Tuesday, July 19, 2011

In The News- Random Gossip and Why Teachers are Hypocrites.

First of all, we'll start with the random gossip that really isn't news but I thought that some of you may like to hear.

Rebecca Black, the infamous teenage singer who's Friday video gained fame across the world for being...the world's worst singing ever? Now, I'll admit I do not like her singing but I think that a lot of people went out of line by giving her death threats and other nasty things. Eventually, the video was taken off of youtube and we thought that we had seen the last of the teen. 

Apparently not. According to Yahoo! The singer has release a new music video called My Moment. While her voice is still awfully auto tuned and the music video isn't all that exciting, I'll give her some points for not giving up. And with this new music video, it has been announced that a new 5 song EP has been released onto Itunes today called Yes There's More!

Link to the Yahoo! Article: Rebecca Black New Music Video
Edit: The Music Video was taken off because it didn't work. If you'd like to see it, click the link to the Yahoo! Article.

In other subjects that is video related and I'm not considering news at all, Jerusha Hess (who apparently has cowritten things (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncoswith her husband, and the famous Twilight author, Stephanie Meyer, are co-producing a movie called Austenland
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of this film and described it in a bit more detail as follows:
[Austenland] centers on a single, thirtysomething woman with a secret obsession with Mr. Darcy — as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The obsession is ruining her love life because no real man can compare. When she decides to spend her life savings on a trip to an English resort catering to Jane Austen-crazed women, the woman’s fantasy of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman becomes more real than she could have imagined.
Link to the aritcle: Twilight Author to Co-Produce a Movie....

In the News
According to several reports 178 teachers and principals in Alabama have been caught in one of America's largest teaching scandals ever. For years everyone thought that everything was going great for the school districts grades kept on rising. But due to abnormal scores, investigators found that on standardized tests (yes this is why we shouldn't have them!) teachers would change their student's answers so that they would get better grades.

This, mind you, was not to help the students in any way, it was to save their own jobs. By getting higher test scores the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation would give them more funding. 
According to the Yahoo! Article:
One of the most troubling aspects of the Atlanta cheating scandal, says the report, is that the district repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating. Moreover, the central office told some principals not to cooperate with investigators. In one case, an administrator instructed employees to tell investigators to "go to hell." When teachers tried to alert authorities, they were labeled "disgruntled." One principal opened an ethics investigation against a whistle-blower.
Because of the high stakes placed on these tests for teachers, these "educators" have resorted to cheating. Hypocrites! They tell us "don't cheat or you'll get a zero" yet they think it's perfectly okay to cheat themselves? How can we possibly trust them if they show us that we can't trust them.

Some of these high stakes include:
Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Other states reward high-scoring teachers with up to $25,000 bonuses – while low scores could result in principals losing their jobs or entire schools closing. Even as the number of scandals grows, experts say it remains fairly easy for teachers and principals to get away with ethical lapses.
In one report I read, teachers would get together on weekends or after school at each other's houses, drink coffee and eat while they would erase their students answers.  Much like some kinda of party. Why is this okay with you teachers? Why!

I think that this lady has a very good point:
"And that’s what ought to alarm us," adds Ms. Downey, "that these professionals ultimately felt their students could not even pass basic competency tests, despite targeted school improvement plans, proven reforms, and state-of-the-art teacher training."
True true. I find not only what the teachers did alarming, but insulting too. Kids are smarter than what you think. Just because there are those few who don't care, alot of us do care. And we'll do the best we can without your helping us cheat. And how did these teachers expect to get away with this? How I don't know, but something will have to be done about this so that this can never happen again.

In a recent report, the teachers and officials caught up in this scandal will be forced to resign this week or this will be forced to. So, yes teachers, there are punishments for cheating even with you too. I hope that every one of you feels ashamed of yourselves. And just think, you have now destroyed any hopes of getting another teaching job in this already bad economy.

You can read both news articles here and here.

So, what do you think about Rebecca Black's new songs, or Stephanie Meyer's new producer job? What about this teaching scandal?

Sincerely,
Peony

11 comments:

  1. Ok here are me answers!
    1) Don't like her, she can't sing. She is famous because she is bad. Not something to brag about. But yeah, death threats a little too far.
    2) I could really care less about that
    3) MAN!? Are you serouis!?! I'm glad they aren't my teachers!! That's just stupid and mean!

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  2. I don't like her either. Although it got REALLY annoying when every Friday everyone is singing her song all during school. UGH.

    I don't care for her, Twilight wasn't very good. I only read the first one and then I had to stop because I couldn't stand it anymore.

    I know! Know I'm always going to be wondering if my teachers have ever cheated like that. I understand that they just wanted to keep their jobs but there are other ways to up grade performance!

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  3. That movies sounds very interesting, actually! It depends how it's done, because with Stephenie Meyer, who knows. It could turn out dreadfully cliche. But I think it's a fun idea!

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  4. It does sound like a fun idea. And besides, since it's not her idea it could be good. Plus she's doing it with another producer. I hope it doesn't turn out cliche, although...sometimes I don't mind when things are cliche.

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  5. It's not Rebecca Black herself that bothers me, it's the record label that represents (represented?) her, Ark Music Company. Their business model is based on getting rich off parents who will pay thousands of dollars to see their "talented little girl" dancing and singing like a pop star. I could even stand for that, though; the worst part is that there is no soul in the stuff they produce. Their songs and music videos are generic, unoriginal, and seem to be based off statistical analysis of what will sell (apparently partying and a random dude rapping in a cool car for no apparent reason are all you need for a hit!).

    As for Stephanie Meyer, I don't care one bit. I don't have the same tastes in anything as she does (particularly not movies and music) so I doubt I will like her work.

    Although I would love to comment on the Alabama scandal, I can't because I'll be getting my teaching certificate in less than two years.

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  6. That music company bothered me too. I heard her sing the national (american) anthem and she sounded very pretty. I think part of it is the autotune. But anyways, it is unoriginal. I couldn't tell you the number of times I've seen parties and people singing in cars in music videos. Personally, I wouldn't want to pay a company to do that for me. In a way it seems like its...cheating. And I wouldn't want to be a pop star anyways, they tend to wear...some odd clothing.

    Oh fun! What kind of teaching? I have a couple of friends who are going to be teachers.

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  8. Hehe, "odd clothing." So true, so true.

    I'm going to be a high school math teacher. :) In New York State, which pretty much has the toughest standards nationwide for both teaching certification and for standardized testing!

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  9. Lol, yes.

    Oh fun! :) I secretly love math, but usually only when I understand it. Algebra is easy for me though so I like those classes. Oh New York! I've always wanted to visit there. Well good luck! I know that high school students might be some of the most frustrating kids to teach. At least in my school they are.

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  10. I definitely expect to get frustrated at times, but nowhere near as frustrated I'd get with younger kids. Everyone below age like 14 bugs the crap out of me, I could never teach them. I like teenagers, though (I still consider myself one even though I'm not :p). Plus, it's more about the math than the students for me. I want to teach calculus because I love it. That's the most important thing; interactions with students will follow naturally.

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  11. I know what you mean. For some reason little kids love me even though they bug me to death. Hey, we teenagers are fun and good students at times. :) Well if you love it, I'm sure you'll make a great teacher! We have a teacher who isn't very good at her job (I have her next year, gah!) and I think it's because she doesn't seem interested in it.

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