KLOG

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:39:44 GMT

So, I haven't posted on Livejournal for years, and now suddenly I'm putting up a post. Where's the sudden inspiration? Yes, it's fundraising. But it's fundraising for a really good cause!

I'm training to participate in "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride," a 100-mile "Century" ride around Lake Tahoe on June 7 with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of our honored teammate Laura, along with all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

I am a little intimidated by the task that I have ahead of me, both with all of the physical training and the fund raising. I have been told that America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride is not necessarily America's Easiest Bike Ride . . . 100 miles seems like as much to me as it probably does to you, but with hard work I have faith that I can do it. My volunteer coaches, training team, and I will tackle the physical challenge, but you can help me with the fundraising! Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I am keeping a blog throughout the journey at http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/ambbr09/knesteby I'm also posting the blog here, since Livejournal is a blogging site, but you can only donate to the good cause (hint, hint) through the Team in Training site. Thanks for the support, and I'll keep ya'll updated!

Training Blog:

Jan. 31, 2009- Kickoff Day!

Today I rode my bike (to get a head start on practice!) 5 1/2 miles to Santa Monica for the Team in Training kickoff. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm at the event; everyone involved is there because their hearts are invested in the cause and they love the physical challenge. I am very impressed with how organized these Team in Training people are- they are convincing me that I can succeed in both the cycling and the fundraising, despite my worries.

We heard a really inspirational speaker, a 38-year-old man who has survived four bouts of cancer, intense radiation and chemotherapy treatments, a shoulder and a hip replacement (due to damage from the chemo), and a heart transplant (because his heart sustained permanent damage from the cancer drugs). After his heart transplant, he decided to do a traithlon with TNT, and has now completed three and is training for the Ironman. If he succeeds, he will be the first heart transplant recipient to complete it. There are actually several other cancer survivors who also have finished TNT endurance events, including Laura, our team's honored teammate. If they can do it, I certainly can!

I also met my coaches and got the beginning of my training schedule. My first training ride is next week, in Long Beach, which makes my parents happy. We're riding 15 miles through El Dorado Park. They add about 5 miles each ride, so on March 7 we're riding 38 miles. By then I will need to have purchased some oh-so-stylish padded spandex bike shorts!

A great quote

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:14:22 GMT

I got a Shoebox card with this quote about a year ago, but I found it again as I was cleaning out papers today and I thought that I'd share it:

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. But when life hands you a load of crap, don't make anything. Trust me on this one."

I'm actually in a pretty good mood right now, just thought I'd share the quote.

"Your phone's not working? Call us and we'll help you!" says Cingular

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 03:24:23 GMT

So a couple of days ago my cell phone decided to get absolutely no signal, no matter where I am. I decided tonight that this isn't going away on its own, and since I can't call them on my cell, I thought that I'd try online technical support. After diagnosing my problem in 3 pulldown menus, the closest I got was: "My phone isn't working." Their advice? "We can best help you with this problem over the phone. Please call Customer Support at . .. "

Arghh!

In Search of a Lucrative Summer Job

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 05:09:12 GMT

So I'm trying to figure out how I am going to support myself this summer. I have very little in savings right now, and since I'm still a long-term sub I'm not on the 12-month pay schedule. I will be taking two summer session classes, which are more concentrated sessions than normal, and I will only have mid-June to mid-August available for work. I would prefer not to teach this summer because I need a break from whiny kids (and they're all whiny!). And, ever since I read (actually, I listened to the Book on Tape) On Writing by Steven King, I've had a strong urge to "close the door and write." I really want to write a novel this summer, or at least spend a lot of time sitting and writing some work of fiction. The problem: How will I have time for school and writing and still pay the rent?

So I decided that I need a job that pays a lot of money for very few hours and is flexible and would let me work for just the summer. Yes, I know, if these jobs existed then wouldn't everyone work them? The only (legal) job that I can think of is stripping. Not really ready to go there. Too bad you have to be in law school to be a summer associate. I could try waitressing, but I probably couldn't get a big money waitress job for just a few months, especially with class at night. So does anyone have any ideas for how I can pay the rent this summer? And yeah, it has to be legal. So this is really more of a rhetorical question . . .

I had to try this Johari thing too

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 03:13:46 GMT

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Kathy+N.

Barrel or no barrel?

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 03:09:24 GMT

Since I'm in a posting mood now (I only blog in binges, don't I?), I thought that I would frame a question to all of you RPCVs out there (and anyone else who might have knowledge about sending barrels to foreign countries). So my Goddaughter's mother called the other day and we talked for a while. My Goddaughter loves basic school and is really smart (so her mother says, but since Jamaicans are very blunt this is probably true- if she was dumb, the mother would have just come out and said so), so that's the good news. The bad news is that the restaurant where the mother worked has now closed down, and the nursing school that she applied to also closed down. She said that sometimes they don't have any food in their house and asked me to send a barrel of staple foodstuffs to them in Jamaica. I think that this particular Jamaican friend would not lie to me about something like this, nor would she ask for a barrel of food if she just wanted cash to buy bling.

So I said that I would try to help out, and began investigating the process of sending a barrel to Jamaica. It appears that barreling is pretty specific to the Caribbean, and therefore the barrel shipment companies are centered in places like New York and Miami. If I do succeed in finding a barrel company here in DC (there might be one), then I will have to purchase a barrel, purchase everything that goes into the barrel, then pay for shipping. Then my friend will have to pay customs (which she has already agreed to do). There have also been reports of people stealing things from barrels, though I don't think they would steal food- more likely Nike shoes. But, in summary, the barrel might be more trouble than it's worth. So here is the question. Should I:
1) Send a barrel. If so, how do I do this?
2) Ship a big box of food.
3) Send cash through Xoom and hope that it gets spent on the essentials.

Any advice?

Yes, an update!

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:45:38 GMT

Hey, ya'll! This teaching thing has kept me very busy (actually, it's the hardest thing that I've ever done!) but since I've already wasted a good couple of hours on the net today, I thought that I should give an update. Not too much to report- still living in DC, still trying to figure out how to teach LAD kids math, getting ready for high-stakes testing (just remember- "all you need is high expectations!"), and Irish dancing on Thursday nights and some Fridays. I only have one class this semester and it's not difficult, so things are slightly less stressful than last semester- but only slightly! I succeeded this weekend in getting out on the town last night, so hopefully I will continue to meet my goal of getting out more. So if you're in DC, give me a call and say, "Kathy, you need to get out more! Come out with me/us!" I promise that I won't talk TOO much about the trials and travails of a first year teacher!

Question:

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:39:49 GMT

If I "don't have time to watch television", then why will I spend hours wasting time on the internet each week?! And still not manage to update my blog? Though there were many Friendster updates for me to view, and I do have tomorrow off . . .

What a boring person I am!

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 02:09:22 GMT

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Very Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

My Productive Unproductive Day

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 23:10:18 GMT

My unproductive day actually turned out fine. I did clean my room, which wasn't so bad because I am the only roommate home today (the rest traveled for the holiday) so I got to play my Les Miserables soundtrack and sing along to every song while I was doing it. I hadn't planned to do "work" today, but having a clean room is very psychologically uplifting.
It makes me feel like my life is in order. And I no longer trip over things while I walk through my room. Then I did laundry and washed my sheets. Then, I tried to log into the World Championship Sports Network again, and this time it worked! Yay! There were a few glitches, but I was able to watch half of the competition- and the webcast shows many more routines than the networks ever do. Now, I'm off to synagogue and then Irish dancing. The nice thing about official days of Unproductivity is that I congratulate myself for getting a few things done, instead of feeling frustrated with myself for not finishing everything on my list (which happens almost every day this year!).

You try teaching Middle School, Mr. President!

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 15:03:58 GMT

Last week I reached a very frustrated point in my first year of teaching. I'm actually feeling a lot better now, but I had some interesting thoughts at my most frustrated points. Our school took our Math Unit Exams last week. I never minded tests as a student (I still don't), but I HATE them at a teacher! Many of my students need a lot of review of basic concepts, but I have to give them the grade-level exams, on a pre-determined and set-in-stone testing schedule, and they are not doing well on them. In fact, the test results are quite dismal.

As I was wallowing in frustration a week ago, I thought: According to the current political environment, the fact that none of my students passed this test is all my fault. Despite the fact that I often stay at school till 9PM and I come into school about every other Sunday, our students our failing because our school is failing them. I don't necessarily agree with the other extreme of the argument that says that nothing teachers do matter because certain students will fail no matter what, and I also know that I have a lot to learn and improve upon as a teacher, but I am also quite frustrated with the current political rhetoric about teachers.

I must admit that, before I started teaching, I too thought that being intelligent, hard-working, having good intentions, and liking children (and even pre-teens) would make me a good teacher. But being a good teacher, especially Middle School, is so much more complicated! Hopefully with experience, I'll gain those undefined traits (and the very defined trait of better organization skills!) that will make me a better teacher.

It's not that I don't enjoy teaching, or that I'm not making any progress with my students, but I find the expectation that my students can come in terribly behind, with learning disabilities, and perform at the level of their grade-level peers to be very difficult to deliver. And I also think that it's almost impossible to realize just how difficult teaching can be until you've tried it yourself.

So frustrating!

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 14:45:33 GMT

Today is my day off. The first year of teaching has been quite stressful and all-consuming so far, so I decided that yesterday and today would be my days off. Yesterday I went to see my relatives in Virginia for Thanksgiving, and now today my plans are to do nothing (that I don't want to do) and not feel guilty for not being productive. But I might as well go do homework, because all of my plans are being foiled!

My first plan: Watch the World Gymnastics Championships. I was quite excited that an online site, www.wcsn.com, is offering coverage of the Gymnastics Champs on streaming video for $9.95. And it is airing on my day off! Perfect! So I bought it. I went to log in last night, but every link I clicked on told me to click to "Buy." I already bought the damn thing! I even typed in all of my info again, because my confirmation e-mail told me that I might have to enter my address and credit card info again for verification purposes. So it processed everything again, charged me again (I'm assuming), and did not let me log in to watch the program! I e-mailed- no reply. I called them- they're closed. So then I proceeded to play with my server for a good hour, logging into the site on every browser that I own, till the site informed me that I had logged in too many times and was being kicked out. Grrr!

Okay, I thought, I can't watch the World Championships. I'll just go to International Gymnast online and read about it. But when I click on the link, the site can't be found. Alright, I think, I'll just watch my tape of the 2004 Olympics, since I'm in a gymnastics-watching mood. Nope, can't find the tape. Alright, I'll watch mindless television instead. So I check the TV Guide- nothing I want to watch at 9AM on a Friday morning, even when I have given myself permission to waste time. So I look at my roommate's DVD collection. I decide to watch When Harry Met Sally, since I am one of the only people in the USA who has never seen it. I open the case- no disc inside. I look everywhere- no disc.

Perhaps this is all a sign that I should just go clean my room, since it really needs it, and forget about a day "off"!

A Brilliant Idea

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 18:09:48 GMT

I have a letter that I need to write to Congress, but I haven't found time to write it yet. I thought I would share my brilliant idea on LJ anyway, though.

According to NCLB, schools need to acheive a 100% pass rate on their state exams by 2013 (or somewhere around there) or they will be a "failing school" according to NCLB. Does any population ever acheive a 100% pass rate on anything? I have a feeling that the law will change before 2013, but this is how it is currently in the books.

So now, my brilliant idea: Congress and the Executive branch wrote a law stating that standardized testing is the way to tell if our students are learning. Of course, our lawmakers should set a shining example for America's students. How can they do that? Every congress and executive member should show the public how fun and effective standardized tests are by taking the High School exit-level exams in Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science. If Congress and the executive branch do not acheive a 100% pass rate, we should cut off their federal funding and set up an improvement plan for them.

In addition, every Congress member should be highly qualified. How can they prove this? Tests, of course! Everyone in Congress should have to pass standardized tests about American government and civics, American history, Geography, International Affairs, Public Relations, Economics, etc. If they are not deemed "highly qualified", then the government should send a letter home to all of their constituents sharing the fact that they are not "highly qualified." (If a teacher is not deemed "highly qualified", all of the parents of the teacher's students receive a letter stating this fact.)

I applaud our government's effort to improve education by giving everyone more standardized tests. Now the government needs to follow that example!

The Adventures of a First-Year Teacher

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 18:01:48 GMT

Where have I been for the last month? Buried in the work of a first-year teacher! My first three weeks of teaching have gone well overall, but there is SO MUCH WORK TO DO!!! And I have small class sizes! So I'm overwhelmed, but no major complaints. In fact, I feel very blessed with the situation that I have. In compliance with the Baldrige model of cooperative management used at my Middle School, here is a Plus (Good things) -Delta (Things that could improve) list:

Plus:
1) Everyone, from the teachers to the administration to building services, is super nice and supportive. This has definitely made my first few weeks of teaching manageable. The school has a good, cooperative atmosphere.
2) I have, on the whole, small class sizes, which makes the variety of abilities pretty manageable.
3) I only have about ten students on my IEP caseload, which is a nice size for a first year case manager.
4) I have not yet had to give out a referral to the office or call security, though I have given out a couple of lunch detentions.
5) I have not yet received any complaints from parents, nor has the Special Education Resource Teacher. Apparently this is a good sign for the first three weeks of school.

Delta:
1) There is so much to do! I better get more efficient at all of this, because some nights I am at school until 8PM and I still don't finish everything that I plan to do. I want to plan ahead by several days, but I am constantly re-adjusting my lessons and discovering new challenges or students who can work ahead, so it is difficult to plan very far ahead, even if I had time. I think that all of this stuff gets easier as time goes by. I hope it does!
2) The main reason why the entire school did not make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) last year was Special Ed Math. This is what I am teaching (though many of the special ed students are in general ed classes this year). This is stressful, as there is a lot of responsibility resting on me to raise standardized test scores. I suppose that I can just do my best and hope for the best when the dreaded Maryland State Assessments come around.
3) There is a lot of pressure to get through the entire curriculum. There is a lot of curriculum. I also need to do a lot of remediation, and the teachers last year did not get through the entire curiculum so there was some stuff that was never taught (though I haven't reached that part yet). I feel like if I teach one ineffective lesson (which I've pretty much already done) and I have to reteach something, I've already derailed the class and we'll never get caught back up.

I still think that I made the right decision to go into teaching, but I want to be a Master Teacher without having to be a first-year teacher!

Help Kathy Decorate her Classroom!

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:52:27 GMT

First the exciting news: I do indeed get my own classroom! Unfortunately, unlike many teachers who are super excited to decorate their room, I had no idea where to begin yesterday. Finally, I sat down and wrote out all of things I am "required" to have in my room, which helped me get started. I would like to buy a couple of "fun" posters and such for my room, but I can only afford about two because I don't have much money right now. So, for all of you with a few minutes, which should I put in my room? I'll be teaching mostly Math C (Pre-Algebra) to eighth grade learning disabled students, so I don't want anything too chock full of words. Though I might have to get the "Why Study Math?" poster anyway. Here are a few of my options:
Pi
The Ten Commandments of Math
Problem Solving Strategies
Useful Math Charts
Math Around the World
Why Study Math?
American Number System

Take a look and let me know what you think!

A hat by any other name would not be as bling

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 06:48:09 GMT

Today I had a disappointing phone call from a friend of mine in Jamaica about some baseball caps that I sent over there. The story behind it goes like this:

As many of you know, there were two teenage girls who lived in Majesty Gardens that I became almost like a surrogate big sister to when I was in Peace Corps. I have kept in touch with them since Peace Corps, though not as often as I should, and their life has not been that happy since I left. So during a conversation about a month ago, after hearing about a series of bad things that had happened to her, one of my little friends asked if I would buy her a hat. "What kind of hat?" I asked. "A fitted hat, like the singers wear," she answered. Of course, I couldn't say no. Then, she asked if I could also send hats for her Aunt and two cousins. Four hats total. I was less instant with this response, but I eventually agreed to send four hats. If I can't give her a better future, why not buy her household some hats?

The problem was that I couldn't understand exactly what kind of hat she was talking about. She doesn't understand that have no sense of either American pop culture or fashion, and I decided not to try to explain that to her. Instead, I went on the internet to see what kind of fitted hats the "singers wear." I determined that it was probably a New Era cap, but they looked very similar to every other baseball cap on the market and many other caps claimed to be "fitted." And New Era fitted caps are expensive! There was no way that I could buy four. So I decided that I would compromise and find four hats in the colors and sizes they wanted in slightly lesser brands, but still brand name. I found Adidas and Reebok on sale online in the colors that I wanted, so I bought two of each and mailed them to Jamaica. Deep down I knew that Jamaicans make no compromises on brand names and bling bling, but I was hoping that they only wanted American hats from their American friend and that they would be happy with them.

My friend was very excited and concered about getting these hats. Before I sent them, she asked about them several times. After I mailed them, she asked if I could send them express mail (I sent them the cheapest air mail method) and then asked if I had insured the package.

Today, I got a call from my little friend and (after asking me to call her back because they never have money on their phone cards) she informed me that, "We got the hats today, but they're the wrong ones." I don't think she even said thank you. I told her that I didn't know the exact hats that she had wanted, so she had her cousin get on the line and explain to me that the hats had to be New Era 59Fifty hats, signified by the "NE" embroidered on the side. I was a little disappointed in myself for not buying the "right" hats, but I more disappointed that my friend cared so much about the brand to call and ask me to send different ones. I wouldn't necessarily prefer that she pretend like she loved the hats when she really didn't, but I wish that she could just be happy with an Adidas hat.

If she were my own daughter, I would tell her that brand name doesn't matter and she should be happy with what she has. But if she were my own daughter, she would also have been raised with love and affection and she would know how to read. I can't teach her the proper values over the phone and across an ocean. But I also don't have the money right now for four hats with "NE" properly embroidered on the side. So I told her I would try to send one authentic New Era hat sometime soon, then possibly send more for Christmas, if I have enough money (a big if). But she also asked for money for her school uniform, which I think is much more important, and I don't have much disposable income right now.

So what is the proper thing to do here? The whole thing leaves me feeling disappointed. Why does bling matter so much to some people?

I got a job!

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 04:40:10 GMT

Yesterday, I officially got my teaching position for next year. It wasn't quite panic time yet, but all of my other special education classmates had gotten their assignments about two weeks earlier, so I had been a little concerned. It's nice to know that I have my position now!

It is at Redland Middle School in Rockville, Maryland, about a half hour drive from my house, close to Gaithersburg (without traffic, but the commute goes against traffic so it isn't too bad). I will be teaching Math A, B, and C to learning disabled 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, respectively. Every student takes Math A, then the students who are not ready for Algebra in Middle School take Math B and C. When I told one of my friends about my new job he said: "You're teaching Math to learning disabled Middle School students? That's my idea of hell!" But I like Middle Schoolers (usually) and I like teaching Math, so I'm excited to have the job. I do know that it will be a challenge, though, especially with three preps. Fortunately, the resource teacher says that she'll give me an easier case load for my first year. The staff people at my interview seemed really nice, so I think that it will be a good place to work.

Borrowing My Sister's Fashion Sense

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 02:22:51 GMT

I'm writing from Boston, where I'm visiting my sister for the weekend. I took the Greyhound bus down on Friday, which was 8 hours long- not much fun, but since I'm not working much right now I thought that I should save $40. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if I had saved the rest of Harry Potter #6 for the bus ride- but alas, I had stayed up the night before finishing it. As a result, I was not only tired during the long bus ride but also very sad and upset about the ending. And we have to wait for #7 to get any more closure!

Yesterday my sister worked during the day, so I took her dog on a long walk to the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. It was a beautiful day, but Griffin was quite exhausted by the end. I think I should have packed a water bowl . . . He survived, though, and seemed eager for another walk a few hours after we got home.

Today, my sister and I went shoe shopping. A couple of the high school students where I student taught informed me (without solicitation) that my shoes are quite unstylish, which is probably true. Perhaps I shouldn't care about what high school students think, but my sister also agreed with their conclusion. I needed new shoes anyway, so we went to DSW, the big shoe discount warehouse near Downtown Crossing. I realized there that I really don't have any fashion sense, especially not with shoes. Most of the shoes that I suggested, she informed me, are quite unstylish. I also discovered that my ideal shoe does not really exist. My ideal shoe would be:
1) Stylish
2) Comfortable to walk long distances
3) Matches most outfits and colors
4) Professional enough to wear for a teaching observation
5) Affordable (not necessarily cheap, if it matched the other four criteria)

So my sister helped me compromise on shoes that are "comfortable enough" and "stylish enough" and "affordable enough." I got the impression from the especially stylish shoes that to be super styling a woman has to have a different pair of shoes to match every outfit. Do people actually do this? Perhaps the way I feel trying to buy shoes is how my learning disabled students feel trying to write an essay . . .

Overall, it's been a fun trip, and I get to take the plane home tomorrow because the one-way Greyhound was a compromise between cheap and quick. I need to enjoy my days of not working much while I can, because New Teacher Orientation begins August 12!

Can you "steal" an idea?

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:53:22 GMT

I've had this random thought progression over the past few days about the value of an idea. It stemmed from me thinking about my fiction writing class and how sometimes I have a "great idea" for a story, but then I can't make a great story about it because my writing isn't good enough. Then I started thinking about the phrase "He stole my idea!" and how it really doesn't have much validity to it. Take a few "ideas": A series of books about a magical school for wizards, a bulb that can produce light without fire, the theory of relativity, hybrid cars, putting a man on the moon. Are these ideas worth anything by themselves? I just thought of an idea that we should invent a medication that can cure AIDS and cancer and cystic fibrosis at the same time. That doesn't mean I can do anything with it! The only real "ideas" that I can think of that are worth something on their own are catchy slogans, and even those need to go along with a catchy marketing campaign.

I think the real motive behind claiming someone "stole" your idea is that you couldn't do anything with it and somebody else did a much better job with it. I would probably feel upset if someone took one of my story plots and wrote a kick-ass story when I only wrote a mediocre one. But if I had the skills to write the better story in the first place, then it wouldn't matter if someone "stole my idea."

Go to this web site!

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:41:51 GMT

Hey, everyone! I think that I've acquiesed to the fact that I'm going to be one of those occassional bloggers. I just can't motivate myself to blog that often.

But, I do have a great website that everyone should to, on the Misunderstood Minds website. Go to the sitemap at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/sitemap.html

Then, click on the "Experience Firsthand" links for Attention, Reading Writing, and Mathematics. They have a really good Learning Disability simulator. I think this site gives a really good idea of what it means to have a "Learning Disability" because I get asked about that a lot. I didn't understand it very well myself before I began graduate school.

I think that a main lesson to learn from the site is that having a learning disability or an attention disorder is much more frustrating for the student than it is for the teacher. How tempting was it to just stop paying attention and trying during the few minutes that you had a "learning disability" on the website. While teachers should always have consistent and firm discipline methods, I find it easier now to understand all of the behavior issues that tend to go along with LD classes. Check it out!

Who says a mother can't be an elite gymnast?

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 06:43:29 GMT

Four-time olympic gymnast Oksana Chusovitina has got to be one of the coolest women to ever walk this earth. As proof, check out this article from International Gymnast Online:

Four-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan will celebrate her 30th birthday on Sunday, June 19, in the Netherlands, where she will be competing in the Dutch Open.

Chusovitina, the reigning world vaulting champion, is the oldest female gymnast competing internationally today. Married since 1998, Chusovitina has a five-year-old son Alisher.

This weekend Chusovitina will take part in the Dutch Open, a competition for seniors and juniors in Nijmegen. Other expected participants at the Dutch Open include China's Zhang Yufei and Pang Panpan, Romania's Sandra Izbaza, Alina Stanculescu, Andrea Grigore and Roxana Stan, and Great Britain's Melanie Roberts.

Chusovitina has lived in Cologne, Germany, for the past several years and competes for the Toyota Cologne club. Nijmegen is just a one-hour drive from Cologne, family friend Dr. Peter Brüggemann told IG.

Chusovitina took part in podium training Friday in Nijmegen. The all-around competition will be held on Saturday, and event finals will be held Sunday.

"Hopefully this will be a good birthday party," said Dr. Brüggemann, father of German Olympian Lisa Brüggemann.

Chusovitina's son Alisher, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, is currently in remission after undergoing several rounds of aggressive chemotherapy in Germany. Gymnastics fans and supporters helped raise $100,000 for Alisher's treatment at the University of Cologne hospital. Alisher will celebrate his sixth birthday on November 18.

"Alisher is doing very well," Dr. Brüggemann said. "He is in kindergarten and looks very happy."

Look for a special photo gallery of Chusovitina's career here on IG Online on Sunday to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Happy birthday, Oksana! You're my hero!

Yes, I have a Livejournal!

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:44:36 GMT

Hello, livejournal friends! It's been forever and ever since I've written, so I've decided to give up on updating everything that's gone on since my last post and just get back into posting. I should really focus on small posts instead of worrying about finding time to write.

Since I finished my student teaching on April 16, my life has been a little less crazy. I have been substitute teaching since, which isn't a bad gig. Discipline can be a little tougher, but that's made up for in the fact that I don't have to spend time writing lesson plans or grading papers. Plus, as a short-term sub, I can take a day or two off when I feel like it, as long as I'm willing to sacrifice my salary for the day.

Today I took the day off for two reasons: I simply wanted to sleep in, and I wanted to work on a short story for an online fiction writing class that I signed up for. I probably don't really have time for it, but I have hardly worked on my fiction writing since I got back from Peace Corps and I decided that I would have more time this summer than during the school year. I don't want to get to out of practice with my writing. I signed up through Gotham Writer's Workshop because they had the best website and seemed very organized. It costs $400 for a 10-week course, but I decided that paying a significant amount of money will force me to work on my writing this summer. It's worked today by forcing me to take the day off and revise a story that I wrote last year. I unwittingly signed up to submit my work for class critique the second week (and the sixth week) of class, so I had to get something together right away.

The last day of school is June 15, so I will have to find some alternative form of employment for the summer. I think the temp agencies are my best bet because my summer schedule is not very accomodating, with New Teacher orientation beginning on August 12 and two respective one-week all-day courses interrupting my daytime summer schedule on June 20-24 and July 13-20. I also have class Mon./Wed. Nights until July 1 and then Tues./Thurs. Nights until mid-August. So that eliminates most night jobs. Hopefully I can get part-time work filing stuff (or possibly something slightly more exciting).

I am taking one class right now, Legal Issues in Special Education, which is really interesting but also a lot of work. We all have to choose a research topic for the class, so I have chosen Retention vs. Social Promotion vs. the Alternatives. What are the alternatives? I will have to research and find out. This is a topic that politicians love to pretend they know a lot about, so I'm interested to find out what research and actual experience have to say about it. I'll try to post my findings on LJ so everyone can share in my wisdom.

What merits merit pay?

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 03:29:33 GMT

I'm guest blogging on my friend Amber's blog this week, so I thought I would post what I put there. I thought it would be interesting to post on her blog because she gets a lot of libertarian-leaning readers and I wanted to see what their comments would be. But I know at least a few people read my blog here, so maybe I could get some interesting comments here as well.

Several of the replies to my previous posting discussed the power of the Teacher's Union over education, so I wanted to bring up one issue that is currently causing a contentious debate in California, the issue of Merit Pay for Teachers. I assume that this is one of the issues for which the anti-union folks criticize the Teachers Unions, who tend to be steadfast in their opposition to merit pay.

I believe that merit pay as a general concept sounds good, but I am not sure how it could actually work. I do not believe that it should be based on standardized test scores. As the unions love to point out (and I think that it is true), basing merit pay on test scores will punish teachers for teaching in the toughest schools. Even if it is based on improvement and not overall scores, certain groups are (by my guess) less likely to produce large amounts of progress. I'm not going to break it down by race or income because that is less conclusive, but I think we can all agree that the following groups will probably get lower show and less improvement: students who are frequently absent/truant, students with uneducated parents, learning disabled students, and recent immigrants who are still learning English. If we want to attract good teachers to work with these groups of students, I do not believe we should base merit pay on test scores. Another argument against this is that a teacher might make great progress with students who are far behind grade level and it still will not show up on the test. A student, for example, who comes into eighth grade at a third grade reading level and moves up to a sixth grade level by the end of the year has made great progress, but he will probably still bomb the eighth grade test.

The pro of standardized test scores is that they are quantifiable, objective, and easily ranked. If merit pay is not based on test scores, what else can they base it on? I think that it is pretty obvious which teachers are good and which teachers are not after spending only a short time in a teacher's classroom, but how to quantify and categorize that is a more difficult question.

Here are some ideas about what merit pay could be based on, each with its own problems:
1) Student, parent, principal evaluation- Highly subjective, a personal issue with a staff member could bias the process (in the principal's case). Students sometimes like teachers who let them slide by without learning a lot.
2) External or internal observation using Praxis III criteria- It probably takes a lot of resources to observe every teacher, and it should be done several times to really get a good idea of the teaching.
3) Teacher portfolios (teachers collect evidence and "artifacts" to prove that they are good teachers)- Once again, time consuming and somebody needs to review it, but a possiblity
4) Actual hours spent doing extra stuff (attending professional seminars and conferences, tutoring students before and after school, mentoring new teachers, serving on committees, etc.)- Probably a good idea, but then is it really merit pay or just extra pay for extra hours?
5) Extra pay for teaching high-needs subjects and/or in high-needs areas- A possibility, but how are schools supposed to prove their "high expectations" if they start offering teachers lots of extra money to attend? Doesn't that just prove that they don't believe in their school? And how do they prove which schools need these extra-high salaries? It might not actually be that hard to figure out these things if they just let the market demonstrate the areas of need. (The Middle School where I did my internship, for ex., has a bad reputation- largely unearned- in some circles, so several days they did not have enough substitute teachers.) On the other hand, would that make a poorly managed school eligible for higher salaries because nobody wants to work there?
6) Creating who new categories of teachers with higher salaries- Because a large factor in academic success is school attendance, I've heard the idea that they should create a category of "social worker teacher" who would be assigned to several low-attending students and would visit their homes, meet with parents, etc. to ensure that they attend school and take it seriously. This would be more work and might merit a higher salary.
6) Some combination- Perhaps there is some magical formula, but how much time would it take to calculate it out for each teacher?

For the record, this blog is not an endorsement or criticism of merit pay, I'm just trying to figure out how it would work best if it were implemented. Any ideas?

Maybe I am a good teacher, after all

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 03:26:10 GMT

Nothing make me feel like a good teacher like a week off from the students! Actually, two other events a well:
On Tuesday, I got my grade back for my two-week intensive Teaching and Learning class. Not only did I get 96%, but the teacher wrote in my comments that I am a "natural teacher" and she is sure that I will do well.

On Wednesday, I went to "audition" to be a Kaplan tutor by teaching a five minute lesson to the other Kaplan applicants. We were supposed to teach a non-academic topic, so I did mine on "How to Ride the Jamaican Country Bus: A Case Study in Developing Country Public Transport." I have to say that my lesson was the most engaging out of everyone's. I was suprised that half of the students showed up to audition without seeming to have any idea about how to engage an audience or organize a clear presentation. I think that I've learned a lot from my education classes already in just these few months. I got accepted to train as a GRE tutor and the pay is pretty good, but I don't think it will work as a summer job because the classes are at night and weekends and all of my college classes are at night. But I will probably train anyway because the hours are really flexible and I should be able to teach at least one weekend class over the summer, and once I train I am certified to teach anywhere in the country for the rest of my life (or at least a reasonable amount of time into the future). Plus I will be able to do one-on-one tutoring after I've taught one class, so that might work better with my hours.

Rants about "No Child Left Behind"

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 02:27:42 GMT

Before I rant about NCLB, I really need to read, if not the full text of the bill, at least a thorough summary. But I haven't had time for non-class related research lately so, in the spirit of the American voter, I'm going to rant about it based on what I do know. In particular, I'd like to ask a question: Where are they going to find these so-called "highly qualified" teachers?

According to NCLB, all teachers within a certain number of years must be "highly qualified" in the subjects that they teach. This means either a degree in the subject, a certain amount of coursework, and/or passing the Praxis II subject exam. Special education teachers must be highly qualified to teach Special Ed and also be certified in the subject area they are teaching (unless they're team teaching with a highly qualified subject teacher). I asked my Cooperating Teacher (CT) that I am working with now if she is worried because, though she is "highly qualified" to teach Special Ed, her degree is in Economics and she has not yet taken the Praxis II exams for math and is therefore not highly qualified in her subject. She said that she is not worried about it and she made a good point: Where are they going to find a more qualified Special Ed Math teacher? She has six years of experience, the students love her, and she's a great teacher. It's hard enough to find math and special ed separately, let alone together. Maybe the schools will be able to find HQ English or Social Studies teachers, but what about Math, Special Ed, ESOL, Science? Are HQ people suddenly going to jump out of the woodwork because they heard the schools are hiring? If so, the schools are still hiring. The school that I'm working at currently has an English teacher teaching Algebra because they couldn't find anyone else.

This problem would also apply if a school doesn't meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for a certain number of years and then, theoretically, all of the teachers and staff members have to reapply for their jobs. Who are they going to rehire? It could possibly get rid of a couple of bad teachers, but why are there bad teachers in the first place? Either the school will rehire it's good teachers, HQ or not, or, as one person I spoke to suggested, the good teachers will get hired by private schools that don't have the same mandates to hire HQ teachers. And then the private schools will be selective about who they accept and the public schools will have to accept everyone (or everyone else), and the special education and ESOL students will be expected to score the same on standardized tests as everyone else even though most of the sped students don't do well on standardized tests because they can hardly even sit through a standardized test and concentrate for three hours straight (even if they know the material), and then everyone will point to the evidence that private schools do a better job educating students than public schools.

I'd love to see George Bush come and help the Special Education High School Geometry students ace their standardized tests. Don't get me wrong, the students are learning Geometry and it is impressive when you consider the learning disabilities that they have to work through. But many will still not be able to pass the test, either because they freeze up during long exams or they have trouble dealing with multiple concepts at once. Or maybe Laura Bush could do a better job, and crack down on the gang problems while she's at it. But Laura Bush isn't highly qualified either. So they'll just have to stay in White House and lament the failure of public education . . .