Posted by
Sue – April 13, 2010 – Share on Facebook
Y’shir koach to David Gregory, tonight’s finale for this season’s Bryan Series at Guilford College. Outstanding speaker, funny and touching, and, of course, very tall (you had to be there, but Dr. Chabotar’s relating how difficult it was to be 5′9″ having your photo taken next to the photogenic 6′5″ Gregory brought down the very full house). Many thanks to my bud for the ticket and ride on the Guilford bus.
They announced next year’s series and I put in my dibs for Cousteau, David Brooks, and President Bill Clinton. What a powerhouse, nationally-competitive series! Kudos to Guilford College, Joe Bryan, Jr., and everyone it takes to make this series happen.
Posted by
Sue – March 23, 2010 – Share on Facebook
Posted by
Sue – December 19, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Congrats to GCS for calling it an early day (the night before) and letting families make arrangements with more than 12 hours’ notice. They could have looked foolish if it didn’t snow, but it did, and they didn’t. But they took an educated risk and won. Kids got home (probably with a lot of parents) well before the worst of the storm and parents knew early dismissal was coming. Added plus: they got the day of school to count and everyone will be happy about that in June. We criticize the schools, mock people who don’t like driving in snow, talk about how we drove through blizzards to get to school where we came from, but sheesh, we’re here and it’s now and families appreciated the time to prepare.
It’s not like Lucy can drop her kids with her neighbor Harriet anymore; she’s working, too, because Ozzie’s club folded. Give your young ‘uns a key, and social services investigates. Their grandmother lives 500 miles away. Raise a glass of Diet Coke to the GCS Transportation people who did it right this time.
Posted by
Sue – October 9, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Why are men repeatedly stabbing and trying to kill women in college lab situations? Are we no further along the evolutionary scale than those who throw acid in the face of girls going to school or send girls back into a burning building because their hair isn’t ‘properly’ covered?
Posted by
Sue – October 4, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Room at the Inn of the Carolinas launched its new site this weekend with more information, better fundraising tools and lots of video. A group that provides refuge for unwed mothers in the Carolinas with housing, education and training, mother & child healthcare, continuing aftercare, Room at the Inn does important work. There’s more to come on the site as the nonprofit becomes more familiar with available online tools.
Posted by
Sue – September 4, 2009 – Share on Facebook
If it weren’t apparent before, we should all know it now: Republicans do not accept President Obama as President of the United States. Understand the implications of that? Really? The road to anarchy is paved with rejection of proper elections and the Repubs are driving a big hummer down that road and are buying their gas with free credits at every MSM stop along the way.
EVERY President talks to school kids. EVERY President. But for President Obama, they’ve made it political. And Repubs will make as much hay as they can over the President tell kids to study hard and get a good education. Democrats need to grow a set and tell ‘em to ** off. This is about school kids.
Posted by
Sue – July 21, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Who’d have thunk this could have ever happened? Bad education yields horrifying results:
Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US’s major public health body.
In a report that will surprise few of Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.
The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.
Posted by
Sue – June 11, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Hate training.
Madrassa.
Suicide bomb trainers.
Terrorist training ground.
All of this hate-mongering by a local population over a school in Fairfax, Virginia, that happens to be a Muslim religious school (like the Catholic, Christian and Jewish religious schools we have in Greensboro.) Some residents are worried about increasing traffic the school expands. Others are concerned about the “likelihood” of training terrorists.
Posted by
Sue – May 15, 2009 – Share on Facebook
One of my favorite civic things to do is chair the IT Council of the Business & Industry Council for GCS. Our group supports the work of the IT students and their many certification programs (some may remember when I helped get the world’s first Red Hat Academy to GCS). Last year, we brought the SAS Academy here, and I believe SAS is routinely voted the best place to work in NC (for IT and other people). We had a recent meeting at Weaver Academy downtown and it was catered by the students in the food program and were hosted so generously by Pete Kashubara, Principal.
Is this not outstanding? A picture is worth a thousand words:
BTW, the SAS-trained kids won at least one state award this year and they’re going to California for the national competition if we can raise enough money (there’s no more state money this year, even if it had been allocated. They cancelled all spending even though it had been budgeted, but we’re determined to get those brilliant hard-working kids to Anaheim). Donations to the IT Boosters are happily accepted. Contact me for info.
Posted by
Sue – May 11, 2009 – Share on Facebook
NYC orders that all openings be filled internally; no one who isn’t already a NYC teacher need apply. The consequence?
Many are forwarding their résumés to charter schools and private schools; others are looking to the suburbs and across state lines. Some are reconsidering the teaching profession altogether.
As a used-to-be-teacher, principal and university prof who totally reconsidered the profession and left, this appears to be one more “whoosh” in the education spiral. Already a ship without a captain, education is losing its last appeal to what could be our best and brightest; however, I can relate to hiring only from within during a record job downturn. What used to be a respected profession is slipping dangerously into the grouping of blue collar, which is not a bad thing, but is a career re-thinking for a college or grad school grad (or in my case, a PhD’er). The first goal of any teacher with a graduate degree is most often getting out of a classroom (for job satisfaction, pay and sanity considerations).
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One large example that helped me decide to leave teaching: imagine a profession in which, if you have to go to the bathroom (and leave student unattended), you can be convicted of a felony. (I stopped teaching well before cell phones and other school security/communication advances.) Second: besides NASA, for what profession does “9:53 a.m.” have meaning? The real reason? That’s another story.
Posted by
Sue – April 2, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Fired professor Ward Churchill sued the University that fired him and the jury this evening upheld his claim of wrongful termination. Although they didn’t think much of his civil case (awarded him $1), the University will be responsible for Churchill’s legal bills and the judge will decide about his reinstatement. Horrid creature that he might be thought to be, the first amendment is much more important than any arrogant teacher.
Posted by
Sue – March 11, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Update: The N&R article this morning was misleading at worst and incomplete at best. I had lunch today with Superintendent Green and he clarified what the “IT staff” really meant. There are 14 staff assigned to work with middle school students, one-on-one and in small groups, for computer literacy. The five staff members remaining in their positions will be assigned through the reorganization to the new “mini” districts.
The 14 impacted staff members are not the central district IT staff that supports and maintains district computers. Apologies for my strong stance which doesn’t pass the “if-only-I-had-the-facts-this-morning test” and kudos to Mo Green for taking the time to explain it to me.
We hear a lot about “the schools” acting more “like business.” I can’t imagine a business expecting to survive (let alone move forward) and decimating its IT support staff. Better hope nothing breaks. No viruses. No malware. No crashed hard drives. No new machines need installing. Ever. You want data from “the schools?” Sorry, you’re out of luck.
Five IT employees to manage the technology of more than 100 schools with tens of thousands of students? No, I don’t know who should have been downsized instead (I figure there’s a couple of less critical positions), but even 14 IT workers wasn’t enough to do the job we expect (and need) throughout GCS.
Information technologies employees with Guilford County Schools are the first on the chopping block as Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green prepares for a lean budget year while simultaneously rolling out his strategic plan.
Tech professionals learned Monday that their department will be cut from 14 employees to five under the organizational plan.
Posted by
Sue – February 2, 2009 – Share on Facebook
In an article portraying Jill Biden – who is teaching at a community college in Virginia, though she could doubtless land a gig at Georgetown or GW if she chose – as pompous, the Los Angeles Times falsely suggests her use of the title “Doctor” is fraudulent.
And to further condemn an achieving woman, the LATimes writes,
In 2007, at 55, Jill Biden did earn a doctorate — in education, from the University of Delaware. Since then, in campaign news releases and now in White House announcements, she is “Dr. Jill Biden.” This strikes some people as perfectly appropriate and others as slightly pompous, a quality often ascribed to her voluble husband.
Yup, earning a degree and using the title awarded is indeed pompus – for a woman. Especially one only in (ahem) education. (Wait for them to ask why more quality people aren’t going into teaching.)
Posted by
Sue – January 23, 2009 – Share on Facebook
The Guilford Education Alliance’s new Web site launched this afternoon. Currently, we’re re-indexing the search and all should be well in a few minutes. Everyone should experience working with Margaret Arbuckle of the Guilford Education Alliance. She’s one of this area’s major human assets. And kudos to Stephanie for ably working through this oft-times arduous process. Click the pic to smartenize:
Posted by
Sue – January 11, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Tom Friedman tells us where to invest our gazillions of dollars:
One of the smartest stimulus moves we could make would be to eliminate federal income taxes on all public schoolteachers so more talented people would choose these careers. I’d also double the salaries of all highly qualified math and science teachers, staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science — instead of subsidizing their educations and then sending them home — and offer full scholarships to needy students who want to go to a public university or community college for the next four years. J.F.K. took us to the moon. Let B.H.O. take America back to school.
