Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008 1:26PM /
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Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 3:17AM /
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the majority of the people that post on this message board are quite educated and somewhat successful. who do you thank for all that? parents? teachers? friends? yourself? if you answered all of the above, then you probably understand how important it is to have input from all of these sources to help you get you to where you are today.
growing up in a good family, going to a good school, having great teachers, and having supportive friends, i never realized how lucky i was and how it helped shape who i was to become in the future. now i'm the teacher. i work in a school where i find myself aghast at the ambivalence of the student population towards their education. they don't feel the need to take notes, do homework, turn in assignments, study for exams. they have coasted by on a system that no longer places responsibility on the student to perform up to the standards set before them. instead, the standard has been lowered to meet them.
students expect that everything can be done when they want, what is convenient for them, done by other people, extra credit to save them, safety nets everywhere. Is this the type of society we live in? i don't think so. i don't think i've ever held a job where the boss will tell you to do something and let you turn it in whenever you want. i've never had a job where i could do something else instead of the task given to me. i've never held a job where getting things right half the time was acceptable.
where does the proper attitude come from? it comes from having that solid support system that i mentioned before. good parents, good friends, good teachers, personal responsibility. unfortunately, not all kids have this. but the vicious cycle is that when kids can't handle the material, it gets changed and watered down until they do and then it's forgotten after the test is taken.
as a person that now has to take care of 200 kids on a daily basis, their lives and their futures are in my hands. but how can i be the teacher that needs to deliver on the content when i also have to be a counselor, a parent, a friend, a conscience?....
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Saturday, Mar 22, 2008 5:08AM /
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in the last couple weeks, i had a bunch of brainstormed idea on how to change the face of chemical education at the middle school and high school level. but i got too lazy to write them down. now i don't remember exactly what made them so spectacular...... i guess that's why i should blog more often? hehe....
additionally, many of the ideas require some artistic talent in order to animate the ideas and make them more visual and realistic and less abstract...hmm, now where can i find people like that? :P
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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008 8:55AM /
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Sunday, Mar 9, 2008 7:13PM /
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i lose a precious 1 hour of sleep today.... i so completely hate the time shift...
from http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/daylight_time.php
History of Daylight Time in the U.S.
Although standard time in time
zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads in
1883, it was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19,
1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act. The act also established
daylight saving time, a contentious idea then. Daylight saving time was
repealed in 1919, but standard time in time zones remained in law.
Daylight time became a local matter. It was re-established nationally
early in World War II, and was continuously observed from 9 February
1942 to 30 September 1945. After the war its use varied among states
and localities. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided standardization
in the dates of beginning and end of daylight time in the U.S. but
allowed for local exemptions from its observance. The act provided that
daylight time begin on the last Sunday in April and end on the last
Sunday in October, with the changeover to occur at 2 a.m. local time.
During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier
starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on
6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two
years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April.
In 1986, a law was passed that shifted the starting date
of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987.
The ending date of daylight time was not subject to such
changes, and remained the last Sunday in October. The
Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates.
Beginning in 2007, daylight time starts on
the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
For a very readable account of the history of standard and daylight
time in the U.S., see
Ian R. Bartky and Elizabeth Harrison: "Standard
and Daylight-saving Time", Scientific American, May 1979 (Vol. 240,
No. 5), pp. 46-53.
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