Kids These Days!

Funny conversation at school today:



While walking back to my classroom I pulled out my phone to check a text message.




A student walking along beside me says, "Hey! I know that kind of phone!"


I reply, joking, "Cool! Do you have one like this?"




Student (who is 8 years old by the way) says, "No. I have a blackberry."

Math is Making Me Crazy

Well, Peirce's experience with math is actually what is making me crazy. I have to ask: Why the he'll has no one taught this kid to borrow or carry over??

Tonight he brought home 3 pages of two and three digit addition and subtraction. In his mind he has to be able to just look at it and know how to do it. I had to talk him into trusting me and zipping his lip about how he isn't allowed to do it my way for a bit to see if it might make any sense for him. It didn't take long until he was flying through the questions (well, except for the fact that he gets distracted by every shift of wind....sometimes I think he has the attention span of a gnat!)

It probably isn't good to be a teacher and a parent....particularly when I feel like someone is needlessly messing with My kid (or not sharing key info to help achieve success). Tonight I sat here and finally realized I had to stroke his ego all along the way. Every time he added or subtracted something I would have to add in there, "you are so amazing" "perfect!" "you are really getting the hang of it now" "you are becoming a math whiz" and on and on and on. He is so frustrated in math that basically he gives up before he had even started. I think the whole idea of how you need to give three positives for every negative means that I have a lot of work to do to make up for all the negative talk he has running through his head about math.

New Goal....and a new beginning in politics

Every day I enjoy reading a post by one if my favorite people: Jeni She has inspired me to be a better blogger. I am going to try to post every day.

So, to start off, just a bit about the election.

The opposition, namely Mr. Ignatiaff, forced an election. It didn't work out too well for him as the minority government at the time now has a majority and Mr. Ignatiaff's party has been reduced to rubble. Couldn't happen to a finer bunch if you ask me. They did the same thing in September 2009 and took a beating, and yesterday Mr. Ignatiaff lost his seat. Today he announced he would resign. Perhaps he will go back to the USA. He didn't make that announcement, of course.

Did you know that this was the first time since Confederation that the Liberals were not one of the top two parties in power? Yup. The winds of change certainly are blowing.

So the NDP are now the official opposition. It will be interesting to watch how they do. They are a pack full of people with very little experience in politics. My favorite is the woman in Quebec who was working as a manager of a bar at a University. She campaigned in a riding she doesn't live in and has hardly visited. Her French, apparently, is questionable. Oh, and she spent a week in Las Vegas during the campaign. And she got elected!! I say, hey, way to go! LOL

I am happy with a conservative majority. A minority government prove to be unable to move on weight matters but instead played games and jockeyed for position too much. Looking forward to seeing what the Conservatives can accomplish and hoping they don't disappoint!