I Like to Laugh

That isn't true. I love to laugh, and would laugh all day long if I could. The past few weeks have been rather hectic. After our midwinter break that spanned the end of one week and the beginning of the next, everything has been in overdrive. School has seemed to have everything coming at once, from budget talk to state tests to student share night. Added onto that was buying a house (doing all of the many things that go with that) and trying to rehab from a pulled quad (2 times). But all the while I've found some funny things to laugh about...

• Crazy hat day was yesterday, and one of my kiddos wore a cowboy/girl hat. She came running back from recess and gave a "yeee-haww" with her arm doing the lasso. It was quite funny, and she cracks me up.
• The comparison of the Sign of the Beaver to camping. I'm not sure that Matt, in the 1700's, was going to be heading to the General Store when he ran out of molasses, but perhaps if he were camping...
• I laughed when I saw that the focus of a new school was on technology. Personally, I believe my district is a fairly tech heavy district. I also know that I use technology A LOT. But I don't think either of us says "we are focusing on technology." Instead the focus is on great instruction that will help students grow as learners. Can technology help with that? Absolutely. My kids are using the Internet to find/read articles for current events. They are researching to add information to our class wiki. They are creating presentations and Photostory work to go with reading and writing they have done. We create audio versions of work using Audacity, and we do all sorts of things. But those are all extensions of the instruction I already provide. Could I provide great instruction without technology? Yes. But it would be an adjustment. I always wonder, how will technology make this lesson better? If it won't, then it isn't worth using at that time.
• "Wait a second, you mean I need to summarize all that I read (20 pages) by the end of the week?" Yes, yes you do.

Speculating a Gold Rush

I am not sure I want to read the newspaper anymore. I used to think it was a great place to find out what was happening in the world, and see what people were thinking. Well... I am not sure I want to know what people are thinking anymore.

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all pipsqueak, I found myself (again) befuddled by a story in the Seattle Times. Two things bothered me in particular:

1. They had spoken with a teacher protesting in front of Seattle Public Schools HQ. At the time of the RIF, around the 10th of May, he said: "I wish they could have waited a little longer, to see if they could find the money," Jarosz told me then.

2. "They say stimulus money, but they don't tell you how much. And did they know about it before? You go through a lot of stress when you lose your job. Was it all really necessary?" To which Nicole Brodeur chimed in I wondered the same thing.

I am not a fan of RIF's/Layoffs/Job Losses. It is awful for all parties involved, and if I had graduated last year I would likely be in the RIF pool. If I get a job this summer, then I may find myself in that same position next May 15th. But this was something the district needed to do, for two reasons:
1) it is a state mandated deadline that they need to notify people of RIF's. There's no waiting, no "maaaaaybe if" scenarios.
2) you can't speculate on the money you will get. They didn't have the stimulus money, so they needed to RIF. You can assume you have certain pools of money, but you don't really know until it has been allocated.

I get the notion that the man was upset. I can't imagine losing my job via RIF, but I have lived through my wife having her contract non-renewed due to budget issues. It makes for a stressful time! But yes, it was necessary. The district doesn't want to create stress. As a journalist (or columnist), Nicole Brodeur needs to a bit more research. It was an issue of timing and budgeting. Maybe there are guidelines that the school board and superintendent could have followed regarding budgeting. I don't know, and I would imagine Brodeur doesn't either.