CoTT 2 House of Cards

[Albert1434]

Since I am dyslexic when I was going through school it was for me a living hell since they didn't know anything about it! They would say he is bright but he is lazy can you believe that!

Edited December 13, 2023 by Albert1434

[raven1]

2 hours ago, Headstall said:

A mean librarian lady who took over stopped me from doing that. She said it was four a week... imagine discouraging a kid from reading... evil witch.

I don't think I would even call her a librarian.  She sounds more like a power-hungry controller of books. I loved the wonderful librarians in my youth who would let me check out about the same amount of books each visit, with no weekly limits imposed. 

[raven1]

10 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

Since I am dyslexic when I was going through school it was for me a living hell since they didn't know anything about it! They would say he is bright but he is lazy can you believe that!

Yes, Unfortunately, my brother had the same problem.  Like Gary, he was also left-handed.  Between these two, his teachers spent more time 'breaking' Tom's bad habits than teaching him.

[Albert1434]

My dad was left handed! You couldn't read his writing to save your life

Edited December 13, 2023 by Albert1434

[Headstall]

15 minutes ago, raven1 said:

I don't think I would even call her a librarian.  She sounds more like a power-hungry controller of books. I loved the wonderful librarians in my youth who would let me check out about the same amount of books each visit, with no weekly limits imposed. 

The Bookmobile was actually a bus, and it was in the same spot every Saturday from 8 to 4. To be frank, it was a rather poor area, and there was no actual library anywhere close, so having access to those books meant a lot to me. The first librarian was nice, but this other one showed up and was mean as hell. I was just a kid who loved reading. I can still picture her face... sort of. Ugh.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Headstall

[Headstall]

7 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

My dad was left handed! You couldn't read his writing to save your life

I have amazing penmanship. It gets commented on still. So did my mother.

[Headstall]

10 minutes ago, raven1 said:

Yes, Unfortunately, my brother had the same problem.  Like Gary, he was also left-handed.  Between these two, his teachers spent more time 'breaking' Tom's bad habits than teaching him.

They tried to 'cure' me too, until my mother stormed into the school and read them the riot act. They used the strap on me, and she told them to leave me alone. That was at a big public school after we moved from the small town with the one room schoolhouse.

[Albert1434]

Night All

[raven1]

2 hours ago, Page Scrawler said:

@raven1 Hey, Terry! 

Hi Page!  How are you, Max and Morgan?  Speaking of Morgan, I found a great frog repellant for sale online in Thailand.  Interested? Also, Switzerland is OK, but there are better places to see the mountains.  Also, skiing is very dangerous for Max, considering his love of dance.

 

 

[raven1]

1 hour ago, Headstall said:

The Bookmobile was actually a bus, and it was in the same spot every Saturday from 8 to 4. To be frank, it was a rather poor area, and there was no actual library anywhere close, so having access to those books meant a lot to me. The first librarian was nice, but this other one showed up and was mean as hell. I was just a kid who loved reading. I can still picture her face... sort of. Ugh.

The small town near me and where I lived my first years had elementary, middle, and high school libraries, plus the town library. The school's attendance area was over 100 sq. miles, and the only other town near it was 30 miles away.  Thus, there is a need for that many libraries. My family moved to a town 3 times as large when I went to high school.  There were only 3 libraries there.  I was very lucky.  

Edited December 13, 2023 by raven1

[wildone]

On 12/11/2023 at 6:33 AM, spike382 said:

Thank you, Phi!  I'm so embarrassed that my 300 or so word review contained so many errors that I didn't spot until the damn thing was posted.   

My reviews, like most of my writing, are the hardest to write at the beginning, and once I come up with a satisfactory opener, I usually get in the zone and crank them out really fast.  I never edit them, I usually just post them, and usually Tim has a look and fixes whatever errors I've managed in such a short time.  But Tim was sick this week, and he wasn't able to do his usual edit, so it went up like that.     

Add in the fact that I messed things up on my end too! Sorry @Mancunian  I’m usually good at copying and pasting. Not so much setting them up. I miss @Timothy M..

[raven1]

1 hour ago, Headstall said:

They tried to 'cure' me too, until my mother stormed into the school and read them the riot act. They used the strap on me, and she told them to leave me alone. That was at a big public school after we moved from the small town with the one room schoolhouse.

Fortunately for my brother, and the school, that didn't happen.  Mom would have left the school in shambles if they ever touched any of us kids.  When Mom was in 4th grade, a teacher slapped her over the ear.  Mom was deaf in that ear for the rest of her life. 

[Page Scrawler]

29 minutes ago, raven1 said:

Hi Page!  How are you, Max and Morgan?  Speaking of Morgan, I found a great frog repellant for sale online in Thailand.  Interested? Also, Switzerland is OK, but there are better places to see the mountains.  Also, skiing is very dangerous for Max, considering his love of dance.

We're doing well, thanks! And I'll take some of that frog repellent! Just to ensure that any frogs with wandering hands/eyes keep their distance.  Max isn't really interested in skiing, snowboarding, etc, but we appreciate your concern.

I'll keep an open mind about Switzerland, however. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Page Scrawler

[clochette]

4 hours ago, Headstall said:

Okay... wasn't going to say anything, but I was actually writing, as in actually writing, not printing, before I started school. I remember my mother talking about my aunt(who babysat us during the day) who told her I was reading as a young child, not just looking at pictures. I don't know how young I was, but it was shocking to both of them. 

I started writing on my own, and that was another shock to them. My first year at school... I was five... in a little one room schoolhouse, the teacher saw my writing in a scribbler (what we called a little book of pages) and asked me to print something on the blackboard, which was actually on the side wall of the school. I don't think she believed it was my writing. Anyway, I wrote a sentence or something on the board, but I wrote it upside down... I didn't print it... and she later told my mother something was wrong with me. Of course my mom set her straight. I taught myself to write, and being left-handed, I had my hand turned so the page was upside down... and that's what I did on the blackboard. 

I'm not saying I'm exceptional, but I was an incredibly bright child according to all my relatives. Unfortunately, an unstable family life made any smarts I had take a backseat to surviving. When we moved up to Ontario, I used to visit a bookmobile and take out four books in the morning and read them, and then take them back by four when it closed, and take out four more so I'd have something to read until the following Saturday. I was probably seven or eight then. A mean librarian lady who took over stopped me from doing that. She said it was four a week... imagine discouraging a kid from reading... evil witch. So... I think I was reading as early as three... four at the latest.

Wow that's really impressive and interesting! Thank you for sharing.

As a lefty I also have to turn my book/sheet horizontally and when writing on a board it's hard not to have my writing going down as I write.

[Page Scrawler]

One interesting thing I learned about Switzerland: if you partake of cheese fondue, and you drop a piece of food in the pot of cheese, you incur a penalty. The penalty typically involves drinking shots, nude streaking in the snow, or kissing whomever sits to your left side. 

[Bucket1]

2 hours ago, Albert1434 said:

Since I am dyslexic when I was going through school it was for me a living hell since they didn't know anything about it! They would say he is bright but he is lazy can you believe that!

Yep I can believe it. It is good that we have come to a better understanding, still some way to go but it’s so much better now

[Bucket1]

2 hours ago, Headstall said:

I have amazing penmanship. It gets commented on still. So did my mother.

I wish I could say the same. The last time I did cursive writing was in primary school were it was compulsory. As soon as I left I printed and never looked back - still not terribly readable and it was gotten worse as I type more now but way better than fumbled cursive 

And just to prove the world is a crazy place, I took up calligraphy using chiseled fountain pens and it was neat, readable and even beautiful. My Mum couldn’t ever get over the two very different forms of writing  

[clochette]

3 hours ago, raven1 said:

When a child learns to read depends on many factors, Clo.  My younger brother and I were subject to the same parents and teachers.  I learned to read words by age 5, but he struggled a great deal.  He was dyslexic.

My father read stories to me almost every day after work, and on Sunday mornings, we spent at least an hour reading comics in the newspaper.  He gradually went from pointing out individual letters to sounding out letters and then syllables.  By age 5, I could recognize about 100 sight words and decode words I didn't know.  I suspect I could have done what Celine Alvarez is doing if my father had started teaching me earlier and had more time to work with me.  Kids' minds are very plastic, and as a teacher, I quickly learned never to underestimate what a child can learn.

I taught my 10-year-old students how to solve algebra equations.  They also learned how to use a science lab to do experiments at the same age.  Algebra skills resulted in a big increase in the state math testing scores in all areas of math.  The science experiences resulted in better analytical writing skills and logic because they had to learn to write hypotheses and detailed instructions, organize data, and form and support logical conclusions.

In reading, I had my students read a variety of books whose theme was the effects of war on children.  One parent, a teacher, complained that the subject matter was well above her daughter's level.  When the unit was complete, the same parent thanked me and told me she didn't realize that she could have an adult conversation with her 11-year-old daughter. She was very pleased.

The only thing I thought ill advised about the work Celine did in Gennevilliers was using cursive instead of block letters.  Cursive is a dying art. 

I hope this helps you, my friend.  Since this sounds like more than your curiosity, by any chance, is this a research project?

Thanks for your input Terry

The benefit of the simple act of reading books to children very early as definitely been proven and is the cause is many inequalities and what can make a difference. Also, even if troubles such as dyslexia are been taken more seriously now qs a future teacher I'd like to have some kind of solution to help those kids have the better start possible, find a way to make things the easier possible.

kids brain is amazing, they're real little sponges. 

Ah the cursive writing! I guess it's a social/political thing related to the country. In France we start by introducing capital letters. Block letters are introduced then but not for writing,  it's reserved to print (paper, classroom displays...). Everything hand written then has to be in cursive and that what the kids are taught around 5-6 years old and it's the mandatory way to go all along primary school (teachers don't say anything about the way a student writes once in middle school). As the years go we take more liberties with our handwriting but the cursive is still very present in us

Thanks you all for your answers, it's very interesting to compare the way things are done worldwide.

To answer you question: unfortunately no it's not for a research project, it would have been so interesting! I had the chance to witness the method by Celine Alvarez mixed with some of Borel-Maissony during my internship and found it very interesting. Unfortunately those methods are not official in France and are even frown upon by the hierarchy. Same for the Montessori method even though a lot of schools are using it in some ways but we were told to absolutely not mentioned it during the interview part of the hiring contest. Since the internship I took an interest in it, did some readings and it's like opening a magic box! Plus with the latest Pisa results being published last week it brings more questions! What can we change to help kids the best? Clearly the actual method isn't efficient enough so is there another one? What are the best ranking countries doing? So so many questions... But yeah doing a study on the way reading it taught worldwide would be sooo interesting! Maybe if one day I get bored of teaching I'll switch to research

[clochette]

Nicky getting ready to go see Gary 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0hDz-oSGfc/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Drew Espinosa]

8 hours ago, raven1 said:

Did you have another scary nightmare? 

No, I had a wonderful dream where I replaced you as Man's editor. He was so happy to finally have an editor who wasn't a tyrannical slave driver.

[Albert1434]

Aloha All

[clochette]

1 minute ago, Albert1434 said:

Aloha All

Morning Bertie, morning gang

[Albert1434]

Aloha Clo

[Mancunian]

Good morning, afternoon, evening all. I'll try to catch up later as I have to dash out.  

[raven1]

8 hours ago, Page Scrawler said:

One interesting thing I learned about Switzerland: if you partake of cheese fondue, and you drop a piece of food in the pot of cheese, you incur a penalty. The penalty typically involves drinking shots, nude streaking in the snow, or kissing whomever sits to your left side. 

I'll skip the streaking in the snow.