Results have been mixed amongst friends and family. We weren't so sure ourselves, but it's grown on us tremendously. The color is most beautiful in morning with sunshine streaming in from the kitchen window.
On to the Florida room. Yay!
Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts
03 July 2011
kitchen: painted
While it took way longer between coats than we would have liked and there is still some trim work to be done, the kitchen is finally painted. And it is bright.
Results have been mixed amongst friends and family. We weren't so sure ourselves, but it's grown on us tremendously. The color is most beautiful in morning with sunshine streaming in from the kitchen window.
Results have been mixed amongst friends and family. We weren't so sure ourselves, but it's grown on us tremendously. The color is most beautiful in morning with sunshine streaming in from the kitchen window.
24 April 2010
the accidental collection
My latest thrift find finally made its way home today. I saw this table while we were down in Tampa Bay for Rays' Opening Day. It was at an adorable furniture store we happened upon accidentally.
It's honestly not my style, with its frilly legs (which are quite wobbly) and extra shelf. I like more classic lines in my furniture. I may very well change the legs out someday. What made me fall in love was the tile top since I have another table almost exactly like it.
I found its sister table at one of my very favorite thrift stores, the Gandy Goodwill in St. Pete. It had just come in off a donation truck. I grabbed it for $15. It remains one of my favorite furniture pieces. So when I found a table so similar to it I was so surprised!
Of course, since I'm so indecisive I decided to wait and think about it. When I couldn't get the table out of my head, I knew I had to have it. We went back the next day only to find out the store was only open three days a week! Knowing I'd be back in a few weeks, I resigned myself to waiting. But when Tim moved out, taking the giant wine rack with him, I knew the table would be perfect in the empty space. I called the store, praying they hadn't sold it in the two previous weeks. It was still there! I bought it over the phone and had them put it in back for me until I could make my way down. My mom was in the area for a conference this week and agreed to pick it up for me.
I've never seen so many different tile leaf designs. Quite unique, isn't it? I'm so thrilled to have it. I wonder if I'll ever find another?
25 March 2010
my email to cretul
I just sent this email to Larry Cretul, who has been asking interested parties for House companion to SB6 (kill public education bill) to send their thoughts to him via email or phone:
I oppose this teacher tenure bill for several reasons. As an elementary school teacher for eight years in a high-poverty school (77+% free/reduced lunch), I really wish that I could be the most important person in my students' lives. If I were, I could instill a passion for education and life-long learning. I would have them eat well, brush their teeth, do their homework, watch appropriate TV shows and movies, go to sleep at an appropriate hour, and get regular exercise. I would instill a respect for adults and for things that don't belong to them. But I only have them with me for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Their families, peers, and communities have more sway in their education than I do.
So why would you punish me for choosing to work with such a population of children? I work very hard to instill the above ideals in them during the short time they are in my room. I push them, encourage them, reward and punish them as if they were my own children. But my impact does not sway the neighborhood belief that education is not important. They can try their best while in my room, but eventually they have to go back home.
I have consistently high FCAT scores in my school -- last year all of my kids scored at 3 or higher in math (considerably higher than their previous year's scores of 1s and 2s for most of them). I am one of those teachers you say would be "rewarded" by this bill, I am sure of it. But if it passes, I will have to quit teaching and find a job that will pay my bills. I cannot afford to live on half my salary until it's known whether my students passed. I already work two jobs because my salary is so low (and I have a Master's, which I'm still paying for, that is now totally worthless).
If I stayed in the classroom, I wouldn't be able to afford to put in the extra time, energy, and money that I do right now. I would be forced to teach to the test to make sure I had a job. I would always be worried that any low child's test scores could make me lose my job. Any parent complaint could oust me as well. Why would I bother to chance my future and my life in that way? Many other wonderful teachers I speak with feel the same way. Those with no other options than teaching wonder how they will keep their houses and feed their families.
This bill will take money out of local schools and send it to private test companies. It will do it on the backs of our most important natural resource: our children. If this passes, I don't know how those in the Florida Legislature will live with themselves knowing they destroyed the chance for poor children to have access to quality education.
I have an out; I can find a new job. The underprivileged students in my class (and thousands of others) will be stuck with more drills, more tests, and much less real education. Please don't let this bill pass.
Want to share your thoughts? Here's his info:
Please pass this to anyone you know who cares about public education in the state of Florida. This bill has been fast-tracked and could even be voted on tomorrow (Friday).
I oppose this teacher tenure bill for several reasons. As an elementary school teacher for eight years in a high-poverty school (77+% free/reduced lunch), I really wish that I could be the most important person in my students' lives. If I were, I could instill a passion for education and life-long learning. I would have them eat well, brush their teeth, do their homework, watch appropriate TV shows and movies, go to sleep at an appropriate hour, and get regular exercise. I would instill a respect for adults and for things that don't belong to them. But I only have them with me for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Their families, peers, and communities have more sway in their education than I do.
So why would you punish me for choosing to work with such a population of children? I work very hard to instill the above ideals in them during the short time they are in my room. I push them, encourage them, reward and punish them as if they were my own children. But my impact does not sway the neighborhood belief that education is not important. They can try their best while in my room, but eventually they have to go back home.
I have consistently high FCAT scores in my school -- last year all of my kids scored at 3 or higher in math (considerably higher than their previous year's scores of 1s and 2s for most of them). I am one of those teachers you say would be "rewarded" by this bill, I am sure of it. But if it passes, I will have to quit teaching and find a job that will pay my bills. I cannot afford to live on half my salary until it's known whether my students passed. I already work two jobs because my salary is so low (and I have a Master's, which I'm still paying for, that is now totally worthless).
If I stayed in the classroom, I wouldn't be able to afford to put in the extra time, energy, and money that I do right now. I would be forced to teach to the test to make sure I had a job. I would always be worried that any low child's test scores could make me lose my job. Any parent complaint could oust me as well. Why would I bother to chance my future and my life in that way? Many other wonderful teachers I speak with feel the same way. Those with no other options than teaching wonder how they will keep their houses and feed their families.
This bill will take money out of local schools and send it to private test companies. It will do it on the backs of our most important natural resource: our children. If this passes, I don't know how those in the Florida Legislature will live with themselves knowing they destroyed the chance for poor children to have access to quality education.
I have an out; I can find a new job. The underprivileged students in my class (and thousands of others) will be stuck with more drills, more tests, and much less real education. Please don't let this bill pass.
Want to share your thoughts? Here's his info:
| |||
31 January 2010
what's missing from RTTT
While reading up on everything there is to know about Race To The Top (and you know there's a ton we don't know about RTTT), I feel there is something very important missing. I would call it the core problem with most major national legislation: actual input from real, in-the-classroom-right-this-moment teachers.
This is my first year dealing with serious, interrupting-my-teaching-on-a-regular-basis standardized testing. And by standardized testing, I mean online statewide FAIR testing, district reading benchmark tests, and math unit tests given on district-mandated dates regardless of whether my students have had time to master the curriculum. I've taught FCAT testing grades for the last 6 years, so I'm not new to the testing game. The problem is the data all these tests are accumulating is not an accurate measure of most of my students' abilities according to my personal observations.
I have one student, let's call him Science Boy, who loves reading non-fiction and comes up with super high-level questions regarding anything we are studying. For example, we play a great game about once a week where I put a long word on the board and the kids come up with words made from the letters all day. Any words five letters or longer get a point toward our class behavior goal, so there's an incentive to come up with great words. Science Boy lives for this game. Once he sees it on the board in the morning, he grabs a think pad and starts brainstorming during any free moment. He is a constant annoyance on these days ("Miss Lynn, how do you spell 'curious'?" "Will 'mentor' work?" After pointing him toward a dictionary several weeks in a row to answer his questions, he now saves me the trouble and gets one to start the day). He's got some ADHD issues and sits right next to me to help him focus, but he's very bright. According to FAIR data, however, he has a 10%-18% chance of passing FCAT. His weekly reading and periodic benchmark tests are above average, and his Accelerated Reader level is right where he needs to be for this time in 4th grade. He constantly needs to be reminded to slow down, which is where I suspect the problem lies in regards to his FAIR test scores. But according to the genius that is the FAIR report, I need to be small-grouping Science Boy to death.
Before all of this standardized-test-before-THE-standardized-test nonsense, I would not have worried much about Science Boy. I would have worked on his focus, encouraged him to read higher non-fiction books and some historical or math-related fiction, and then focused my extra energy on those students not performing as well. Honestly, that IS what I'm doing anyway. And thankfully my administration is encouraging us to use this new data only as another piece of the puzzle instead of the end-all, be-all of what students can accomplish. But I know there will come a point where I will have to prove I'm fixing Science Boy's "problems" instead of focusing on my real strugglers that FAIR, ironically enough, predicts will pass the FCAT with no problems. I'm also worried that new teachers will come to trust this data more than their own observations and opinions.
So I'm looking for the portion of RTTT that focuses on observations from classroom teachers. You know, those people actually trained to notice students' problems. I'll guess my chances of doing so are less than 10%.
This is my first year dealing with serious, interrupting-my-teaching-on-a-regular-basis standardized testing. And by standardized testing, I mean online statewide FAIR testing, district reading benchmark tests, and math unit tests given on district-mandated dates regardless of whether my students have had time to master the curriculum. I've taught FCAT testing grades for the last 6 years, so I'm not new to the testing game. The problem is the data all these tests are accumulating is not an accurate measure of most of my students' abilities according to my personal observations.
I have one student, let's call him Science Boy, who loves reading non-fiction and comes up with super high-level questions regarding anything we are studying. For example, we play a great game about once a week where I put a long word on the board and the kids come up with words made from the letters all day. Any words five letters or longer get a point toward our class behavior goal, so there's an incentive to come up with great words. Science Boy lives for this game. Once he sees it on the board in the morning, he grabs a think pad and starts brainstorming during any free moment. He is a constant annoyance on these days ("Miss Lynn, how do you spell 'curious'?" "Will 'mentor' work?" After pointing him toward a dictionary several weeks in a row to answer his questions, he now saves me the trouble and gets one to start the day). He's got some ADHD issues and sits right next to me to help him focus, but he's very bright. According to FAIR data, however, he has a 10%-18% chance of passing FCAT. His weekly reading and periodic benchmark tests are above average, and his Accelerated Reader level is right where he needs to be for this time in 4th grade. He constantly needs to be reminded to slow down, which is where I suspect the problem lies in regards to his FAIR test scores. But according to the genius that is the FAIR report, I need to be small-grouping Science Boy to death.
Before all of this standardized-test-before-THE-standardized-test nonsense, I would not have worried much about Science Boy. I would have worked on his focus, encouraged him to read higher non-fiction books and some historical or math-related fiction, and then focused my extra energy on those students not performing as well. Honestly, that IS what I'm doing anyway. And thankfully my administration is encouraging us to use this new data only as another piece of the puzzle instead of the end-all, be-all of what students can accomplish. But I know there will come a point where I will have to prove I'm fixing Science Boy's "problems" instead of focusing on my real strugglers that FAIR, ironically enough, predicts will pass the FCAT with no problems. I'm also worried that new teachers will come to trust this data more than their own observations and opinions.
So I'm looking for the portion of RTTT that focuses on observations from classroom teachers. You know, those people actually trained to notice students' problems. I'll guess my chances of doing so are less than 10%.
18 January 2010
tenth amendment, anyone?
I'm sure many of you have at least heard of Obama's new Race To the Top (RTTT) initiative to help the nation's public schools improve. It's been in state news a lot due to last week's deadline for districts (and teacher's unions) to sign on for a chance at some big $$$. Only five districts' unions signed on.
Why? Well mainly because RTTT is still an idea, not a completed framework. School boards would be required to scrap current (mostly working) programs for unknown but surely "research-based" ones that would require even more standardized testing (and I've already given six standards tests this year with three more coming up in the next three weeks). Here's the kicker: the money given to the states would not cover the costs of implimenting the new programs. "What?" you may be asking yourself. "How does that make sense?" Well, it doesn't. And since unions seem to have better memories than their school board counterparts, they are asking that very obvious question too and refusing to sign on. It's the simple "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" philosophy. Because we've done this before with the feds: NCLB anyone? Title I funding? All fed money comes with thick ropes attached.
But this is where it gets interesting. Florida's mostly Republican legislature has been really excited about RTTT and publicly browbeat the FEA for refusing to sign on without more information. It's been funny to watch such staunch conservatives grab for these Obama dollars. Why would they want Obama money anyhow? Think carefully (*cough* Florida Lottery money ringing any bells? *cough*) and I bet you can figure it out.
Well, someone finally called them on it. Florida's Tenth Amendment Center (yes, it is as conservative as you imagine) wrote an article condemning the lawmakers' "picking and choosing what it considers to be intrusive federal law based on monetary return." I've never been one to agree with crazy state sovereignty supporters, but come on. When even Texas refuses to sign on, you know something is wrong.
Why? Well mainly because RTTT is still an idea, not a completed framework. School boards would be required to scrap current (mostly working) programs for unknown but surely "research-based" ones that would require even more standardized testing (and I've already given six standards tests this year with three more coming up in the next three weeks). Here's the kicker: the money given to the states would not cover the costs of implimenting the new programs. "What?" you may be asking yourself. "How does that make sense?" Well, it doesn't. And since unions seem to have better memories than their school board counterparts, they are asking that very obvious question too and refusing to sign on. It's the simple "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" philosophy. Because we've done this before with the feds: NCLB anyone? Title I funding? All fed money comes with thick ropes attached.
But this is where it gets interesting. Florida's mostly Republican legislature has been really excited about RTTT and publicly browbeat the FEA for refusing to sign on without more information. It's been funny to watch such staunch conservatives grab for these Obama dollars. Why would they want Obama money anyhow? Think carefully (*cough* Florida Lottery money ringing any bells? *cough*) and I bet you can figure it out.
Well, someone finally called them on it. Florida's Tenth Amendment Center (yes, it is as conservative as you imagine) wrote an article condemning the lawmakers' "picking and choosing what it considers to be intrusive federal law based on monetary return." I've never been one to agree with crazy state sovereignty supporters, but come on. When even Texas refuses to sign on, you know something is wrong.
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