Archive for the Uncategorized category
Okay, I cannot resist. It is no secret to readers of this blog that I am one of those rare breeds in education….a Republican school teacher (talk about your endangered species!!). Well I just watch Sara Palin give her acceptance speech at the RNC and was totally blown away. Everybody always talks about what a great orator Obama is but he has definitely met his match in this feisty governor from Alaska.
What I found very funny was that all the talking heads pretty much unanimously mentioned something to the effect of “that was not her speech as she had somebody write it for her”. Who in the world actually believes that Obama writes his speeches? Few can touch Barak in his delivery of reading off of a teleprompter but he certainly does not write his own material.
But what a great story she has and there is no doubt that she embodies the whole concept of “change” because she is not like ANYBODY that is already there.
John King of CNN actually said it best when he described this as a “how dare you” speech – how dare you disparage small towns, how dare you discount the executive experience of a mayor and governor, how dare you attack my family. And she did it all with poise and a smile.
We always hear that the vast majority of jobs in this country come from small businesses. Well it is also true that this country is supported and has its soul in small towns throughout this country. Obama better watch his step if he dares to down play the importance of small town America.
I am very excited for this ticket!
And now back to our regularly scheduled educational program….
ggggggrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!
I just learned that the Democratic National Committee has voted to allow Florida and Michigan to have full voting rights at their convention that starts today. As I understand it both of these states were told in no uncertain terms that if they moved their primaries to a date before New Hampshire (or some other predetermined line in the sand) they would loose voting privileges at the convention but they went ahead and held their primaries early anyway.
So the lesson learned from this is that rules really do not matter and if you whine and cry and shout loud enough, you will get your way. I pretty much loose credibility with my students when I talk about how important it is for people to be held accountable for their actions when they see examples like this on a daily basis.
Let me say it again…..gggggggggrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
[Note that my criticism of the DNC ruling has nothing to do with the fact that I am Republican - what is wrong is wrong regardless of who is doing it. But in this case lets just say it does not surprise me that the Dems made up the rules as they went along - hehehe]
Even though on the calendar it shows that I have now been in school for 2 weeks (3 if you consider all of the countless meetings I had to attend before the kids showed up), it was not until today that it became official. Here I am on a Saturday afternoon as my friends are off having pool parties and going to movies I am here at my favorite coffee shop grading papers.
As if I needed more proof in how this is a true vocation for me, I really do enjoy grading papers. Yes it is a lot of work but for me it is tangible reflection on how well I taught the information. If they did well, I feel satisfied by the results and if I find that they struggled, then as I am grading I am thinking of ways to go back and reteach the information. Regardless of how good you feel about your teaching skills, what it really comes down to is the results you achieve.
[But I will admit that a nice cold "adult beverage" would taste pretty good right now]
With a title like this I am sure you are thinking this is yet another Michael Phelps article. It is not. Oh sure I am just as blown away and proud of what Phelps did in this Olympics but believe it or not, his 8 gold medals is not what I will remember the most from the “Water Cube” in Beijing.
What I will remember are the actions taken by Dara Torres.
My admiration of Dara goes well beyond the fact that she has won 3 medals in her fifth Olympics and that she is doing what she is doing at the age of 41. What impressed me the most was what she did on Saturday in the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle and it had nothing to do with the time she reached.
As all the swimmers were coming out of the ready room for the heat, Therese Alshammar from Sweden noticed that her suit had ripped and was hastily trying to fix it but just made it worse. As she raced back into the locker room to change, Dara frantically waved the other swimmers down from the starting blocks and explained to the people in charge that one of the swimmers was having to change. She was pretty adamant that it would not be fair to race until everybody was ready to give it their all. When Therese emerged with her “wardrobe malfunction” fixed, the race commenced and Dara came in first.
Here is this 41-year old athlete who put all of her individual medal hopes into this one event and would have been justified in totally being “in the zone” and only focused on the race. But instead of thinking only about winning, she was more concerned about doing the right thing. Therese Alshammar may not have been a major threat to Torres but in a sport where people win (or loose) by only one-one hundredth of a second, having one less competitor always improves your chances to win.
Even though Dara came in first at the semis, she ended up with a silver medal in the finals missing first place by that mind-blowing .01 seconds. For this event, though, a silver represented the true champion of the race.
So yes, I am very proud of Michael Phelps and all of the gold medals he won (you should have heard me yelling and screaming at the TV last night cheering the American team on). But when I talk about the Olympics in my class on Monday I am going to make sure all of my students are aware that the true Olympic “gold” was won by a 41-year old mom and it was represented by a silver medal.
Dara Torres is an athlete who truly knows the importance of pursuing victory with honor.