Three Video Links In Response to Sandia HS’s New IB Program

I like the International Baccalaureate idea. And I like the idea of educational folks ’round here trying new ideas, especially ideas that don’t involve every single school doing things exactly the same.  Rah.  Rah.

On the other hand, my aversion to public relations/marketing/sales exceeds retching and approaches metaphorical projectile vomiting when I read press releases that include things like:

Students who will be juniors next school year have until Feb. 15 to apply for the world-recognized college prep program housed at Sandia High (blogger italics).

A few terms/visuals such phraseology evokes…

Term/Video #1:  Sneaky. Definitely sneaky.  Tom Waits (vocals), Frank Vicari (Saxophone), Dr. Fitzgerald Jenkins III (Bass), Chip White (drums)

 

Term/Video #2:  Perhaps the expression “slightly disingenuous” fits here.  (also note interesting word choice at end of “commercial”) 

 

Term/Video #3:  But certainly not this disingenuous.  Thankfully.  No we’re not talking Randy Newman voice of evil here…far closer to sneaky.

More Wisdom From My Native State

Well, he is a week into the job, time to get to work for Texas U.S. House Rep. Steve Stockman (R:  Friendswood):

Just over a week on the job, freshman Texas Rep. Steve Stockman has threatened to push impeachment of President Barack Obama over potential gun control efforts.

Stockman is a very savvy 21st Century U.S. House guy…already running for re-election.  Often, those who hear the crap that comes out of my mouth wonder why somebody could possibly get so jaded and disheartened about humanity.

Well, as Lyle says..that’s right, you’re not from Texas.

 

 

Air 755, Beijing 0

Sports is all about numbers and “scoreboard,” and the sport I’m following most closely this weekend are those Air Quality Index (AQI) numbers from Beijing.  Like most scoreboards, the cause/meaning of the number is always somewhat complicated, but it might not be oversimplifying to say that China has a big problem.  We’ve all seen the face masks, but never has the problem become so viral.

Well, except in China, where Internet viruses are inundated with intense web-antibiotics.  Interestingly, the big NYT story with recent, amazing, scores is not offering reader comments.  Hmmm….

One is immediately reminded of London’s 1952 “Killer Fog.”  One also hopes that Beijing/Chinese/Worldwide policy makers don’t require the same massive loss of life to make massive necessary changes in China.

The BBC has a few photos up (and many of the linked “Beijing” tweets feature instagrams and such.  And another thing, as I write, Phoenix is at a AQI of 116.  This internet is good for more than just videos from Korean dancer dudes.

Oprah: The New Catholicism, Cycling Edition

Increasingly, Oprah Winfrey has performed a reality TV version of the Catholic priest, and she one again dons the, uh, stuff that priests wear (I’m not terribly up on the whole Catholic Church accoutrement thing) to take a public confession.

Lance Armstrong will make a limited confession to doping during his televised interview with Oprah Winfrey next week, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

I’m hoping there might be dudes swinging incense holders while Lance partially capitulates, both for choreographic  reasons and the fact that I’ve always thought that part of the whole Catholic thing, of which I am largely unfamiliar, is very cool.

Meanwhile, Catholic folks out there…what a good penance for Sister Oprah to give lapsed follower Lance?  A Hail Mary for every km of every Tour he cheated in?  Help me out here…

Dear NM K-12 Teacher Evaluating Administrator

Have I told you lately that I love you?  

NM Governor Susana Martinez wants increased shows of teacher/principal love…

While it does not call for an across-the-board salary hike, the executive branch’s spending plan would provide $11 million in merit-based pay raises for teachers who score highly in newly implemented state evaluations. Those merit-based raises could reach 10 percent, Martinez said.

Let the, uh, um…metaphorical application of teacher lips to various administrative bodily regions begin.  By the way, that’s a lovely tie you’re wearing today, Mr. Principal.  Have I mentioned how wonderful I thought your email was from last Friday?  Increased attention to Common Core strategies including “The 12 Powerful Words”?   Couldn’t agree more.

What’s the Latin phrase for “beyond ad nauseam“?

K-12 Cognitive Dissonance: Michelle Rhee

The grades are out from Michelle Rhee, you know Michelle Rhee…and New Mexico sucks.  Shocking, I know.

Question is…if Rhee’s “Students First” boondoggle thinks we suck (caution:  .pdf page), does that mean we do or don’t actually suck?  Does it mean we’re actually even worse than we thought, or does the view of a “educational reformer” like Rhee actually work like anti-matter and mean that we actually don’t suck nearly as much as we thought we did?

Man…these new *Common Core questions are hard.

*Apologies to non-teachers for the extremely obscure reference.  In about five years “Common Core” will entirely be the new “No Child Left Behind” phrase known universe-wide, and, just like NCLB, that time will be precisely the time it has absolutely zero importance in actual K-12 education policy.  To wit:  California.

Needed: News-Reading Body-Armor

As one of the rare visitors to Burque Babble (and I have the statistics to prove it!), you’ve been on the Internet (yes, I know, profound insight).  Maybe quite a bit.  And you’ve probably noticed that any time the issue of guns comes up, the story/posting is sure to result in a bevy (or gaggle, or flock) of comments from Real ‘Mericans using terms like “bear arms…cold fingers…Obama…socialism” in some arrangement.  Such comments are truly like death and taxes, and, for some of us, make following news via the Internet a slightly more depressing experience.  As if it wasn’t already depressing. 

If I were a bit more entrepreneurial, I’d pursue creation/sale of a new product ala “Adblock” called “Comment Block.”  Yes, some comment/message boards have “kill” features, but “Comment Block” would allow users to kill posts by terms (e.g., “cold, icy fingers”) instead of simply by users.  I guess I’ll lease that billion-dollar idea to someone else.

Or one could instead use the Albuquerque Journal model, in which just about zero people ever comment online about their stories….something I’ve never quite figured out.  Maybe it’s moderation or simply good luck, but the Journal seems immune to the whack-job fest at the local TV station sites.  Or perhaps it’s the necessity that commenters be able to read, instead of simply looking at the purty moving pictures.  I dunno.

Today in the world of assault weapons, we get a Journal story about how the 2nd Amendment winnows its way down to the Land of Enchantment and a discussion of Seattle’s intention to try one of those “gun buyback” programs.  The Seattle Times story is already up to 68 comments, I see…I’m gonna do everything in my power to avoid looking at any of them, but sometimes the flesh is weak.  The Journal story is, as of this posting, sans comments, and I can only congratulate the Journal again for whatever is working for it in this regard.

One wonders what comment/message boards would have looked like if the ‘Net had been around at other times in U.S. History, for instance the story of the “Little Rock Nine.”

To use the Internet parlance of our time:  sigh, “smh,” faceplant..times infinity.

Humans…humans are tough to put up with sometimes.