The Median Sib

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:

You may visit the store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch: you may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1 - These men have jobs. The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids. The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love kids, and are extremely good looking.

“Wow,” she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads: Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead good looking and help with the housework.

“Oh, mercy me!” she exclaims, “I can hardly stand it!” Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads: Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads: Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at The Husband Store.

A new Wives Store opened across the street. The first floor has wives that love sex. The second floor has wives that love sex and have money. The third through sixth floors have never been visited.

(H/T to my friend, Dianne)
(We don’t really believe any of that. Women are NOT impossible to please…and men are interested in more than just sex and money. There IS the NFL, after all.)

I just got my February issue of The Reading Teacher. Yes, it is February 14th which means it’s running a tad late. There was an article, though, that is pertinent to what is going on in my life at the moment. The title is “Accountability by design in literacy professional development,” and it is written by Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch, Catherine A. Rosemary, and Patricia R. Grogan.

It is pertinent to me at the moment because I’m in the midst of planning the February 20th professional development day for the 90+ second grade teachers in our school system. I NEVER imagined that planning such a day would involve so much! I feel guilty about the times I’ve been overly critical of other professional development experiences. In the future, I know I will be a little more understanding about what goes into such a day. I always expect high quality, but I won’t be quite so picky about minor things.

There are four of us on the committee, and I believe we have a productive and helpful day planned. We’ve got a great motivational speaker for the first 15 minutes, and we have three break-out sessions. Each session has four or five different classes from which participants may choose. We’ve got local stores, restaurants and book representatives to donate items for door prizes, and the PTO is providing refreshments. Most importantly, I think (hope, pray!) the classes will be really good. The classes are planned to meet the needs that the teachers themselves expressed.

Now that I’ve read this article in The Reading Teacher, I have a guideline against which to gauge our plans. The article lists six principles of high-quality professional development. The first three principles are the ones that most relate to a specific professional development opportunity. So let’s see how we’re doing.

(1) The content must align with what students need to know and be able to do, often as articulated by content standards and district course of study. Whew! We got that one covered! That’s where we started with our initial ideas. Our wonderful Tennessee “Blue Book” of standards.

(2) Professional Development involves active learning for teachers. Again, we’ve got that covered, but no thanks to me. My “old school” patterns are hard to let go, although I DO constantly work at it. I was gearing up for a “sit and get” day when my co-presenter (at the three classes we’re leading) suggested getting the teachers actively involved instead. MUCH better idea, and I think it will be much more helpful for the teachers. Since children’s literature is a passion of mine, I volunteered to lead classes on using children’s literature to teach reading and writing skills and strategies. That class will be held during all three sessions since so many teachers signed up for it. The other classes will also involve the teachers in active learning.

(3) Professional development is embedded in the context of work in schools and classrooms. Again, we hit the nail on the head. There are two second grade teachers on our committee, and we initially came up with a long list of ideas, sent that list to all the second grade teachers in the county to find the topics they most wanted help with, and then we worked with those topics in coming up with our sessions. We also have built in time during the day for teachers to talk with teachers from other schools and with their own school team to plan how to utilize what they’ve learned in their own classrooms. Teachers leading teachers.

It makes me a little scared, though. It sounds almost TOO good. You know what I mean? No matter how well we think we’ve covered every need, there are bound to be things that come up that no one on the planning committee anticipated. That’s where that great life skill of flexibility comes in. We’ll just have to do our best in planning, hope for the best, and then handle whatever happens.

Each teacher will have to fill out an evaluation form at the end of the day. Knowing how I’ve filled out those forms in the past makes me very wary to think of what I might read in them Monday evening.

Reading Today Daily had further information on professional development, and Mei at Mei Flower tells about a professional development day that I hope we don’t match.

Come one! Come all! Today is Trackback Tuesday at THE MEDIAN SIB! My readers can be your readers! And your readers can be my readers. Share and share alike.

Blogs Linking Here: Freedom Folks, Why Do I Bother?, Blue Star Chronicles

All bloggers are welcome to participate. Just link to THIS post in your blog, and then leave a comment here with your post’s URL, the name of your blog, and your name. I look forward to reading your post and linking it for all to read. I’ll place each new link at the top of the post so readers will be sure to read it.

The trackback URL for this post is: http://haloscan.com/tb/mcarol49/113991733011118243

Just copy the trackback URL and paste it in your trackback program. If you don’t have a trackback program you can use the Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger.

Here’s another joke forwarded via email. Most forwards I get are repeats of old jokes. This is actually one I hadn’t heard before.

A young blonde woman in Nashville, TN, was so depressed that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the Cumberland River. She went down to the docks and was about to leap into the frigid water when a handsome young sailor saw her tottering on the edge of the dock, crying.

He took pity on her and said, “Look, you have so much to live for. I’m off to Europe in the morning, and if you like, I can stow you away on my ship.

I’ll take good care of you and bring you food every day.” Moving closer, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and added, “I’ll keep you happy, and you’ll keep me happy.”

The girl nodded yes. After all, what did she have to lose? Perhaps a fresh start in Europe would give her life new meaning.

That night, the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat.

From then on, every night he brought her three sandwiches and a piece of fruit, and they made passionate love until dawn.

Three weeks later, during a routine inspection, she was discovered by the captain.

“What are you doing here?” the captain asked.

“I have an arrangement with one of the sailors,” she explained. “I get food and a trip to Europe, and he’s screwing me.”

“He certainly is,” the captain said.

“This is the General Jackson, and we never leave Nashville.”

Note for non-Nashvillians: The General Jackson is a riverboat that stays docked most of the time and makes brief river cruises along a few miles of the Cumberland River.