I'm an addict

Hee hee, she wants to be just like her big brother. This pic has absolutely nothing to do with my blog, I just love pictures.....

So I am utterly and totally addicted to books! I bet we have what would be considered a small library in our home. I keep filling up bookcases and having to buy more! But as a future teacher, I need lots of books. Plus I just love to read, and I like to have lots of books available for the kids to read, in hopes that they too will love to read as much as I do. My favorite book store EVER is called Archive books. It is off of 2nd street in edmond between vista and bryant. They have just walls and walls of books, and they have sections that everything is $1 or 6 for $5. They have a HUGE children's section in the dollar range, and I can spend hours just going through thier books. They are just piled and piled and it's like a treasure hunt and I can just sit and look through them forever. I love it. They also have priced books that are not bad prices, I love old antique looking books, and old classics like wizard of oz and raggedy ann books, and I am always finding cheap treasures like those there. If you are ever on that side of town, you should make a trip, because it is well worth it. I love that place. They even give teachers free books on Sat. every Sat from 10a-12p if you are a teacher you can go in and get 10 free books out of the dollar books. They even say I can too even though I am still a student, but I haven't made my way up there on a sat. I usually hit it up if I get out of school early or have some time to kill between classes. My teachers all do the little scholastic order forms too, like you did when you were in school, remember those? The little newspaper type order forms. But it's like that on steroids with my teachers, since they get them all and for every grade level,we get like 30 of those little order forms at a time! And they always have a least one or more book offered for $1, and then a ton for $2 and $3, so I can't help but get them. My classroom library is going to rock!!!!

I am a book junkie.

Entertaining

Hee hee, she's so stinkin' cute........Just thought I'd share!

I love enteraining. I love cooking meals for holidays, and events and celebrations. I love having people over. I wish I could just do that all the time. I had to go to the library today and get some books for my children's lit class, and I decided to pick up a couple of cookbooks while I was there (I LOVE the library, and I LOVE cookbooks! I'm surprised I haven't managed to check them all out by now I get so many from there!!) and I am so getting excited about thanksgiving. There's all these little parties I want to have and host so I can make some fun meals. I want to have a nice dinner party, and a wine & cheese party, and a tea party, and nice mommy lunch sit down thing, and just all kinds of things. It makes me happy. I wish I were a millionaire so all I had to do was host parties, and have time to sew and scrapbook, and play with my kids and go to disneyworld as much as I want. Ahh... to dream.

Starla had her 2 year appointment today, it had been reschedules like 3 times! They are concerend that she is gaining weight too quickly. Not that she weighs too much, but that she is jumping up too quickly between visits. Poor kid, she apparantly got my metabolism and not her daddys. That stinks. Here were her stats:

10 month 20 lbs 11 oz. 27 1/2 inches

18 months 27 lbs 4 ozs 31 1/2 inches

25 months 33 lbs 34 1/4 inches

So she has to go back in 6 months to check and see if it is leveled out. So we gotta watch the goodies she eats, which honestly is probably too many! We just need to eat healthier as a whole family. I need to lose weight, poor Bourbon is overweight, Roman is getting pudgier and now Starla. Alan on the other hand can eat a gallon of ice cream and 4 lbs of chocolate every day and lose 10 lbs, it makes me sick. I wish I had his metabolism. Of course he'd come back and say that it's to make up for those 4 days or so a month that he doesn't eat anything, which I guess it true. I've never seen anyone go so long without eating and not be hungry. Which I know it's a byproduct of his biploar disorder, but still. It's crazy.

I'm so burnt out on school this semester, it just has hit me hardcore the past week where I just want it to be over and don't want to go. Only 6 more weeks to go this semester. I think I can, I think I can.....

Roman is Harry Potter

Bourbon the vampire!

Strawberry Shortcake!

We went to haunt the zoo tonight. It was fun. I love halloween!! I love looking at all the costumes and decorations. It's just fun all around. We are having a little toddler halloween party on thursday, and I can't wait! I am going to have fun making halloween food and decorating!

I am about to make myself a bowl of peppermint ice cream and watch some grey's anatomy. I LOVE the flavors of peppermint and pumpkin (not together though!) so I love this time of year when just about everything can be found in those flavors!! I have 2 chapters on fractions to read for wednesday and I just don't care, I want to veg out in front of my shows and eat ice cream!!! Tomorrow is errand and cleaning day, I will just have to fit in reading the chapters then too. Tonight I deserve a break!

The civic achievement gap

Monday, September 08, 2008

The Civic Achievement Gap (blog 3 of 3) Current mood: confident

(This is the 3rd blog in a series, to get the full relevance you must go back and read 1 & 2) The civic achievement gap. That is what is happening to our education system. Social studies has been tossed aside in hopes to have more time to devote to math and reading, in hopes that everyone will pass the standardized tests. Do you know what social studies is? It is primarily an effort to teach students civics and how to be effective citizens. It helps students to see how they can make changes and help out communities and change the world. It helps students to know that they can make a difference and they can change things and they can do things to be successful in life. So what happens when we stop teaching it? We turn into a land of 'idiots', which comes full circle back to my first topic in blog 1. We have the next generation who don't have the civic knowledge that they need in order to be effective citizens, ones who don't help their community, ones who don't take part in politics to make changes to make thier world a better place.
And what is worse is now there is a civic achievement gap. In high-income schools in upper class neighborhoods, students tend to do better on standardized tests. This could be because they have a more stable homelife that allows them to focus more on their schoolwork, it could be because they have parents that are active in their education and give them support, it could be because they have better resources that allow them to get a better understanding in their schoolwork. Whatever the case, these students tend to do better. And of course, it seems that the majority of these students tend to be native-born white kids. It sucks, but it's true. So they get to have all subjects presented and taught, they get to have their social studies lessons as always, no time is taken away from them. They are given the opportunity to learn the civic knowledge they need to be effectvie citizens. They are given the tools to learn how to make a difference in their community, how to be successful and how to continue to be well-off in life. However, lower class and inner city schools tend to do poorly on standardized tests, just barely scraping by most of the time. Perhaps it is because they don't have caring, supportive parents involved in their education, maybe it is because they have to deal with parents that do drugs or abuse alcohol, maybe it is because they are stressed out and don't have the energy to devote to their education, maybe they don't have the resources to fully understand what they are learning. Whatever the case, they tend to do poorly. And most of these students tend to be non-white, and/or immigrant kids. So they get their scocial studies cut, they get little or not time devoted to social studies lessons, which results in this civic acheivement gap. These students do not have the civics knowledge they need to be effective citizens, and are not given the tools to show that they can make a difference and that they can have more in life than what they have. They are not shown how to better themselves and their community. So we have this gap where these suburban kids continue to be well-off and successful, and the inner city kids continue to be poor and helpless. This is horrible for our future. In so many ways.
There are some great articles out there about this, here are a couple links:
http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP51Levinson.pdf
http://www.neafoundation.org/programs/closingthegap.htm
but all you have to do is google 'civic acheivement gap' and you will find lots.
So if educators can see this problem, if parents can see this problem, if education majors can see this problems, if textbook writers can see this problem.... why isn't anything being done to fix it? Why are we creating a future where people don't know or care enough to take part in civics and politics in order to make a difference? Why are we letting students fall through the gaps? Why is it that the NCLB law was up for review and the lawmakers decided to postpone the decision and let it be the way it is and adress is after the presidential election? Why if we can see something isn't working, we don't fix it? And what are we, as parents, and as concerned citizens for our furture going to do about it? You have a voice. What are you going to do with it? Complain? Or take action? Are you just another 'idiot', or do you care enough about our society, about our children, about our future to do something to make a difference?

NCLB (part 2 of 3 blogs)

NCLB (part 2 of 3 blogs) Current mood: determined

(This is part 2, to get the full relevance of this blog you must go back and read part 1) No Child Left Behind (NCLB) This law was started as something good, it really had good intentions at heart. It was created so that ALL children would get an equal education, no matter race, color, disability, whatever. But it went about it all the wrong way. It created high stakes testing. It said that all students must meet a certain test score (state standardized tests) or else teachers and schools would be held accountable. They (lawmakers) want to see all students performing at a certain level, thus showing that they have had an equal education. Students are tested each year in April for grades 3rd-8th and then they must be tested at least once from 10-12th grade again. What happens is if you don't meet the goal, you are put on the "bad list" and you have one year to improve, if you don't improve and don't make the cut for a 2nd year in a row parents in your school district now can have the choice to put their child in another school and don't have to stay within that school (leaving the school with less students which equals less funding), and teachers and faculty can be replaced by the state government with new teachers and faculty if they choose. If they fail to make the grade for a third year, the school can be closed down and the students will have to go to a new school. These high stakes put tremendous pressure on teachers and schools.
What if all children can't learn the same things at the same time? What if you have students with learning disabilities and handicaps that hinder them from doing well? Is it possible for ALL students to learn the same things at the same time and be able to do well on standardized tests? What happens if the child is tired on testing day, or stressed out, or just doesn't do well on tests? Why should it all come down to one score on one test? And should the teacher be held accountable for students that just don't make the cut? What if it's not the teaching that is causing it? Why should teachers lose their jobs and schools have to close their doors because students aren't performing? Is it really the fault of the teacher if the students don't make the cut? Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. There are so many factors that go into it, why is the accountability soley rested on the teacher)
So what has happened because of these high stakes, is that math & reading have taken over our education. This year science is also added to the state testing, but until now is has only been math & reading that we have been required testing in. Most schools now teach to the test. The take practice standardized tests over and over and over, teaching only what is going to be on the test to make sure they will do well. Reading and Math lessons take up the majority of the classroom time, leaving little to no time for other subjects. Especially schools that have not done well the previous year. Like my kid school, last year they had done poorly the year before, so they were on the "bad list" and they had to make sure to do well last year in order to not have teachers get replaced. So they stressed the test, they did so many drills and practices, and teachers told me they were not allowed to open a social studies book or science book until after april, after testing, which gives you about a month left of school. Activities and fun things are cut, leaving only math and reading lessons. The kids were burnt out, the teachers were burnt out, but they didn't have a choice. These high stakes testing forced them to do this. They did extremely well on the test last year, so they are not on the bad list this year, so now they get to relax just a bit. But just a bit. Already they are stessing the importance of doing well on tests this year. And this is true of most schools out there. Teachers are told they they have to teach to the test. Everything else just isn't important. But it IS important. Students should be getting a well rounded education, it shouldn't be limited to just math, reading, and now science. Who are the lawmakers to say these are the most important subjects? Do you know what happens to Social Studies? I will tell you, in the next blog so that you aren't scared off by the amount of reading.

We are a land of 'idiots' (part 1 of 3 blogs)

I am really just re-posting some of my myspace blogs here so I'm not so empty!

we are a land of ’idiots’ (part 1 of 3 blogs) Current mood: determined

So the ancient greeks used the word 'idiot' to refer to people who didn't take an active interest and role in politics. And now, we as a nation seem to be a bunch of idiots. I'm one too, I'll admit. I vote, but I'm not as up-to-date as I should be in politics and issues and all of that.We have this apathy it seems, we don't bother ourselves with these things, and we let those who are active in politics do all the work and we just let them, and then we wonder why our government is such a mess. And we complain, oh by golly do we complain, yet we never do anything actual productive to make any changes. Our nation is going to suffer for our apathy one day. Maybe then, we'll care enough to get involved. And I'm not preaching this because of the presidential election either, although that's a good time to do so. I have to learn all of this stuff in school, on a daily basis my teachers and textbooks and classmates all bombard me with stories of how policies (no child left behind) and our education system are failing us and if things don't change, we are in big trouble. And I think, if we can see these things, if teachers working in our schools can see it, if college professors who are teaching the next generation of teachers can see it, if the people that write our textbooks can see it, why can't our policymakers see it and do something about it?
One day in Social studies we were all griping and complaining about no child left behind (NCLB) and how awful it is and how much damage it is doing and our professor says "And how many of you have written to your legislature (sp?) about this?" and the room went silent. None of us. And he says "How do you think laws and policies get changed?" and it gave me something to think about and I have decided to write my legislature about it not only as a future educator, but as a mother. Because my children's education is at stake here. And my future job could be at stake.
If you are not familiar with NCLB, you should be. I will give you some insight into it. But I will place it into a new blog so that it breaks up your reading and you won't give up reading because it is so long.

The business of being born

So at Melissa's shower today we were talking about birth stories and midwives and such and I was reminded of the documentary "The Business of being born" and remembered the blog I wrote about it over the summer after seeing it. So I found the old blog and decided to re-post it! It's long, but very interesting!

Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Business of Being Born Current mood: enlightened
So I watched this documentary from Ricki Lake (whom I love!) called The Business of Being Born, about childbirth and all that is associated with it, and it was amazing! Anyone who has kids, who is thinking about having kids, or is just interested in learning about chidbirth should watch it (although I warn you, it is not for the squeamish, there are lots of live births, lots of naked women and bloody babies!). I have given birth 3 times, and was just amazed at some of the things that were brought to my attention in that video. It is promoting homebirths and Midwives, and explaining how our country is failing it's women in the birthing business. Just some basic facts from it are things like, that in every other developed major country out there that 70% of births are done by midwives, but in the US it is 5%. That the US has the second highest infant mortality rate though. That Dr's put you on a timetable and want to get it over and done with so they do all these things to speed up your labor which in turn puts the baby in distress which in turn makes it more likely that you will have a C-section. That Dr's do all these things to you without your consent and then chalk it up to 'its what was best for the baby' so you don't question it, when it was really what was best for the business, not the woman or child. Go to www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com and check out the trailer at least, but you should watch it. It makes some very valid points. My friend Melissa did the midwife thing for her first child, and I always thought that was kinda neat, but I always wanted drugs. But the thing is, I only got my epidural once out of my 3 births, and it didn't even really work that well, so really what was the point? I think I would love to use a midwife, but to give birth at a midwife facility located in a hospital. For one, I just want the safety of being close if something goes wrong, and another, I really like my hospital stay after birth. I like people taking care of me, feeding me, and taking care of the baby while I sleep. But on the other hand they wake you up every couple of hours for vitals, so I don't know. But although my Dr's, all 3 of them, were great Dr's, they were good at what they did, they just weren't really personable and friendly and none of them really took the time to get to know me, I was just another chart, and I HATED that about OB appointments. Here I was, pregnant and excited and it's just this wonderful thing, and the Dr's are like 'great, see ya next visit.' it just wasn't what I wanted it to be. Even in my last one, where my Dr is an amazing Dr, and I had all these complications and I felt like he did great, but he didn't make me feel like he actually cared about me, ya know? It was just his job. And it seems so true that they get in there and do what they want to do, not what might be best, or what you might want. Even with my quick births, they still did things to speed up my labor, which is just silly to me when I look back at it. I don't have a birth experience that I am 100% satisfied with, that turned out how I think it should be,ya know? But it makes sense that women with regular, low-risk pregnancies shoulds give birth at home with a midwife, where it is cheaper and more comfortable. And that OB/GYN's should do what they are best at, surgery and high-risk pregnancies. But then Dr's and hospitals wouldn't make near as much money, and THAT my friends is the bottom line. Not what is best for women and babies, but what is best for business. Now I don't assume that just because it is in a documentary that it is all true, but it rasies excellent points and gives you a springboard for your own research. It made alot of sense. I think giving birth is the biggest, most monumental thing a women can do in life. It's just amazing, and inspiring and wonderful. I think women love to share their birth stories because those are such meaning memories for them. I love hearing birth stories and I love sharing mine. So I think I might blog all 3 of my birth stories in the near future. Not only for my own enjoyment of retrospect and remembering, but to journal it to have, and to share it. I think I blog much more for myself than for anyone who reads it. It's my outlet, a way to write, to journal, to share. I used to keep a paper and pen journal, for forever, but the past few years I haven't. But I have blogged consistently for over 2 years now, and I keep them, I save them to my desktop and so I have a journal of sorts to look back on and know what was going on in my life at this point in time. Which is really why i journal in the first place, to look back and remember. Anyways, so I encourage all the moms to share their birth stories too! Blog about it, journal about it, share it! And go watch the Business of Being Born, wether you are a mom or not! Men, Women, everyone, it is very interesting!! Here are some of the news press releases that were on the website as well:

JUNE 18, 2008
At their annual meeting over the weekend, the American Medical Association voted on two Resolutions that seek to prevent home births and to increase MD control over midwives (click here to read Resolutions 205 and 239).
The initial draft of Resolution 205 included a personal attack on Ricki Lake and our film "The Business of Being Born" which read:
Whereas, There has been much attention in the media by celebrities having home deliveries, with recent Today Show headings such as "Ricki Lake takes on baby birthing industry: Actress and former talk show host shares her at-home delivery in new film..." (for full text of the original Resolution, scroll down to 205)
News outlets including the AP quickly picked up this story yesterday as it hit TMZ, E!, USA Today, Daily News, FOX, and Ricki will be featured on Good Morning America this weekend as well. (If you Google "Ricki Lake, AMA" you will see the bloggers are all over this!)
Filmmakers Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake teamed up with journalist and Pushed author Jennifer Block to pen the following response for the Huffington Post and also submitted a seperate Op-ed to the Washington Post this morning:
DOCS TO WOMEN: PAY NO ATTENTION TO RICKI LAKE'S HOME BIRTH
Ladies, the physicians of America have issued their decree: they don't want you having your babies at home with midwives.
We can't imagine why not. Study upon study have shown that planning a home birth with a trained midwife is a great choice if you want to avoid unnecessary medical intervention. Midwives are experts in supporting the physiological birth process: monitoring you and your baby during labor, helping you into positions that help labor progress, protecting your pelvic parts from damage while you push, and "catching" the baby from the position that's most effective and comfortable for you—hands and knees, squatting, even standing—not the position most comfortable for her.
When healthy women are supported this way, 95% give birth vaginally, with hardly any intervention.
And yet, the American Medical Association doesn't see the point. Yesterday it adopted a policy written by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists against "home deliveries" and in support of legislation "that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital" or accredited birth center.
"There ought to be a law!" cry the doctors.
The trouble is, they have no evidence to back up their safety claims. In fact, the largest and most rigorous study of home birth internationally to date found that among 5,000 healthy, "low-risk" women, babies were born just as safely at home under a midwife's care as in the hospital. And not only that, the study, like many before it, found that the women actually fared better at home, with far fewer interventions like labor induction, cesarean section, and episiotomy (taking scissors to the vagina, a practice that according to the research should be obsolete but is still performed on one-third of women who give birth vaginally).
Which is why the American Public Health Association supports midwife-attended home birth. The British OB/GYNs have read the research, too, and have this to say: "There is no reason why home birth should not be offered to women at low risk of complications... it may confer considerable benefits for them and their families. There is ample evidence showing that labouring at home increases a woman's likelihood of a birth that is both satisfying and safe..."
The other trouble with the American MDs is that they seem to have lost all respect for women's civil rights, indeed for the U.S. Constitution – the right to privacy, to bodily integrity, and the right of every adult to determine her own health care. The "father knows best" legislation they are promoting could indeed be used to criminally prosecute women who choose home birth, say, by equating it with child abuse.
Research evidence be damned, the doctors want to mandate you to go to the hospital. They don't want you to have a choice.
We think they're spooked. The cesarean rate is rising, celebrities are publicizing their home births (the initial wording of the AMA resolution actually took aim at Ricki for publicizing her home birth on the Today Show!), people are reading Pushed and watching The Business of Being Born, and there's a nationwide legislative "push" to license certified professional midwives in all states (The AMA is against that, too, by the way).
The docs are on the defensive.
After all, birth is big business—it's in fact the most common reason for a woman to be admitted to the hospital. And if more women start giving birth outside of it, who will get paid? Not doctors and not hospitals.
"The AMA supports a woman's right to make an informed decision regarding her delivery and to choose her health care provider," the group said in a statement. But if it really supported women's birth choices it wouldn't adopt a policy condemning home birth and midwives.
Because if U.S. women are to have real birth choices, everybody needs to be working together to provide them, not engaging in turf wars at their expense.
Late yesterday, the AMA changed the wording on the final resolution 205 to omit the line about Ricki. (Hmmm...) They are now attributing the original language to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) who drafted the initial statement.
Stay tuned for more news to come....
The BOBB Team

Currently watching : The Business of Being Born Release date: 2008-05-06

Solving equations with rational numbers

I should be in bed right now. I am trying to get everything ready for teaching the 8th grade algebra class tomorrow and I am just not prepared. I am not looking forward to it at all. I'm not really an 8th grade kinda person. I want to teach much younger. The 8th graders get on my nerves, I have no patience for them and their foolery. The teacher in there, doesn't seem to mind the chaos and noise and nonsense at all, so she is well suited for that age level. Me, I wanna smack them all upside their heads. Sigh. I really don't want to teach this lesson, but I am sure I will survive. I just don't feel like I have all the materials I need. I keep trying to contact my teacher to get this algebra balancing puzzle that she has, that would tie into my lesson so well, but I can't seem to get her to respond to my e-mails.

It was so cold tonight. Roman had 2 baseball games, one at 7 and one at 8. After the first one I just asked one of the other dads there if he would bring Roman home after the second game, cuz it was just too cold and Starla was all red-faced and grumpy. Only one more week of baseball. I am so done with it, I swear. I can't wait for it to be over. It can not end soon enough!

I need a vacation. I need some time to do fun stuff! I always seem to have so much homework, and housework, and kid work, etc. I never seem to have time to do things just for me, like scrapbooking, or sewing, or whatever. And those really aren't just for me anyways, cuz I'm making things for others! Well, kinda with the scrapbooking. My hope is that my kids will want and appreciate them someday. We'll see how that works out........

It is so past my bedtime and I don't even feel tired. I need to cut back on the caffine. I'm gonna be hating life in the morning. The boys are out of school for parent teacher conferences, so all 3 kiddos are with my momma for the day. The boys are very excited. I wish I could stay home......

Pray that I don't bomb the algebra lesson tomorrow!

Expanding my blogging horizon.....

So I started blogging on myspace abour 4 years ago, and recently also added my blog to cafemom, and now thanks to Liz & Nicolette I am expanding to blogspot as well!! Woo hoo.

Today was so cold and dreary. The wind was so wild this morning that while I was walking across campus to my first class, it whipped my stupid umbrella inside out and broke it all up. I couldn't even get it turned back out right, the wind was fighting me too much, so I threw it in the trash can that just happened to be next to me at that moment and tredged my way in the cold windy rain for the rest of my trek to class. What fun. (yes I know, I have horrible run-on sentences. I tend to blog like I speak, just on and on. Even the teacher in me doesn't care if it is grammatically correct or not, lol) I tend to actually enjoy my teacher methods classes. Most of it is information and resources that I feel are actually helpul and that I will need as a teacher. But I hate my physical science lab. It is a big giant waste of my time. I'm not in physical science class, just the lab. I only needed 1 science credit, I took a 3 hour earth science class at rose state and uco requires 4 hours. So I jumped through hoops to get permission to take this lab without taking the class, but I hate it. We do silly stuff like boil water and take the temp. and then take the temp of ice cold water. And figure out how fast we walk, and just silly stuff. It annoys me. And since it is a basic course, the majority of the class are fresh outta high school kids who I just don't relate with at all. Blech.

I need to be working on my lesson plan for the 8th grade algebra class I am teaching on friday. I get the joy of introducing them to Solving equations with rational numbers. What fun!! I guess I should go do that...........