dmmetler

As a music teacher (in the 1990’s/early 2000’s) who dreaded the winter concert every year, I loved this. It was impossible to please everyone, and that particular concert brought out every single Beverly Goldberg type.

I had a long distance relationship in the 1980’s, so all the problems with long distance calls, letters,faxes, etc rang true. Kids today don’t know the struggle of skipping lunch for a week so you can feed quarters into a payphone to talk to your boyfriend. (I eventually married him, so it did work out, but not until after a $469 phone bill in college)

As someone who applied to music schools in ‘80 something, I find this annoying. Erica is not going to make it even into a state U music program singing pop songs, and a video would not be a leg up even if it was awesome. She needs to be working on a wider range of repertoire and preparing for auditions with a voice teacher, not just a school music teacher.

Not all schools even guarantee freshman housing to anyone, and if JJ accepted late, they may not have had a room available for him. I know when I was applying to undergrad, most of the scholls I was applying to had only limited accessible housing, so it would be reasonable for the rooms to be full by April 1 with returning students and students who applied and were accepted early decision or just plain early (for schools with rolling admissions). UCI’s website says 12,000 students live on campus-but their student population last year was over 33,000.

I also don’t know how good NYU’s Student services department is. They are required to have one, but as a pricey, selective school, may well not have a lot of experience with a range of disabilities. Back when I was looking at schools, there was a special college guide by Petersen’s that rated not only the selectivity, average test scores, etc, but also things like how wheelchair accessible the campus was and how supportive the school was for various disability categories. And, as mentioned above, vocational rehab tends to try to do things on the cheap-they only provided limited funding for an out of state school for me because I had won a full scholarship, so they had to pay less than they would in-state-and many families with kids with disabilities look better off on paper than they really are. Having said that, there is probably a SUNY or CUNY campus that would meet JJ’s requirements and put him at least a close train ride to Izzy. And for his first two years, a really good film school doesn’t matter much. My daughter got a prospective students mailing from NYU yesterday, and the film program is a 5 year composite with Tisch. And I would LOVE to see a tv show where the high school senior ends up at a school that is actually commensurate with their level of academic performance and is a good fit, as opposed to always ending up at Ivy League schools, MIT, NYU, or UCLA, whether the class valedictorian or a total slacker.

I have a friend who announced that her daughter was “joining the Eagle Scouts” after the girl realized that you got recognition at high school graduation for being one. I don’t think she had a clue just how hard it is to actually become an Eagle Socut ( and that she was highly unlikely to be able to finish in the time she had left before turning 18, even if she managed to actually find a troop that had a girl’s division-while it’s allowed now, most of the co-Ed groups here are Cub Scout dens that have a separate girl’s pack-so I suspect it will be a few years before there is a functioning Scouts BSA troop she could even join). So I handwaved that as Ray being similarly optimistic. Realistically, I would expect Ray to have National Honor Society and maybe something like Key Club,on top of the organizations that it has been mentioned he’s involved with, so he should have a great resume.

My favorite is still the Brigadoom episode of Lexx, which is less a music theater episode and mire a full on operatic one (with the main motives taken from Eastern European children’s songs). Having said that, I really enjoyed this-mostly because they have such an awesome cast when it comes to singing ability.

As someone who’s love language is giving and receiving gifts (for me, mostly homemade or very specifically selected, not so much value), who has a thrifty spouse who sees holidays as a waste of money and hates shopping-but feels he’s failing if he gets something off my wish list, I felt for Jimmy so much. And I love JJ and his difficulties in figuring out dating. Disability complicates so much in ways most people don’t realize. I love that this show is showing that-and that it isn’t an insurmountable obstacle.

Online can be good for some disabilities, but I can’t see it working with JJ’s disabilities. And in many respects, living on campus with assistance would be a better transition to independent living with assistance for JJ, for the same reason why it’s a good transition for neurotypical teens. A small, self-contained, accessible campus with Kenneth providing support would let him spread his wings a bit, and many colleges have good disability support services and work with vocational rehabilitation and local independent living programs.

Having Maddie come out just showed just how much of a pro Mackenzie is as well. Not a good look. I wish they’d sent her home and kept Akash-who isn’t a great dancer, but at least belongs there.

I’m just going to assume that there was someone there from the local CC student services office and from vocational rehabilitation. Both could be involved in transition planning, and rolling it into the IEP makes more sense for a show than having it be separate meetings.

I think music made a difference. Some of the choreography was more Broadway than Ballroom, but it often was forced by the music. The Coco one was probably the most “Ballroom” to me-and a big part of it was that it was a piece that called for Flamenco. And I agree-Mackenzie is pretty obviously a pro, and adding that she’s at the top end of the age group just makes her out of place. Ariana also definitely has some dance training-but she still belongs there.

Ariana has danced on her Disney show at times, including a DWTS based episode. She’s just plain a good actress (I’m surprised that she’s 10,though-her character on the show is about 6!). I think Mackenzie actually has a disadvantage because everyone expects her to dance well-and she looks like an adult compared to the 9-10 yr olds. And I don’t know that Acro Jazz really helps in doing a foxtrot. I’d like to see Alana stick around a few weeks to see how much she improves, and I think she’s enjoying herself. I’m glad the little Palin got to go home-he obviously wasn’t. Y

I’ve tried to make a snake cake. I’m kind of surprised no one used a bundt pan or a springform pan with an insert. A coiled cobra or a snake that isn’t periscoping is pretty easy, and if you did that for the base, and worked on the head while the cake was baking, you could at least get a decent looking snake on the plate, even if not exactly like the original. Oh, and rolled fondant or fruit roll ups make a decent cobra hood :)

I think it should have ended with the originals graduating.

I was glad that they had Jesus heading to the local community college. Too often tV shows either send everyone to some ultra elite college or to whatever local school lets them keep the cast together. Given Jesus’s academic struggles even before the TBI, it makes sense that he would likely need the additional support that a community college offers (and that he might be looking more at vocational programs rather than a traditional degree path). AJ should have been there.

I wish someone had pointed out to Marianna that her non-traditional background is going to give her “hooks” in the application process (provided she writes a decent essay and has the test scores and grades) and Emma is going to have a much harder time standing out. Poppy may have needed to be jammer, but Emma needs the internship or some other major accomplishment more than Marianna does.

I’m sure it was producer driven just like Starbound competitions on dance moms, but they did a nice job. i really, really hope they spliced in the Moms calling out at their girls, standing up, etc. Unless competition dance is different from other fine arts competitions, that kind of behavior isn’t appropriate.

But a homeschool team does not compete in the same athletic division with public schools. Usually they compete against small private schools or other homeschool teams.

Starbound is the competition that most of the Dance Moms episodes take place at, especially the last few seasons. Bringing Bring it On into competition dance seems set up for a crossover.

Sigh. Anyone smell a producer driven crossover?

And Faith is also the one with the most diverse training coming in. Not surprised that she came out on top. Oh, and the “we”-yes, mom, you do the driving, support and cheerleading. But ultimately, it’s your child’s activity and her success or failure. Not yours.

It’s not JJ not being ready. It’s that those of us with experience with the IEP/transition process know that there would have been multiple points before this time where the team would have sat down to evaluate JJ’s progress, and it wouldn’t be a surprise. If JJ were lacking credits coming into a mainstream school, that would have been know when he came in. If he had to miss for medical reasons, there would have been Home or hospital instruction provided, and if it wasn’t enough, that would have been known then. He would have had adaptive PE, not regular gym, and that would have taken his medical absences into account. Failing a child on an IEP without a lot of prior records leads to a great deal of questions as to whether the IEP is being followed at all. It wouldn’t have been a blindside. That’s the lazy writing that smacks of “oh, yeah..we really don’t want JJ to go to college yet”. On Kenneth, right now the school district is paying Kenneth’s salary as part of JJ’s IEP. After he graduates, that will stop. It is possible,maybe even likely that Vocafional rehab or SSDI or Medicaid Waiver will cover some aide time while JJ is in college, but that is by no means certain (and I would LOVE them to show that part. ) taking another year and letting JJ navigate the college application and transition process is awesome. But I wish they had set it up better.

My guess is that it’s less not knowing how to write college and more wanting to keep the number of settings low. It won’t particularly surprise me to have Ray start dual enrollment when JJ starts college. Which, by delaying JJ’s start by a year becomes more reasonable.

Actually, JJ dealing with Voc Rehab could be comedy gold. Especially since Maya has no standing with them whatsoever.