However, this morning, I have a 2 hour delay. Instead of sleeping in, I decided it's worth my time to just sit on the couch and watch Sunday's Downton Abbey.
In a perfect world, I'd have a kitchen renovation post put together for today because the kitchen is 99% done. However, I haven't quite gotten around to all that. Here's a preview…
Anyway…
My bookmark tab is filling up again. Here's some articles I've come across lately that I've really enjoyed.
Differentiation doesn't work. Word. It just doesn't. If you don't know what it is, it's putting 25-30 kids of varying ability levels into one teacher's care and telling the teacher to split them into homogenous groups and teach each group the same skill at a different level. It is the number one method of educating in America today and I assure all you non-teachers that it doesn't work and this is why the U.S. has failing test scores compared to the rest of the world.
A vaccine study that scared us all into believing the worst of our doctors. Working with the children of the general population, I think they all need to be vaccinated (a bold statement, I know). I read another article about how a pediatrician doesn't want anti-vac parents in his office (or their children as patients) because he knows they don't trust him as a doctor if they don't believe him when he says their child needs vaccines. A nurse friend posted it on Facebook but now I can't find it.
And at the other end of the spectrum…Deep Thoughts on Leggings.
Oh, gym regulars. I've been on every side of this. I've been a regular and I've been a new person, but I've been a new person 5 times now and my status as such has never worn off (after 7 months) here. I think you have to show you are absolutely serious about your gym commitment in order to get "them" to accept you. I probably never would've found acceptance at my beloved Alaska gym had I not vowed to show up everyday (because I had nothing else to do). I've also seen floods of people enter every January 2nd and I've witnessed the exodus each February 2nd. As someone who is a natural introvert, being shunned because you're new at something, anywhere, is a terrible feeling.
Are we raising a generation of helpless kids? Yes, yes we are.
Why half the nation's teachers are leaving the profession. 100% agreement. It is so much cheaper to keep employees you have rather than go through the process of recruitment/hiring.
Stop saying "military wife" is the toughest job in the military. This infuriates me. The army requires NOTHING of me. Any volunteering or event-participation I've ever done is because of Scott and my loyalty to him. It's looks bad when your wife never shows up, you know? But other than that, the army is not my job. The military will teach you patience for sure, but I don't have to live in a tent, eat MREs, or leave my family/home for months at a time. This "toughest job" thing is probably believed by the same people who carry ACU patterned purses…(that was mean…I apologize).
While we're talking about the military..OPSEC. Operational Security. Keeping things to yourself instead of posting them online for all to see. Did you know that if you tweet/Facebook your spouse's coming home date, the whole mission can be delayed for days? They won't come home on time because you couldn't stop telling people everything. This, obviously, irritates me.
Now (also obviously) I tell people online and off that we're a military family, but I try not to give out specifics. In fact, I actually scrubbed my Facebook page (which is private anyway) of any military photos and all employment information. Identifying information can be dangerous…or maybe I'm just crazy. A crazy person, concerned about OPSEC…with a blog. I remember being cautioned by more experienced army wives once upon a time and now I feel like I'm mature enough to know exactly what they were talking about.
Have you read anything interesting online lately?
