What is Fishing? Ch 2: Flood devastation

Chapter Two

The bayou behind my house flooded in the spring.

There's a short little bank at the edge of the water. The rains brought the water  up to the bank, then over, then up. There is an elevation from the bayou to my house. Actually, it's a short hill, that whole area. In late spring, rains came and came and came. The water came up and up and up, all the way to the deck. It killed my heavily laden fig trees, both of them. It killed my beautiful St. Augustine grass. It drowned my tomato plants, all ten of them. When the waters finally receded, all that remained of my tomato plants were dried stems.

But the most sickening was the loss of my fig trees. I would tell myself that I didn't lose my house like other people did. Sure, I was grateful, but, still, I was so sad to lose those two trees that I had nurtured for six years and more, especially now that they were loaded with their first full crops.

The biggest problem with having fig trees on land that borders a bayou is that beavers who live downstream LOVE fig wood. Whether it is for eating or using to build their lodges I don't know. I do know that those beavers and I had fierce battles for every limb. Of course, when I first put in that tree, I added a little fence around its trunk. However, a problem developed that I could not anticipate: the tree grew large enough to hang its limb over the fence. So, I added another line of defense--several times, ending with four distinct fences. 

Finally, I hired someone to build a fence encircling the trees and far enough from them to allow growth that would surely protect the limbs and branches for a distant future. 

Didn't matter. The beavers didn't get the tree. Floods did. And my heart.



         

What is Fishing? Ch. 1

Chapter One

While my cork bobs, I watch a little yellow leaf float by. A haiku comes to mind:

Dainty yellow leaf--
swirling, floating, magic thing
Lovely, silent boat 

The point? Fishing allows thought, meditation, relaxation, and perseverance, and, occasionally, annoyance. Right on the edge of this water body--in my case--a bayou, grows a significant cypress, scarred by beaver teeth around its lower trunk, the part along the water's edge. 

However, this cypress has become my Christmas tree. I'm adding ornaments, one at a time, my little orange bobbers, source of my annoyance. At this point I've already added five. One dangles by its gossamer line, almost touching the water. I fish between it and a low-hanging branch. Eventually, my line will be caught by one or the other. And it is. My fishing line and the decorative line entwine and I yank both right off this majestic tree. Less one ornament, a gain of my fishing line. The lines entangle and I fish with two bobbers with only a short line allowing the hook to sit just inches below the surface.

Ah, fishing.

Think It Up: A Teacher's View

"Think It Up," a one-hour special about education, teachers, students, projects, and donations has mixed reactions from this reviewer.

The least effective, and, frankly, the one segment that seemed totally useless in promoting the program was the tuneless song performed by Justin Bieber. Say what?

However, most of the program was really effective: famous people with a parent who was a teacher, or those who could speak first-hand about the efficacy of a teacher. But my favorite part was interviewer on the street asking how schools could do things better. Reinvent high school was the consensus. 

One teacher was recognized and celebrated doing just that-- using new and innovative techniques to teach students to think critically, a point suggested by several students interviewed on the street. What I recognized in this
segment was methods employed in the Common Core curriculum. What she is doing is being done by teachers all over the country, or those who are required to teach Common Core.

About Common Core: I am of mixed opinion. Common Core is exhausting to teach. It is extremely planned out, very detailed, with so many nooks and crannies. Every nook comes with instructions for teaching it. Nothing is left out; nothing is left to guesswork. And, therein lies the rub: there's no room for teacher individuality. None. No imagination, no spontaneity. Just follow the plan. Everyone reads the same novel. There's no sense of history, no continuity. 

So let's weigh the two. One emphasizes critical thinking; the other a continuum of a country's literature. Does it matter that we lose this history of a literature,  but then, that's the point. Critical thinking follows a person throughout life. However, critical thinking was easily incorporated into the historical approach. I know because I did that. Does it matter that students lose Ben Franklin's almanac, or Hemingway's Nick Adams stories, or Dickinson's sublime poetry? Do you see what I'm doing? Back and forth, back and forth, with neither earning a winning slot in my mind. Both ways  have advantages. 

That's where "Think It Up" comes in. In a script, the idea of students and teachers working together looks great. Getting it done is another. Will students participate? Years ago I asked my high school students to design what they thought would be the perfect school. They worked in groups and produced a wide variety of schools, from excellent, insightful schools to poorly planned ones. What made the difference? Commitment, perseverance, intellectual depth. Some students simply do not have the edge to accept challenges. 

Will "Think It Up" work? Frankly, I don't know, but I certainly hope so.

Here's a link to "Think It Up: www.thinkitup.org

and the positive side of Common Core  www.pioneerinstitute.org 
and the negative side is www.cwfa.org/education‎

Working vs Not Working

I could be retired, and, in fact, made decisions not to submit applications, or otherwise do anything that would lead to a job. I was tired. The last two years of my working life were, by far, the hardest. Here comes the shocker: I worked 43 years as a teacher or librarian. Yes, 43 years! I remember back in the day saying that anyone who stayed in teaching for 40 or more year must have something seriously wrong. No,  the explanation is simple. It's just what we know and certainly beats many other jobs.

All that and still I've not reached my topic: working vs not working, specifically at retirement age. So far, I've worked nine years past retirement, spent two years in graduate school, and only two years not working at anything except what I've wanted to do. As you can imagine, not working makes for a fast day. There are no broken spaces where the day is in chunks, as it is when you're working. A non-working day just zips by. There are no markers like work has: no bells, no deadlines, just one whole day that is over by the time you turn your head.

I have a retired friend who sets a schedule for the day. She chunks it, making her day have  interludes, thus slowing it down.  But then, she is structured and I'm random.  I don't keep a schedule, except in my mind's eye, but I know I will spend time sewing, time in the yard, time de-hoarding hoards of stuff in my house. Oh, I didn't mention my vast hoards of stuff? Just another dimension of my interesting (and troubled) character. My day is over before I have time to think.

But the main reason not to work is the liberation it brings. No one tells me what to do, except, of course, Uncle Sam and my 94-year-old mother who informed me the other day that she is a boss. OK, so retirement is not totally free, but close enough. In fact, I was telling my mother just today what I think of not working. There was a billboard along the local interstate shortly after my divorce years ago. It said: Got bills? And every single time I passed that billboard, I shouted: Not any more!! You see, the ex-'s name was Bill. So, working? I feel the same way: Not any more!!

So long, Old Faithful

OMG! It's been since February when I last wrote. My old computer would not allow me to access this blog. Until today on my laptop. I didn't realize it was the old Mac. In the last three weeks, I have had nothing but trouble and freeze-outs from my once reliable Mac. So time for a new computer. But! What a fabulous computer for oh, so long. I bought my G4 Mac in 2003, updated when necessary, and finally I could no longer update. I had reached the end. Not only that, but it wouldn't download so many things.

I was being left behind in the cloud. With fondness in my heart, I bid you farewell, Old Friend.









Hello, Asus, my new friend....

Common Core and PARCC and Poverty

What worries Americans? Terrorists? The economy? The various discriminations? Yes, of course, these, and then there is Common Core. What about it? What does it do? Keep it? Throw it out?


First, what is Common Core? The important thing is that it is built on standards. According to the website, "Read the Standards" (www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/), "the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy build on the best of existing standards and reflect the skills and knowledge students will need to succeed in college, career, and life."

What does this mean? Perhaps this list best illuminates the topic:
    "Standards are:

1. Research and evidence based
2. Clear, understandable, and consistent
3. Aligned with college and career expectations
4. Based on rigorous content and the application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills
5. Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards
6. Informed by other top-performing countries to prepare all students for success in our global economy and society"

 Instead of traditional textbooks, students read a novel, for example, then multiple-related and varied items of literature involving that subject. For example, accompanying texts might include poetry, essays, documents, short stories, or another  novel. The first core work, the novel, read at the beginning of the year is less complex. As the year continues, the novels become more and more complex with more challenging assignments. The essay is at the core of writing, from basic to complex. Higher order thinking skills are the heart of Common Core.

Why Common Core? Some educational expert woke up one day, observing that American students go to college lacking the writing skills to create freshmen level essays. In fact, American students have to take a year or so of remedial level writing before they can handle college level writing.  So, Common Core was born. And with it--PARCC (or The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers).

So what is it? Start over. Begin in kindergarten. Restructure everything. Plan a national curriculum that is formula for all grades, all teachers, all schools, all districts, all state, and one nation to follow. A national curriculum designed to cure a lack of intellectual richness. The fallacy is that there were many teachers in isolated pockets teaching students dedicated to that higher order of teaching and learning. It has always been there, but not enough, especially in areas where resistance to education is dominant.

However, this is America. We were created on the premise that all men (women) were created equal and that each child has the right to a good education. However, until poverty is part of the dialogue, this dream world of equal access becomes moot. We are a bifurcated country: we want the best under circumstances of the worst.

Poverty changes everything (depending on the individual). My school is doing a book study on "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," by Ruby K. Payne. It was written for educators, employers, policymakers, and service providers. It is an essential read to understanding the ravages of poverty.

Until Common Core (and unrealistic goals in education), early education teachers claimed the necessity of pre-teaching words and concepts before they could begin the actual grade level. Does that sound familiar? The goal of Common Core is to prepare students for college because freshmen, far too many, have to take remedial classes in English before they are ready for college level (if ever).

In  one of the group meetings for "Understanding Poverty," my assignment was to make a presentation on Chapter Two. Two facts stand out in my memory, two things that trumpet the depths of undertow of impoverished and unprepared students. First is this: "A three-year old in a professional household has more vocabulary words than an adult in a welfare household" (32). Think of that!! Second, Mainstream American English, spoken by the middle class and above, is really a second language to children in poverty. They must learn this middle class language because it is the language of empowerment. Thus, they enter school unprepared and stay behind unless something significant is done to break that cycle of poverty and the impoverishment of language that goes along with it.

As hard as educators work, their task is quixotic. If a child is born in poverty, how can he succeed? Psychology says that just one adult, one important adult, who tends to him both physically and emotionally, can make a difference. But that adult must take that child out of poverty and show him other things, other worlds, other ways. Unless he knows of these other things, he cannot know to educate himself toward being part of that other. It is difficult, but it is possible. One person can make a difference. Volunteer in your neighborhood school. Take coats to your school. Provide crayons, paper, writing utensils. Help sponsor a trip to a museum or anywhere new and significant. Give of yourself. Find a way. If not you, then who? It can be done!

http://www.greatschools.org/improvement/volunteering/19-easy-ways-to-help.gs

For more information about Common Core and related topics, follow one of these links:
http://www.corestandards.org/
http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/