If you have read this blog for a while, you might recognize the title from a previous posting when I was discussing my serious need for a pedicure with the little boys in the kindergarten. As usually happens during swimming pool time, my toe nails "look terrible", to quote Wesley, even though he had not viewed them. The polish is chipped off and edges of the nails are ragged. Recently I was in the pool with some ladies, one who accidentally located the jet which moves the water around the pool. I told her that is why I usually stand right there, to have the jet of water massage my feet as well as chip off my polish, and she immediately moved away. Good plan, Kim! I do not want any interlopers taking "my" spot where I 'beach' on the edge of the pool and puddle away. There I can peddle my bike under water, keeping those legs of mine moving and then resting them with a blast of water which removes some but not all of my polish!
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An interview is being done on F & F with a teacher in Florida who is complaining about the dumbing down of students using primarily the FCATs which help determine how much money the schools get. This standardized testing is the absolute focus, about the only thing taught in the classroom are the things which show up on the test and little else. The school then gets appropriated funds based upon the total scores of the students so games and contests take place between the grades within the same school and it gets almost nuts. Kids and teachers alike count down the days until the FCATs are over. Fortunately we avoided that since Justin attended a private school, and while he did take an SAT, overall learning and teaching was the focus and not how to pass a test. This lady being interviewed is correct, the kids might learn more when the teachers are actually allowed to grade papers using a red pen. To heck with the student's delicate sense of worth--if they are wrong, they are wrong, and make them more ready for high school and college.
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When Justin was a senior he was always murmuring about his teacher for English class, or some other name for what I remember as English class, as she enforced certain rules regarding writing term papers, etc. Oh, she was the worst, Jerry, the worst teacher and he wondered how St. Johns could ever hire her and why did she have to be so picky.....Yeah, yeah, yeah, just do the paper the way she said to and be done with it. Ugh! So, when Justin started at UNF and he was to do a paper for one of his classes, he was late, as always, in handing in his rough draft. When Justin met the professor in the hallway, he apologized to the prof for handing the paper in late. The professor told him it was okay he was late, because his rough draft was so much better than the others completed work. Justin was beside himself with glee and when he came home, he told me that the next time he saw his teacher, he was going to give her a hug. And he did!!! Justin attended a function at St. Johns with his friend and saw the teacher there, told her what had happened, and gave her one of his famous hugs! Use the red pen, teachers, use the red pen!
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I really have to get busy here but might write again later on. For now, I must be getting my bedroom ready for the workers coming at long last to move my furniture and tear out this flooring. Jeff, my downstairs neighbor, just called me to report that the trash doors have been unlocked and are ready for the disposal of my carpet and pad. My job today will be to strip this bed and get the room as bare as I physically can before they get here, removing any and all obstacles from the progress of the job. I hope I do! Mike asked me last night where they were going to put the furniture they move out, which took me by surprise because I thought we were on the same page with this----anywhere you can!!!
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