Monthly Archives: October 2007

Thanks!

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Last Friday I posted an item about DonorsChoose.org and the Blogger’s challenge I set up.  I chose four programs chosen from over 180 that I found for the Winston-Salem Forsyth County schools and this morning I logged in and found that one of them is already fully funded.  I don’t get to see who funded what so I’m simply going to say thank you here to the kind folks who have funded the "Love You Forever" program at Easton Elementary School.  For a refresher, I’ve pasted the description of the program below, and for those of you who may want to fund some of the other programs in the challenge here’s the link to the challenge page.

"Love You Forever"

Literacy, big word, but it simply means
reading. There many components to reading. My classroom library is
lacking in variety, components, and enthusiasm. I am a new kindergarten
teacher who inherited a classroom that was started in the middle of
last school year. There were 10 small books in the classroom and no big
books or books with tapes. Through the graciousness of other teachers,
some books have been donated.

This is a class of 16 students that are new to school, many
have never been to a preschool or had any formal training. They have
had little exposure to the world of books. These precious students are
most at risk, and have a harder time mastering the basics. I am eager
to get them reading. I want them to gain respect for books and what
they have to offer. A book for these kindergarteners to take home and
share would be the start they need. The children will be taught the
responsibility of caring for books and returning them when assignments
are completed.

I am honored just to have the opportunity to make such a request
to such a wonderful giving organization. Thank you for considering my
proposal.

My
project needs take home readers, books with tapes, and concept books
for the classroom. Requested are: a science book and tape set, learning
to write transition kit, ‘The Story of Ferdinand’, guided reading book
bundle, and much more. The cost of this proposal is $272, which
includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

links for 2007-10-06

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Supporting Some Local Students Via Their Teachers

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If you’re a returning visitor to this old blog you’ll notice a new feature on the left hand column.  I’ve entered the "Blogger’s Challenge" for DonorsChoose.org and I’m hoping to raise some money for four different education projects here in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County schools. That widget you see at the top left is the "thermometer" showing how I’m doing.  Here’s my challenge page on the DonorsChoose.org site so you can see the five projects I’ve chosen.

DonorsChoose is an organization that lets teachers submit proposals for funding projects for their classrooms.  Donors can review all of the proposals and then make donations for the project via the DonorsChoose site.  Simply put it’s a way for people to contribute directly to education projects that they find worthy.

I searched for all the programs in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County schools and found 180 of them.  I sifted through those and came up with four that I particularly liked and added those to my challenge.  The goal is to raise $1,564.70 which is the combined total for the four projects, but I’m not greedy.  Anything we can do will be gravy.  Below are excerpts from the proposals submitted by the teachers for each of the projects I selected, or if you want you can visit my challenge page to check them out.  One thing you’ll notice is that the schools all have high poverty or high need student bodies. My personal philosophy is that the schools in higher income areas are able to hit up their own parents for funding.  In other words if I think a project at my kids’ school is worthwhile then I’ll chip in for it.  For these projects the teachers don’t have that resource so they need to reach outside their community for help.  Thanks ahead of time for any support you can give.

Beginning Podcasting ($246 Project Request)
I am a media coordinator at a low- performing, 70% minority, economically disadvantaged high school.

As a means of addressing literacy issues in our school I would
like to assist our students in the creation of an online literary
magazine. Student work would include poetry, stories, essays, and peer
critiques, as well as original artwork, photography and cartoons. In
order to meet AYP and state standards for End-of Course study, any
opportunity for reading and writing would improve their performance. In
addition, using web technology as a "hook" would generate student
interest, while teaching a variety of technology skills for future use,
such as podcasting, blogging, and web page production.

Our population would greatly benefit from a variety of
non-traditional learning environments. The hands-on production of an
online literary magazine, which I plan to implement, is just such a
format for learning. This project will also give me many opportunities
to work collaboratively with the English and Art teachers integrating
the Information Skills curriculum into both core and elective classes.

My project needs a color document scanner, microphone and headphones. The cost of this proposal is $246, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

"Love You Forever" ($272 Project Request)

Literacy, big word, but it simply means
reading. There many components to reading. My classroom library is
lacking in variety, components, and enthusiasm. I am a new kindergarten
teacher who inherited a classroom that was started in the middle of
last school year. There were 10 small books in the classroom and no big
books or books with tapes. Through the graciousness of other teachers,
some books have been donated.

This is a class of 16 students that are new to school, many
have never been to a preschool or had any formal training. They have
had little exposure to the world of books. These precious students are
most at risk, and have a harder time mastering the basics. I am eager
to get them reading. I want them to gain respect for books and what
they have to offer. A book for these kindergarteners to take home and
share would be the start they need. The children will be taught the
responsibility of caring for books and returning them when assignments
are completed.

I am honored just to have the opportunity to make such a request
to such a wonderful giving organization. Thank you for considering my
proposal.

My
project needs take home readers, books with tapes, and concept books
for the classroom. Requested are: a science book and tape set, learning
to write transition kit, ‘The Story of Ferdinand’, guided reading book
bundle, and much more. The cost of this proposal is $272, which
includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

Help at Home for the Whole Family ($407 Project Request)

I teach in a school which is nearly 100%
free and reduced lunch. I teach a Title 1 Pre-k class which has 15 four
year old students who need an extra academic boost to be successful in
regular school. Most of our parents have multiple children and
desperately need resources to help their children at home.

It would be wonderful if we had kits that had books, activities,
and tapes to help parents support the work we do at school at home. I
conduct parent workshops with my parents and the number one complaint
they have is they don’t have anything to help their child at home. If I
could provide this type of kit for my parents it would not only help
the children in my classroom, but all the siblings at home. Older
children could read to the younger ones. The whole family could get
involved!! These at home book kits with books, tapes, and activity
cards (plus the bag to carry them with) would fit the need perfectly.
Thank you in advance for helping these families have the resources to
help their children at home. This would greatly empower our parents
while at the same time supporting our instruction at home!

My project needs themed book learning sets and bags to encourage reading at home. The cost of this proposal is $407, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

Wild World of Science ($640 Project Request)

I am a second year teacher working in rural
North Carolina. I work in a wonderful new school in Forsyth County just
outside of Winston Salem, North Carolina; unfortunately we have very
limited funding. I am requesting some exciting science items to use in
my 2nd grade classroom. This year I have students who would greatly
benefit from the use of science centers and hands on manipulatives. In
the coming school year I want to offer my 2nd grade a world of exciting
science adventures.

This proposal is for several science bags with books, games and
puppets that the children can use to help develop their scientific
inquiry. The students will be able to use these in the science center
in our classroom. I am also requesting some non-fiction science reading
materials to be used in the center as well as a butterfly cage and some
manmade habitats for the children to observe animal life cycles.

These items I am requesting would encompass all the Major
Concepts/Skill areas as outlined in the North Carolina Standard Course
of Study. Including Strands: Nature of Science, Science as Inquiry,
Science and Technology, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives.
These centers and manipulatives will reinforce the competency goals as
stated in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and assist both
teacher and student by providing new and exciting ways to learn and
teach science.

75% of the student population at my school eat on a free or
reduced lunch. Many of my students have no access to science
experiences or scientific reading materials. This would be highly
beneficial to those students who want to learn but have limited or no
access to all things scientific.

Please help me with this vital project. If I could afford this
on my own I would gladly fund this project, unfortunately I am on a
beginning teacher salary with little extra funds. Any and all help
would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The
cost of science center activities, including science bags on recycling,
floating and sinking, weather, how a seed grows, what magnets can do,
as well as butterfly lifecycle models, and books on science poetry. is
$640, including shipping and fulfillment.

Everything Old is New Again

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Hbvan
I get a kick out of listening to my teenagers talk.  Sure I’ve complained in the past about their mind-numbing ramblings, but they also remind me of how little perspective I had when I was their age.  Put another way they remind me about how I used to think anything that happened before 1975 was ancient history.  For instance last night we saw a commercial for a new mini-van (don’t remember which one) that had rear passenger seats that swivel and an expandable table on a post between them.  The kids thought that had to be the coolest, most innovative thing ever.  Obviously they haven’t seen re-runs of the 70’s era Hardy Boys show that starred Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy. If they had they would have seen a cooler-than-reality version of the kind of van that we who grew up in that era knew all too well.  It seems that every neighborhood had some kid who’s parents had one of those "customized" travel vans, often with the wacky portal on the side, that was the ride that everyone wanted to borrow for dates because, well, you figure it out.

I was thinking about the "everything old is new again" theme when I came across this article (via Sue Polinsky) about a doctor in NY who doesn’t have an office, only makes house calls, and schedules his appointments using his Google Calendar and text messaging.  This sounds radical, and in fact it is, but when you think about it one of the things that the people in the pre-baby boomer generation speak wistfully about is their old family doctor who used to make house calls.  I always assumed that they missed the house call because of the convenience, but really I think they miss the personal touch and attention that were mandated by house calls.  And guess what we all are looking for now?  A doctor who takes time to give us attention and doesn’t make us feel like we’re part of an assembly line.

Still in the "everything old is new again" mindset I read Dana Blankenhorn’s piece Who Is to Blame and segued into the related "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" mindset.  From Dana’s piece:

In many of the pieces I’ve written here on this subject, I have gone
into my own personal history. I have discussed the conservatism of my
teen-age years. I have discussed the lessons of my father. When you’re
thinking about current events, I bet you do the same. You reflect on
what has happened in your own life, what your parents taught you, and
the legends of your grandparents.

That’s really all history is. The word story is at the heart of it.
History changes with every generation, as we attempt to make sense of
the past in terms of the future.

That’s really why I enjoy listening to my kids.  They remind me of what I used to be, how I used to think, and how many times I’ve changed my mind over the years.  I view history very differently now than I used to, just as I view the world around me differently. Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes it’s not. 

When I was just a few years older than my kids are now I was working as an intern near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.  Every day I would walk to the same deli to buy lunch and usually there was an elderly, blind homeless woman sitting outside the door begging for change.  I’d been admonished by my Mom not to give beggars money because they’d just blow it on booze or drugs, but this woman somehow tugged at my conscience more than any of the other homeless I’d run across.  I really didn’t know what to do, but one day it occurred to me that I could buy her a meal.  I bought her a chicken salad sandwich, some chips and a drink and handed it to her on my way out.  I never stopped to wonder if she even liked chicken salad, I just saw a woman who needed a meal and I bought it for her.  Today I’d think about whether or not she’s allergic to something in the food and if she got sick would I be liable?  I’d also think to myself that I donate some of my money to charity, give to my church and by extension I’m helping those in need.  Obviously my perspective has changed.

My kids, however, still see things as if they’re all new and ask questions accordingly.  Why are there homeless people?  Why don’t we just build apartment buildings to house them?  Why do parents get divorced instead of just working it out?  On the lighter side they’ll talk about some great song they’ve just heard and when I hear it I have to inform them that it’s a cover of a cover of a song that was first performed by some guy that died over 30 years ago.  It truly breaks their hearts to learn that most of their cool new beats are regurgitated from performers that are older than their parents.  Of course the same thing happened to me at their age, and it’s going to happen to my grandchildren in fewer years than I’d like to think about.

Not the Kind of TXT MSG You Want to Get

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Just got the following text message from my oldest, who’s a freshman at West Forsyth H.S.: "Someone brought a gun to school."

My instant reaction?  "Holy shit!"

I’m not going to clean up the language because, well, I don’t know many parents wouldn’t say or think that.

My message back: "Are you on lockdown?"

Followed by a wait of a couple of minutes.  WAY too long.  Finally a reply:

"No they dumped it in the woods.  the cops have him"

Then I realize it’s lunch time for the boy and he’s just catching me up on his day as he does occasionally.  Let’s just say I have no need for an afternoon cup of coffee.

Update: Just checked the local news sites.  The Winston-Salem Journal’s site has no mention of the gun (just before 1 p.m) but the WXII site has a short story saying that a BB gun was found at the school and details are to follow.

Gun vs. BB gun is just a small detail, huh?  If it was indeed a BB gun that was found then I just discovered my son has a future writing news teases.

Lewisville, Oh Lewisville

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I’m not sure if Lewisville, NC has a town song, but since most places’ songs have "oh" in there somewhere I figured the title of this post would be a safe one.  I just re-discovered the US Census website and there I was able to dig up a handy fact sheet about the town I call home (I’ve pasted a copy of it below; click on it to see a full version).  The numbers in the fact sheet are based on the 2000 census which means they’re a little out of date, especially when you consider that the 2000 census showed Lewisville’s population as 8,826 and the Census Bureau estimates Lewisville’s 2006 population to be 12,444.  That’s a 41% growth rate in six years.  Of course a lot of that comes from last year’s imprisonment annexation of some innocent folks in western Forsyth County, but any which way you slice it the town is growing pretty fast.

Other interesting factoids: 

  • North Carolina has 548 cities and towns, of which Lewisville is ranked 63rd…and rising with a bullet!
  • Boone, home of Appalachian State University (the slayers of Michigan), is only slightly larger than Lewisville with 13,328 residents (59th in the state).
  • The smallest town in North Carolina is Love Valley in Iredell County.  They have 55 residents, but that’s up from 30 in 2000.
  • Forsyth County’s population density, at 814 people per square mile, is greater than Guilford County’s at 699 people per square mile.  This despite the fact that Guilford is home to Greensboro (3rd largest city in the state) and the vast majority of High Point (8th largest city in the state).  High Point city limits actually fall in four counties, but over 96,000 of it’s 98,000 residents live in Guilford.
  • But we’re a bunch of hicks compared to Mecklenburg County, home of the state’s largest city (Charlotte).  Their population density is 1,580 people per square mile.  By comparison the Raleigh/Cary counties of Durham (863 per square mile) and Wake (945 per square mile) are downright hickish too.
  • Here’s the real comparison for me personally.  The county we lived in before we moved (Prince William, VA) has a population density of 1,058 people per square mile and that’s in a county that’s considered a far-out suburb of Washington, DC.  The next county between Prince William and DC is Fairfax, which is one of the counties I lived in while growing up.  It has a population density of 2,583 people per square mile.  The county closest to DC and another place I lived growing up was Arlington and it’s density is 9,115 people per square mile.  No wonder my commute into DC was a royal pain in the butt!

You should check out your own town and see what you find.

Lewisvillefacts2000

links for 2007-10-02

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Renting a Car in Europe?

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Here’s something I wish I’d known about six months ago.  Apparently if you’re an American traveling to Europe and need to rent a car you should try to do so on the rental company’s website for that country because it will cost you a lot less to rent the same car.  From a New York Times Travel section article by Michelle Higgins (found via bookofjoe):

FOR a trip to Barcelona, Jorge Cuadros, a lawyer from Alexandria, Va., turned to the Internet to book a rental car. On Hertz.com,
Mr. Cuadros was quoted a price of 626.12 euros for an automatic
Mercedes for five days in October. At $1.42 to the euro, that amounted
to about $890.

Out of curiosity, Mr. Cuadros switched to his native Spanish tongue and checked Hertz’s Spanish Web site, www.hertz.es,
where the same car was offered for 263.92 euros — about 58 percent
less. He had stumbled upon a little-known trick that many online travel
companies would rather keep quiet.

“It seems that the car
rental companies are in some cases even charging twice the price to
residents of the U.S. than to Europeans,” said Mr. Cuadros, who
compares the practice to how some pharmaceutical companies charge more
in the United States than they do overseas. “This is abusive behavior.”

And it’s not just the car rental companies:

In an effort to expand their global reach, online travel agencies
based in the United States like Expedia and Travelocity, as well as
individual airlines and car rental agencies, are creating Web sites
geared to foreign counties. Travelocity, for example, just started Travelocity.com.mx for customers in Mexico. It also has Travelocity.co.uk for Britain; www.Travelocity.de
for Germany; and Travelocity.ca for Canada. Expedia has 13 foreign
sites including Expedia.dk (Denmark), Expedia.it (Italy) and Expedia.fr
(France).

The savings can be considerable. An Expedia.com search for a round-trip flight from Melbourne to Sydney
in August yielded a $350 airfare on Qantas as the lowest available,
including taxes and fees. The same flight was listed on Expedia’s
Australian Web site, Expedia.com.au, for 224.34 Australian dollars, or
about $187 at 1.20 Australian dollars to the U.S. dollar.
Expedia.com.au also listed a lower fare (about 200 Australian dollars)
on Virgin Blue, an Australian low-cost carrier; the United States site
did not search that airline.

So how’s this for a business concept: line up a company offshore that can offer multilingual service, promote discounted rates to American travelers and then have your offshore service book the travel and take a cut of the difference?

For my own sake I think I need to learn at least one other language.

Somewhere in Forsyth County is a Substitute Teacher I’d Like to Hang by His Thumbs

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I’m doing something that is best not to do: I’m blogging in anger.  An hour ago I was working in my home office, happily dealing with the mind-numbing tedium that most non-lottery winners encounter every day, when my daughter knocked on my door and asked for help with her algebra.  Well, math is a struggle for me but I figured I could handle whatever basic algebra she’s encountering at this point in her school year.  Oh, how wrong I was!

It seems that my daughter had a substitute teacher today and according to her he spent 1/2 hour regaling the class with fond memories of his youth and telling them how lucky they are to have computers.  He also managed to hand out their worksheets, tell them to leave their textbooks at school and do their best for homework.  Nary a bit of instruction to be found.

That’s how I ended up in my office madly Googling problems like "the lesser of two consecutive even integers is 10 more than one half the greater" and visiting cheesy websites that offered solutions to the problem, but without much explanation.  Compounding my ire was the disappointment I felt in myself for not remembering how to do this stuff.  Yes, 25 years is a long time to remember something but I’m still able to remember how to spell "Pythagorean Theorem" without breaking a sweat.  I don’t remember what the hell it is but I can spell it!

Anyway, when I couldn’t figure out how to help I resorted to cursing out (under my breath) the substitute, the person that hired him, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and the U.S. Department of Education for putting me in this position.  I understand that there’s a lot of pressure to accurately fill out the state mandated bubble tests to a minimum degree of proficiency, but for God’s sake help us out here!

Yesterday I read a piece titled "How Homework is Hurting Our Family" in the Wall Street Journal section of the Winston-Salem Journal’s Sunday business section.  The author, Jeff Opdyke, writes the following:

I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point U.S.
schools decided that if you can’t teach ’em, test ’em…or pile on more
homework.

The result is that my son’s life — and by extension
our family life — is a constant, stress-laden stream of homework and
tests and projects. It overshadows everything we do, always hanging
over our head. It affects our weekends, our meals, our vacations, our
work time, our playtime, our pocketbooks.

And to what end? Maybe I’m missing something, but when
did schools determine that the best place for kids to learn math,
science and English is at their own kitchen table?

Hallelujah brother!  Now I’m not going to lay the blame entirely on the teachers.  They often have over 30 students per class to deal with and they have to make sure that their students pass the No Child Left With an Imagination Behind – mandated inspection. That’s a situation they don’t have much control over.  On the other hand there have been more occasions than I can count where the kids have come home with work and absolutely no classroom preparation.  Sometimes it’s because the kids weren’t paying attention, but other times it was because the teacher didn’t get to it in class and sent them home with the worksheets and the expectation that Mom, Dad or Uncle Google would bail them out. 

All of this was annoying enough when the kids were younger, but now that they’re getting past the point where the remnants of Celeste’s and my educations end we’re running into dangerous territory.  I don’t mind getting the kids help via a tutor when it’s obvious that the work is too difficult for them despite the extensive preparation provided by the teacher, but it burns my toast when there isn’t any classroom prep at all. 

Again, I don’t want to paint all teachers with this brush.  The vast majority that we’ve dealt with over the years have been hard working, talented and obviously cared for the kids.  As I said they are dealing with some tough situations every day and I have a great deal of respect for them.  But I also believe that even the best teachers are being forced to heap more and more work on the shoulders of the kids, and by extension their parents.  And speaking for this household I can tell you that if the future of my children’s advanced math education relies even somewhat on my weary brain then they’re in a world of hurt. I imagine it’s much the same in many other households.

Okay, I’m done ranting and am officially in a lessened state of pissedoffment.  I do, however, have a final note for our friends at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System:  If you’re going to put someone in a classroom as a substitute teacher and that person’s not qualified to teach then at least tell the nimrod to send the textbooks home with the kids.  If not I’m going to hunt every one of you down and force you to figure out how to find "the lesser of two consecutive even integers is 10 more than one half the greater" without any help and see how you like it.