No Child Left Behind

Inspired by a post on Angie's blog, I had these thoughts to share:

For the most part, I think the public school system is broken. And frankly, I don't think much of it can be fixed on a large scale unless we can do two things: find ways to recruit and keep good teachers, and find ways to improve or, if necessary, get rid of bad ones. This comes down to two things: teacher pay and teacher tenure. I know some excellent teachers who have left the profession because they can make more money and take less abuse doing something else.For example, I know one who is leaving after this year to become a plumber. Especially in math and science, this is true...you can make a whole lot more doing just about anything else with a math or science degree than you can make teaching math or science.

I've heard a statistic that 50% of new teachers leave the profession by the first 5 years, and it's not surprising given the total lack of support that most new teachers have. I was very lucky to get a supportive team of people helping me and a great mentor, but many schools do not have any mentoring or support programs for new teachers. This year was really hard, and I don't think I could have gotten through it on my own.

Personally, I think more of a business model is in order here. How are businesses successful? They hire and keep good personnel, and fire ones who aren't doing their jobs properly. I grant that it is very difficult to come up with an evaluation process for teachers. You don't want to leave evaluation solely to administrators, or colleagues, or parents, or students or (God help us) test scores. But maybe some combination of these factors could help. And teachers should be given a chance to improve before they are fired/asked to leave.

If teaching were a more respected profession, I think good people would be more likely to become teachers and stay teachers. And if we can find and keep good teachers, I think the respect would come with the improvement in the profession in general. However... all of these issues require funding, which the current administration seems to think that public schools don't need. More tests, yes. More money, no. Study after study has shown that smaller class size makes a huge difference in how much kids learn, yet hardly anyone is willing to invest that money. I think that if we don't realize that our educational system is an investment, we won't be able to improve it. Yes, there are wonderful teachers making huge differences in students' lives everywhere. But the entire system has huge flaws (including enormous funding disparities) and I'm not sure that it will be fixed in its current state. Maybe we need more schools funded by private foundations and run like businesses, I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Big people furniture

So we were only shopping for a coffee table and two end tables, right?

But...we saw a beautiful dining set and matching china hutch on SALE for much cheaper than the other ones we had perused. Both of us loved it at first sight (and we ignored it the first time, when we were just looking for the tables, but when we went back, we saw it again and looked at the price).

And Derek needs a desk for his study.

So...if we spend $3500 (surprisingly easy to do), no payments for the first year and no interest for the next 3. As long as it's paid off before then, it's same as cash. We could pay cash now, but we'd rather not deplete our savings that much. This is almost all the stuff we'll be needing in the new place. We were going to buy all these pieces over the next few years anyway. And it's so beautiful, and elegant, and is solid wood, not particle board! We're going to put in the order tonight. We're really big people now. Scary.

We're also making reservations for hotels for England and Scotland. Edinburgh is proving to be somewhat of a challenge...could the release of HP6 have anything to do with it, I wonder? We will buy it hot off the press!

P.S. Sorry guys, but I could NOT get past the awful dialogue in Star Wars. It just ruined the whole darn thing for me. My personal favorite was Obi-Wan to Anakin: "Don't make me kill you!" A friend pointed out that it might have been better if the actors didn't speak at all and instead had those silent-movie line screens. I was also ticked that all Padme got to do was stand around and be pregnant. And NOBODY said a word about it until Obi-Wan toward the end! At least in the last movie she got to have her clothes strategically torn off during the battle scene and help in the fighting a little. Grrr. No amount of eye candy makes up for crappy dialogue and continuity, in my opinion.

Chickens? Heads cut off? What?

The kids are nuts. Today was the last Friday of real classes before the end of school-next week is the dance, the week after is the big field trip.

But on the bright side, John Williams' brilliant score is starting to run through my head. Yes, ladies and gents, another Star Wars is here. We have tickets to the 6:30 show tonight. I am trying really hard not to get my hopes up because the second one sucked so badly, but I am looking forward to it despite myself.

Wedding stuff is NUTS...but the invitations have been mailed, so one big hurdle tackled. Also we are meeting with the priest now and will shortly pick out music, musicians, readers, and readings. We've already gotten a few registry gifts :-) and less "no" RSVPs than we are hoping, but it is still early. Not that we don't like people, it's just that the guest list got a little out of hand.

This weekend we WILL make hotel reservations and train reservations if it kills us...which it probably will. I hate having so many choices. Plane tickets are easy--which has the best price on the days you want to fly? Hotels-way too complicated. What neighborhood, what price, what kind of room, what quality...the list goes on and on.

But again on the bright side, the new Harry Potter book is coming out...and we will be in Edinburgh for it, the same place as JK Rowling!!!

4 more weeks! 4 more weeks!

That's all we have left, thank goodness. Kids are getting more and more wound up as the days go on. The administrators have started kicking out troublemakers for the rest of the school year, so one of my biggest headaches is gone. Good thing, because it was getting too much for me to handle. I'm getting very tired of all the whining and complaining around here.

D is buying stamps for the invitations today. We were going to block rooms at another hotel, but between one thing and another, I'm not sure it's going to get done. Maybe we will just put some names/numbers of other places on the information sheet and leave it at that.

The kitchen and bedroom are set up, so that's a relief. Everything else is still in boxes. Will we get to it this weekend, or just go to the apartment to clean it? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

This is a test. It is only a test.

Happy birthday, D! Yesterday was the big 2-5 for him and we celebrated by going to take a wedding test.

Actually, when you get married in the Catholic church, they give you this test full of questions about your future spouse and your relationship. Then they use the answers on the test to help you discuss things with one another and with the priest--things like raising children, dealing with money, careers, household work...I didn't study, but I think I passed. :-)

Should be interesting...we will meet with the priest to discuss soon.

Invitations are almost ready. I need to get some more hotel info before I mail them out.

Moving Day

It's done...we're finally moved. And what a move it was.

We had 9 helpers, which meant that things went very quickly. It only took about an hour and a half to load the truck and about an hour to unload. Everyone enjoyed pizza and beer afterward. The best part was, we had 10 people and 3 kids in our place after, and we didn't feel constricted AT ALL! I can tell that with this new place, we are going to entertain LOTS more people. D and I agree, we didn't invite people over often because we were almost ashamed of the old place. It was so tiny and ugly. How did we possibly fit all that stuff into that tiny apartment??

I'm sure we'll expand to fit the new place, because that's how it always goes. Still, it's so incredible to have empty space in cabinets, closets, rooms. Not every square inch is filled with stuff.

It was weird waking up this morning and showering in the new shower...putting my makeup case on the counter instead of on the toilet...walking to the kitchen and having D not be able to hear me because he is still in the bedroom...not having to look at the washer and dryer while making breakfast...putting dirty dishes in the DISHWASHER!! (I am way too enthused about this, but as good a dishwasher as D is, I'm glad to have a machine to do most of the work.)

D:(after looking for me for a minute) I can't find you in this place!
Me: Isn't that great? It's huge!
D: Maybe we should install an intercom.
Me: (laughing)