And so imagine my delight in happening upon this amazing photograph by G. Colbert.I added the words, nothing particularly unique, and made posters of it as gifts to my 2nd grade teachers to inspire their students.
Monday, November 02, 2009
I Love Elephants
Honestly, I do. I've seen them in the wilds of Africa and the animal prisons we call zoos. They are never anything short of magnificent. They hold their dignity well in all circumstances---except circuses! I hate circuses. They make baffoons of everyone whom they employ. If a human being wants to play the fool, so be it! But mocking elephants, (lions, tigers, chimpanzees, horses, etc.) is nothing short of cruel and ought to be seen as most unusual in the mindset of us humans. Elephants don't deserve to be turned into clowns...but I digress.
And so imagine my delight in happening upon this amazing photograph by G. Colbert.
I added the words, nothing particularly unique, and made posters of it as gifts to my 2nd grade teachers to inspire their students.
And so imagine my delight in happening upon this amazing photograph by G. Colbert.I added the words, nothing particularly unique, and made posters of it as gifts to my 2nd grade teachers to inspire their students.
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3 comments:
What power and grace! And I love the caption you put to the photograph.
I LOVE THAT! It's beautiful. And, I agree, reading is the key.
Do children read in second grade? Wow.
Lindy! Where have you been? I know, back in the day, we learned our colors in 1st grade, but now they read in Kindergarten. A kid coming into Kindergarten without fluency in the English alphabet, has 6 months to phonetically memorize it and learn a cache of about 20 sight words. By the end of the year, they are reading simple texts with an average set of 50 sight words, and the ability to sound out common one- and two-sylable words with picture references, OR they are considered serious candidates for retention. (Last year, my school with 126 Kindergarteners retained 5.)
By the end of second grade, they are not only reading, but writing responses to reading passages in paragraph form.
And you know what? 96% of our students can do it. It amazes even me. And these are kids from every racial group, every socio-economic strata, limited English language proficient, two parents, one parent, red parents, blue parents... The single biggest challenge to teachers is the child's ability to attend. It supercedes all of the other qualifiers. And while challenging, it can be and is not limiting in the vast majority of children--medicated or not.
And this is why good teachers don't make enough money. A good teachers day is a hundred times more challenging, more exhausting, more skill dependent, more productive to the future of this nation and this planet than any multi-national corporate ceo consuming oxygen today. That's just how it is, and it's a crime that our values are so ass-backward.
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