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Test Mess

We have a testing scandal brewing in our town. Three highly respected grade school teachers have been removed from their classrooms pending an investigation by the district attorney's office into illegal coaching during state testing in late April. Details are sketchy but it sounds like some of the 504 kids were coached a little too much. ( Section 504 kids are in essence classified as needing what I think of as junior-level special education services. Kid 2 is classified as eligible for certain accommodations. He gets shorter tests, more time, a seat up-front---all the help that doesn't tend to require a lot more money.) These tests were much more difficult than previous ELAs. This was the first set of state tests that included the federally mandated Common Core Curriculum standards imposed as part of the "Race to the Top" initiative. The "Core" standards are much higher than the ones in place in the schools until November. The teachers had to "catch...
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Generational Diversity or Why Do the Twenty-Somethings Look So Young?

I have a fabulous new job that I love. So fabulous that I feel as though I have been reborn. Or at least my career has been reborn. I get to do all the things I love and they pay me well. This was the life I had up until 2001, when I suppose things changed for the worse for many of us. Earlier this week I had the chance to visit the home office and "roost" for a few days. The purpose was to meet my co-workers in person and to get a better handle on a new process. Suddenly not only do I have a great job but I work for a great company and there are 15 different kinds of freshly ground coffee in the breakroom. I don't even drink coffee and I'm impressed. What's even better is the huge wall-sized cooler filled with chilled Diet Coke. I saw old-timers I'd worked with at other companies years before. They told me about their grown children and they politely held in check their Schadenfreude upon learning of my relative newborns--ages 8 and 11. Sometimes I swear...
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A Day to Forget

Today I learned that it is dumb to play "plumber." I can solve just about any clog but don't be sucked in by anyone who tells you that taking off the commode is easy.  It's not easy and within minutes the water line that I thought I'd shut off was spraying water like a garden hose turned on full volume. Just a few minutes more and water was cascading through the ceiling below and then down to the basement. I called my ex-beau because I knew he'd know where the main valve was. No answer. I flipped out which is something I rarely allow myself to do. I stayed completely calm through breast cancer but watching that water pour down made me feel helpless.  Then the Mountain Mensch called and guided me to the shutoff valve and I was calm again. Kid 2 was home and he very quickly got the idea to catch some of the water flooding the front hall with pots and pans. It turns out that I have a ton of cookware.
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