dmmetler
-
Posts
425 -
Joined
Content Type
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Discussion
Posts posted by dmmetler
-
-
Moving a middle school teacher to high school is not a promotion (the pay scale is district-wide, barring bonuses for specific jobs-and high school history is not one that is usually hard to find someone who wants to teach) and it's not something that is done unilaterally by the superintendent. Usually principals hire for their own school, and that sort of lateral move would be initiated by a teacher applying for a posted open job. I knew they were going to move Cory on somehow, but as a teacher, I find it annoying.
-
1
-
-
I have a girl who loves biology and is basically the Farkle of her friend group. She's very popular when it comes to picking lab partners because they know that she'll do all the work, and they'll get a good grade.
I don't think the problem is girls vs boys, but a class set up where it is possible for one person to do a lion's share of the work (as opposed to both doing the analysis, comparing notes, and then, together, drawing conclusions, and requiring that both sets of work be part of the final paper).
I do see a place for a participation award when achievement is also recognized. That is, Ava might get an award for MVP or most goals scored or whatever, but if Augie is going and practicing and trying each week, I think it's reasonable to recognize that this is an achievement, too-especially for a child his age who is still learning the sport. I do think there's a place to recognize the kid who tries harder to get a C (and I really wish they'd show more of those kids on TV as opposed to always making them slacker underachievers who, in a VSE, are shown to have dyslexia) or who struggles to get on the team but is out practicing and working to improve (as opposed to Riley talking her way onto the cheer team without even a throwaway line about spending the last year taking tumbling classes to improve). Sometimes, it can be a lot harder to be a "participant" than to be an "MVP".
-
Honestly, Maya's relationship with Lucas reads like 'bratty little sister' to me :).
-
On October 9, 2015 at 11:22 PM, KaveDweller said:
I know it was supposed to be a joke, but I thought that coach was pretty horrible. A student wants to try out for a team and she spends the whole time talking about how bad she is and that it's already decided she won't make the team? In middle school? It also seems unfair (and unrealistic) that she'd be the only one auditioning that hasn't been on the team for years.
But I thought it was nice that the cheerleaders wanted to help Riley instead of being stereotypical mean popular girls.
Not sure on NY, but in TN, middle school cheer can be quite competitive. You usually need to have at least a back handspring to be considered, and many of the girls will have been on cheer teams and taking tumbling classes for years. That RO-BHS-BT combo the girls were doing on day 2 really isn't uncommon here. Usually there are tryout instructions posted and they will explicitly say not to try out if you don't have X skills. That can narrow the field a lot.
However, most schools will have a "spirit squad" which does a lot of the "cheering at games"-and is full of girls like Riley. There are also National Youth Athletics Association programs, like Champion Force, Young Champions, ActivStars and Champions in Motion, which are cheer programs for girls who want to cheer, but don't want to put in the time, which don't do nearly as much tumbling or stunting, but still allow that experience. Riley, who picks up on choreography, but simply doesn't have the cheer skills yet, would be an asset to such a team. Riley also could have made a Pom team, which does the dance parts and often can compete at a pretty high level, but doesn't tumble or stunt. Most middle schools have those. Heck, Riley doesn't qualify, but many all-star gyms and NYAA programs have teams just for kids with special needs, and such teams go all the way to Nationals and Worlds.
I wish they'd shown Riley finding a way to be a cheerleader, while also acknowledging what the coach said in passing-that it's more than just wanting to do it-that girls who have back tucks and similar tumbling skills in middle school didn't start in middle school. They started much, much earlier.
-
What bothered me was that most parents of young teens I know do monitor their social media accounts and phones. And this is why. I can't see Cory and Topanga not doing so. It doesn't fit with their characters to be unaware this was happening, even more than stepping back and letting the kids handle it once they are (because Cory was staying pretty close and ready to step in as soon as the kids would let him).
-
I'm assuming the yearbook was done last year and was just delivered this fall. My DD used to go to a private school that did that, running the photos all the way to the last day of school.
-
On May 15, 2015 at 5:52 PM, AmandaPanda said:
When I was listening to the kid talk, it sounded to me like he had other difficulties with similar letter sounds. I also just work with preschoolers and am used to hearing kids not being able to form different sounds when they're younger.
That bothered me as well. I have dyspraxia of speech, and the /r/ sounds are something I still struggle with. For me, what Topanga was doing to that little boy brought back bad childhood memories.
-
Am I just out of touch, or is 12 way too young to be dating?
-
1
-
-
I think I'm going to decide to believed that the school actually a homeschool tutorial, and those four are the only kids taking Cory's "middle school social studies" class (and that Lucas's parents believe in "better late than early" and didn't start formal academics until about age 9) and everyone else signed up for something else. That also explains why Cory runs all the clubs/groups, because he's the one who is interested in doing so. Parents don't complain because they do their child's real education at home and just drop them off at the Tutorial a couple of days a week to get time with other kids. Maya is homeschooled with Riley the other days of the week, so her mom has time to work her day job and go to acting auditions, and that explains why Maya seems to basically live with them.
Makes far more sense than a New York public school!
-
Just watched the Memphis vs Jackson. I kind of wish I'd seen the whole dances, but my mental impression was the DD creative didn't have much dance, which may have worked against them. Or, more likely, the script for the season called for a loss, and this was a way to have a Dolls loss in a set up for the show competition.
And I do wonder if this aired intentionally when it did-we just had #901Day this week :). So, a 901 vs 601 competition seemed almost set up for that purpose, except that it has to have happened long enough ago to give them time to edit and air.
-
1
-
-
Did anyone but me want them to pick up Bobbi and Hunter when they were also picking up Elena and Joey? Or Deathlok, or a bunch of lanyard wielding clones? I mean, there ARE people Daisy would know who know of SHIELD and could help other than these two new Inhumans who we've known about 30 seconds! You're going against a super inhuman parasite monster who has your team. You don't rely on the JV, you pick up your all stars, even if they're officially retired!
-
3
-
-
I wonder if the graduation year played into it. I could see not giving a scholarship to a girl who is on the young side (isn't Chrystianna in 8th grade) compared to a high school senior. Or, for that matter, not giving a scholarship to a kid who's academic profile made it less likely they'd be accepted to that university. Usually scholarship applications, even performance ones, include such information.
Tau Beta Sigma is the marching band sorority-sister to Kappa Kappa Psi. I thought it was neat to see Diana wearing the letters. (Hi, Sis!) At HBCUs, the band is often a big thing, and Dance line is definitely part of the marching band.
-
1
-
-
On August 2, 2016 at 4:11 PM, maraleia said:
I love that Lena yelled at Callie because it was another way that the show signaled that Callie is truly Lena and Stef's daughter and she has to accept that this means she will be treated like the rest of the kids.
They've spent so much time walking on eggshells around Callie and I'm glad the show has moved beyond this point.
I still think tthey should have Callie contribute to the school yearbook with her photos. She really needs some non foster kid extracurricular activities for her college applications.
As for Jude, I might be the first one to say it but I think he's better with Noah than Connor.
I also think she needs a non-foster kid senior project. In fairness, it's what she's proposed/set up-but the fact is that until she stops defining herself by just those experiences and starts finding other focuses, she's not going to move on. Having Lena tell her to get her stuff together and finish the project is a good mom line-but it kind of misses the point that Callie is struggling with her identity and can't get beyond "foster kid", and that's one reason why she can't finish a project.
-
1
-
-
I kind of think they should leave the teams split (and maybe send them to different competitions). It let different and more kids be featured, and honestly, each is still a really BIG team. It really wouldn't be unusual for a large program to have more than one competition squad.
-
1
-
-
Now we need Grant....
-
If anyone is interested in the original book, it's on sale currently on Kindle for $1.99.
-
I think my favorite part was that Rip was listening to Beethoven 7th while moping about having Jax fix the timeship and the resulting exposure.
-
My DD11 is leaving a cheer team that she's been on since she was 4. The state finals will be her final competition with them. (My husband is being transferred to a different office). She's not expecting a big party, or even for the coach to mention it, but she is making bracelets for her team mates, with charms that call back some of her favorite memories with them.
Kids move. Kids change studios and programs. It happens. Life goes on.
-
4
-
-
Does Jessalyn think JoJo patented wearing a hair bow or something? Or that the bow is a personality? I mean, JoJo does have a lot of personality, but Brynn wearing a bow doesn't just make her a duplicate of JoJo.
.
It's even more humorous when you realize that every single competitive cheerleader out there wears giant bows as part of the uniform, as do many girls' softball teams. It's kind of a "I'm an athlete and I'm a girl" thing. You see t-shirts with things like "Bad to the Bow" or "Fear the Bow".
-
I wish they'd do a smaller set of figures, like about Playmobil scale :). I kind of want to put Wonder Woman up against my Playmobil History sets :). And, in all seriousness, my own superhero girl, at the older end of the age range, is more into making model worlds than Barbie type play, so some super hero girl figures that are bigger than the Lego ones, but smaller than the current line would come in handy and fit more into the 'tween market which is more into crafting and cosplay themselves. That's one thing My Little Pony has done right-you can get ponies in a range of sizes.
-
Comcast has the musical by itself as an extra on demand. It works better that way-although the Shakespeare dialogue does not fit the music style at all.
I did find seeing Mat's actor in the Romeo role humorous, because here he is singing a role that he fought to get to dance on Dance Academy. The guy can't get away from doing the same role his senior year-even by changing countries and continents!
-
1
-
-
Of course, Maddie will be leaving the team the minute she's no longer on contract to be on it for the show. Why would that be surprising?
FWIW, I have an 11 yr old who, last year, got stuck doing a power puff girls themed routine, in a Jazz class ranging from ages 7-10. She wasn't happy about it, either. She was just fortunate that her sighs and eye rolls were mostly limited to in the car, not documented on reality TV. I do think that sometimes instructors go by what they think is cute, and forget that there's a big,difference emotionally in a few years time.
-
I guess they were worried casual viewers really would think this was the end of the show.
FWIW, I'm watching on Netflix, and I wondered if maybe they wrote the finale assuming it would be the end of the show. They've set up Ray for his transformation to shrinking Atom, Felicity and Oliver are riding off in the sunset, Sterling city is in the hands of Thea, Laurel and Dig, and we've got a big bad in Malcolm set up for Atom, Flash, and the duo of Nyssa and Tatsu/Katana to take on (I SO want Nyssa and Tatsu to ally with each other. Although that might be more awesome than one TV can stand...).
-
1
-
-
You know, except for Nyssa, Oliver could just unleash the A/O on Nanda Parbat and make his escape. Oliver and Maseo are immunized against it, after all, and it's not like he has any reason to not want to wipe the LOA off the globe. But he needs to get Nyssa out first.
-
2
-
S01.E01: P-I-LOT
in Speechless [V]
Rewatched-overall, I like it (and shows generally evolve after the pilot). I have cerebral palsy, although not to JJ's degree. And parents really can go overboard in advocacy. The characters come off as authentic to family roles, only exaggerated a little for humor. Having known parents who have moved to more expensive school districts to get better services, that premise rings true as well-and yes, it's hard on other family members.
At the same time, it rings SO true that it's hard to laugh at it-because yes (for example) the over enthusiastic aide is funny, but that is the kind of thing that really happens. Same with the ramp being the loading dock on the back of the building. People trying too hard and not treating you like a person, but as a poster child for their commitment to inclusiveness and diversity. It's enough to definitely make you think the kinds of comments JJ says-so as far as I'm concerned, bring on the snarky, eye-rolling JJ!