Archive for the ‘newsworthy’ Category

Do your and your pet need a vacation?

April 15th, 2010 5:33pm

We have a very special member of our family that works awefully hard though not so anyone would notice. He scares the monster away each night, comforts a mothers tears when she’s had one of those days, listens intently to a child when they feel no one else could understand, scares the bad guys (and some of the annoying door solicitors!)  away, is always ready to play, gets us all off our butts to exercise and appreciate the beauty around us by taking the morning walk,  and never ceases to warm our hearts when everything else in the world seems cold.

Comforter, playmate, body guard, monster-under-the-bed scarer... our family pup has a full time job!

Sound like a pretty hefty job description? Not for our family pup! He takes it all in stride. And while the rest of us moan daily for appreciation, or pay, or some sort of recompense for every good deed, he is content to carry this job out with a wag of his tail and comic loll of his tongue! Our pets do so much for us without ever expecting a return. It is amazing to me that we constantly search for heros for our children to emulate when in reality, the selfless nature of our family pets should be example enough for all of us!

Well, thanks to PetsWeekly.com, we now have a way to repay our little heros by giving them what they love most…time with us to play! They have organized their first Travel Contest for pets and their owners with the grand prize being a five day trip to the Rocky Mountain Wilderness in Colorado Springs, Colorado for two people and their pet!!

Some of the other prizes for runners up:

It’s easy to enter! Simply visit their entry form page, upload a photo of your pet with an explanation of why your pet needs a vacation and you’re ready to go! Check out some of the entries where you can also vote for your favorite. He who has the most votes goes to Colorado! And yes, I have to make a hapless endorsement…if you see our photo (entitle Jennifer Allen and Chance), give us a vote will ya because me and my pet NEED A VACATION!


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Posted in Events, Family and Home, free stuff, newsworthy | No Comments »

April is National Poetry Month! Do you have a budding poet in your midst?

March 2nd, 2010 12:18am

Get inspired! Write a poem for your pet and win!

If you have a child that loves to write and loves animals, we’ve got the perfect combination to help them celebrate National Poetry Month! The 3rd annual “Paws for Poetry” contest is in full swing and is a great opportunity for children ages 5-12 to showcase their poetry prowess! To enter, kids need only to write a poem to, and provide a photo of, their favorite animal friend.The contest is co-sponsored by kids’ virtual field trip web site Meet Me at the Corner and Flashlight Press. Teachers and parents, this is a great opportunity to not only encourage your kids to write but also get them excited about it!

Poems must be original work and can be submitted in one of two categories: Group One (ages 5-9) and Group Two (ages 10-12). One grand prize winner ine ach category will receive a $50.00 Amazon.com gift card. Two runners-up in each category will receive a $25.00 Amazon.com gift card. Winning poems and pet photos will also be highlighted in an upcoming Meet Me at the Corner video pod cast. The pod cast will be videotaped at New York’s Angellicle Cat Rescue Center. Local students will present the winning poems.

The contest judge will be Thad Krasnesky. Thad is a children’s author and poet as well as an Iraqi war veteran. He will also be providing contest winners with an autographed copy of his new book, “That Cat Can’t Stay”.

Celebrating the 3rd annual Paws for Poetry contest inspiring kids to celebrate National Poetry Month!

The contest deadline is April 15, 2010. All submissions should be mailed to:

“Paws for Poetry” contest
c/o Meet Me at the Corner
20 West Del Norte
Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Good luck to all our young Emily Dickensen’s and Edgar Allen Poe’s! We hope you will all take a crack at this contest as we take a moment this month to appreciate poetry in all it’s literary forms! wRite on!

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Posted in Events, Family and Home, General, Teacher Tips, holiday activities, newsworthy | No Comments »

New legislation affecting teachers and March4Schools Day of Action

February 23rd, 2010 6:27pm

Earlier I wrote an article entitled “Do we value our teachers, or are they expendable?” concerning legislation, effective this year, which effectively eliminated contract dates, RIF recall rights and Seniority protections for teaching professionals. Some considered this legislation “punitive” backlash for teachers who led a protest at the capital last year to oppose massive budget cuts to public schools. Since that time, teachers, parents and concerned individuals have led protests for these unfair practices. There have been some new developments…

Arizona Education Association (AEA) is currently lobbying for SB1299 which is sponsored by Senator Linda Lopez. If accepted, it would repeal these policies. HB 2226, which is being introduced by Representative Lauren Hendrix and will be heard in the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday of this week (February 24), would repeal these punitive policy provisions and then reinstate them. AEA will be present at this meeting to testify. Representative David Schapira will also be introducing an amendment to HB2226 which would eliminate the reinstatement of these punitive laws, effectively repealing them instead.

If you would like to support the amendment, contact committee members.

You can also show support for education in Arizona by attending the March4Schools Day of Action on March 4, 2010 at 4 p.m. This enormous community outreach action will bring thousands of education supporters statewide together to share their stories and concerns about the impact of legislative funding cuts to their schools with the voting public. It is hoped that this effort will bring attention to the anti-education legislation taking place.

If you would like to attend as a March4Schools Day of Action participant, it is asked that you wear a t-shirt (that can be purchased online) to present a unified front in support of quality public education for every child in Arizona. To join in and be a part of this event, check out what activities will be available in your individual local.

Weigh in with your thoughts on how our teachers are being treated from a legislative standpoint. Are they expendable? Or do we value them and want them to stay?

For more information: Download the AEA March4Schools Day of Action flyer.

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Do we value our teachers or are they expendable?

December 6th, 2009 1:45am

Do we value our teachers or are they expendable?
In what some claim to be a backlash from a large teacher march on the capital in March, Arizona Legislature has made some controversial changes to the way Arizona teachers are going to be treated. Some of these changes included removing seniority, salary and contract guarantees. One of the more surprising facts of this bill being passed is that state lawmakers did so without committee hearings or public comment, using an emergency 51-day special session to create a budget to push these changes through.
These changes, falling under House Bill 2011, prevent districts from considering tenure when making decisions about which teachers will be laid off. This also applies to rehires. Here are a few more changes taking effect with this bill…
• Districts are no longer required to give teachers notification of contract status for the following school year. Prior to Bill 2011, Districts were required to notify teachers by April 15th whether they were going to return the next year.
• Districts can also now lower salaries mid year for select teachers without being required to take into account tenure.
• If a teacher is placed on an improvement plan for inadequate instruction, they are only required to have 60 days of instruction now rather then the previously required 85 days.
• If teachers wish to participate in union business during contracted time, they are no longer required to be compensated.
Looking at the pros and cons, it is easy to understand why these changes have become so controversial. First, it is important to understand that Arizona is now vying for a very lucrative $4.3 billion “Race to the Top” federal education grant sponsored by the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan which has very specific requirements and guidelines that states must follow in order to be eligible. Once such requirement is linking teacher salaries with student achievement. Good? Bad? Well, it may spur teachers to put more effort into their classroom teaching. However, it may also cause teachers to encourage cheating, more lenient grade awarding, etc. in an effort to keep their jobs. It may also unfairly alienate teachers that are working in severely underprivileged areas where parent and community support are in short supply and children naturally suffer to no specific fault of the teacher.
Here are some interesting statistics on Arizona’s educational priorities (information obtained through the Arizona Education Association)…
• Arizona is currently ranked 49th out of the 50 states in the amount spent per student
• It has the second highest student-teacher ratio
• It has the second fastest growing student population
• It ranks 35th in the nation for average teacher salaries. That’s $6,536 BELOW the national average!
• To equal the national average spending per student, Arizona would need to increase their per student spending by 44%!
• In order to be equal to the national average, Arizona would need to spend in excess of $2.7 billion!
If we are not paying our teachers, not putting money into our educational facilities and materials, failing to offer our teachers any kind of job security and consistently watching our student population explode, then someone please tell me what person in their right mind would ever want to study and invest over $18,000 in education to become a teacher!!! With less qualified and fewer teacher applicants entering the field, how can this be good for our children?
I recently spoke with a local 1st grade teacher in her second year that is already expressing her regrets and frustrations with the system. “I spend so much time administering required aptitude tests to my students, that I don’t have time to even teach them the concepts I’m testing on!” she lamented. She refuses to allow her parent helpers to assist her with these tests because she feels it puts the students at a disadvantage. “I had to go through special training to administer these tests” she confided, “and I don’t feel that the students benefit when different, unqualified people are randomly administering these tests.” With some teachers relying on untrained parent helpers to administer tests to their students, there is no consistency and great room for error. Not to mention the huge amount of time wasted.
But then again, if Arizona were to win this “Race to the Top” grant money, perhaps great changes could be wrought to the benefit of both teacher and student. It certainly stands to encourage a great deal of innovative and forward thinking ideas about educational development as states fall all over themselves vying for the grant money. What do you think about the changes? Join the forum discussion on this topic and give us your thoughts.
Arizona Education Association http://www.arizonaea.org/profiles.php?page=32
Tuition Information http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/10/21/20091021collegetuition1021.html
March on capital http://www.arizonaea.org/politics.php?page=403
House Bill 2011 http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/ERT/pdf/hb2011.pdf
Race to the Top Grant http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/11/11122009.html

In what some claim to be a backlash from a large teacher march on the capital in March, Arizona Legislature has made some controversial changes to the way Arizona teachers are going to be treated. Some of these changes included removing seniority, salary and contract guarantees. One of the more surprising facts of this bill being passed is that state lawmakers did so without committee hearings or public comment, using an emergency 51-day special session to create a budget to push these changes through.

These changes, falling under House Bill 2011, prevent districts from considering tenure when making decisions about which teachers will be laid off. This also applies to rehires. Here are a few more changes taking effect with this bill…Districts are no longer required to give teachers notification of contract status for the following school year. Prior to Bill 2011, Districts were required to notify teachers by April 15th whether they were going to return the next year.

  • Districts can also now lower salaries mid year for select teachers without being required to take into account tenure.
  • If a teacher is placed on an improvement plan for inadequate instruction, they are only required to have 60 days of instruction now rather then the previously required 85 days.
  • If teachers wish to participate in union business during contracted time, they are no longer required to be compensated.

Looking at the pros and cons, it is easy to understand why these changes have become so controversial. First, it is important to understand that Arizona is now vying for a very lucrative $4.3 billion “Race to the Top” federal education grant sponsored by the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan which has very specific requirements and guidelines that states must follow in order to be eligible. Once such requirement is linking teacher salaries with student achievement. Good? Bad? Well, it may spur teachers to put more effort into their classroom teaching. However, it may also cause teachers to encourage cheating, more lenient grade awarding, etc. in an effort to keep their jobs. It may also unfairly alienate teachers that are working in severely underprivileged areas where parent and community support are in short supply and children naturally suffer to no specific fault of the teacher.

Here are some interesting statistics on Arizona’s educational priorities (information obtained through the Arizona Education Association)…

  • Arizona is currently ranked 49th out of the 50 states in the amount spent per student
  • It has the second highest student-teacher ratio
  • It has the second fastest growing student population
  • It ranks 35th in the nation for average teacher salaries. That’s $6,536 BELOW the national average!
  • To equal the national average spending per student, Arizona would need to increase their per student spending by 44%!
  • In order to be equal to the national average, Arizona would need to spend in excess of $2.7 billion!

If we are not paying our teachers, not putting money into our educational facilities and materials, failing to offer our teachers any kind of job security and consistently watching our student population explode, then someone please tell me what person in their right mind would ever want to study and invest over $18,000 in education to become a teacher!!! With less qualified and fewer teacher applicants entering the field, how can this be good for our children?

I recently spoke with a local 1st grade teacher in her second year that is already expressing her regrets and frustrations with the system. “I spend so much time administering required aptitude tests to my students, that I don’t have time to even teach them the concepts I’m testing on!” she lamented. She refuses to allow her parent helpers to assist her with these tests because she feels it puts the students at a disadvantage. “I had to go through special training to administer these tests” she confided, “and I don’t feel that the students benefit when different, unqualified people are randomly administering these tests.” With some teachers relying on untrained parent helpers to administer tests to their students, there is no consistency and great room for error. Not to mention the huge amount of time wasted.

But then again, if Arizona were to win this “Race to the Top” grant money, perhaps great changes could be wrought to the benefit of both teacher and student. It certainly stands to encourage a great deal of innovative and forward thinking ideas about educational development as states fall all over themselves vying for the grant money. What do you think about the changes? Join the forum discussion on this topic and give us your thoughts. Please let us know if you are a teacher, parent or both in your comments.

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Posted in General, newsworthy | No Comments »