God Bless the UEA

This was a bit too cynical for the note to the family, but just perfect for my lonely blog. Enjoy.

"God Bless the UEA" - to the tune of "God Bless the U.S.A."

If tomorrow all the kids were gone
I'd been teaching all term through
And I got a four day weekend,
And a choice of things to do

Like go downtown to learn
How to teach or use a gun
I'd be hanging with my family
You can bet I'd have more fun...

Chorus
For I am a Utah teacher
And the union's not that great
Their lob-by's pret-ty much ignored
By those who legislate

But we get two days off
Out of school, where we can go and play
So I tip my hat and say to them...
"God bless the UEA"

From the halls of Hunter High School
To the track of Murray High
Across the fields of Skyline
No student meets the eye

But head to the old Salt Palace
And you'll find a happy bunch
'Cause the union stands for teachers
(And I think they spiked the punch)

Chorus
For I am a Utah teacher
And the union's not that great
Their lob-by's pret-ty much ignored
By those who legislate

But we get two days off
Out of school, where we can go and play
So I tip my hat and say to them...
"God bless the UEA"

A funny line from a travel review

Via a cnn.com travel review

"But the scenery at Arches was simply stunning. It looked like a playground designed by a giant with the heart of a 4-year-old and the agility of a mountain goat."

Ridiculous.

Mitt Romney health coverage law

Massachusetts just passed an interesting law aimed at moving closer to a better health-care system.

In Business Week.

The idea is to require all citizens of Mass. to have health coverage. That health coverage is aimed at getting all citizens (especially high-income earners) enrolled. The result is that the enrollment of more people will drive premiums lower.

Poor families will have their health care subsidized by the state. Romney says it's a Republican solution to a Democratic ideal. Being praised by people on both sides of the aisle.

We'll see how well it works at implementation time, but pretty smart!

"I was hot as a pistol"

This is a great video of the autistic kid who got to play in a basketball game. Get your hankies out.

Here

Overheard in the faculty room while a counselor was passing through with a male student

Counselor: ...but you can't have ALL your classes with her! Do you have all of your classes with her?

Young Male Student: Seven

Counselor: Seven out of eight? (pause) Then you can't change your schedule again.

America's plan to invade Canada

Not kidding:

Raiding the Icebox (via The Washington Post)

Imagine!

I should be...

...grading fifth and eighth period's problem/solution outlines

...figuring out the schedule for youth wrestling

...drinking more water

...printing out certain students' grade sheets so they can pass my class

...notifying the administration that a student has made off with my hall pass

...recycling the stacks of newspapers on the counter on the north wall of my class

...grading student work

...printing instructions for next week's presentations

...delivering applications for students to be on The Warrior Ledger staff

...pricing computers for the journalism group

...turning in a check for The Warrior Ledger

...calling the printer who bunged up our paper last month

...preparing for next term's reading and writing assignments

...calling my wifey

...organizing journalism hardware

...scheduling the principal's press conference

...scheduling guest speakers for this month

...pricing out the journalism conference in April

...copying Thursday and Friday's practice test


but instead I am relaxing, typing, and listening to Franz Ferdinand, lent to me by a student. Winter breaks die hard.

December Issue

Well we posted our December issue on the 15th. It was significantly better than the last one and students were less bickery, if that's a word. The main problem this time around was that the printer messed up the images on the front page, so all our hard copies have black boxes instead of our newspaper's name. Ah well.

Here's the link:

http://warriorledger.org

The online site has an RSS feed you're welcome to add to your aggregator, if for no other reason than to make me feel nice:

http://my.highschooljournalism.org/data/rss/asne_myhsj_540.xml

Let me know what you think. One of the highlights was the article on the student that lost his father. Our reporter did a good job of telling the story.

Enjoy.