piddle, piddle what to do in the middle?

Today was my first day of my "middle school immersion" for my grad program. Every student, no matter what type of school they're studying to teach for, gets placed for this week in a middle school to observe the various happenings of middle school life.

The first big difference about middle school vs elementary school is the time - I got to be at the middle school around 7:40AM (start time is 8:00AM) vs being at the elementary school at 9:10AM (start time is 9:30AM). Getting up earlier sucks, but thankfully, the school I got placed in a less than 10 minutes from my house, so I can get a few extra ZZZs.

The other big difference between this placement and my elementary school placement is that instead of being paired with a mentor teacher, I'm a "floater" that goes from class to class. While I do get to see a variety of subjects being taught and a bunch of different teaching styles, I miss the participation and behind-the-scenes knowledge I got from working with a mentor teacher.

I've already sort of made up my mind that I'm not interested in teaching the middle school hordes of students with squeaky voices, strange body hair, and funky smells, but we'll see. Maybe I'll see something the next few days that will change my mind.


.:.


don't blame me

Ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown complained that he was being unfairly blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster, claiming he didn't have the right personnel or budget to do the department's work... yet the Washington Post reported that FEMA didn't have any problems spending $236 million dollars on a cruise ships. Nice to see they have their priorities straight... (cough INCOMPETENT cough).

In other blame game news, Lynndie England, the infamous woman soldier from the Abu Ghraib prison photo scandal, got sentenced to 3 years in prison. She claimed to have been compelled by her senior officer at the time into participating, which I can sympathize with... however, it doesn't excuse her. The fact that somehow despite the pressure, other soldiers had the nerve to report abuses of the prison shows that it was possible (though probably incredibly difficult) to still take a stand for what's right.

Of larger concern to me is what happened to the prosecution of the prison's officers and administration? Being that England was just a private, and the abuse of the prisoners occurred on a systematic and repeated basis, those who occupied higher positions authority need to be held accountable - all the way up to Mr. Donald "Interrogate & Torture" Rumsfeld.
posted by G at 11:33 PM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33