Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Photography



Photography. If one is going to have an online store, someone has to take pictures. Since I work alone that someone is me. I tried something different. I hauled everything outside on a sunny day. It's not really hard to find a sunny day in Texas. I think the pics came out better. I think I'll try closer to noon so the sun will be directly overhead next time.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Daylight Saving Time

Okay, whose crazy idea is this anyway? I know, I know. It is Congress's idea to save energy. I have to get up an hour earlier and go to school in the dark. Why? To save energy? I'm not feeling it. At least now most of the clocks in our house set themselves. My Palm Pilot turned itself on at 2am to let me know that it's springing forward! Yippee, didn't want to sleep through that one. No blinking clock on the VCR anymore. Actually no VCR anymore. Pretty soon their will be no DVD player either. All streaming video. Oops, I digressed. See, I need more sleep!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

No Child Left Behind

As a former classroom teacher, I'm pretty offended that a politician would intimate that I might want to leave a child behind. I want every student to be successful. I want them to be able to read and write and respect the U.S. I want them to be employable with skills and work ethic that gains them a job they are proud of and satisfied with.

What happens then when the child doesn't see the need in moving ahead? For this child, school is just a place to go and hang out with friends. I've met a bunch of them in my 10 years in the school system. As a teacher, parent, and taxpayer, it makes me mad. This child is being handed a free and appropriate education and he refuses to receive it. In fact, he is preventing or hindering others from receiving their free education too because he is such a classroom distraction that the teacher has to spend an inordinate amount of time just keeping control of the classroom.