Category Archives: women

CPS Professional Development

by

Yes, folks, this is where your hard earned tax dollars are going to…not to teachers’ salaries or the unions like the education profiteers would like you to think….

Good Grief.  I have no words.

Wait…yes, yes I do…how many people in this room would like to get up and walk out?

How many?

How many?

 

Chicago Teachers Union Strike: A Report

by

Jan Resseger has a blog up on the report of the Chicago Teachers Union strike in September 2012.  This, my friends, is what a democratically run union looks like.  Other unions TAKE HEED.

The teacher’s and counselor’s passion is evident in this report.  They care about these kids and what the profiteers are doing to them. Note how the police, fire, parents, and community stepped up and supported them.  Good for them.

 

More on Saucedo background

by

Here’s the background on the rally today at Saucedo Elementary in Chicago.

It’s pretty serious when a teacher is threatened with termination if she/he refuses to subject the kids to this form of bullying.

Let’s Move…? **edited

by

Really?  In ties and hard shoes instead of workout clothes and good sports shoes?  Once a week?

I mean, really, if you’re going to be an example, you might try to act the part. And it is recommended that 30-45 min. at least three times a week for exercise benefits health.

As I posted in the Grain Brain blog, aerobic exercise is best because it not only benefits the body, but the brain, as well.

My favorite tape to workout is by the National Aerobic Champions (NAC) Interval Challenge.  It has been one of the most thorough workouts that I enjoyed doing over and over.  It takes a few workouts before getting coordinated, but then you get in the groove.

They have two instructors on the left of the screen for low impact or you can do the more intense, which is pretty much jumping through all the moves.  Here’s another website review.

They offered this tape in combination with two others —Body Parts, another good toning workout, and Measured Intensity, which personally I found ho-hum and too mild.  I bought them in the 90s, way back in the old days of VHS …so I went to see if they had a DVD out–unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they transferred it to DVD.  Oy.  Tough luck when the VCR eventually breaks (thanks for cheap plastic crap,  Milton Friedman!! /snark)

I found more reviews here...one of them is from a 66 year old woman *still* doing them. Woot!! Go grey hairs! :p

**edited to add:  I wanted to note that as I got sicker with mercury poisoning, it became more difficult to exercise.  I grew tired more easily. I got migraines after exercising.  I also started yawning during exercise–this is a warning sign that you’re not getting enough oxygen, which is what mercury does–deprive your body of oxygen.

Alert: Chicago Parents and Public Ed Supporters

by

Fred Klonsky has this up on a rally for Chicago Teachers Union and parents against the testing, testing, testing mentality of the education profiteers and their toadies.

Rally is at 3:30 p.m. at Saucedo Elementary at 2850 W. 24th Blvd.  Wear red in support!

 

Removing the Dust

by

Warrior Publications has this up from John Kane on relearning what our ancestors knew…

Some folks are so far removed from nature that they don’t have even the very basic knowledge of…living.  Living in harmony, that is…

We’ve been fed this false belief that technology is superior to nature…when nothing trumps nature.  Just look at the powerful force of nature during any storm…and how technology takes a hit every time.

Technology has put up a wall between us and nature.  We lose that connection.  We lose the talent of our senses without engaging them daily. (Think of folks walking into water fountains or walking into traffic while talking on cell phones.)

…and when we lose that connection, we lose the ability to value nature–to understand nature.  And as the post says–we lose the ability to know our place within nature and our time here.

Being poor helps with that–washing clothes by scrubbing them on a washboard gave me a sense of accomplishment–I knew that I could do a decent job of it; learning how to manage on so little helps one really learn how to prioritize on what is important–you learn what is fluff and what is substance;  and the biggest re-connect with nature is your own sense of self-worth and pride in that you made it.  You survived.  And nature is better for it because the balance of give-and-take is restored.  You no longer take and take, but realize you must give, too.  Not easy…but ohhh so worth it, in the end.  You gain something so much more valuable.

 

 

Eye Candy

by

This week’s pics of beautiful Canada.  I was thinking about Neil Young’s song and the video of the Earth before the energy companies move in, and how much is lost that cannot be regained after they’re done stripping the land…

Saving Michigan Public Schools

by

Diane Ravitch has this link up on Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton fighting the good fight for Michigan public schools from the profiteers.

From the link:

State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, who signed his authority over school reform to the experimental EAA for 15 years in 2011, asked to get it back immediately, apparently due to deep concerns about the EAA’s many failures – but EAA Chancellor John Covington refused. Given the crumbling relationship between the EAA and Flanagan, Lipton said the EAA must be brought to a halt, not expanded, as Republicans in the Legislature are seeking to do.

~~~~~~~

and then there’s this:

And why won’t the governor, through his control over the EAA Board of Directors that hired and can fire Covington, demand Covington to immediately return control to Flanagan or be removed from office?”

~~~~~~~

Stunning.   Absolutely stunning that they signed authority over for 15 years to an uproven entity!!  Who does that?!

Of course the Repubs are not only not stopping this, but trying to expand it.  (Probably hoping that it will be harder to stop a speeding train).  Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Koch Brothers, John Arnold, and the billionaires boys club have too much at stake to take their marbles and go home…

 

Charter Schools Gravy Train

by

(hat tip to scathing purple musings)  Forbes, of all places, has this article up that pretty much summarizes all that is wrong with charter school profiteers.

As mentioned here before, the article notes that Bill Clinton allowed them to proliferate by giving them tax credits and not only that, but green cards for foreign investors.  Yep.

As I’m reading about the for-profit scheme and how the author notes that they have not been that profitable…I’m thinking of the “classes” being given to kids via video or online “learning”…so they don’t have to pay a teacher at all.  Or–they have one teacher to answer questions or grade tests for however many kids they can squeeze in….I don’t even know the answer to that and I’m not going to even try to guess.   They don’t really care, anyway, if the child is getting a good education…as long as it looks something like an education, they’re just fine with that…

Lastly, I’m even more impressed with public schools after reading this–the author notes that charter schools can pick and choose their students, so they should be showing better test scores than public…less than a third do that.

So…even with the students that are autistic or mentally challenged, the public schools still outdid the charters.  Here’s to the dedicated and beleaguered public school teachers….::clink::