Promise Words

Live. Laugh. Learn. Believe.

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Thomas Lloyd Furniture from England.  Chesterfield Cachet.

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Why Are We Still Firing Teachers? Surprise: It’s the Housing Market

There many casualties of the horrible housing market, from underwater families to weak car sales. But here’s another one that might surprise you: Our public school system.

This month, the number of government workers the United States continued its long decline. But on the local level, something interesting has changed. For for the first few years of the recovery, public sector employees of all stripes — teachers, EMS workers, police, etc. — were getting pink slips. But in the last few months, that’s no longer been the case. Local governments have started hiring again outside of schools. Meanwhile, teachers school staff are still getting laid off.

Here’s employment in public education, dating back to 2009.

» via The Atlantic

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This & That:

Know This:

Eagle Scouts across the U.S. are returning their medals to protest the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay rights stance.

Police in Lincoln, NE, are calling a brutal home invasion over the weekend an LGBT hate crime.

Mitt Romney’s bad day got worse when he was sassed by British PM David Cameron.

YouTube sensation Antoine Dodson will continue to eat Chick-Fil-A, thankyouverymuch.

LSU has offered eighth-grader Dylan Moses a full football scholarship.

Read This:

From Slate: Why are the London Olympic mascots so freakin’ creepy?

From the BBC: In 1989, a couple set out on an 18-month road trip. It ended up lasting 23 years.

From The Washington Post: How a pair of pals from the East Coast ended up in the Colorado movie theater where 12 people lost their lives.

Watch This:

The July 2012 fail compilation is here — and the month’s not even over.

Zach Galifianakis and Jimmy Fallon switch spots on Late Night.

Meanwhile in Russia…

Look At This:

Walter White vs. Malcolm’s dad Hal — a visual comparison.

The future of table tennis starts with customizable paddles.

Listen To This:

18 duets that will make you wish your best friend could sing.

Tea Time Tweet: By Ice T Tea Time Tumblr: You Chose Wrong Tea Time List: 9 Of The Coolest Secret Subway Station In The World

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It's just too brilliant

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With over thirty people reblogging this from a fellow teacher's tumblr, I was astounded to see someone proclaim Tolkien stole from Rowling. Hopefully, this is a joke. Overall, I like Lord of the Rings. However, I do feel that Tolkien kind of rips off Harry Potter in many ways. There are several parallels, such as elves, dwarfs, wizards, goblins, trolls, magic (especially invisibility), etc. Sauron is referred to as “Dark Lord” just like Voldemort is. There is also the elder white-haired bearded wizard who serves as a mentor, Gandalf, who is reminiscent of Dumbledore. Some of the character names are similar, such as Wormtongue as opposed to Wormtail, too. There is even a gigantic spider (Shelob) at the end of “The Two Towers” that reminds one of Aragog from Chamber of Secrets. I even noticed that the plots of both series begin with the protagonists’ birthday. Now I see that Tolkien, this unoriginal bastard, is coming out with The Hobbit in December. This would be fine, but why didn’t he just write this book first to begin with? I still like Lord of the Rings, though–don’t get me wrong–but I wonder if Tolkien has ever said in interviews whether he borrowed elements from Harry Potter. I’ll be watching the extended DVDs later this week and I think he’s featured on the commentary track, so I look forward to that.

This is the best thing ever written. Everyone else, go home. (via murmurandshout)

Sigh.

(via iamlittlei)

Over thirty people reblogged this. Dear Lord. Never mind that Tolkien has been dead since the seventies. Is someone really surmising Tolkien stole from Rowling?

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Students are connected to the Internet everywhere except in school. Regardless of their income bracket, most kids carry around a world of information in their pockets on their mobile devices, and yet we force them to power down and disconnect, and we confine them in obsolete computer labs. A modern school needs to have connectivity everywhere and treat computers more like pencils than microscopes.

10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete | MindShift (via infoneer-pulse)

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The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, “that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about Basketball Diaries?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.” In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

Roger Ebert (via ibad)

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It's not the holiday inn

Cool moment Checking in to a hotel Admiring the art on the wall in the lobby Stepping up for a closer look Awkwardly stating, oh my gosh, I know him E-mailing his wife your kudos She'll be way more excited

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Praise the Lawd

Sometimes God sends us angels in, sorry God, the weirdest forms. Today, mine came dressed as an assistant branch manager of a local bank. Yeah, sometimes things happen that make our day go off-schedule. But, gosh, I loved laughing about it with this guy amidst stories of both getting kicked out of our high school Spanish classes, looking at pics of his kids, and reorganizing my savings.

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i wanna live in an cosy apartment where it rains a lot and it snows and i live near a coffee shop and read books all the time and play piano and fall in love with someone is that too much to ask

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Share My Lesson: A site by teachers and for teachers

Share and download lessons and teaching tools for free

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Thank God I learned this.

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Don't let me become one of those people

Becoming a dog mom wasn't part of the plan this summer. But, in case I had any doubts, I just watched my dog sit by the door, listening intently to a mom rip her kid a new one. My home is loud. For example, it's no secret the guy downstairs listens to BoyzIIMen every night. It's pretty common knowledge that the couple on the 2nd floor are going to argue once during the week involving the door slamming grandly and several expletives being uttered followed by a ten minute wait then a loud banging with a "let me in." This dog doesn't shudder. But today, she stood at the door on alert. Only when she heard the kid's voice at the end of the "five star parenting" did she chill out. Yeah, she's a keeper. But don't let me become one of those crazy pet owners that only talks about her dog. Even if she's super cute.

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Lord help us

I've been home for thirty-six hours. In that time, I have redecorated a living room, made two box store runs, burned my hand cooking pasta, and popped a flip flop. Yes, I also redid the recycling center (it is actually functional now and makes you want to use it) and found a super nifty present for a dear friend. Don't worry, I threw in a West Wing episode for good measure. In the midst of this, a friend calls with a story. There's this dog she's found. She's taken it to a local rescue group but feels guilty. Therefore, I feel guilty. She can't keep it (she has dogs, kids, and a husband equal to both). So, what do I do? Drive out to see the dog, of course. Just check on her, is what I tell myself. Make sure she's comfortable. Sucker.

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The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today. There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing when we save our children, we save ourselves.

Margaret Mead