Subaru Crew - Meet The Members II

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  • colin_lcolin_l Member Posts: 591
    edited February 2011
    What an open and honest post. It was very thought-provoking for me, as a parent with a 4 year-old, already soon to be facing his first education rankings and challenges.

    I think the time spent with your kids is huge. I was the only child of a single parent who worked a lot of overtime. I excelled initially at school because I could read at age 4 and solve puzzles. But no one spent much time with me on homework; sometimes I flew through it, sometimes it was harder, and sometimes I didn't do it at all-- even though I probably could have, with ease. I get the feeling both my parents were completely self-made; their parents didn't help with homework at all, either.

    I didn't reach my potential. I won't make that mistake with my son! I won't be a "Chinese Mother" or anything, but spending 30-60 minutes a night makes a big difference. The main thing I failed to learn at a young age was discipline and how to work hard.
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    Massachusetts has a standardized testing program called MCAS which unfortunately seems to have become the focus of teaching. On test day, the kindergardeners at my daughter's elementary school are reminded that the older students are taking MCAS and they have to be quiet in the hallways and can't have outdoor recess. The test takers are allowed to wear PJ's and slippers to make the days more comfortable. It's too much IMHO about the test.

    OTOH, they have to see how the kids are doing in relationship to where they should be. Luckily both of my kids do well on the test - one because he's a natural student, the other because she is blessed with test memory and is able to write well. She can't spell worth a dang outside of tests!!

    Further bit of luck - we live in one of the higher tech towns along Rt 128 and have a top 20 school system. Our town is ahead of the curve on understanding that school systems directly affect property values and that teaching kids how to use technology in school and their lives is key. My son will be part of a the freshman class at the highschool this fall and all students will be issued an iPads as a text book replacement and overall teaching tool. Our superindendant, administrators and many teachers blog regularly in an effort to interact with their students in a way to keep them engaged. Some folks disagree with this plan but I for one am glad that the system is moving into the present.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Thanks for lookin' out, Brenda.

    Bought it from Amazon already, and 2 days later they had a $10 gift card, but my wife called and they applied it.

    So the net cost was $200, plus free shipping, no sales tax. We're both happy.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    edited February 2011
    Do you still have no sales tax with Amazon? They caved to the NYS Attorney General and now collect sales tax. I now rarely buy directly from Amazon (some of their marketplace sellers are still exempt) because of this. Same with Buy.com
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    edited February 2011
    The real enemy in my region is not government or the school board (well, maybe a little as Albany cuts every program, and not just education). It is my friends an neighbors, many of whom have kids in these schools.

    With high unemployment, ever rising taxes, rising food & energy costs, declining enrollment, and general lack of raises in the private sector, everyone is feeling the squeeze. School budgets that passed without a blink in the past are now falling at an alarming rate. Last year I fought constantly with several of my co-workers who said that the yearly increases of $300-400 (school rate alone, with town/county/state on top of that) was simply too much. We closed a school last year, and music/sports is on the block for the upcoming vote. 98% of the programs are state mandates. Total savings when the budget fails are tiny.

    In principle I agree - we do have issues to tackle. But education has to be a priority. If nothing else, our property values depend on it! Mercenary, yes, but residents need to grasp that they are making an investment in themselves as well as our children.
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    I was educated entirely in public schools. I attended SEVEN different schools from Kindergarten through 6th grades in almost as many different school systems, but then stayed in the same school system from 7th through graduation.

    My father's mother was a teacher. His father was a teacher/school administrator who finished his career as a school superintendent. My mother's brother and his wife were also teachers. In spite of being a young parent (18), my mother spent a lot of time with me encouraging learning. I could read by the age of 3. In Kindergarten I was in trouble one day for getting one of the teacher's professional texts off her desk. I told her I was reading it, and she didn't believe me until I read it aloud for her. My father finished high school at age 17 (having skipped a grade somewhere in one of his family's many moves), and finished a college degree (while married and a young father) in 3 years while working to support us. As I think I've posted here before, he worked in the aerospace industry - finishing up with 25 years at NASA. It was expected that we would work hard and do well in school.

    During that time, I know that some schools were better than others, and some teachers were better than others in each school. I had a couple who stood out because they challenged me even if it meant finding "extra" things for me to do when I finished my work.

    While there are a lot of other later comments about parenting, and I do believe it is important, I also think that most parents do the best they can with the resources they have at the current moment. Current resources may include their own knowledge and skills, their monetary resources, their time resources, emotional resources, etc. Most of us here have "free" time outside of providing the basics for our families. There are many families in this country that are not so fortunate. One of the dilemmas is how to get families and assistance programs paired in order to help the children. Even if they should be hooked up to the assistance, many of these families are also "transient" moving often - whether it be from family member to family member, or from one rented residence to another. The current economic situation in this country impacted this group much more quickly and to a higher degree than most others.

    (Puts away the social soapbox and moves on since I've really strayed from what I started with in this post.)

    Thanks for listening ...
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    In MD still no sales tax. :shades:
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    edited February 2011
    The testing stress is ALL over the place. Has anyone here ever read any of the "inside" information about the scorers? Not all portions of the tests can be machine scored. Those portions require someone to read and hand score the test. I've read a few things by different people who have worked as test scorers. It just blows my mind that anyone thinks a person's job can hinge on the scores of any of these tests.

    Beyond the actual scoring issues, there is another difficulty with test scores as they are used by many states. There are 2 basic types of standardized assessments. One is a norm-referenced test. These are tests like ability (what we used to call IQ) tests where a large group of people are given the assessment and then the statistical analysis generates tables of scores based on ages of the people taking the tests. These tests provide a fairly broad range of material to be assessed and are used for a wide range of ages. The scores often are reported as a standard score with the average score at 100 and standard deviations of approximately 15 points. However, there are other scales that are used to score with a number assigned to each "standard deviation" point. Some examples are z-scores and t-scores.

    The other type is a criterion-referenced test. An example of this might be as simple as a spelling test - where the students knew what would be tested. They have the opportunity to learn the subject matter and know what they will be tested over. Everyone tested could (theoretically) master the entire test. The problem is that some (many?) state tests purport to be a criterion-referenced test, but then apply the statistical analysis of norm-referenced testing to the scoring of the tests. This means that it is possible for every single student to "improve" individual raw scores and still not show improvement in the overall state picture.

    Often grade 3 from one year is compared to grade 3 of the previous year without ever considering that 2 completely different groups of students are being compared. It makes more sense to compare scores for grade 3 of 2009-10 to the scores of grade 4 of 2010-11 - but then we are back to what the test scores really mean anyway ..... and you want to tie my compensation and ability to retain my position to these once per year test scores?
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    Unfortunately, all performance reviews tools are questionable. I don't know of a good system for judging human performance.

    Each February we are asked to write up a set of 'business commitments' for that year, and our accomplishments against those commitments are then judged the following January. Want to talk about subjective? Being a competitive market driven high technology company, our tactical and strategic direction is in constant flux. During any given year, items that seemed important in March may be complete non-issues by November, replaced by a whole new set of tasks. You might change roles, your team might change, your manager (that's doing the judging) might move on. Whole departments disappear or are created as a result of reorganizations. A task might get 70% completed and that is more than adequate, some tasks 95% complete and that just isn't nearly enough because the target changed!
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    Pretty exciting stuff for our side. My team has worked on technology issues on a number of the chips in the POWER7 servers, so it was neat to watch the future of the search engine in action. I sat in that auditorium a few weeks back, and know several of the execs & tech leaders that were interviewed.
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    I was amazed how Watson was able to do. Of course, Watson had the advantage of getting the text fed in and was able to start processing before the other contestants were able to do so.

    It's interesting that Watson actually thinks but of course it's all based on programming. But still: Toronto??
  • crkyolfrtcrkyolfrt Member Posts: 2,345
    "But still: Toronto??"

    What did you mean by that???
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    Toronto was Watson's answer to Final Jeopardy on Tuesday under the category of US Cities in which the question was the city with two airports, one named after a WWII Hero and one named after a WWII battle.

    IBM engineers explained that Watson was trained to not 100% accept the category names because they can be misleading.
  • crkyolfrtcrkyolfrt Member Posts: 2,345
    Oh...I didn't see it.

    FTR, I think this must be some sort of advertising idea for IBM. Not unlike the show called "Undercover Boss". These are ploys to boost the companies exposure in the market place and confidence by the consumer.

    Just because they (IBM) can, doesn't mean they should have in the case of Watson and Jeopardy. I felt badly for the other real guys...that would be the ones affected by the lights, the studio nerves, the blood fed memory that might have had a bad plane flight or poor nights rest, or nagging headache, etc etc.
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    I think the real goal of Watson (which is really software that runs on 90 servers) is to showcase the ability of computers to do jobs that involve subtlety.

    This article from IBM details it:

    http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/watson/

    Another article I read noted that Watson could be scaled down and could be able to handle things like booking reservations where it has to decide if the answer has a high probability of being correct. If it can't then it can ask questions.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    Right. You'll note the question marks and the low wager. Although I didn't see the confidence limits on that question, I'll bet they were probably low as Watson took and used some of the terms but discarded others in coming up with the city. Obviously this was a wrong guess and it took heat for it as it was so glaring.

    But if you looked carefully at some of the answers Watson came up with on the questions it didn't try to answer (low confidence), some of the possible responses were quite weird and off base. In a real use situation, it is here that the tool would simply ask for more input.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    I saw the practices, but not the live show. Is it done or will Watson compete again?
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    It's all done. Watson won $1,000,000 which IBM is splitting with World Vision and World Community Grid getting half each.

    As for the confidence level, Watson was trained not to answer if the probablity was too low but in Final Jeopardy, it had to say something. It was cool how Watson had to press a buzzer as well and waited for Alex to call on him (it??) to give the answer.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    I didn't know he was fed text questions - they should have used Voice-to-text technology on the fly given all the processing power. Plus it won, may have been close if they did that.
  • crkyolfrtcrkyolfrt Member Posts: 2,345
    I have a question I have wondered for some time. I am waiting for some parts for a DVD recorder that I am working on. It blew 2 capacitors, 2 transistors and made at least 2 diodes quite hot. I have two of these identical units. And use them to dub recordings I miss when I am working. So this is a multi part question, but if anyone knows just the answer to the first one, that would be great.

    - if you make a DVD recording with a DVD-RW dvd in a VR mode (as opposed to a V mode)
    [VR has chase play ability. V= video, can't chase-play]

    - Can you finalize that DVD with just any brand DVD recorder?

    - Can I even use my computer to finalize a DVD and if so, will it play only in other computer DVD drives, or will it play with any DVD player?

    I have a number of unfinalized DVD's and now that one machine is down, I am concerned that if it goes down and I am unsuccessful in fixing my first one, that I'll be out of luck in being able to play these unfinalized DVD's on another brand. Some brands will play an unfinalized, and some won't. I have checked this already. It is really just luck of draw. All units should play all finalized DVD's but something I have never known is if any old recorder can finalize any other recorder's DVD?
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Not a specific answer, but I have been able to finalize DVDs on a head unit that I had started on a Camcorder, and they play on anything.

    I'm not familiar with VR mode vs V mode.
  • crkyolfrtcrkyolfrt Member Posts: 2,345
    Thanks for this info, Juice. I hope others will weigh in too if they can elaborate.

    The two modes has to do with whether you want to be a able to do a chase-play. (start watching a recording in PLAY that has already started). It allows you to watch it from the beginning without waiting for record to finish. I use it all the time, great time saver...highly recommended.
  • rob_mrob_m Member Posts: 820
    Finally! 60 degrees today - no precipitation in the last week or so. My post and rail fence has started to show itself again, and I may actually wash the Subies this weekend. The GT is absolutely filthy. I now have visions of Spring after visiting my beloved Mustang today, which has enjoyed inside storage for the entire Winter ... at the body shop. The new roof panel is completely welded in, everything is lined up, and now discussion of ... PAINT!
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    If you shoot me an email at lady_indy_go@hotmail.com, I'd like to send you some links on "teacher bashing", etc ...
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    edited February 2011
    I have been reading back over many posts that were made and have some comments I'd like to make ... (you can either skip to the next post or keep reading ... I hope you'll keep reading and reply ..)

    Someone posted that "good public schools help guarantee high property values". While I agree with that, there is also a lot of the "chicken vs the egg" argument. If you look at high performing schools, the vast majority are in areas of higher income and more desirable properties (with concurrent higher prices). That invites a different demographic than where there are less desirable - and cheaper - properties. So which comes first? The students from the demographic or the performance of the school?

    I have also found in interesting here in Indiana over the last 11 years. There were 5 high schools in town when I moved here and now there are 4. Even if they were closing the high school with the lowest "performance" scores (and I don't really remember how they decided which one to close), the hue and cry from the parents of those students at that school was, "Don't close OUR school!" Since then there have been other elementary schools that have been "targeted" as a possible closure, with the resultant outcry from the "clients" of that particular public school. Never think that it is strictly a business decision to close or combine schools. Often when a school is "repurposed", it resets the state testing clock on that building. For instance, if the school has had 3 years in "warning" for its performance on state testing, and the clientele of the building changes in some way, then the "warning" clock starts over at zero.

    Someone also posted about "magnet" schools for high ability students. While there are highly specialized programs that can happen in this type of setting, there is a part of me that is completely opposed to them. Ironically, these are the types of schools that my 2 grandsons (who live in my house) attend right now. It is the ONLY type of high ability classes available to them in their schools. There are a couple of issues I have with this.

    First of all, they spend the large majority of their day only with other students who have been identified as "high ability". I firmly believe that students are best served by interacting with all types of people so they have a broader base from which to be successful in the larger society.

    I also have a problem when these schools are allowed to "boast" about their performance on state testing. When you control "raw material", you can make a superior "product".

    We also saw a sad consequence of this system, last spring (and continuing into this school year). One of the neighbor's children was in the "high ability" program at the 1-4 campus. Once a student gains admittance in 1st grade, they remain in the program without needing to be retested each year. There are very few openings each year, and the competition for the spots is pretty fierce. My grandson moved here in 2nd grade, and in the spring of that year was nominated for the program. He was tested - along with 60 other students who applied for 3 spots. Initially he was not accepted, but over the summer received news that he was invited to attend. (I assume someone moved or declined a spot.) He and the neighbor's child attended school together in 3rd and 4th grades. About halfway through 4th grade, the students were tested again, and the grandson continued in the program, but the neighbor's child did not. They received this news in early March. This child (and others, too, I assume) had the remainder of the school year to finish with their classmates - knowing they would have to be in a different school with an unknown peer group the following year.

    Someone posted about the book "Outliers". While I have not yet read it, I have heard of it. Interestingly enough, when I was in charge of identifying young students (K-2) for high ability programs, I began to realize that most of our students had birthdays in the 1st 6 months of the school year. Our cutoff for Kindergarten was Sept 1st. Approximately 3/4 of the students we were identifying had birthdays ranging from Sept. through January. It was difficult for us to get teachers to look past what they saw as "immaturity" to the student's abilities. There is a great deal of difference in Kindergarten (and early elementary and probably later ages) depending largely on the birthdays. Think of the differences between a newborn and a 6 month old baby. Or think of a 6 month old and compare to the abilities of a year old toddler.

    Someone else posted about Massachusetts schools. I did some research last summer on NAEP scores and took a look at them nationwide for reading. Massachusetts scores are high for reading no matter the age or demographic groups. The subgroups may not perform as high as the total, but the subgroups outscore other states' subgroups. When I made a presentation to our superintendent, I even said that if I were in charge of the reading curriculum, I'd be looking to see what Massachusetts is doing that the rest of us are not!

    Asperger's ... several have mentioned having children with high-functioning autism. While I will definitely agree that this can be tricky to help classroom teachers understand, I also know that these kids have so many talents and skills that we desperately need to nurture. We CAN teach social skills - at least enough to interact and share the talents! Someone made the comment about teachers having difficulty with "normal" kid behaviors from these students identified with Asperger's. Part of the problem is that the intellect doesn't match the social skills. We see this all the time with "high ability" students, too. The teacher may not nominate a child with behavior issues although they realize the student's intellectual abilities. The behaviors may be a manifestation of the child's BOREDOM! Or ... maybe they just lag behind with the social/maturity issues. We all have some measure of "dysynchrony" in our development. (My abilities with words far outstrips my social popularity skills!
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    guess the post was so long, it cut it off! Bad thing was it cut off with a 'not so great' abbreviation of the word ASSIGNMENT!

    An anecdote about a student I worked with on the autism scale. Parents and grandparents are very well-educated with either masters or doctoral degrees. The child was identified as being on the autism spectrum when he was about 4. Mom went into high gear with occupational therapists and others in order to do what was "best" for him. She spent time each week with the therapists and then spent hours each day working with him (6-8 hours a day and more). When he entered Kindergarten, he had a full-time para with him for the 1/2 day class. He also qualified for the extra 1/2 day program offered to those K students who needed "more", but no para. Mom would spend the afternoon with him to keep him on target. He continued through 1-3 grades with a full-time para. During this time, the parents asked for all the worksheets, daily assignments, etc so they could continue working with him in the evening. They did this for hours every night. By 4th grade, we asked to cut back the time with the para to see how independent he could be so that we could better plan by the time he went to middle school (6th grade). Parents were tearful and scared, but we promised we'd keep an eye on things and up the time if it were necessary. We had a few minor behavior issues, but I kept reminding teachers and parents that he had not needed to make these choices in the past, because the para basically did it for him. By the time he went to 5th grade, we cut back more time with the para, and he went to 6th grade with no para in all general education classes. He is now in high school and continues to be successful.

    This mom went to work for us as a para when the student went to middle school. When he was 13, she came in one day just raving mad about him being "caught in a lie". This was a child who had always told the truth even if he would be in trouble. I started laughing which really made her madder, I'm sure. As I was able, I apologized and said, "We've tried all this time to get him to behavior like his peers, and NOW HE IS! This is SO normal for a 13 year old!" As a parent, I sympathized with her, and told her I'd have punished my own children and I understood, but for her to PLEASE celebrate how normal this behavior was!

    A side note - there is a child on the TV series "Parenthood" who has been identified as being on the autism spectrum. Do any of you watch this? I'd be interested in your perceptions of the portrayal.

    Last point ... I promise. The governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniel. If you have not yet heard of him, I suspect you will. He seems to be gearing up to make a run for President of the US. He brags about our budget being in the black (and it's an important point, I agree). Education took a big cut in the last couple of years, and is taking more now. A couple of years ago, a new state superintendent of education was elected who was the "governor's candidate", so there has been groundwork laid using that office for what is taking place now in the legislature. The mid-term elections gave the Republican governor and Republican-dominated house and he is using it to push through legislation to take out union participation.

    If you've read to here, I applaud your perseverance and you get an "A+" in "teacher's pet skills" ... lol .. I'll try to limit the discussion about this from this point. If you want more info on what is going on with Indiana Education, check out the following Facebook pages:

    Support Indiana Teachers
    Parents & Educators against the Daniels & Bennett Educational Reform

    The discussion has been interesting and I've enjoyed reading your posts ...

    THANKS!
  • lucien2lucien2 Member Posts: 2,984
    Despite the formidable strain, we have put Elie into an independent school due to the ongoing erosion of public school quality here in Baltimore...

    But to your point about age and development- her school has broken "kindergarten" down into 4 sub divisions. Pre-k, k, k-pre-1st, and pre-1st. It isn't unusual for me to encounter a degree of eye rolling from people when they ask me what grade she's in and I describe those tiers. They have less to do with academic capability than they do with social and cognitive development. So Elie, being a late sept birthday, entered k last year, and moved to pre-1st this year, and will go to 1st next year. There is a range of ages (in terms of months apart) in the group moving with her, but it isn't nearly as big a gap as when I was a kid
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,730
    That is a good idea, Lucien. I wonder if it has a real impact on creating more equilibrium of abilities at first grade. One thing I noticed at kindergarten for my son is that many, if not most, of the children there had participated in some sort of preschool, which gave them a big social boost (regardless of their inherent abilities or the presence of complicating factors such as autism-spectrum). In fact, looking at the structure of his kindergarten curriculum as compared to thirty years ago when I went through the same process, it almost felt to me as though experience in a preschool setting was considered prerequisite to coming to school!

    Perhaps that's true, in a perfectly dysfunctional world, but my family opted for a one-parent income in order to avoid the necessity of "day care," which all but precludes the financial ability to pay $500-1000 a month for a preschool. Were that not an obstacle, I still do not think I would opt for 2-3 years of preschool rather than giving them the chance to just be children for a while before beginning that slow march toward societal assimilation.

    Moving back toward the point, which is age differentials during the early grades, my brother and I represented, perhaps, the most extreme example of this. We are 362 days apart - he 8/12/76 and I 8/9/77 - and we went through school as classmates. He went through K a year prior to me, at the age of five, but then went through a year of "junior primary," which sounds somewhat similar to the pre-1st structuring at Elie's school, while I was attending K. The following year, we both entered first grade.

    While our grades were often similar, socially he was on a completely different spectrum from me. Granted, I imagine I would have been diagnosed as autism-spectrum like my son were such a diagnosis ever performed, I always felt socially awkward while he took to it like a fly on feces. Until late in high school, he was bigger, faster, stronger - and all mostly due to his age. Really, the only thing age-independent was intellect.

    And even after all of that, we are constantly pushing for more achievement at younger ages when really we should be pushing for more nuturing, and not just at younger ages, but throughout childhood. With nurturing, achievement comes naturally at any age.
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited February 2011
    What seems to be happening in Idaho is that teacher salaries and benefits are being cut not to help out the taxpayer but to line the pockets of the for-profit education industry. Be curious to see who contributed to Daniels' (and Walker's) gubernatorial campaigns.

    Your kids will be going the online "High School of Phoenix" before you know it.

    Idaho Statesman
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    edited February 2011
    The last paragraph or so of the following story traces some of the money ... my husband and I have talked lately about how corporations can give $$ freely to campaigns and it's "OK" ... not just "ok" but condoned by the courts ... Don't those judges realize that corporations reflect individuals beliefs and interests? (or are those same ones backing the judges?)

    link title
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    edited February 2011
    Lovin' it. Had the top down all week, a first this year. :shades:

    My brother was hit and his Legacy was totalled, now he may be buying another Subie. Details in the Cafe soon.

    Link to our Wild Ride:

    http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef0a957/16051#MSG16051
  • colin_lcolin_l Member Posts: 591
    Did a lot of biking and riding. Awesome weekend 65-75 the whole time. :shades:

    Then this morning.. 19 degrees and wind chill of 10 when I came to work. :sick:
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    we had a couple of days in the 50's last week .. felt great and then last night and today we got hit with the "winter storm" that is lingering over minnesota, wisconsin, and michigan ... snow, sleet, freezing rain, thunderstorms and back to SNOW and quite a bit of it today ...
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    Someone else posted about Massachusetts schools. I did some research last summer on NAEP scores and took a look at them nationwide for reading. Massachusetts scores are high for reading no matter the age or demographic groups. The subgroups may not perform as high as the total, but the subgroups outscore other states' subgroups. When I made a presentation to our superintendent, I even said that if I were in charge of the reading curriculum, I'd be looking to see what Massachusetts is doing that the rest of us are not!

    I have no idea what MA does special for reading. I do know that my kids were doing book reports as early as 2nd grade and that they were encouraged to read what excited them. I remember my son doing a non-fiction report back in 3rd grade. He asked his teacher to do it on a book on D-Day - she reviewed the book and felt it to be a bit of a stretch but said go ahead.

    My kids are voracious readers and ask to get more books.
  • rob_mrob_m Member Posts: 820
    Probably me, seeing that I live in MA.

    Not only are there book reports, projects, etc, throughout the year ... there is a "summer reading list" and the kids are expected to read at least one book over the summer and hand in a book report the first week of school!
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    I'm in MA too that's why I responded.

    Everything you listed is what my kids do. I guess I expected that to be the norm around the country so I didn't consider it anything special.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    yep, plus we have a program called PARP to encourage family participation.
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    been a little "slow" in here ... did I make people afraid to post????

    lol
  • rob_mrob_m Member Posts: 820
    Nope - busy with work and the boy - school vacation week here. Shoveled yesterday - 4 rain soaked inches, and spending way too much time trying to locate the last few parts for the Mustang ... which has now crossed the 1 year mark.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    We hit the road on President's Weekend for our annual getaway with friends. We have remained very close with one family that we traveled with on our 1996 China adoption trip. Our girls birthday's are a few days apart, and we have always considered them to be 'cousins'. So each year we get together at a hotel in the Lancaster, PA area (they have a nice indoor pool complex) for a few days of fun and frolic.

    And of course if I take a few days away from work, the assignments pile up requiring extra long days when I return!
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    I have a friend who adopted twin boys from Russia a few years ago. (Boys are now 6 and in Kindergarten.) They get together every summer for a camping trip (in Ohio, I think) with a family they traveled to Russia with who adopted a child from the same orphanage.
  • volkovvolkov Member Posts: 1,306
    edited February 2011
    ON a ski trip. I am in the room with one of the kids with nausea and vomitting. Everyone else is at dinner, so I had the chance to catch up.
    I loved the story of the child with a diagnosis of Asperger's being caught in a lie, and what it really meant. One of our boys did flirt with the "A"/PDD diagnosis for a couple of years during his workup (It really did take that long) but we had never thought he made the criteria for the diagnosis. Still, we do know that regardless of labels (and he does have a few - ADD,DCD,Processing disorder) he had signifcant obstacles to normal learning and development. At the parental level, though, whenever there is a blow up amongst our boys, we always ask him what happened, because he never lies; it is simply not in his nature. Our other sons may challenge his recollection or perception of events, but never accuse him of lying. The other two accuse each other on an almost daily basis.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Friends of ours also adopted from Russia, and we're the Godparents. :shades:
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    From Automotive News:

    Honda, Subaru remain top automakers in Consumer Reports ranking
    WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) -- Honda and Subaru topped Consumer Reports' annual rankings of automakers for 2011
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    edited March 2011
    Had a great day on Wednesday. My ex's sister lives in Chicago (about 90 miles from here). I still consider her a part of my family, and vice versa. She has played viola with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for many years. Last fall she emailed and asked me to come in to see "Hercules" with her on a day when she didn't have to perform. The real "extra" came when the maestro decided to throw his annual party on the same day as the opera performance I was attending, so I was invited as her guest for the party as well. They rented out a wonderful Italian restaurant in downtown Chicago - Coco Pazzo - for the entire evening. It was absolutely fantastic.

    I was in the company of adults all day long! We did have a good visit and a great time.

    Oh yeah, and my Subaru performed just great on the trip in and out and all around Chicago ... lol
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,730
    I was in the company of adults all day long!

    All day long?! Shoot; a person could get spoiled by something like that.... :shades:

    I'm glad you had such a great time, Brenda!
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    That's funny! I was mulling over the same thought last night when I read Brenda's note. I could imagine that spending the whole day with kids like mine and yours that have some special needs could push a teacher to crave adult companionship!

    But here's the funny part. I spend my days in a lab and office environment surrounded by adults with an 'agenda'. At the end of the day I crave silence and solitude!
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    Thanks, guys. I think my "problem" is that I have worked with children in schools for 26 years and I have had children living with me in my house for a constant 33 years. It's time I had a part of my life withOUT children ....

    I do know that I would miss it pretty quickly, though, if too many days went by if I didn't hear a child eagerly saying, "GUEFFWHAT!"
  • volkovvolkov Member Posts: 1,306
    Germane to both our recent conversations and this thread, I have spent my weekend in middle school hades. Dra took my daughter to Vancouver to help a solo relative who is recovering too slowly from heart surgery, leaving me with the boys for a long weekend due to a PD day at school. All we needed to do was tweak their science fair projects which they had supposedly spent the week in class working on, print them and mount them to the presentation boards. They are due Monday. I left them to finish what were supposed to be only minor issues on Thursday night and then we went skiing on a beautiful sunny day Friday at the local hill which had seen 3 feet of powder over the last week and no skiers. Even the groomed runs offered knee deep powder on the edges for the adventurous. By lunch time, my 44 year old body informed me that I'd better stay in the middle of the groomed runs where my kids were skiing. They aren't strong enough skiers to handle hip deep snow, and one boy was struggling with new, longer skis and a BAD developing cold. It was a glorious day all the same.
    Wake up early this morning to inspect all work, only to find that most of what's completed is spotty, and much of their work done on school computers cannot be opened by our version of Office. I called a couple of other parents who reported similar, "Cannot open file - format not recognized" or "a portion of the file is missing" issues. Those error messages for work files had been the reason I updated Office XP to the newer version in the first place. Turns out that the school district is still using old versions of Office. All my usual fixes to the problem fell flat, so the entire day was spent rebuilding and editing older versions of their projects with much more to come tomorrow. If I ever meet Bill Gates in a dark alley......
    What had looked like a fun weekend of bonding with my maturing boys collapsed. I am having a difficult time balancing the issues of helping them and still keeping the projects their own. Meanwhile 1.5 of them have spent the day horizontal due to being really ill. When adolescent boys don't eat, you know they aren't well. I don't want them to be stenographers of my ideas, but at the same time want to help them work through everything. I know that many other parents are heavily involved; I just don't have a good feel of when I am directing rather than supporting.
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