Today is Tooth Fairy Day!
Unless you have children I hope you don’t need her today!
February 28, 2009
February 27, 2009
What is today? 2/27
Today is Polar Bear Day!
Take the person who is really ticking you off and throw them into a frozen lake!
Facts about Polar Bears from www.polarbearsinternational.org:
Polar bears are well-adapted to severe cold. Winter temperatures in the far north often plunge to -40° F or -50° F and can stay that way for days or even weeks.
In January and February, the average temperature in the high Arctic is -29° F.
The Arctic stays black and fiercely cold for months on end. In the High Arctic, the sun sets in October and does not rise again until late February.
The word “Arctic” comes from the ancient Greek Arktikos, or “country of the great bear.” Though the Greeks had no knowledge of the polar bear, they named the region after the constellation Ursus Major, the Great Bear, found in the Northern Sky.
A thick layer of blubber (up to 4.5 inches thick) provides polar bears with such excellent insulation that their body temperature and metabolic rate remain the same even at -34°F.
A polar bear’s body temperature is 98.6°, which is average for mammals.
On bitterly cold days with fierce winds, polar bears dig out a shelter in a snow bank and curl up in a tight ball to wait out the storm.
When curled up in a ball, polar bears sometimes cover their muzzles — which radiate heat — with one of their thickly furred paws.
Polar bears know how to pack on the fat: A single bear can consume 100 pounds of blubber at one sitting.
The polar bear’s compact ears and small tail also help prevent heat loss.
Polar bears have two layers of fur for further protection from the cold.
Polar bears have more problems with overheating than they do with cold. Even in very cold weather, they quickly overheat when they try to run.
Polar bears generally walk at a leisurely pace to keep from overheating. When a Norwegian scientist, Nils Oritsland, studied a polar bear on a treadmill, he found that his subject would move off for short periods of time at higher speeds and would sometimes lie down and refuse to walk at all!
Sources: Arctic Animals by Fred Bruemmer (McClelland and Stewart Limited, Toronto, 1986); Polar Bears by Ian Stirling (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1988); Biochemistry by Reginald H. Garrett and Charles M. Grisham (Saunders College Publishing).
4.5 inches of fat? I think I will be a polar bear!
February 26, 2009
I am going on a trip…
I just have to tell you, I am super, super excited… I am going on a road trip this weekend to se my mama. She is travling for work, while I will still have a long drive it cuts the time in half! Ms. Gee is goin’ with me, girls road trip!
Anyone want to join??
What s today? 2/26
After yesterday I think today is quite fitting…
Today is For Pete’s Sake Day!
Somehow, someway I will find a way to say, “Oh, for Pete’s Sake!” today.
Today is also Levi Strauss Day! So for Pete’s Sake people but on those good ol’ blue jeans!
February 25, 2009
THAT IS NOT MY JOB!
I often check the paper from back home. Today they printed a story about students and staff of the high school opposing the closing of the campus at lunch. There are several reasons, logical reasons why this is not a good idea for this school. We face several of the same issues in the high school I work in, and therefore we also have an open campus for most of our students.
A parent who is in favor of closing the campus said (I changed her name by the way):
But the idea of a closed campus was favored by at least one parent. Clueless Parent told school trustees Tuesday night that many parents rely on the school to keep track of their children while they are at work.
Clueless said that parents worry about students getting in accidents or the increased likelihood of them drinking or taking drugs during the noon hour.
“If (parents) are shift workers, they can’t keep a finger on their children,” Clueless said. “If a child starts getting into the wrong crowd, they might stay with them the rest of the afternoon and then show up at home at the regular time.”
This kind of attitude really fires me up. A school is a place you send you child to be educated, not babysat. While it is true that without school many parents would have to pay a babysitter to watch their children while they are at work, this is not the intended purpose of schools!
This is an attitude that far to many parents have. Parents are upset when school is canceled because they have to find someone to watch their children. Have you ever once heard a parent complain that because of canceled school that their child wasn’t getting an education that day, that the child’s brain wasn’t being stimulated that day? I didn’t think so.
Furthermore these are High School students we are talking about, not 6 year olds. “Parents can’t keep a finger on their children… child could get into the wrong crowd” Lady, if your kid gets into the wrong crowd it isn’t the schools fault. Teachers do this little thing every hour, called attendance, and I know for a fact that the school we are talking about has the attendance available to parents on-line 24 hours a day. I also know that if a student has unexcused absences that someone at that school is making a phone call home. After so many absences a letter is sent home.
I was a student at this school, I left for lunch. I didn’t do drugs or drink during lunch. My parents raised me with common sense that said if you do these things you will get caught. They also taught me this little thing called values, that kept me from doing wrong.
If you have had a child in your home for 15 years and can’t trust them for 45 minutes at lunch then you have bigger problems. What do you do on the weekends? do you allow them out on Friday nights? Saturday afternoons? if they have a job, do you expect their employer to feed them and keep them on the job site so they don’t go drink or do drugs during their break?
We are educators, not babysitters. There is a HUGE, Long list of things that we are supposed to teach your child, they are called standards. Every school, every district, every state has these standards. These are the things that we as educators are held accountable for, our jobs depend on us teaching these things. The list of standards is long and vague. We have so much to fit into the 9 months that we see your children. The 8 hours we have isn’t nearly enough. Our goal is to develop young minds, to generate ideas, inspire creativity and we give so much of ourselves to your children. Do your job and give them values, beliefs, and morals!
What is today? 2/25
Get ready for this one…
Today is Inconvenience Yourself Day!
Who the heck came up this one? I do not think I will participate in this one today. Okay I will. I will go home and cook dinner and do laundry when I want to be taking a nap. That is my inconvenience!
Notice the color I chose, the color of boogies!
February 24, 2009
What is today? 2/24
Today is International Pancake Day!
So that means IH0P for dinner, no cooking! I love pancakes but I must have fruit flavored syrup, no maple stuff for me…
February 23, 2009
Caption This… 2/23
Todays caption includes 2 pictures, take your pick!
~ or ~
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls for he has no one to help him up.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 New King James Version
What is today? 2/23
Today is Banana Bread Day! So bake up some Yummy Goodness
It is also Dog Biscuit Day! What ever you do, don’t get the 2 confused!
February 22, 2009
What is today? 2/22
Today is Pebble Flintstone’s Birthday! Yahoo!
Anybody know how old she would be?
