Oklahoma Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
FFFC's
And go!
Re: FFFC's
The ladies in my classes right now are very sweet, and I can tell that they are very passionate about teaching, and learning more about the craft of music education. But...and you all know that I'm Ms. notreligiousatall...they are super-religious, all of them. Yesterday at lunch, they discussed (I mostly just sat and listened), about how they struggle with accepting homosexuality, and that they have students who claim to be gay (they teach elementary), and they don't know what to do with that. They feel it is wrong in the eyes of God, but they have to love their students regardless.
This is obviously not how I feel. I have students who are gay...pretty much everyone knows they are, unless they haven't publicly come out, and even then, some of the teachers know because those students confided in them. I honestly never think about my students' sexuality. It's a non-issue for me. But that's how I was raised...acceptance, tolerance, all that hippy-stuff, and it's hard for me to understand that others don't feel the same way as I do.
I found out this week that one of H's extended family members worked on the Casey Anthony trial [worked for her lawyers]. Some of his family have been getting defensive about my thoughts about the trial and how I think she's guilty [but not enough evidence was presented to put her away], but whatever.
I wish it was next week so I can see the last Harry Potter movie already.
I am a bit perplexed at the fascination that remains with Casey Anthony. While I feel the same amount of outrage and sadness concerning the death of Caylee, I cannot (for the life of me) understand why THIS particular case gets the amount of media attention, fervor, and protests it does. There were specials on it, the trial was televised, and even people in Hollywood discussed it in detailed. Why not the same amount of attention for other cases?
There was a 3 year old boy burned alive in an oven around the time the world discovered Casey's trial would be televised nationally, not one national outlet covered this story. People are crying buckets for Caylee but what about the hundreds of thousands of other children that met even more horrific deaths?
Someone posted that on my facebook the other day, as well. Just awful. It is odd how the media and people will latch onto a certain case.
I will tell you why - and its not right - white, rich, Caylee was a very cute little girl, and Casey was attractive.
End of Story.
And then Nancy Grace got ahold of it.
And let's not get started on HER. **throwing up in mouth a little**
Sometimes I wish people would pay more attention to etiquette and work on their manners a bit. It's just not that hard.
That is so not FFFC at all. Sorry, gang.
I remember this story - my mom and I talked about this for days, but no one covered it. One of my cousins passed the story on to me. I think this made me more sick than the Casey Anthony debacle.
It's weird how certain stories grab the media spotlight, but others don't.
Well, phew. I am having some anxiety over this and it feels good to FFFC:
After being estranged for years from his family, DH and I are slowly working on building a relationship again with them. His grandma passed away a few months ago, and I feel like DH and his parents are pressuring me to buy her house, which is the home DH grew up in. His parents have always owned it, but his grandparents rented it from them when they moved into town and his parents built their dream home. His grandma was a major beeyotch toward me and his grandpa died in the house, so the walk down memory lane isn't as warm and fuzzy for me. Also, we are not handy nor DIYers, and the house needs a bunch of updates before I feel like it's our style (well, okay - my style. But are wood paneled walls and olive stove anyone's style anymore?). If we buy a house, I'd rather get something more move in ready and already updated. However, DH is all excited at the chance to live in his "little boy house" and I'm just not into it. I'm also uncomfortable because I think the house is overpriced for what his parents want to sell it to us for and they seem to be nickle and diming us for everything. I don't want to get into a negotiation battle with his family. We have lived in an apartment for 7 years, and this was so not what I had in mind as our first house. I'm afraid that if I say no, his parents will be pissed and it will make an already eggshell relationship more cracked. And it will fall on me. Plus, his grandparents lived in that house for 15 years and it's still called "Grandma's house" and I'm afraid we'll never really feel like the home is ours. I want to tell DH just to take a picture of it and move on but of course I feel like a horrible wife for thinking that.
I literally laughed out loud at this. God help us when we get old.
Me too. This one is my favorite FFFC of the day! So funny!
A home is a huge investment and if you aren't excited about the home now, you probably never will be.
OUlaw - absolutely, positively DO NOT buy that house if you are not comfortable. You all have been saving for a house for SEVEN YEARS - you need to buy a home that makes BOTH of you happy. And honestly, given that his parents are such douches, I would not trust them with a ten foot pole. Of course they are pressuring you to buy the house - when it sells, they make money. It is easier to guilt you all into buying the house than to have to actually market and sell the house to an independent third party.
Don't do it.
I wouldn't do this on account of their feelings, do this based on YOURS. If they get upset then that illustrates that this entire fiasco was about them. Get the home you desire, not one you are pressured into. GL!
I just graded a batch of essays from juniors. My suspicion is that NCLB and the focus on multiple choice has screwed over an entire generation of students. Even those kids who were good (but not AP) scholars got left behind as there just wasn't enough time in the day to help a "B+" student become an "A" student when there were so many "D+" students to have to assist.
--I suck at being a housewife most days during the summer. 4:30 rolls around and I make a mad dash to throw in some laundry, load the dishwasher, change clothes, and make it look like I've been productive all day. I just really need the structure of working. Makes me rethink the whole SAHM future plans sometimes.
--I'm happy with my figure and overall looks. I hate that women feel like they have to one-up each other with complaints about their bodies "oh, but my nose is HUGE" "Well, at least your weight doesn't go to your arms like mine does" "At least you add muscle easily" etc. etc. etc. I know I've been guilty of doing this, but I wish we could put a moratorium on it!
Don't get me wrong---some are wonderful writers (better than I was at that level, for sure!)
And, I don't think you're failing them. I think the system is failing them. Here's my impression of what's happening. Because of this damn "funding is based on test results" thing, 5th grade English teachers do what they can, but don't have time to get everyone caught up. They assume that 6th grade teachers can pick up the slack. But they, too, have giant classes and a "standardized" curriculum they're stuck with which actually fits very few people, so hopefully, they think, 7th grade teachers will be able to get them up to speed. And on, and on, and on. Am I wrong? Once they get to college, they're sunk if they're not caught up, in part because our pedegogy classes begin with the premise that they already know how to do the basics. I don't know the most effective way to teach someone how to write a complete sentence, for example. And, with a full semester of content I should teach, when do I fit it in?
Not to mention the fact that some kids are just going to be 1000 times better at writing. Why? They were read to at home from day 1 and good readers make good writers. Their parents have great grammar and excellent vocabularies. Mom and/or dad had enough time and energy at the end of the day to get the kiddos to the summer reading program at the library and cheered them on when they read enough books to win the free ice cream coupon or whatever it was. The kids were strongly encouraged in creative play (like how my parents would always "buy" the Family Newsletter I wrote for like 50 cents and act like they were SO entralled with the fact that, last night, we had meatloaf, then my little brother won our game of Memory.) I can't go back 20 years and redo their childhoods for them.
If this is frustrating for me (who, PLEASE don't get me wrong, loves working with this population of students, otherwise I never would have moved so far from home), I can't imagine how discouraged they feel. I am making out a plan to spend an hour or so on Monday on this. EVERYONE can become a better writer, so I'm trying to plan a lesson that has something that will increase each person's skills, whether they're already great or whether just getting them to understand paragraphs would be a major improvement.
Oh, I think you've nailed it. I've bolded some of your statements because I agree wholeheartedly. When my 9th graders' parents ask me how they can help their kids become better writers, I still say "encourage/promote reading." Read the paper, magazines, websites, fiction, nonfiction--anything. Just get your kid reading, and read with them.
You ROCK for wanting to work with these students, and believing in their abilities.