Instant gratification

I believe that the oil spill that we are dealing with right now is all a result of the instant gratification society that we live in. Everything in our society today screams "gimme, gimme, gimme!" "I want it now and I don't care how I get it, or who I hurt in the process." BP wants to make more $, so they hastily build this drilling station and never take into consideration the "what ifs" before they get busy making the big bucks. Then the explosion occurs and the whole world looks on in shock and we scratch our heads. But you can't totally blame BP-becuase they are just doing what the rest of our society is doing, getting instant gratification. Why are we dealing with an economic crisis? Because we had a spending party for years and years, and all of a sudden we realized we forgot to plan for the future and save for emergencies! Its rediciolous! So, if the government and society as a whole is doing it, why shouldn't BP do it too? I fear that our society will never learn to stop and think before we act. When are we going to learn? If BP had slowed the process of building this drilling station and first put into place some plans to deal with leaks, explosions, etc., we wouldn't be in this position! Then again, why aren't there processes in place for economic downfalls? We desperately need to stop and start delaying gratifiaction, or the whole world and our society will be at stake.

injustice

q. what happens if a lawyer, doctor, accountant, business person or any other professional, does not perform well at their job after repeated help and support from the companies that employee them????

a. they get fired!!!!

q. what happens if a teacher does not perform well at their job after repeated help and support from the schools that employee them?????

a. they continue teaching.

as a future school administrator this is one of the issues that frustrates me more than anything. yesterday i attended a workshop on school law and we spent the majority of the session learning how to navigate the many laws that protect teachers from being fired. and then there are teachers who have tenure. tenure is granted to teachers who have worked 5 years as a teacher. once a teacher has tenure they are virtually impossible to get rid of.

the problem is that we can NOT afford to have poor, or even mediocre teachers in our schools. american education has fallen so far behind other competing countries and our achievement gap is not getting any smaller. the simple solution to this problem is to have quality, motivated, strong teachers in each classroom.

studies have shown that if a student has 2 really bad teachers during their years in school they may not be able to recover! do you see how serious this problem can be?????

in order to fire a teacher i have to do the following:
-collect TONS of data on them (classroom observations, walk throughs, etc.)
-put them on an action plan-this involves TONS of work on the part of the administrator.
-stay in constant communication with human resources to make sure you are crossing all your Ts and dotting all your Is.
-hold multiple meetings with the teacher and try to work on the action plan.

this process can take at least 2 years-and sometimes more. in the meantime that teacher is still teaching and having a negative impact on students. if this is not an injustice, i don't know what is.

some school administrators have a hard time going through this process and they decide to just let it be...well that will NOT be the case when i take the helm. i would not be able to sleep at night knowing that i am letting my students suffer at the hand of a bad teacher. so watch out bad teachers...i'm coming your way.

i'd trade it all

i will be the first to admit how much i enjoy being single. i love sleeping in on the weekends, watching what i want on tv, going places at the drop of a hat and not having to tell anyone where i'm going or trying to find a babysitter. that's just a short list of the things that i enjoy about being single. i try to embrace those things when i'm feeling down about being single. my friends that are married with kids always tell me that they are jealous (in a friendly way) of all these things that i get to do. for example, i'm going on a cruise next week and last week when i had veteran's day off i stayed in my pjs all day and didn't leave the house. i love these things, i really do. BUT...i would trade it all for the desires of my heart; a husband to share my life with and kids to love and adore. so you may be jealous of the little, fun things i get to do being single, but i'm jealous of what you have. so when i gloat about these little things, its only because i'm trying to make myself feel better about the things i don't have yet. bare with me.....

Summer time and new beginings

i can't believe i haven't posted since may. the summer has gone by so fast-but that's okay because its been a pretty good one! from june 1st-August 1 i babysat for a 6 and 8 year old. they are pretty good kids, but i was with them for 50 hours a week and it got old real fast. i'm so glad that's over! i've also decided to "retire" from babysitting. i've been babysitting since i was 10 years old-more than half my life and i can't take it anymore! don't get me wrong-i LOVE kids, but i'm tired of watching other people's kids :)
in summers past i've always tried to take at least one or two trips to the beach. wrightsville beach is only 2 hours away so its not a bad drive. this summer my parents have made day trips to the beach a regular thing. we've gone every other weekend since the summer started and its been so much fun! we've been to wilmington, southport and topsail island. this coming weekend we are headed to carolina beach. day trips are not as hard as you may think. we pack coolers with sandwiches, snacks and drinks and load the car with beach chairs, towels and umbrellas...and that's it! we leave around 8 am and arrive at the beach by 10. we stay till be are sunburned and water logged and then we rinse off in the showers and grab a bite to eat on the way home. its a mini vacation that always feel like more a day trip, with the big bonus of sleeping in my own bed at night!
yesterday i stared my internship at eastway elementary school. i'm so excited to be there! i will post more on the details soon.
and to put the icing on the summer cake-my bestest friend in the whole wide world is coming to visit me next week! this will be her first trip here since i moved here 6 years ago! i haven't seen her in almost 2 years! i'm so excited to see her and show her my life here. i realize this post is a big jumble of info, but i wanted to give you something! bye for now!

today i went back to my old stomping grounds to proctor for EOGs. i've been back there several times since i left last year, but i never get to see all the people i want to because of varying schedules and a big building. since i was there for several hours today i got to see some former students that i haven't seen in ages. the kids that taught my first year (2003-2004) are now in fourth grade! and it just so happens that i was proctoring in fourth grade. i saw several of my former students and they are SO big now! they are no longer sweet, innocent kindergartners. they are pre-teens with hormones and boyfriends/girlfriends. one of the students i had my first year of teaching was victor. victor came from a rough neighborhood and had a very unstable home life. we had a long, hard year working on his behavior, academics and social skills. i saw him today for the first time in a year. he was SO surprised to see me. he came over to me and said "what up ms. halsey!" and he attempted to give me "a pound". i was like-no way, you are hugging me! i spoke with his teacher who told me that he is doing so well and is super smart. that made my heart so happy!

this picture shows the look that i got from about 20 former students. they were just so surprised to see me. it was so nice to be reminded of how much i was loved!

memories of lemonade

on my way to a babysitting job today i noticed three kids on the side of the road desperately trying to flag down cars. they were selling lemonade. i always try to stop at lemonade stands. nothing is better than seeing young, innocent children jump for joy when you pull over and buy a cup of their 25 cent lukewarm lemonade. ryan and i use to have lemonade stands during the long, summer days on long island. growing up we lived on a very quiet residential street that outlined the edge of a beautiful farm. it was a dead end so we really got very little traffic. but when a car did come down the road we would jump up and down and wave our arms in hopes that the passing car would stop. and if they did we frantically worked to pour them the lemonade and collect their money. it was such a simple, pure joy to complete a sale!
peter jennings, who was an abc news anchor, had a summer/weekend house at the end of our street. as little kids we thought it was soooooo cool that a "celebrity" lived on our street. we always knew when he passed by becuase he traveled to and from the city in a black limousine. during one of our lemonade stands we saw his limo coming up the road. as usual we frantically waved and tried to convince the car to stop. we must have made an impression that day because peter jenning's limo stopped! he got out and bought a cup of country time lemonade from us and flashed his famous smile! it was great! and even greater was going to school the next day and telling all my friends! sometimes i wish i could go back to those days.

pretty at the gym?!?!?!!!!

when i go to the gym to workout...i'm there to do just that. workout. i do not go to socialize, i do not go to impress anyone, and i certainly don't go there to pick-up guys. so when i go to the gym i do NOT look cute. i wear one of two pairs of old, cotton, drawstring pants, a tee shirt and usually a hat. (hopefully my hair will soon be long enough to get into a ponytail so i can lose the hat!) i don't wear makeup because i sweat like a pig and because i'm there to workout. i also don't fool around at the gym because i really can't afford to. i have a lot of work to do and a lot of weight to lose, so i can't just go there to hang out. well, a few weeks ago i was working my butt off when i noticed a girl strolling around the gym. she was dressed very nice...she had on true workout pants(like nike or adidas-not target brand like mine), brand new sneakers and a see through shirt that you probably would where out on a friday night. she also had her hair blown out perfectly and a complete make-up job. now i must confess-on bad morning i will throw on some cover up and bronzer just so i don't scare people at the gym. but i never put on a full face like this girl...she had eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara, foundation, bronzer, the whole nine yards. i'll admit that i'm jealous of girls like this. she was very pretty and didn't even need to be at the gym. so all this was okay with me until i got on a machine next to her. that's when i got mad. she was sitting on a machine but she wasn't really using it. she was sitting on it and playing solitaire on her iphone! seriously?!?!? you came to the gym to sit on a machine and play solitaire?!??! couldn't she do that at home?!?!? it really made me mad! there i am sweating my *&@ off and she is chillin', playing a game. ugh! i'll admit that some, or most, or my anger is the result of being jealous...but really?!??! come on now. yes i wish i could be her-she doesn't even need to workout. but i just felt like her being there was rubbing it in my face.

that's it. no fun or meaningful ending to this post...it was just a good way for me to vent!