Sabinal Blue

Visiting The Thoughts Of Yet One More Person

Meanderings of an introverted dancer - a public school teacher with thoughts on music, politics, and life in the hills.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

A good friend at school gave me this link. It says everything I could possibly say that is wrong about the No Child Left Behind Act, but at least it's done with humor instead of my usual sarcasm.

NCLBA Football

Friday, November 10, 2006

Spelling

Yep, I know my friends will think I'm on a rant about Margaret Spelling. Not today, sorry. Although I will always appreciate the great humor Bush showed us when he replaced Jon Ryter with Margaret Spelling =:-)

I'm thinking about this week and the spelling test. All my kids made 100% - it was the "ar" sound - and the words were fairly easy - jar, park, dark, harm, etc. The only challenge world was sparkle, and the kids got that one. That's cool. So why write about it? Well, after the test of these words we've been studying all week, I pulled out a story about a bear. And, you guessed it - every single student said bee-"ar".

Reminds me of a story I use with teachers a lot. Lewis & Clark kept journals, and they've been published as they were originally written. It's fun to read these - this is before "standard" english was even a thought. It's not uncommon in those journals to find the same word spelled 4 or 5 diferent ways on the same page. If you're reading orally it's no prob, but for a new reader of our language - what a weird trip. I know - you want verification. One date I have here that I read today is August 23, 1804 - there's 3 different spellings for Buffalo, and none of them match the one we use today (Buffalow,Buffelow, and Buffaloe). This is from August 1: "a Cool fine eveninge Musquetors verry troublesom, the Praries Contain Cheres, Apple, Grapes, Currents, Rasp burry, Gooseberris Hastlenuts and a great Variety of Plants & flours not Common to the U S. What a field for a Botents [botanist] and a natirless [naturalist]". Writing teachers should love this excerpt from ayear earlier: ". . . Mr. Blaze Cenas being unacquainted with the management of the gun suffered her to discharge herself accedentaly the ball passed through the hat of a woman about 40 yards distanc cuting her temple. . .shee fell instantly and the blood gusing from her temple. . ."

Anyway, I wrote this to help my second grade students understand that rules are made to be broken: "The bear that will care for his lair must look for a XchearX XchareX chair! He needs XprearX XprareX XprairX prayer!

How about this list?

deer dear (how dare you?)
beer bear
cheer chair
steer stare
etc

For my new friend, Casual . . .

This link will show why I believe Nancy Pelosi is not a leader, but a politician. See my other comments under your post. I agree with our activity, just think you picked the wrong person to lead the movement.
Pelosi And Bush - Mutual Admiration League

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Faith

Well, my faith in Americans is coming back. Thanks!!! Now, let's see if any of these guys has balls enough to impeach the President on legal grounds - so many illegal things were ordered by this white house that it should be a no-brainer. (Views of Impeachment)

The other good news is I have my sense of humor back - there were two seperate articles in today's news; but when a person of my ilk puts them together I discovered that Burns & Allen conceded today! Of course, young people will be scratching their head, but a quick web search on these troupers will gain a giggle from anyone with a sense of the absurd =:-)

Burns And Allen (old timers)

Burns & Allen 2006

Friday, November 03, 2006

How do you create news to fit what you want people to hear?

Look at the dates and times. The first is from a US news source, the second from a Greek news source:


11/3/2006


4/4/2004

It was just a few days ago Cheney was accusing people of killing others 12,000 miles from here in an effort to influence US voters. One can only wonder why foreign news reports are reported 2 1/2 years later just in time for a US election.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I Can't Help It

I've been trying to avoid the political discussion. It's been so stupid that I figger there's no need to add my remarks. But this one really gets my goat. Cheney actually said that the war is escalating and Americans are getting killed in Iraq because of the election. He either thinks we are very very stupid, or he is very very stupid. I'm betting it's the first. But then again, it's very very stupid to assume all Americans are very very stupid. Iraquis are killing Americans simply because they hate what we are doing there. Pure and simple. They've been killing Americans since America tried to take it over, and they will continue to kill Americans as long as America continues to try to make them come over to "the right way of thinking". Emphasis on "the right".

It cracked me up to hear Bush calling the Muslims "fascists" again. Earlier this year his speech writers promised to stop using a term that is so obviously untrue to even the least educated American. I guess people like Bush don't feel like they need to look up the meaning of words before they use them. Too weird. Guess he figured if he used it out loud again people would stop calling him that word even though it fits our country much more than the Islamic country. Look at our poor voter turn-out. Americans simply do not believe in democracy anymore - which is the condition necessary to allow fascism to thrive. Don't try to read between the lines. I'm not calling Bush a fascist. Although, I do recall him saying once that he'd prefer to be a dictator over being President. I like to believe he was kidding, but one never knows about people who spent a few years in Texas. Humor seems to elude many here.

News Story On Above