute.. but that doesn't matter any more... CQ CQ CQ.. dah dee dah dit, dah dah dee dah.
: ) Pat
To do this he had to learn morse code. He had to receive it accurately at the rate of 25 words per minute. He also had to be able to send code at close to that speed to get a novice license.
We went to the club meeting at someone's garage in San Bruno every Tuesday night along with 25 other men to listen to code and to build a 2 meter portable rig. The 2 meter would allow for the licensed operator to use your voice.. but the only way you could get a license to run it was to learn the code and pass the test. Some men were there to review the question for the more difficult general operators test. It required more study of electronics and how they could be used without disturbing neighbors with spurious radiation.
In the garage the San Bruno host had set up on the perimeter of his garage a series of listening stations. The code could be listened to by more than one person at at time. I spent many an hour trying to jot down code as it came through the earphones. A couple of wallensack reel to reel recorders were set up to fire the code through the wires. Dad got pretty efficient an actually got his novice license complete with call letters. He set up a station out of old used equipment and he sent out postcards and he received postcards from people that he had met on the air On each of these was an indication of the signal strength. People were not supposed to use the air waves for personal topics, but there were always people talking about all kinds of things that interested them. Sometimes there were more than one person on the other side of the transmission. They would all take turns and give a response. News was often passed along as well as political diatribes. This was the era before CB radios. It took a significant investment of time and money and patience to be a part of this hobby.
In the back of the San Bruno garage was an electronics assembly area with a machine shop and soldering irons and parts. We bought some parts to put together two 2 meter rigs, but unfortunately our interest died before the set was made. Transitors were starting to replace tubes and this also interfered with the pricing and applicablity of making your own two meter send and receive set up.
So now I am here with a computer and doing what many people used to spend hours of preparation doing.. I am broadcasting to the world.. It took just and internet connection and 3 minutes of time to set up a blog. I still cannot do code faster than 12 words a minute.. but that doesn't matter any more... CQ CQ CQ.. dah dee dah dit, dah dah dee dah.
: ) Pat
Its Friday! Weeklong Break!
The day after Valentines and there is a general malaise throughout the classes. At Merced High the week has been the annual multicultural week. One of my students asked me,"What is a Hindu?" I spent about 20 minutes talking about what they believe. All he knew was the many armed lady image that he portrayed with outstretched arms and out stretched hands and one leg tucked up under himself. He wanted to make sure that everyone in the class saw his image.
Another of my all starts just got back from 5 days of suspension for exposing himeself. the guardian was miffed because the behavior was identified in the IEP. He is a little obsessed with the word toilet. I worked today to teach him some alternatives. Facilities, lavatory, restroom, the sign language equivalent of restroom. He is working his diary book for an external reward at home. I logged in the info and noted that he was learning it.
Other kids were wondering about the significance of the ashen cross on people's forehead. I explained lent and fat Tuesday that preceded it.
The morning classes were playing the worm with the easiest answers coming from my vocabulary list. Classes were only 32 minutes long due to the minimum day and the need to get all six period covered and two assemblies during that time. The big basketball game is tonight. Crosstown rivals, Merced High vs Golden Valley High School.
The walk was just cold this morning.. no wind. That made it welcome. We are quickly approaching the time that frost is not expected. There was frost on the car window by the time I went to work today.
The lunch crowd was not the same today.
Tom was off to Vancover today to capture a lighthouse or two in the BC harbor. Ron was home the last half of this week since his wife had this week off. I am hoping that by next year we will have a cruise vacation planned for this week. The rates are at least half the cost of the Christmas Mexico week cruises. Linzi and Heather think that they could pull it. Sean's job would make it iffy. I would be great cruising into Acapulco Tuesday or Wednesday.
The girls are coming down this weekend to have some fun and give us a hand.
We ate the leftover shrimp from last night. (Sue did) I got the go ahead to make that recipe again. I ate the leftover meatloaf with the chunky onions. The cats all had a go at the left over shrimp sauce. I added some fresh microwaved broccoli to the larder and sliced up a Maui gold pineapple from Costco. They are yummy.. but they need to be consumed as soon as possible as they go rotten soon.
Tonight Sue and I went through our old medicine shelf in the hall closet. My we had some old stuff in there.
I hope you had a great Friday night.
Love
Pat
Another of my all starts just got back from 5 days of suspension for exposing himeself. the guardian was miffed because the behavior was identified in the IEP. He is a little obsessed with the word toilet. I worked today to teach him some alternatives. Facilities, lavatory, restroom, the sign language equivalent of restroom. He is working his diary book for an external reward at home. I logged in the info and noted that he was learning it.
Other kids were wondering about the significance of the ashen cross on people's forehead. I explained lent and fat Tuesday that preceded it.
The morning classes were playing the worm with the easiest answers coming from my vocabulary list. Classes were only 32 minutes long due to the minimum day and the need to get all six period covered and two assemblies during that time. The big basketball game is tonight. Crosstown rivals, Merced High vs Golden Valley High School.
The walk was just cold this morning.. no wind. That made it welcome. We are quickly approaching the time that frost is not expected. There was frost on the car window by the time I went to work today.
The lunch crowd was not the same today.
Tom was off to Vancover today to capture a lighthouse or two in the BC harbor. Ron was home the last half of this week since his wife had this week off. I am hoping that by next year we will have a cruise vacation planned for this week. The rates are at least half the cost of the Christmas Mexico week cruises. Linzi and Heather think that they could pull it. Sean's job would make it iffy. I would be great cruising into Acapulco Tuesday or Wednesday.
The girls are coming down this weekend to have some fun and give us a hand.
We ate the leftover shrimp from last night. (Sue did) I got the go ahead to make that recipe again. I ate the leftover meatloaf with the chunky onions. The cats all had a go at the left over shrimp sauce. I added some fresh microwaved broccoli to the larder and sliced up a Maui gold pineapple from Costco. They are yummy.. but they need to be consumed as soon as possible as they go rotten soon.
Tonight Sue and I went through our old medicine shelf in the hall closet. My we had some old stuff in there.
I hope you had a great Friday night.
Love
Pat
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Day
At the high school this day is usually chaotic at best. Girls expectin, boys deliverin, helium gas going into the student body balloons at full blast. Its got to be Heather's idea of a nightmare.. she has loud pop phobia. Students running aroudn campus delivering huge unmanageable balloon bouquets to a sea of red colored outfits.
This year it was somewhat subdued. The is significantly less available cash for such stuff. Balloons in 25 mile an hour winds are not too acceptable. One may student sidled with about 6 of them (a very small quantity) got ticked off at them and started poping them one at a time. At Merced High the Ag department with their flower arrangement class, became the sole distributor of real flowers on campus. This would have been great for them except the proceeds were purloined around second period. More then a hundred dollars.
I always thought the the ultimate subtle revenge for an almost ememy would be to burden them down with so many balloons that they could not take the bus home, they would have difficulty getting into a car with them and that they would want the recognition that so many balloons would engender. Talk about killing them with kindness!
I bought Sue a little mini yellow rose bush from Loews. I had spotted them on an earlier foray. Unfortunately the wind was working its magic and it was not the perky little plant that I had seen eariler. It worked however.
Tonight I went to Costco and bought some shrimp for dinner. Viet Nam tiger shrimp. They were 10 dollars a pound and I bought a pound and a half. I cooked them with some olive oil and butter, with some garlic thrown in. Once they were pink I pulled them out and reduced the sauce (no corn starch) and at the last moment I tossed in some capri tomatoes. Yum. We had some potato patties from the mashed last night and some fresh asparagus. We only had 4 shrimp left after we ate our fill. Sue was hungry for shrimp and so it all worked out great. Sue loves their frozen lattes there. I bought five and brought them home and put them in smaller cups to be refrozen in the freezer.
Today I was working my classes with associations. They worked to name 15 things that were purple. This is difficult for them. Once we got purple down we went on to red (much easier) and white (the easiest). I pointed out how they could take a word that was up the board and think of other items that would go with that one that could be the same color. Cars.. think trucks...both could me purple... or white or red.
Then I divided the class up with even and odd numbers and we played a game. The color was tan. Each team came up with 20 things that are tan. Tan was a new concept for some of them. Then they prioritized the items on the basis of uniqueness. What are 10 that the other side will not have. Most of the time they guessed right and the other side did not have the supported item on their list. They enjoyed learning how to work together, (some of them could not) and the whisper communication (if the other side heard they would know what that side was thinking) and the general illusion of competition. It kept me up at the board writing entries throughout the period.
Tomorrow is a minimum day for one school (the morning school). Each period will only be 30 minutes. Usually they are 50 minutes in length. I think that we will be working on notable structures of the world. We have worked with the GG brige in SF, the arch in St. Louis, and the Empire State Building. Europe was represented by the Eiffel tower. I am going to introduce the leaning tower of Pisa and the Taj Mahal in India tomorrow.
I hope you had a great valentines day all you valentines of mine!
Love
Pat
This year it was somewhat subdued. The is significantly less available cash for such stuff. Balloons in 25 mile an hour winds are not too acceptable. One may student sidled with about 6 of them (a very small quantity) got ticked off at them and started poping them one at a time. At Merced High the Ag department with their flower arrangement class, became the sole distributor of real flowers on campus. This would have been great for them except the proceeds were purloined around second period. More then a hundred dollars.
I always thought the the ultimate subtle revenge for an almost ememy would be to burden them down with so many balloons that they could not take the bus home, they would have difficulty getting into a car with them and that they would want the recognition that so many balloons would engender. Talk about killing them with kindness!
I bought Sue a little mini yellow rose bush from Loews. I had spotted them on an earlier foray. Unfortunately the wind was working its magic and it was not the perky little plant that I had seen eariler. It worked however.
Tonight I went to Costco and bought some shrimp for dinner. Viet Nam tiger shrimp. They were 10 dollars a pound and I bought a pound and a half. I cooked them with some olive oil and butter, with some garlic thrown in. Once they were pink I pulled them out and reduced the sauce (no corn starch) and at the last moment I tossed in some capri tomatoes. Yum. We had some potato patties from the mashed last night and some fresh asparagus. We only had 4 shrimp left after we ate our fill. Sue was hungry for shrimp and so it all worked out great. Sue loves their frozen lattes there. I bought five and brought them home and put them in smaller cups to be refrozen in the freezer.
Today I was working my classes with associations. They worked to name 15 things that were purple. This is difficult for them. Once we got purple down we went on to red (much easier) and white (the easiest). I pointed out how they could take a word that was up the board and think of other items that would go with that one that could be the same color. Cars.. think trucks...both could me purple... or white or red.
Then I divided the class up with even and odd numbers and we played a game. The color was tan. Each team came up with 20 things that are tan. Tan was a new concept for some of them. Then they prioritized the items on the basis of uniqueness. What are 10 that the other side will not have. Most of the time they guessed right and the other side did not have the supported item on their list. They enjoyed learning how to work together, (some of them could not) and the whisper communication (if the other side heard they would know what that side was thinking) and the general illusion of competition. It kept me up at the board writing entries throughout the period.
Tomorrow is a minimum day for one school (the morning school). Each period will only be 30 minutes. Usually they are 50 minutes in length. I think that we will be working on notable structures of the world. We have worked with the GG brige in SF, the arch in St. Louis, and the Empire State Building. Europe was represented by the Eiffel tower. I am going to introduce the leaning tower of Pisa and the Taj Mahal in India tomorrow.
I hope you had a great valentines day all you valentines of mine!
Love
Pat
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
A Most Difficult Student in Class
The following student this week has been transfered out of my class. He is disappointed as he characterized me as the best teacher he ever had:
Student has difficulty staying focused. He enjoys disruption in the class. Currently he is working on a behavioral continuum. His current level of performance is more than 5 disruptions per class period. The target is less than 5 hash marks on the board. He can copy off the board but is a self reported nonreader. Articulation needs are minimal because he uses infantile speech patterns to get his way. Articulation errors in er and r are easily stimuable.. Substitutes characterize his demeanor as "obnoxious."He charges the whole class with his antics.
I came to appreciate this student: normal ability, very intense. over the top in HDHD. Parents claim no meds have been successful. He is highly inventive and has some sort of drama usually revolving possessions who gave this, I gave him that.. but then takes it back. Around Christmas time he found a set of bamboo along the streamside. He set about making all of his friends (including me) a flute made from the bamboo. One day he gathered up some yellow tape used to block entry to a student body function, he figured out how to make a sling out of it so that it would support a skateboard as he walked around campus (he was not allowed to ride the skateboard on campus).
I don't think that he learned much being in my class.. but then again.. academics are not going to be his strong suit. Right now he looks like a third grader. He is white.
Student has difficulty staying focused. He enjoys disruption in the class. Currently he is working on a behavioral continuum. His current level of performance is more than 5 disruptions per class period. The target is less than 5 hash marks on the board. He can copy off the board but is a self reported nonreader. Articulation needs are minimal because he uses infantile speech patterns to get his way. Articulation errors in er and r are easily stimuable.. Substitutes characterize his demeanor as "obnoxious."He charges the whole class with his antics.
I came to appreciate this student: normal ability, very intense. over the top in HDHD. Parents claim no meds have been successful. He is highly inventive and has some sort of drama usually revolving possessions who gave this, I gave him that.. but then takes it back. Around Christmas time he found a set of bamboo along the streamside. He set about making all of his friends (including me) a flute made from the bamboo. One day he gathered up some yellow tape used to block entry to a student body function, he figured out how to make a sling out of it so that it would support a skateboard as he walked around campus (he was not allowed to ride the skateboard on campus).
I don't think that he learned much being in my class.. but then again.. academics are not going to be his strong suit. Right now he looks like a third grader. He is white.
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli. The banana bread was baking at the same time as the double batch of the banana bread. King Arthur's unbleached white flour (which is hardly white) No nuts in case Kelly stops by. (One could hope).
That was the menu tonight. Sue took a bath in her new tub. I chopped away in the kitchen.
Homemade mashed potatoes from the bag of yellow (tastes like butter already in them) costcos finest.
Of course I made too much. They will be sent to the refrige for an uncertain fate.
Hamburger went from freezer to micro on a new auto defrost setting.. you select the kind of defrost and the pounds and ounces and it does not jam up the defrost by cooking some parts too hot. (At least in theory) The defrost worked beautifully.. however I wasn't sure of the weight and under guessed it.. So there was a core of undefrosted iced burger.
Onions needed to be chopped finer. No operative chop blade on the cuisinart. I am hopeful in getting a new one soon. All appliances on the counter have been red.. not sure I can live with a kitchen Aide food processor.. may have to get a stainless steel Cuisenart at Costco too.
The dishwasher is a gasser (as dad would say) quiet enought to have a gentle conversation in the kitchen while it is going.. and absoultely no prewash needed.. It even recognizes my cutting boards with slots in the top rack for them to fit into as it slides into the back. Lots of cool controls.. you can do just the top rack if you so desire. It does take about 2 hours to work. You can make it do its best with a 1 hour setting. I haven't needed that kind of turn around yet.
Hope you had a great dinnner like this one tonight.
Love
Pat
That was the menu tonight. Sue took a bath in her new tub. I chopped away in the kitchen.
Homemade mashed potatoes from the bag of yellow (tastes like butter already in them) costcos finest.
Of course I made too much. They will be sent to the refrige for an uncertain fate.
Hamburger went from freezer to micro on a new auto defrost setting.. you select the kind of defrost and the pounds and ounces and it does not jam up the defrost by cooking some parts too hot. (At least in theory) The defrost worked beautifully.. however I wasn't sure of the weight and under guessed it.. So there was a core of undefrosted iced burger.
Onions needed to be chopped finer. No operative chop blade on the cuisinart. I am hopeful in getting a new one soon. All appliances on the counter have been red.. not sure I can live with a kitchen Aide food processor.. may have to get a stainless steel Cuisenart at Costco too.
The dishwasher is a gasser (as dad would say) quiet enought to have a gentle conversation in the kitchen while it is going.. and absoultely no prewash needed.. It even recognizes my cutting boards with slots in the top rack for them to fit into as it slides into the back. Lots of cool controls.. you can do just the top rack if you so desire. It does take about 2 hours to work. You can make it do its best with a 1 hour setting. I haven't needed that kind of turn around yet.
Hope you had a great dinnner like this one tonight.
Love
Pat
Wednesday It must be Writing Day
My classes write every Wednesday. The topic in my morning class included a summary of movie, Tuck Everlasting. One paragraph was to be about the plot. Another was to be about the characterizations and the third was to be about the theme or message.
The first period class could only write about the plot. Second could write a little about the plot. They tried some to get to the characterizations and the theme was a lot more difficult.
The afternoon classes have been watching a movie about a mythical discovery of the dragons in the 14th century frozen in time to modern era and then pieced together. The afternoon classes wrote 6 things they saw in the movie about the dragons. It was easy for a few of them much more difficult for many of them. Organizing the writing process is probably the main benefit from the Wednesday writing. It also gives me something consistent to grade and enter in the grade book each week.
Thanks to Kelly for highlighting my blog in hers. She also sent some oranges to a niece in San Diego which shows up nicely on her blog. We love those neices!
Sue and I are slowly getting things together at this side. The computer is up and therefore I was able to charge my ipod. It was also nice to get back to my podcasts.We put together a bathroom storage unit with a glass door and two drawers yesterday. It was a Loews kit. Medium in difficulty. They actually sorted out all of the screws and mounted them on a paper scrap with their size. This is a first for kits for me. Getting three sides together and square enough for the drawers to work is a difficult assignment.
This afternoon it has been blustery and getting a little colder too.
Hope you had a great Wednesday.
Pat
The first period class could only write about the plot. Second could write a little about the plot. They tried some to get to the characterizations and the theme was a lot more difficult.
The afternoon classes have been watching a movie about a mythical discovery of the dragons in the 14th century frozen in time to modern era and then pieced together. The afternoon classes wrote 6 things they saw in the movie about the dragons. It was easy for a few of them much more difficult for many of them. Organizing the writing process is probably the main benefit from the Wednesday writing. It also gives me something consistent to grade and enter in the grade book each week.
Thanks to Kelly for highlighting my blog in hers. She also sent some oranges to a niece in San Diego which shows up nicely on her blog. We love those neices!
Sue and I are slowly getting things together at this side. The computer is up and therefore I was able to charge my ipod. It was also nice to get back to my podcasts.We put together a bathroom storage unit with a glass door and two drawers yesterday. It was a Loews kit. Medium in difficulty. They actually sorted out all of the screws and mounted them on a paper scrap with their size. This is a first for kits for me. Getting three sides together and square enough for the drawers to work is a difficult assignment.
This afternoon it has been blustery and getting a little colder too.
Hope you had a great Wednesday.
Pat
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Finally.. Back online
We are off the comcast and I had to buy another DSL modem at Best Buy.. but I am back publishing again.
Since the first of the month, we have been living in our newly remodeled house. We have not been able to use the new square footage much because there are so many storage containers around it that moving in has prevented much of it.
Yesterday pm I spent the evening into night rebuilding for the second time the support for our bed. The king size mattress and box springs was supported by a rather flimsy rail structure that did not interface well with the laminate flooring. It is very slippery and the little pad kept giving away. The first time I ended up on the floor head down as the side rails broke. I repaired the side ledge and bolstered it with a couple of decent screws. Two nights ago it gave way again. This time it didn't go all the way to the floor just somewhat with a gigantic sway in the middle. Last night I decided to take things into my own and designed and built a 2x4 wooden double box support system. It has 2 73 inch 2z4s separated by 4 1/2 inches of 2x4 spreaders.I made two of these and installed them with a horizontal piece between them. It holds the weight of the king sized bed beautifully. I also got to use the 23v battery powered saw and screw drivers that I got last Christmas. The key to the whole thing was to pre drill the holes before driving the 3 inch screws to attach the wood pieces. Total cost for this recovery was 25 dollars.
Today I took a day off to get in touch with the other systems of the house. The contract has been ratified and the retro should be on its way in the end of the April check.. so just in time to pay for taxes.. or almost.
I am still walking every day. I only missed a couple of days to severe rain. I have found a new route that takes me all the way down to Parson's and a gate gets me through to walk the entire East side of Donna avenue. This is only possible of the days that I get up soon enough to walk that extra distance. I sort of feel the difference in the afternoon and evening when its a little harder to stay standing for a long time.
I hope you have all done well in the absence of this blog. I will endeavor to continue this blog as daily as I can.
Love
Pat
Since the first of the month, we have been living in our newly remodeled house. We have not been able to use the new square footage much because there are so many storage containers around it that moving in has prevented much of it.
Yesterday pm I spent the evening into night rebuilding for the second time the support for our bed. The king size mattress and box springs was supported by a rather flimsy rail structure that did not interface well with the laminate flooring. It is very slippery and the little pad kept giving away. The first time I ended up on the floor head down as the side rails broke. I repaired the side ledge and bolstered it with a couple of decent screws. Two nights ago it gave way again. This time it didn't go all the way to the floor just somewhat with a gigantic sway in the middle. Last night I decided to take things into my own and designed and built a 2x4 wooden double box support system. It has 2 73 inch 2z4s separated by 4 1/2 inches of 2x4 spreaders.I made two of these and installed them with a horizontal piece between them. It holds the weight of the king sized bed beautifully. I also got to use the 23v battery powered saw and screw drivers that I got last Christmas. The key to the whole thing was to pre drill the holes before driving the 3 inch screws to attach the wood pieces. Total cost for this recovery was 25 dollars.
Today I took a day off to get in touch with the other systems of the house. The contract has been ratified and the retro should be on its way in the end of the April check.. so just in time to pay for taxes.. or almost.
I am still walking every day. I only missed a couple of days to severe rain. I have found a new route that takes me all the way down to Parson's and a gate gets me through to walk the entire East side of Donna avenue. This is only possible of the days that I get up soon enough to walk that extra distance. I sort of feel the difference in the afternoon and evening when its a little harder to stay standing for a long time.
I hope you have all done well in the absence of this blog. I will endeavor to continue this blog as daily as I can.
Love
Pat