Random Stuff 3/26/13

This post started out as an end of the year collection of things I have learned, but obviously that post never got finished.  So I am choosing to continue it and append the post.They are in no particular order since this is a stream of conscious exercise.

• I am proud to be a teacher, and will continue to try to be a positive impact on young people in spite of not always being successful.  My personal measure of success is that all of my students pass the class and the state mandated test.
• I am proud of being a member of the VEA and appreciate the services they provide their members. (No folks, we do not have the power to bargain collectively.)
• That while we think we have advanced beyond previous generations, we are still motivated by the same base animal urges as always.
• I have tried to watch fewer television program with killings in them since December.  I am disturbed with how many movies and TV shows either have a murder as the premise for the story, or will have a killing in the story.
• College football realignment runs the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
• The best thing you can do when life brings sorrow to others is to just be there when they ask and to pray.
• Having snow days that start before Halloween and continue after Palm Sunday makes for a long winter.
• College basketball is more interesting when the pace is quick and team know how to shoot.
• I enjoy the fact neighborhood kids take advantage of the hills in my yard for sledding.  Having grown up with a neighbor who would not allow us to step in his yard, I never want to be that kind of neighbor.
• As a teacher, I know that it is important to look at all data measurements of student performance.  My concerns come with how effective these data measurements are when students have no accountability for the assessments that are being used as measurements.