In the stars

I recently had a friend announce he had changed his stars.  Which to those who have seen the movie A Knights Tale means he has changed what life has given him.  I find that I am envious of those who have changed their stars or found their paths.  I cannot seem to do it.  Right now my life seems to be series of professional missteps.  I loved going to school and learning to work in the media.  Not that I am ever given the opportunity.  Well, I think missteps might be the wrong word may be I mean missed timing.  I feel like I am always out of sync.  I want to feel better about what I do but I just cannot.  I see my classmates succeeding in so many ways, yet I am set here at the bottom.  I am not aware of a step I can take that will be able to get me out of this dead end rut. 

Educational debate via NPR

I guess I do occasional post news topics that I see as needing further discussion.  This morning (as almost every morning) I drove to work listening to Morning Edition.  One story that really peaked my interest was on the use of Applied Scholastic which according to documentation is a teaching method/utensil developed by L Ron Hubbard (yes the man that created Scientology).

I understand why people are hesitant about the use of this system in school.  Most of the reasons I see come from the fact it is L Ron Hubbard and he is the creator of Scientology.  Lets be clear I am not endorsing Scientology in any way,  I have my own thoughts on that but they are not going mentioned here.  From what I have heard and from the little I have read it appears to be educational program geared towards literacy and vocabulary recognition.  I cannot fault an educator who has seen success in a program to raise literacy and wants to use it.  I think we should be trying to find any means to help children of all ages.

From what I can see this program is to be used with a teacher's plan.  It is meant to enhance the way I teacher will present a topic or lesson.  I am the child of generations of teacher and that is why I don't mind programs that enhance the creativity of teachers.  I do have more issues with programs that want to remove the individual teaching creativity from the lessons.  I know that was a popular idea a few years ago and I am glad to hear it is going out of style.

Photo Time

From a trip to North Carolina.
 

I have been feeling a bit down and lonely the past few days and this picture always makes me smile.

Too much driving

No post yesterday due to I was driving from North Georgia back to Jacksonville.  I was home for the weekend for Easter/Dad's Birthday/homesick.  It was a quick trip but made a huge difference to me.  I saw the vast majority of my family.  All the kids were together for Easter which is always nice.  Dad is looking and feeling well.  I still worry a lot for him. 

Sunday we were actually up on Old Fort Mountain, a stated park near Chatsworth, GA.  It was a wet and foggy day but it just seemed so calm up there.  At one point the fog was so thick that we could not see anything out of our picnic pavilion.  Even with the fog it was great to spend the day outside with my family. 

<edit to come tonight, will add photos of the picnic>