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  • Catherine
  • Member Since Sep 2nd, 2009

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Recent Comments:

'Barefoot' Backfire: Make-a-Wish Kid Turns Ina Down {PopEater}

Mar 31st 2011 10:19AM Thank you....that glared at me, too. When I read gross grammatical errors in the writings of "professional" writers, it makes me lose the point they're trying to make.

Please help out teachers, who are working so hard to hold the line on literacy, and try to use correct grammer in pieces intended for publication and worldwide consumption. No more "Honey, I SHRUNK the kids" errors that should never get by an editor (shrink, SHRANK, have shrunk)!

Reasons to Miss School for a Kids Vacation {AOL Travel News}

Jan 22nd 2011 8:26PM Make sure you're not one of the parents calling for more teacher accountability if you decide to take your child out of school. Also, most parents blithely request all the homework that will be due during the 1-2 weeks their child is on vacation, not realizing what a tremendous amount of work that adds to a teacher's load. Then, when almost none is completed or turned in, you cannot imagine how frustrating that is to teachers. Projecting assignment details 2 weeks out precludes teachers from taking advantage of teachable moments that always arise during a course of study, which, in effect, compromises instruction for all the other students whose parents sent them to school instead of vacation.

Now, compound all that with 2 or 3 students out at a time, all year long, not to mention the 40% migrant population in about a third of states across the nation, and maybe you can begin to see what a logistical and administrative nightmare it becomes for a teacher in a class of 40 elementary students or in multiple classes of 40 secondary students.

I was a national board certified master teacher. After 15 years of this secretarial-type work, where I spent less time planning and teaching for which I was highly trained, and more time making these special arrangements for absent children, writing out detailed instructions, making copies of necessary items, gathering all the materials required for assignments, then grading the sketchy few that returned and trying to reteach what parents obviously didn't take the time to do WITH their vacationing kids, I begged for a full-time secretary instead of a raise. And, of course, that never happened.

So, sure, give your kids these wonderful experiences. Just take responsibility for them, and do whatever you can to reduce the impact for poor, overworked, unappreciated teachers. If I were a principal, I would have the policy that teachers are in the classroom to teach, and if a family wants to go on vacation, fine, but they do so at their child's own peril, with no chance of make-up work of any kind (including tests, papers, or projects), so teachers, who are there, prepared to do their job may continue to do their job, without all these unfruitbul distractions.

'Jeopardy!' Has a New Genius: Grad Student Surpasses Ken Jennings' High One-Day Total (VIDEO) {AOL TV}

Sep 15th 2010 2:09PM Actually, I was referring to the assertion made by the article's author, who opens the very first sentence with "Jeopardy has been plugging along since 1984..."

'Jeopardy!' Has a New Genius: Grad Student Surpasses Ken Jennings' High One-Day Total (VIDEO) {AOL TV}

Sep 15th 2010 7:46AM Jeopardy has actually been around since 1964, with Art Fleming as host. I went to a NYC taping when I was 12. It went off the air in 1975, and Alex brought it back in 1984. So, I think it's wrong to claim that Jeopardy has only been around since 1984. Not a big deal, except maybe to Art Fleming's family....

Five Guys, PF Chang, California Pizza Kitchen ticketed by food police {WalletPop}

May 26th 2010 7:24PM And that's why we should not have subsidized health care. You pay for your health care; I'll pay for mine, and if I can't afford mine, I die. Period. Then nobody has anything to argue with anybody else about, regarding eating habits.

It's only when the government and its coffers get involved that we begin to have these heated world-view debates and think we have the right to vote on what people get to eat, not eat, subsidize, not subsidize. Let people make their own decisions, good, bad, or indifferent, let them pay their own way, and it all balances itself out.

In spite of it being such an easy concept, too few seem to "get" it.

Ryan Phillippe 'Tired' of Being Blamed for Reese Witherspoon Split {PopEater}

Apr 14th 2010 5:40AM KC, I totally agree. I was disappointed in him before; I think even less of him (and his immature whining) now.

Her Baby Name Sounds Like a Bad Joke {ParentDish}

Mar 12th 2010 9:28AM When I was in high school, one of my friends was named Macon Krause. When she started dating Bill Love, we teased her that if they ever married, she'd be Macon Love. That relationship didn't last too long.....

Convicted Burglar Sues Store He Robbed {Asylum}

Sep 2nd 2009 10:51AM I agree that the cases cited in the article are inappropriate here, not because they're good or bad (depending upon your politics or philosophical bent), but because they just have nothing to do with somebody being shot while committing a crime. Totally off-topic and wholly irrelevant to this situation.