50 book challenge

I have almost completed the 50 book challenge. Here is the list of all 42 books I have read so far.

If By Sea
All Quiet On The Western Front
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Lord of The Flies
The Trial
I am Scout
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
Robinson Crusoe
War of the Worlds

Crime and Punishment
To Kill a Mockingbird
American Lion
What's so great about Christianity
Ike, an American legend
"What we carry"
"The making of a poem"
Shade's Children
Speak
Kidnapped
Elfstones of Shannara
Pool of Radiance
Pools of Darkness
Silent Sea

These three I'm counting as one book
The Bottle Imp
The Body Snatcher
Markheim

Ranger's Apprentice Book 1
Flight of The White Horse
Old man and the sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye
The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
The Great Gatsby
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Grapes of Wrath

A change of pace

While watching "Jack's Big Music Show" with my son, I was pleasantly surprised by a group called "Nuttin But Stringz" that mixed violins with hip-hip. Normally I only half watch the show but something made me put down my book and pay attention. Boy was I glad I did. The first clip is the one from the show itself.




And yes this is the group from "America's Got Talent", here is the clip from their initial performance.



Enjoy!

You gotta be kidding right?

Last week I sent a letter to the school district to get reinstated as a substitute teacher for the remainder of the school year as I was no longer at my apprentice teaching position and my student teaching assignment would be ending in early May. Today I received a letter from the district stating that I would have to do a few things. First I would have to complete on-line training and then I would have to get finger printed (again), bring down a copy of my sub license and then I could sub for the remainder of the year.

Now the first thing that irritated me was the fact that I would have to pay $50 I don't have for the finger printing, even though they have my records for student teaching, and the thing that really pisses me off is the fact that I have to pay another $12 for the on-line training. I would understand doing this if I were new to subbing, but I subbed all last school year and was in the classroom all this year teaching as well! Can you say money grab? I knew you could!

Can you effing believe this? Bad enough I gotta pay the fifty clams for the finger prints, but then I have to pay for on-line substitute teaching training on top of that? Seriously?

This is not the change I was hoping for, that's for damn sure.

Almost done

I am down to my last two big projects and then my time at Nevada State College will come to an end. It's hard to believe that just 6 years ago I went back to school to become a teacher, and I am just one paper and one presentation away from reaching that goal. And then it's up to the jackasses in Carson City to get their crap together and pass some sort of budget so the school district knows how much money they have for teachers.

But hey at least I'll have a degree in May!

This really p***es me off...

I have not done much political posting lately with all the great stories to relate from the classroom but I had to talk about something that really has me pissed off.

No, not my students, they're great (just don't tell them that), it's the report released by the KGB er Department of Homeland Security dealing with Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment so now instead of dealing with the actual threats facing this country, the KGB, er DHS will be dealing with such threats:

"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." (pg. 2)

OK, so that's pretty much 90% of the conservatives in this country and includes everyone who participated in the 'tea parties' that took place today. And people thought that Bush was a dictator? In what flipping universe? Nothing that Bush did during his 8 years ever came close to this horse crap, and when they did issue reports like this they were very specific with group names and specific threats not this broad brushed jackbooted book burning Che loving hammer and sickle waving garbage.

And since I like to save the best for last, here is one more little gem for you to chew on.

"DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization." (pg. 8)

Vast right wing conspiracy anyone? And we thought that died when Bill Clinton left office.

50 Book Challenge

Update #3 4/14/09: It's 38. I finished "The Trial" and "I Am Scout" today and forgot to add "Big Mouth and Ugly Girl" from last month. Only 12 more by July!

Update #2: It's 35, I finished Robinson Crusoe on Friday and I'm reading "The Trial" right now.
And Happy Easter everyone!

Update #1: It's 34 I finished War of the Worlds today and I'm half done with Robinson Crusoe...


So I have now finished 33 books out of the 50. Here is the list so far.

Crime and Punishment
To Kill a Mockingbird
American Lion

"What's so great about Christianity"
Ike, an American legend
"What we carry"
"The making of a poem"
Shade's Children
Speak
Kidnapped
Elfstones of Shannara
Pool of Radiance
Pools of Darkness
Silent Sea

These three I'm counting as one book
The Bottle Imp
The Body Snatcher
Markheim

Ranger's Apprentice Book 1
Flight of The White Horse
Old man and the sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye
The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
The Great Gatsby
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Grapes of Wrath

To Kill A Mockingbird

At my new school my cooperating teacher had just started To Kill A Mockingbird so after spring break, that's what I'll be teaching as well. I had forgotten how good that book was until I picked it up again and the movie is not bad either. I mention this because I decided on a whim to do the novel for my literary theory class because I just was not interested in redoing my paper on Ursula LeGuin.

I'm glad I switched because I found out a very interesting thing. Lawyers use Atticus Finch as a role model in their law schools, and that one professor wrote an article in the Michigan Law Review that asked some hard questions, which were answered by other professors and lawyers. One of those responses came from Ann Althouse who has an excellent blog of her own.

Funny how things just kinda work out sometimes. Today I'll do my prewriting and the rough draft(s) and then tomorrow I'll finish it up.

Oh, and spring break is next week.

YEE-HAW!