And I’d bet that there are just as many if not more who have had abortions and DON’T do that. You wouldn’t know it, though, because not everyone is willing to share/feels a need to talk about it.

Yeah, but my horrific allergies will not, especially this time of year.

I can’t dance. I know I can’t dance. It’s something I’m incredible insecure about...and I don’t know how to fix it. I mean, at least I’m not Elaine. I know I suck. I’ll dance at weddings when I’m drunk and don’t give a fuck, but I’m extremely self conscious. I’m cringing for her just watching that.

Sorry, I’ll take away VAM and just say “growth” like you did. There are many flaws in that type of system. See: the current lawsuit in NY. (ex: Your gifted kids likely won’t see as much growth as gened kids if you’re basing this on standardized tests).

Sounds quite familiar to me. We just finished up in NY. I will say though, that somehow our tests were MORE rigorous than recent years. I’m questioning how the hell that happened when 200,000 elementary school kids opted out of the tests last year. You’d think the state wouldn’t respond to that by making the test MORE…

Actually, YES, we are that much more diverse than most industrialized nations. Was this a serious statement? Check out the diversity in say, a country like Finland that consistently scores high.

You really don’t get it. I suggest you brush yourself up on what is actually on these tests, what is going in education today, the privitization of schools, and the history of standardized testing in the United States. I suggest that you read up on some peer reviewed studies concerning the topics you are pushing. I…

Elementary education, so I teach everything: Social Studies, ELA, Math, Science. You name it. Kind of difficult to grade subjectively when it comes to things on a rubric such as “Includes text evidence” and “States consistent opinion within essay”. These are incredibly detailed fucking rubrics, here. They are Common…

It will NEVER happen. This has been an issue in New York State the past 6 years. The New York Times even covered it when one passage about a pineapple (don’t ask...or Google) was so ridiculous it couldn’t be ignored. I know Texas doesn’t do Common Core, but did you teach before or after? There are a LOT of issues with…

I think childhood nostalgia is influencing this one :) The most glaring issue I have with Anastasia is how the character’s mouths move when they talk and sing (often not lined up with the dialogue). When the pictures come out in the ballroom scene in Anastasia, that is almost exactly out of the Haunted Mansion ride at…

Did we watch the same movie? They weren’t even consistent with Anastasia’s jawline, for Christ’s sake. The animation was incredibly inconsistent and not at ALL “so much better”.

:) So infuriating. They’re not even releasing the full tests this year, even though they claimed they were prior to testing to discourage the opt out movement. I WISH I could speak about them, because Friday’s test in particular made me feel sick to my stomach.

This is NOT a Disney film. However, it was “Disneyfied” in the traditional sense of glossing over history/changing the ending.

It always annoyed me when people said/still say that this is a Disney film. Nope.

That’s probably the biggest thing I took away from that movie as a kid. “They are trying SO HARD to be Disney.”

Yep. I totally agree. I was a kid in the 1980s and 90s in NY. We had state tests, but we were NOT tested yearly in elementary school. I think it was something like grades 3 and 6. Whatever. It wasn’t a big deal. We also took the California Achievement Test at some point (again, not yearly). Not a big deal either, the…

Because extreme points of view are doing SO WELL for us in America today. See: The election and our bipartisan system. Most people don’t see the world in black and white.

There is no way that this person has kids.

Uh...my student’s grades are directly tied to other kids in the same class. All of my student writing gets scored on the same rubric by the same criteria. The rubrics are given to parents and students prior to the assignment, so they know exactly how they will be evaluated. Their final grades on their assignment are…

Teachers who know that they are worth something do not flock to underperforming schools who pay less, and they CERTAINLY will not do it when merit pay is tied to standardized test scores. You really don’t seem to get it.

The same is true when it comes to parents who are sue happy as well. I have a feeling we don’t live in the same area, haha.