Saturday, January 3, 2009

Bidding A Munchkin-Open To The New Year

For auditory learners:

YouTube - The Wizard of Oz Sing Along: The Optimistic Voices

For visual learners:
"You're out of the woods, you're out of the dark, you're out of the night. Step into the sun, step into the light. Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place on the face of the earth or the sky. Hold onto your breath, hold onto your heart, hold onto your hope. March up to the gate and bid it open..."


We can either celebrate a new year or bemoan the closing year of a decade.

The Christmas Holidays did not provide a winter break for the local bloggers involved in delving into the workings of the Hillsborough County Public School system. Not only is there unfinished business that is ratcheting up, there are also some new players in the sand lot which bring promise for new and invigorating commentary. Time will tell if these new bloggers will be accused of presenting misinformation, anger and ugliness or if there will be renewed efforts to have commenters show "their papers".

One can only wonder if "Uniting for Quality Education in hillsborough, fl" and "I Am Nobody's Patsy" were taken away by silent storm troopers, and will Eskay be next?

Speaking of Eskay, the ratcheting up of unfinished business is here for all to see:

Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch: Hillsborough County Administrator Is Evading the Florida Public-Records Law


My sources tell me that there are more than a few that wonder why Eskay didn't get a mentor and was provided with personalized training to improve his work performance. There may be some who believe that one must have a 30+ year of tenure in order to qualify for those specialized improvement funds, while there are others who believe it is more about the quality of relationships.

A new player in the blogger's cadre is Ziggy. Ziggy comes from the The Abyss and has tag teamed with Antigrammargrinch. Ziggy shows promise to air out any and all bits of information and opinions while defending the corner of public education. Antigrammargrinch appears to be singularly focused on grammar grappling with Lee, and may even have a breast infatuation that turned sour. Antigrammargrinch has been around for a while but may get more exposure through Ziggy. Staunch supporters of free speech can revel in the candidness of Antigrammargrinch, although some may fear that the writings may be viewed as ugliness that some politicians want to censor.

One early hint of the game within the game is that Ziggy appears to be a strong proponent of the belief that the quality of a teacher is the best predictor of a student's success. It is too early to predict how conditioning factors will effect this game plan or if there will be adjustments made later in the case of "poor raw material" effecting a teacher's performance, just as wilted lettuce and rotten tomatoes effect the quality of a salad made by a master chef.
The hope of a new year is just dawning, and there is promise as we step into the sun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Off topic:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article962088.ece

Would you want a cell tower built where your children spend a majority of their time?

Do you think that the possibility of unknown health risks is worth the $11,000-$55,000 per year that the school would collect in rent?

My answers would be no and no.

Anonymous said...

Well, apparently one way to start off the new year is to call the Alafia parents "rancorous":

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article952538.ece

One deifinition of rancor is this:

The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; inveterate hatred

That's a pretty inflammatory statement made by Mr. Hooper.

I wish he could have instead used the word "conviction" or maybe "vehemence".

But then again, I guess I shouldn't place much significance on the opinions of someone who refers to his magic 8 ball for advice.