Ineptitude / Irony of my school district

Read this letter I received this morning (Wednesday, May 12th, 2010) in my mailbox:



And we wonder why we are not performing well!

The Gun Plot of 2006

In cleaning out my stuff and getting settled here at the new house (slowly but surely), I came across this article from our local paper from an incident that happened at the high school I teach at in April of 2006.

The "ringleader" pictured in the article was a student of mine that school year, before dropping my Computer Programming class (saying, "I like you and everything, but I don't know what the hell is going on" and electing for a study hall). A few months after leaving my class, he allegedly hatched this Columbine-like plot.

It shows you traditional axioms such as these are applicable sometimes:

- shit can happen anywhere;
- you never know what the person you're talking to is thinking; and
- count your blessings.

News from my district

A former teacher *allegedly* was exaggerating the hours he worked out-of-building on documents (read the article here), was taken to court, and found not guilty.

However, when your district spokesperson isn't allowed to *officially* comment but says, "We have to agree with whatever decision the judge made," it doesn't sound like the district is happy that the person was acquitted.

It's people like this that give teachers a bad name.

Spelling Mistakes Make Me Want to Screme

From my school DISTRICT'S WEBSITE... (our district is having early dismissal today, as are many other local school districts)

"Weather Alert / Due to the extream heat..."

ExtrEAM? What gie or gurl is responsible for spelling? Seriously, are people freakin illiterate these days? Or do people not proofread their own writing? Despite being good in math, I was an average English student (ok, I did take AP English, but I certainy didn't excel at it) and these blunders stand out to me. Any good writers must cringe at stuff like this.

If I make a spelling mistake on this blog... fine, less than 10 people will read it. But how can you mess up that bad on such simple spelling mistakes on a public document? The PLAQUE to the boys bathroom in my school building reads "BOY'S BATHROOM". Does it only belong to one boy? Some of the English teachers here bring their classes to the plaque to point out how common these mistakes are (or, maybe, the idiocy of the school).

Random Links 12/17/07...

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a dope post to step to...

And, as per ChuckJerry's recent request, I've disabled comment moderation. So everybody can feel free to comment away!


- The city of Camden sucks. It makes Paterson look like a nice little urban burg. Read this.

- So does a certain school district in South Jersey.

- Although many of us have probably browsed this or similar sites out of sheer (morbid) curiousity, I still don't see why the public really needs to have access to the criminal records, names and profiles of most criminal offenders.

- Jeremy Shockey is a badass. He broke his leg yesterday, and the highlights at least showed him slamming down his helmet in disgust, presumably because he wouldn't be able to play anymore (I didn't get to see the game). I would be crying like I blew out my knee. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

- Brian Westbrook is underrated. I think he's one of the premier players in football. It's great to get to see him play every week. The Eagles beat Dallas and that homo Tony Romo.

- And for those looking for last minute holiday gifts, feel free to print out the following...