What Teachers Teach

(click to enlarge)

These beautiful stones are from our beach here in Tsawwassen.
They looked so nice when wet but when they dried, they looked like regular rocks

But we had the greatest teachers at Gray Elementary and during the summer they would travel
and then come back to teach their kids new things.

Rock tumbling was one of them.
They did a project at school and the kids went home with beautiful rocks to show their parents.
Now we can buy ready made stones like this but to know how to make them is indeed Something.
Of course they get Moms like me interested in such projects lol
There is nothing I love more than to learn about such things.

So we went to Cloverdale where they had the local flea market and Western apparel, since we were getting into horse country.
There I found a little store with tons of little things and one of them being these little rocks.
They also sold the rock tumblers.
I couldn't help myself and bought one to try and these beauties were the result.
Who would have thought regular rocks could turn into something so special.
The thing about rocks is that what you find on the west coast is different from what you find on the east coast, so you never get the same stones.

These kids at Gray, were so lucky to have such wonderful teachers who actually went out of their way to teach them what they learned over the summer holidays.
(As well as their Moms lol)
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If I were ol' Santa, you know what I'd do
I'd dump silly gifts that are given to you
And deliver some things just inside your front door
Things you have lost, but treasured before.

I'd give you back all your maidenly vigor,
And to go along with it, a neat tiny figure.
Then restore the old color that once graced your hair
Before rinses and bleaches took residence there.

I'd bring back the shape with which you were gifted
So things now suspended need not be uplifted.
I'd draw in your tummy and smooth down your back
Till you'd be a dream in those tight fitting slacks.

I'd remove all your wrinkles and leave only one chin
So you wouldn't spend hours rubbing grease on your skin.
You'd never have flashes or queer dizzy spells,
And you wouldn't hear noises like ringing of bells.

No sore aching feet and no corns on your toes,
No searching for spectacles when they're right on your nose.
Not a shot would you take in your arm, hip or fanny,
From a doctor who thinks you're a nervous old granny.

You'd never have a headache, so no pills would you take.
And no heating pad needed since your muscles won't ache.
Yes, if I were Santa, you'd never look stupid,
You'd be a cute little chick with the romance of a cupid.

I'd give a lift to your heart when those wolves start to whistle,
And the joys of your heart would be light as a thistle.
But alas! I'm not Santa. I'm simply just me,
The most humble of helpers you ever did see.

I wish I could tell you all the symptoms I've got,
But I'm due at my doctor's for an estrogen shot.
Even though we've grown older, this wish is sincere,
Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

:)

Teachers Strike -

A beginning of a school year and WHAM!
Teachers threatening a strike, first by stopping administrative work.

I really feel what the BC teachers are doing right now is not right.
Do they not see what is happening in the world?
It is important to keep the cost of living low so man does not need to beg for a home or food.
Starving students do not learn.

The kids will learn, graduate and then what.......stand in unemployment lines?
There are only so many teacher jobs and coffee shops and then once people feel they can't afford kids, these jobs will close down as well.

Kids will learn from home, through computers and with on line tutors.
If teachers think 35 students per class is too much, one teacher could have as many as 5000 on line students.

From personal experience, I know a child can learn in 5 months, what elementary schools take 2 years to teach. At this rate, kids have time to begin school later, giving them more play or child time, and finishing elementary school much sooner than expected.

The system is not working for many people and is in danger of all coming apart.
Computers are taking away many peoples jobs today, needed to pay the bills and taxes which keep rising.

Pretty soon kids will have a chip installed into their brain and become nuclear physicists
in grade school. This will leave them the rest of their lives to produce or discover more knowledge.
They will be able to retire at 21 years of age if they wanted to lol

Come to think of it, paraplegics may also have a chip installed in the area where the nerve endings were cut and have them stimulated to receive and send messages from the brain to the body, resulting in living a normal life. Anything is possible today but this sort of thing results in more caregiver and nursing jobs being eliminated.

I think when you have a job in bad times, you are lucky.
There is a time when asking for more, is just tipping the bucket over and may get you less.
Just sayin.

It might be just Unions trying to show they are still useful but they don't have the clout they used to have. They make matters worse by creating more stress on families who do not need any more.

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in British Columbia when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.


The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Member of Parliament from Ottawa ", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment bought with taxpayers dollars trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter.

This is a herd of sheep. .......

Now give me back my dog.

Project Clay

Cold Porcelain Clay makes these wonderful projects and you can make this clay at home.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35YiWJSHE20&NR=1&feature=fvwp



cat project

Recipes to make clay can be found at:

http://www.figurines-sculpture.com/cold-porcelain-recipe.html
or
http://www.mashiacrafts.com/1/post/2012/07/workshop-wednesday-how-to-make-cold-porcelain.html

You know Coca Cola has to say what is in the drink so recipes to make clay are the same thing.
People like to know and professionals don't lose out. The project speaks for itself.
Have Fun!