True Story: I was working at Hallmark on Sunday when a customer came in wearing a tee shirt that read, "It's a Southern thing...you wouldn't understand," the words framing a Confederate flag. This was on top of the obnoxiously huge Confederate flag belt buckle the man was also sporting. The combination of the tee shirt and the belt buckle irked me to the point that I wasn't sure if I could wait on this man had he approached the register. I was a little taken aback by my level of vexation until I realized a few things:
1. I live in Ohio. Ohio is not and never has been a part of the South.
2. The Confederacy was crushed by Union troops close to 143 years ago.
3. Anyone who wears a Confederate flag in the year 2008 is either ignorant, delusional, or racist. I'm inclined to believe that someone who wears a Confederate flag in the year 2008 is all three of those.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Kent State Rocks My Socks
Or, I should say, Kent State men's basketball rocks my socks. Let's hope they tear it up like the team did back in '02 when they reached the Elite Eight. Although, I must say that even though the students on campus were excited about that, it was actually more exciting the year before when the Golden Flashes upset Indiana in the first round. I recall that our normally lackadaisical campus was a little bit more, shall we say, spirited that night. (Just out of curiosity, why isn't the opposite of lackadaisical, "daisical?" Wouldn't that make sense?)
Anyhow, I went up to the game Saturday night and witnessed KSU beat Akron for the third time this year. I didn't make it to their first meeting, a home game for Kent, but I went to their game at Akron's J.A.R. arena. That was a good game. Kent was winning by a good margin for most of the game, and then Akron came back to tie it up in the last two minutes...only to be crushed by Al Fisher's three-pointer with two seconds left. It was awesome. Those stupid little Zips fans were stunned. It was great.
By the way, I don't recommend attending a Zips home game any time soon. I, admittedly, am biased, but I don't like their arena. I especially don't like it when their hype man comes out onto the floor, trying to pump up the crowd. There shouldn't have to be a guy out on the middle of the court, screaming into a microphone, cajoling the crowd into supporting their team. That's why there's a student section and, to some extent, cheerleaders. The J.A.R. has a huge sound system, fully capable of blasting one's eardrums out, and when the hype man would yell at the crowd to make some noise, instead of the fans screaming until their vocal cords bled, Akron would just turn the volume on their sound system up, completely drowning out the cheers of the crowd. How lame.
Anyhow, I went up to the game Saturday night and witnessed KSU beat Akron for the third time this year. I didn't make it to their first meeting, a home game for Kent, but I went to their game at Akron's J.A.R. arena. That was a good game. Kent was winning by a good margin for most of the game, and then Akron came back to tie it up in the last two minutes...only to be crushed by Al Fisher's three-pointer with two seconds left. It was awesome. Those stupid little Zips fans were stunned. It was great.
By the way, I don't recommend attending a Zips home game any time soon. I, admittedly, am biased, but I don't like their arena. I especially don't like it when their hype man comes out onto the floor, trying to pump up the crowd. There shouldn't have to be a guy out on the middle of the court, screaming into a microphone, cajoling the crowd into supporting their team. That's why there's a student section and, to some extent, cheerleaders. The J.A.R. has a huge sound system, fully capable of blasting one's eardrums out, and when the hype man would yell at the crowd to make some noise, instead of the fans screaming until their vocal cords bled, Akron would just turn the volume on their sound system up, completely drowning out the cheers of the crowd. How lame.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
I voted today!
I voted today and I have the sticker to prove it! Yes, yes, I did my civic duty and voted against every tax levy on the ballot. Actually, I only had to vote down two tax levies, one of them a levy for the local school district. And actually, the tax levies were the only things I voted on, because I am a registered "non-partisan" voter. I like it that way.
I'm tired of school levies. Our state has an unconstitutional public school funding system and I'm saying no to unconstitutionalism. When people decided to elect our current governor, one of his campaign promises was to fix our state school funding, and that hasn't happened. Fix the funding issue already and stop trying to raise property taxes. And allowing people to play stupid keno games in bars isn't the answer, either.
I'm tired of school levies. Our state has an unconstitutional public school funding system and I'm saying no to unconstitutionalism. When people decided to elect our current governor, one of his campaign promises was to fix our state school funding, and that hasn't happened. Fix the funding issue already and stop trying to raise property taxes. And allowing people to play stupid keno games in bars isn't the answer, either.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Just when you think it can't get any worse...
it totally does. My favorite quote of the day?
"I believe China has more people than the United States."
This is a quote from a teacher in my building. Thankfully (?) this is the same teacher who thought that World War I was in 1950.
Growing up, I never thought of myself as a genius (thanks Mom and Dad, for keeping me normal), but the longer that I work in the public schools, the more I seem to feel genius-like. Seriously, who is even questioning whether or not China has more people than the United States? I mean, doesn't one just KNOW?
"I believe China has more people than the United States."
This is a quote from a teacher in my building. Thankfully (?) this is the same teacher who thought that World War I was in 1950.
Growing up, I never thought of myself as a genius (thanks Mom and Dad, for keeping me normal), but the longer that I work in the public schools, the more I seem to feel genius-like. Seriously, who is even questioning whether or not China has more people than the United States? I mean, doesn't one just KNOW?
Monday, February 4, 2008
People of 1950: The Greatest Generation
Wow, I learned a lot about the year 1950 today at school. Unfortunately, all of it was incorrect. And even more unfortunate was the fact that I was interpreting and could therefore do NOTHING to stop the train wreck which I was witnessing.
Mom and Dad, did you know that you were alive during both World War I AND II? And that you were witness to the invention of both television AND BOMBS?! According to the deaf ed. teacher, all of the preceding occurred in the year 1950!!
True Story: I was in third period study skills today, where the deaf ed. teacher has currently undertaken the task of helping the students prepare for the O.A.T. While this is a worthy and completely acceptable practice, let's keep in mind that there is a mixture of sixth and eighth grade students in that class. And for those of you uninitiated with the intricacies of middle school: there is a HUGE difference between sixth and eighth grade students. Not the least of which is their size; only at a middle school could I feel like a giant AND a midget in the same day. Currently, the sixth graders are studying Mesopotamia and the eighth graders are starting to learn about the Industrial Revolution. Two completely related subjects. (That was sarcasm.) Finally, not only are there two grade levels in the same study skills class, but one of the boys in the class is exempt from taking state standardized tests because he is alternately assessed per his IEP.
So, moving on to preparing for the eighth grade social studies portion of the OAT...the teacher decides to review multi-tiered timelines today. *Sigh* Please tell me that all of you reading this post know what a multi-tiered timeline is. It's when one has one timeline that highlights two sets of events. For example, one could have a single timeline that starts at the year 0 that shows the events of Christ's life on top of the timeline and at the same time shows events that occurred in the Roman Empire at large along the bottom of the timeline. Or, as the deaf ed. teacher today put on the board, one could draw a timeline starting with the year 1800 and progressing in 50 year increments up to 2000. She labeled the top section "Inventions" and the bottom "Major World Wars."
This is where it got a little beyond my belief. The teacher asked the students what had been invented around 1950, and one student replied, "Television." She accepted that answer and added it to the timeline. Then she asked what wars occurred around that time. Not surprisingly, given the label "Major World Wars," one student said, "World War I." Surprisingly, the teacher drew a line from the year 1950 and labeled it WORLD WAR I. She then added WORLD WAR II to that same year. And then she asked what had been invented during World War II. One student replied, "Guns," and she said, "No," so he came back with, "Bombs." Which she promptly added to the year 1950.
By this time, I was in a state I like to call "Robotic Interpreter Mode." When I'm in this state, interpreting my little heart out, I'm just like a computer. I take the information in and put it back out in another language. Computers don't have opinions or feelings, and when I'm in Robotic Interpreter Mode, I don't have opinions or feelings, because if I did, things would get ugly. I was so stunned by this teacher's lack of knowledge that I didn't know what else to do. So, when this teacher said, and this is a verbatim quote, "Yes, the invention of bombs is what made World War II so much shorter than World War I," I just kept my mouth shut, and went right on interpreting like the good little robotic interpreter I can be.
Had I not been in Robotic Interpreter Mode, this is probably what I would have said: "Actually, television was invented in the 1930's. World War I started in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland in August or September of 1939 and ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Therefore, World War II was not, in actuality, shorter than World War I. It, in fact, was two years LONGER. Bombs have been around for centuries. Not decades, centuries." Now, if one were to actually research these events, one would find I'm probably not 100% accurate on when they really occurred. But, I do know that they did NOT happen in 1950.
Tom Brokaw was right...to live through World War I, World War II, the invention of television and the invention of bombs, all in the same year, the people of 1950 really were The Greatest Generation.
Mom and Dad, did you know that you were alive during both World War I AND II? And that you were witness to the invention of both television AND BOMBS?! According to the deaf ed. teacher, all of the preceding occurred in the year 1950!!
True Story: I was in third period study skills today, where the deaf ed. teacher has currently undertaken the task of helping the students prepare for the O.A.T. While this is a worthy and completely acceptable practice, let's keep in mind that there is a mixture of sixth and eighth grade students in that class. And for those of you uninitiated with the intricacies of middle school: there is a HUGE difference between sixth and eighth grade students. Not the least of which is their size; only at a middle school could I feel like a giant AND a midget in the same day. Currently, the sixth graders are studying Mesopotamia and the eighth graders are starting to learn about the Industrial Revolution. Two completely related subjects. (That was sarcasm.) Finally, not only are there two grade levels in the same study skills class, but one of the boys in the class is exempt from taking state standardized tests because he is alternately assessed per his IEP.
So, moving on to preparing for the eighth grade social studies portion of the OAT...the teacher decides to review multi-tiered timelines today. *Sigh* Please tell me that all of you reading this post know what a multi-tiered timeline is. It's when one has one timeline that highlights two sets of events. For example, one could have a single timeline that starts at the year 0 that shows the events of Christ's life on top of the timeline and at the same time shows events that occurred in the Roman Empire at large along the bottom of the timeline. Or, as the deaf ed. teacher today put on the board, one could draw a timeline starting with the year 1800 and progressing in 50 year increments up to 2000. She labeled the top section "Inventions" and the bottom "Major World Wars."
This is where it got a little beyond my belief. The teacher asked the students what had been invented around 1950, and one student replied, "Television." She accepted that answer and added it to the timeline. Then she asked what wars occurred around that time. Not surprisingly, given the label "Major World Wars," one student said, "World War I." Surprisingly, the teacher drew a line from the year 1950 and labeled it WORLD WAR I. She then added WORLD WAR II to that same year. And then she asked what had been invented during World War II. One student replied, "Guns," and she said, "No," so he came back with, "Bombs." Which she promptly added to the year 1950.
By this time, I was in a state I like to call "Robotic Interpreter Mode." When I'm in this state, interpreting my little heart out, I'm just like a computer. I take the information in and put it back out in another language. Computers don't have opinions or feelings, and when I'm in Robotic Interpreter Mode, I don't have opinions or feelings, because if I did, things would get ugly. I was so stunned by this teacher's lack of knowledge that I didn't know what else to do. So, when this teacher said, and this is a verbatim quote, "Yes, the invention of bombs is what made World War II so much shorter than World War I," I just kept my mouth shut, and went right on interpreting like the good little robotic interpreter I can be.
Had I not been in Robotic Interpreter Mode, this is probably what I would have said: "Actually, television was invented in the 1930's. World War I started in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland in August or September of 1939 and ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Therefore, World War II was not, in actuality, shorter than World War I. It, in fact, was two years LONGER. Bombs have been around for centuries. Not decades, centuries." Now, if one were to actually research these events, one would find I'm probably not 100% accurate on when they really occurred. But, I do know that they did NOT happen in 1950.
Tom Brokaw was right...to live through World War I, World War II, the invention of television and the invention of bombs, all in the same year, the people of 1950 really were The Greatest Generation.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Cool Book Website
Hey, I just discovered this cool website that lets you record books that you have read, write reviews, rate them, etc. You can also start a list of books that you are currently reading, books you are planning on reading ("to-read"), and also categorize the books you've finished.
I'm not going to lie to you...I'm a little bit geeky and I have a written record of books that I have read. So, when I found this website I entered all of those books (only going back to January 2005--yes, that was my New Year's resolution for 2005...did I mention I am a bit geeky?) and rated them. I wrote reviews for a few of the books on my list, but I think most of the reviews are for books that I totally hated. Because those are the ones that were, unfortunately, seared into my memory. And even though I have a written list of books that I've read beginning in January 2005, I only added and rated the books that I could somewhat remember and draw an impression of.
I'm not sure if John Q. can check out my list without actually joining the website, because I don't know if there is a way that you can search for a specific user's list, unless you have joined the site and then you can become "friends." (How completely MySpace-ish did that just sound?) But, I think if you search for a specific book, you could find either my rating or my review of that book. And then we could try to link up and be "friends." Right now, I have no friends (was that pathetic sounding?), so I encourage all of you to join and make your own booklists!! Go to Goodreads.
I'm not going to lie to you...I'm a little bit geeky and I have a written record of books that I have read. So, when I found this website I entered all of those books (only going back to January 2005--yes, that was my New Year's resolution for 2005...did I mention I am a bit geeky?) and rated them. I wrote reviews for a few of the books on my list, but I think most of the reviews are for books that I totally hated. Because those are the ones that were, unfortunately, seared into my memory. And even though I have a written list of books that I've read beginning in January 2005, I only added and rated the books that I could somewhat remember and draw an impression of.
I'm not sure if John Q. can check out my list without actually joining the website, because I don't know if there is a way that you can search for a specific user's list, unless you have joined the site and then you can become "friends." (How completely MySpace-ish did that just sound?) But, I think if you search for a specific book, you could find either my rating or my review of that book. And then we could try to link up and be "friends." Right now, I have no friends (was that pathetic sounding?), so I encourage all of you to join and make your own booklists!! Go to Goodreads.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
No hablo ingles
What a wacky day today at school. So, I work for a large urban school district, which means that there are a lot of weird/horrendous/don't-even-want-to-dwell-on-what-goes-on-at-home kind of families in the area. This, unfortunately, is a label that can be applied to some of the deaf and hard of hearing students with whom I have contact. One such student was removed from his mother's custody and is now residing with his grandmother and has a very messed-up home life. Anyway, he attends out of school counseling sessions and has also been speaking with a counselor at school, but not a school counselor. Our school has a community-based agency that houses someone in our building. To make a long story short, we interpreters are not to interpret these counseling sessions because of the conflict of interest. (Seriously, who wants to be sitting in math class trying to interpret a lesson on circumference when you just finished interpreting a counseling session with the same student and heard his real-life horror story, which I hear enough of during the course of a normal day?)
So anyway, I'm walking into the dreaded study skills class (which is not as horrible as the beginning of the year, but still quite unbearable--on a side note, the HI teacher literally snatched my pencil out of my hand today so that she could write a student a pass. I was thisclose to snapping and having an aneurysm to prevent myself from doing something drastic in front of the students. I mean, what adult grabs something out of another adult's hand while she is working, without saying anything? Just thinking about it is making my blood pressure drop (yes, drop, not rise, but that's another story)).
Anyway, back to me walking into study skills class...I see the pastoral counselor attempting to communicate with this deaf student. She actually pulled out a piece of paper and was writing a note to him. Writing a note to him. I bit my tongue and held my hands down and continued walking into the classroom. This deaf student can barely read and she was trying to communicate with him via the written word? It made me wonder how much they really accomplish in their "counseling" sessions. It wasn't my business and I didn't want to make it so, so I left them out in the hallway. But, when the student came into the classroom a few moments later, I asked him if he understood what the counselor was trying to say to him.
***Signed communication is notated by the use of italics***
"Oh, yeah, I understood. I can read her lips."
"Really?" I signed back, "You can read lips?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, what am I saying right now?" I asked, without signing.
"What? I don't understand."
"You don't understand? But you just told me that you can read lips. If you can read lips then why can't you understand what I'm saying?"
Confused look on the deaf student's face.
"How do you communicate with your counselor? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I don't know Spanish."
"Spanish? What? I didn't say anything about Spanish."
"I don't know Spanish."
"Spanish? What are you talking about?" I said, as I reverted back to signing.
"I don't know Spanish and you were speaking Spanish."
"I wasn't speaking Spanish. I was speaking English. I don't know how to speak Spanish."
Disbelieving look on the deaf student's face.
The phrase, "do you understand?" is probably one of the most used phrases around the deaf students. For this student to not be able to recognize that common, common phrase when I vocalized it without signing is pretty astonishing. Yet, somehow he is supposed to be solving his personal, familial, and home problems with a counselor who writes notes back and forth and relies on lip reading. Yikes!
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