:: Dillondesk -- the blog of LCD ::
Weblog for a teacher of English, lover of Peeps, Tori, Ben, the Beatles, TV, movies, and Star Wars.
:: a child of the 80's looks at the world through Smurf-colored glasses -- a blog by calvin dillon :: bloghome
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:: Friday, April 28, 2006 ::
:: Calvin 5:54 PM [+] ::
Got our schedules for next year today
I have two sections of Reading 1 and three of Intensive III.
I t will be good to see if I can be effective with the freshmen for a whole year -- it will be neat to have kids that long and see the growth, though it won't be as immediate as the feedback I get with the IR 3 kids.
I also still ahve a section of the Intensive Language kids -- I am really glad they let me keep them and I hope they keep the class small.
The second semester I am currently scheduled to teach three sections of the SAT prep class. That sounds pretty good right now -- it will be nice not to have three preps in the spring (unless I pick up an extra class...)
Not everyone was as excited to be teaching reading as I am... the county gets one more year to get all of the teachers in compliance, so I think some have strategically not finished taking the classes so they do not get assigned them. I don't know how well that is going to work -- somebody has to teach them, and the only other teacher who had finished the coursework with me passed away...
The other side of the story is that you really need to have people who WANT to be in the reading classes teaching them, or things are bad all the way around. The kids deserve to have people who want to be there -- life is hard enough and they already hate rreading -- having an instructor who resents the assignment is only asking for trouble.
Hope everyone's Friday is going well. Good luck and be safe to Joe, and think good thoughts for the other Loyd.
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:: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 ::
:: Calvin 6:02 AM [+] ::
Finished a middling book today -- When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester.
I really have liked other things I have read by the man -- he has a great ear for dialogue and writes female characters with startling authenticity.
The book begins with the murder having happened, and the kids are getting told at school about the titular tragedy.
The story proceeds with alternating chapters from the points of view of the kids -- Jeremy, the sensitive artistic seven-year-old who is wiser than his years and devoted to his mother, and Jenna, the nubile Abercrombie-obsessed middle schooler who enjoys in a kind of "gross" way the inappropriate attention her father gave her before the incident.
The story proceeds as both a mystery and a portrait of the stillness after death. It succeeds on the latter count with its touching portayals of the broken family trying to deal with the loss of BOTH parents -- the one to the grave and the other to the cell.
The main problem I have with the book, though, is the rushed ending that MAJORLY cheats on its courtroom procedural scenes. I think authors have SOME responsibility to the reader to avoid quasi-legality and wishing away the truth of the way the court works and how evidence is introduced. That part really bothered, but not quite as much as the neat little ending that explains the father's behavior in terms of family secrets and revelations that are just a LITTLE bit too pat.
Would be a nice companion for something like "Sound and the Fury" by Faulkner or Ellen Foster, which are much more messy and literary.
I would recommend it as a fun read, as long as you can suspend disbelief, and as long as the reader understands that violence and mental illness cannot always be explained by a ROOT CAUSE FROM A TRAGIC CHILDHOOD INCIDENT.
Apart from that, it was FAB. Lester has a great ear for adolescent speech and thought patterns, and Jenna is refreshingly honest and not overly mature for her age -- which sometimes these characters tend to be.
Thumb moderately up, with reservations.
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:: Sunday, April 23, 2006 ::
:: Calvin 9:27 PM [+] ::
Google calendar
Google has a calendar service and it is awesome -- reminds me of Outlook, but more functional -- you can add layers of calendars that assign holidays in different colors, and adding an event is very easy -- just one click.
You can share the calendar with others and it can even send SMS reminders -- yet another reason to get a Google account.
Welcome to Google Calendar
Watching the Dr. Who from Friday night -- not bad. I miss Baker's histrionics and scarf, and Rose is a very boring companion for the most part -- I miss Sarah Jane and Romana II and Nyssa and K-9 and Leela and the Master. Oh well. At least he still has the sonic screwdriver.
I just leaned that Eccleston left ofter this season.
There is a great Dr. Who site here:
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/4doc.html#Decay
Well -- off to see the Sandman -- the one who puts you to sleep, not the Dream King himself.
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:: Calvin 2:29 PM [+] ::
Never tell me I have too much time on my hands ever again...
Wow. I am speechless.
Peanut Butter Jelly Time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If you can't get enough of these "Internet phenomomena" - check the source -- OffTopic.com.
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