NCSS National Conference Day 2

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:14:00 GMT

The day began early began with a pleasant jog with friends. Got to see the mall by dawn with no one else around. Highly recommended. Then off we went to the convention center. Shortly before arrival we saw something unexpected when a woman tripped and fell on the sidewalk. Hard. Those nearby helped her up and I was relieved because I was pretty sure she was dead. It led to some interesting conversation about the effect cities have on people and their behavior. For the record, this TU member does not enjoy cities much.

So as we made our way through our sessions on our second day of “Dimensions on Diversity” it seemed a common topic mentioned by many presenters was poverty. It is a topic not addressed often enough in educational conversations but one that is confronted daily by classroom educators, education reformers, and most sensible people. One would think it would rarely leave our collective conscience but it seems the opposite is true. The problem is hard to ignore walking the streets of our nation’s capital where you are never far from those living within its grasp. We are fortunate that our own community suffers to a far lesser degree but suffers none the less.

Other less profound reflections on our visit:

-Another day of presenters. Some great, some good, and some not so great. Glad we went.

-Unlike yesterday, there was no bounding up the stairs it like I did a day earlier. The convention center is big and we saw all of it. Lots of up and down.

-When the 10th presenter told me they ran out of materials because they were told to make 25 copies, it got annoying.

-Many people in the exhibitors section are only there to promote and push their products. We learned quickly to avoid the flashier booths as those people are not teachers and have far less in common with ourselves. Target the plain with more substance.

-Perhaps next year we'll attend a conference and pass out cards promoting the TU as some did for their sites. That would seem out of character.
-Dyson Air Blade. Whoa.

-The C-SPAN bus was pretty sweet. -If we go a few months without seeing a flashy TV screen Kiosk, that's OK with us.

-Escalators are big scary monstrous inventions. Maybe that's why we like them better than stairs.

We'll use tomorrow to regroup and then share some more thoughtful of what went on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yd3ouQsPFY

No visible cracks

DC Convention Center.

Mr. Dyson...nice work.

Cards for self promotion


2012 is a long ways away.

Of course we'll ride the escalator

The Secret Staircase

Hard to tell what this until its dark

Celebritocracy

Anonymous — Sat, 14 May 2011 13:41:00 GMT

If you are a child growing up in the District of Columbia, you miss out on the chance to memorize fun facts such as your state bird or your state flower. Actually, thanks to a little quick research I found out that we, in fact, do have an official bird (the wood thrush) and an official flower (the American Beauty rose). But the point I’m making here is that we are not a state.

The unique status of D.C. as a federal district is what we’ve been studying this spring in the third grade. In second grade we focused on understanding how a democracy works (by way of things like a thoroughly entertaining day of dictatorship), and now we’re investigating the bizarre representative democracy loophole that is our nation’s capital.

Early on in the semester we learned that D.C. doesn’t have a voting representative in Congress. OK—we’re now very solid on that. We then moved on to exploring why that is, and why we’re not a state or part of a state. It became clear that some further exploration was needed when I saw this answer to the question, “Why is D.C. not a state?”

“Because we’re just a country.”

So we backed up a bit and established the differences between a country, a state, and a city and now I think we’re good on that front.


Celebrity Apprentice

The other day we were looking at how many representatives different states get in Congress, and by now lots of kids are able to name some of the states that have a lot of representatives. “So why does California have a lot of representatives?” I asked. While several of the kids in the group were able to say that this was because California has a large population, I can see how Max might have come to his conclusion about why the Eureka State should get more Congressional representation.

“Celebrities might get more rights than other people.” he replied.

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NCSS National Conference Day 2

Celebritocracy