How do you spell relief? Retirement.
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I needed a purchase order the other day. But, it seems that I cannot find any establishment that would sell me some LOGIC to give to our administration.
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So Joyce is incapable of making logical decisions?
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A psychopath has taken over our school. Any suggestions?
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What do you think is the adopted curriculum? Why do you have to create materials? Does your school not have a book room to access books? If so, what school are you at? I thought all schools had a guided reading book room.
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Lot of talk about curriculum... may I share some futuristic interpretations (from thirty-five years ago) of what can be done, in regard to curriculum. Hearing no objections, I take that as a 'YES'. A highly-regarded professor of education, Dr. Don Ely (founder of ERIC Clearinghouse) shared his ideas in an advanced graduate institute in instructional technology. He believed that, since SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY was good for managing business, industry, military, and lots of other enterprises, we should consider using it to manage instruction. Following that experience, I had the opportunity to do just that, in a USOE federal project. However, in that adventure, we stretched the definition of curriculum, to... WHAT HAPPENS AT SCHOOL. Those of us who set up the program used the tools of systems technology, flow-charting, PERT diagramming, etc., and adapted the whole idea to address the needs of each, and every, kid in the school. With the gift of a $750,000 main-frame computer (anonymously donated... I think it was Ross Perot), we made the system work... wonderfully well. Well enough, that our classic research showed that the experimental group of kids made significantly more progress than those in the control group. We did not use computers for instruction, as there were no desktop computers at that time. Each teacher had access to a terminal, connected to the mainframe, and the scope and sequence, objectives and strategies were the core of the program. Complete details of each child's levels of ability, and progress, were up-to-date, almost to the minute... as teachers, or aides, entered data whenever a child succeeded in completing an academic or skills objective. The whole thing worked like clock-work, and, would you believe, introduced a concept that's quite foreign to public education... ACCOUNTABILITY!
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Will all of these lawsuits (Laws, Jenkins, Ogas,and Diaz) have any effect on our salaries for next year? Also, there is "talk" of extending the number of days on our contract. Unless they pay additional money for these days, doesn't it just "water down" what we are now making - so that we are actually paid less per hour?
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School sucks...
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Guided Reading is NOT a curriculum, it is researched best practices for teaching reading to students. By using any leveled reader (Scott Foresmann, Houghton Mifflin, Rigby, etc.) or even a leveled trade book. A good teacher can build on students' skills and strategies so each student becomes a more proficient reader. The "scope and sequence" is based on you observing student needs- don't be so lazy!
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Regarding the semester block negative impact on students--in the last CRT results, MHS passed 37 of 39 categories, OHS 32, and LCHS 19. There's a problem alright, but not with the semester block. The problem is with the way the tests are scored. That's why almost all large schools in the state of New Mexico are failing. It really doesn't matter what kind of schedule you have any more. If a school has special ed or ESL students, they will be failing, and it isn't necessarily the fault of the school or the kids. The test is wacked.
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5 Comments:
Funny. The community was outraged when Jesse Gonzales left on his own account and took about $300,000 in severance packages. Then this new board got in power and since then, we have had to pay out close to a million dollars in buy-outs and potential lawsuit settlements. Where is the outrage? Why, it's with the victims! It's the victim's fault that money is being wasted. If the board hadn't interfered with the day to day running of the school district and fired people as part of their own petty little vendettas, then these lawsuits and buy-outs wouldn't be happening. Put the blame where it is deserved--on the backs of three of the incumbent members of the current board and the two who did not return!
I feel so much better now that I can observe students using "research based best practices" and determine student needs. I'll bet dollars to donuts that most of the jargon talkers who use the terminology research based best practices are the same yahoos who fill their conversations with acronyms and don't know exactly what their own conversations mean. But boy don't they sound smart! Meanwhile our parents, (the customers stupid!), are left wondering what we are teaching their children and they have less and less faith in us.
If our Leveled Book Room went beyond Q we wouldn't have to buy or create curriculum. Some teachers at our newest school didn't get Math books till February. Can you spell irresponsible?
As to applying business systems models to our school, no amount of data gathering will mean anything if it doesn't have this little thing called COMMON SENSE following it. New Mexico's continuous improvement model, as well as what's happening at OƱate and throughout the state with hostile 'systems' takeovers, will make NO difference, because it's systems for the sake of systems, there is zero common sense, especially from the site coaches.
These schools perpetually don't make AYP, it's because they're too caught up in doing all of these nit picking activities that irritate the teachers and mean nothing to the students. Common sense has left our schools, and in its place we have absolutely and utter b-s.
NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES.
To date, 849 employees have responded to the membership discount
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150 additional employees to register in order to ge the membership fee
at $25.00.
If you have not yet signed up, please respond to this e-mail by no
later than Friday, March 16, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS
OPPORTUNITY!!! IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SIGNED UP, PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO
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I need the following information: Name, address, city, state, zip and
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