A Woman's World?

With the election race heating up a lot of attention is focusing on gender and politics. Will Hillary be our first woman president? We'll have to wait and see but it is predicted to be a close primary election.

Many people don't know that Nancy Pelosi is the highest ranking female in our national government today. She is the Speaker of the House and in line to become the head of the U.S. government should anything happen to the President. The presidential succession order is as follows: Vice President, Speaker of the House, President pro Tempore of the Senate, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury,...


The highest ranking female had at one time been Madeline Albright who had served as Clinton's Secretary of State. She was appointed in 1997. During a question and answer period during a speech she gave in 2004, someone had asked "Was your tenure of secretary of state an isolated one-time-only occurrence, or can we expect another woman or women to represent us internationally as secretary of state sometime in, say, the next 20 years?" One-time ocurence it was not. On January 26, 2005, Condolezza Rice was appointed Secretary of State.

Blogs, Blogs Everywhere

I've recently started looking at other blogs just to see what is out there. I had not realized how many people had blogs. One blog that has been featured on the USA Today's website and also the NJEA's website is the World History Blog. Miland Brown comments on various aspects of world history. He had wrote a post on historical ignorance which I thought was interesting. I even commented on it because that was a topic I addressed in my one graduate class (where we had to begin our master's thesis). He has recently added a poll on the site. This week's poll is on who was the most evil Roman emperor. Check it out.

Mysteries

I love mysteries. There is a website listing "History's Most Overlooked Mysteries". Some I have never heard of such as Rongorongo and the bog bodies. Alas, the list does not contain very detailed information. If your interested in additional reading you'll have to do your own research.

Photos

This photo is of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. My sister-in-law and I traveled from Rome, Italy to London, England last summer. Other photos from my trip to Europe can be viewed on Flickr.

Need Extra Money?

Attention Teachers: Most teachers spend hours upon hours creating innovative lesson plans to capture their students interest. Have you ever thought about making money sharing those lessons with other teachers? Now you can with the following website https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/index.php. There is a fee ($29.95) to post and sell your lesson plans on this site. You determine how much to ask for a lesson or unit and you also receive 85% of the profits. If your looking for ideas for lesson plans, it would also pay to check out this site. Some authors even allow you to view samples of the lessons. If you find something you like, it may cost you a few cents or a few dollars to download the lesson. From the few I have viewed, the costs ranged from free to $10.00. The majority of lessons are around $2.00.

14 Things Student Teachers Shouldn't Do or Say

When I was a student teacher, I obsessed over making a good impression on the faculty where I did my placement and doing the best job I could. Unfortunately, there are some who view student teaching differently. I have heard stories from other teachers about their personal student teaching experiences when they were in college and also what it was like to have someone else come into their room to complete their student teaching placement. For any future teachers reading this, take notes. Here are some things a student teacher should not do or say.

1. Telling your cooperating teacher the excuse for your inapporpriate behavior is because your coop doesn't have a sense of humor.
2. Sitting on top of a student desk with your feet propped up on a student's seat.
3. Sitting on top of the teacher's desk with your feet on his/her chair.
4. When your coop asks what you would have changed about your lessons for the day after discussing what hadn't gone well, you shouldn't say "I wouldn't work Fridays. At my last job it was great because I could make my own hours and I didn't usually work on Fridays."
5. When your coop tells you to not sit on top of desks and to act professionally and be on time, don't respond, "I'll try but I can't promise. Sitting on desks is a mannerism I have and like other habits, it will be hard to break."
6. If your coop asks that your lesson plans are to be turned in by the start of the prep pd. when you meet, don't email them to him/her at 10:30 pm the night after they are due.
7. Don't walk into the classroom 10 minutes past when you should have arrived and when your coop asks why you were late, don't respond, "I was late?"
8. When your coop is out sick and calls for your lesson plans don't say, "I got it. I'll roll with it. Don't worry the roof won't fall in without you."
9. When your coop tells you three times to sign in in the office in the morning for security purposes, this isn't optional.
10. Having students do a presentation and a one page paper, and when your coop asks if you read the papers, "Nah. I didn't bother. They were only worth a small percentage of the total presentation."
11. After your coop has told you twice to dress professionally, don't respond, "I don't think I should be held to higher standards than the rest of the faculty."
12. Hand your coop a worksheet with questions on it and when she asks how this is different from other worksheets you've given, say "Oh, that, that's a graphic organizer."
13. When grades are due, don't hand your coop a blank gradebook with no grades filled in after she's reminded you seven times and respond, "Oh, I didn't get to it."
14. Asking your cooperating teacher or a sub to make copies for you because you "forgot".