OF THE
TIMES
There was huge smoke from this plane. Think engine caught on #fire at #fortlauderdale #airport pic.twitter.com/gS8bUki5ng
— kevin iombie (@iombie) October 29, 2015
To: The School Board of Polk County, Florida
I love teaching. I love seeing my students' eyes light up when they grasp a new concept and their bodies straighten with pride and satisfaction when they persevere and accomplish a personal goal. I love watching them practice being good citizens by working with their peers to puzzle out problems, negotiate roles, and share their experiences and understandings of the world. I wanted nothing more than to serve the students of this county, my home, by teaching students and preparing new teachers to teach students well... I not only love teaching, I am excellent at it, even by the flawed metrics used up until this point. Every evaluation I received rated me as highly effective.
Like many other teachers across the nation, I have become more and more disturbed by the misguided reforms taking place which are robbing my students of a developmentally appropriate education. Developmentally appropriate practice is the bedrock upon which early childhood education best practices are based, and has decades of empirical support behind it.
However, the new reforms not only disregard this research, they are actively forcing teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective but actively harmful to child development and the learning process. I am absolutely willing to back up these statements with literature from the research base, but I doubt it will be asked for.
Comment: A reader from Fort Russ comments: Indeed. Smith tries his hardest to portray Assad and his government in the worst light possible, but the actual people he interviews suggest things are not so simple. That is the real value of this documentary: what Syrians themselves think. In the process, PBS ends up broadcasting a little bit of truth: the 'peaceful protests' were not so peaceful, and the 'protesters' shot first. The Syrian government offers amnesty to rebels who choose to stop fighting. Whatever one thinks of Assad, Syria needs the existing infrastructure and institutions in order to survive, and the only alternatives are the scumbag jihadis and a woefully inexperienced and inept 'opposition'.