3/26/11

Geraldine Ferraro: R.I.P.


Geraldine Ferraro died today at the age of 75.  Hers was the first Presidential election I was able to vote in, and I was pretty proud to be a member of the party that chose a woman for VP.

Get Your TFT Android App

I made an Android App for your phone-viewing pleasure you can purchase for 99 cents get free. It looks like this.


And like this.


I put it over in the sidebar, along with the QR code.

Please enjoy it!

3/25/11

Michelle Rhee Makes A Dubious Claim

Americans also have strong opinions about how we should determine teacher quality. In fact, of the 1,510 voters surveyed, 75 percent believe standardized tests, individual student progress and principal assessments are the best ways to evaluate teachers.
Rheelink

Really? Who were these voters? How were they chosen? What was the method used to get the opinions? Can we have any information about your survey at all, like the wording of the questions?

Michelle Rhee's site -- studentsfirst.org -- was at first happy to have comments on her blog. When the comments got overwhelmingly negative about the direction Rhee would like to see education go, they began deleting offending comments. Then they reposted some positive comments and attributed them to others. Then they began to moderate all comments, which pretty much shut down any conversations that were happening, and there were some, and people's minds were changing.

Now it appears they have shut down comments completely.

Please go to the mirror site I set up if you would like to comment, unmoderated.

And I have a new free Android App (QR code in sidebar) for her site, and a $0.99 free app for this site you are looking at right now!

Friday Bonus Cartoon Fun: Guns Or Books? Edition

Friday Cartoon Fun: Look For The Union Label Edition


The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent immigrant Jewish and Italian women aged sixteen to twenty-three.[1][2][3] Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers [and for which the song below was penned.].
Wikipedia

Look For The Union Label Song

3/22/11

Tuesday Bonus Cartoon Fun Bonus: The Future's So Bright Edition

Tuesday Bonus Cartoon Fun: Our Motto Is... Edition

Tuesday Cartoon Fun: Pandora's Boxes Edition

Fact: Chris Christie "failed to carry [his] burden."

New Jersey Superior Court judge Peter Doyne (acting as an appointed special master) issued his report on how the Christie $1 billion budget cut will hurt the most at-risk students.
"The difficulty in addressing New Jersey's fiscal crisis and its constitutionally mandated obligation to educate our children requires an exquisite balance not easily attained," wrote Doyne, according to the Star-Ledger. "Something need be done to equitably address these competing imperatives. That answer, though, is beyond the purview of this report. For the limited question posed to the Master, it is clear the State has failed to carry its burden."
HuffPo
"Despite spending levels that meet or exceed virtually every state in the country, and that saw a significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008, our 'at risk' children are now moving further from proficiency," he said.
NJ.com

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