Kimi Blog – Page 51

2013051020221207

Principal Kafele shares inspiring thoughts on mission and passion

I love Principal Kafele‘s positive approach to solving today’s educational issues. He also shares great advice on personal achievement. This 11 minute video is an excellent sample of his practical approach for achievement and success.

Principal Kafele counsels:

If you see in your mind’s eye what you’re striving to achieve, the chances increase exponentially that your vision will become your reality … Everything starts with an idea. From the idea we create a goal – we devise a plan – we become firm in our purpose – we embark on a mission – a mission that is vision oriented. What we are going to achieve … (is) already locked into our mind’s eye … read more

2013050720131213

Don’t want to be replaced by video lecturers? Up your game.

Philosophy professors at a public California University have spurned an offer to be replaced by online courses which are part of the edX initiative to offer lectures from Harvard, MIT and other top-level colleges to students at other universities in the form of video clips delivered on line. The San Jose State University professors point out in a public letter that the drive to cut education costs by replacing hands-on teaching with film clips constitutes a gross degradation of the educational experience their students will receive; that video teaching isn’t half as good mind fodder as reading a textbook is; and that it would be crazy for them to passively agree that a video lecture can teach students better than themselves, as real life professors, can. read more

2013050720221207

Whale Rider is so worth watching

Whale Rider is a lovely story of a native New Zealand girl coming of age in a dichotomized society in which the role of native women is being redefined. It’s a beautiful and exciting story, and the girl both rides a whale and is transformed by the experience … This is a movie you will find enchanting, mystical and thought-provoking.

2013050520131213

Great spoof video on animal eating

In this video, two friends sit down to dinner, and one offers to show the other how animals eat their food. Totally destroys his friend’s dinner, but they have a good laugh.

2013050320131213

You Have Lost Your Minds and Your Way, a poem

You Have Lost Your Minds and Your Way

You Republican preachers with your bible in one hand
And your gun in the other
You can’t tell me nothing
Telling me to accept the will of God in my body
Then go out and kill somebody
You can’t tell me nothing

By Mark Graham, 2013
Titled by Cynthia Oneday Flood.

2013050220131213

Racist Mountain Dew goat series commercial pulled

Friend of a friend Sandi Baronvonsassypants Snipe summed this disgusting series of Mountain Dew commercial up much better than I can:

Uggg. I could go on and on about the many fuckeries this commercial promotes but then I would just cry.

Our mutual friend @bryanalexander posted this on Facebook with this note, “Here’s the full Mountain Dew goat commercial series. #3 is the killer. Wow.” And yeah, I found it not only racist, but quite unsettling.

What do you think?

2013043020221207

HIPAA offers no privacy or protection to an ill child

Joey Furlong is a Bethlehem, NY 4th grader interned in hospital for a life-threatening condition and awaiting brain surgery. This week, he was approached by one of the teachers employed by the hospital, who wanted the boy to take a standardized test. CBS News reports (Tami is Joey’s mom),

Tami’s husband was in the room when one of the teachers came in talking about the test but she wonders what would have happened had he not been, “I would like to hope she would not have taken his arm that has an IV and oximeter on it and put a number 2 pencil in it, I would like to hope that she would wait to talk to the family.” read more

2013043020131213

Bergen CC NAACP screens Half the Sky today 4/29

Bergen Community College Chapter of NAACP in Paramus is sponsoring a screening of Half the Sky today 4/29 at 11:45am-2:15pm in Room A-104 (in the Student Center atrium), followed by a panel discussion on empowering women as full citizens across the globe and ending targeting violence against women. Please feel welcome to join.

Renée from Half the Sky organization is coming out from their New York office to tell us about the movement that has been sparked by the book and film, and as one of the discussion panelists I (Kimi Wei) will share my own perspectives as a widow, single mom, domestic violence survivor, sustainability advocate and Happiness trainer. read more

2013043020131213

Poverty creates poor school performance. Time to stop it.

Bobby Kennedy made hunger and poverty relief a top priority with his Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, but 50 years later the United States has the 2nd highest rate of poverty among industrialized nations. And Dale Hansen of the Detroit News is asking, if poverty is the biggest problem education faces, why aren’t we more focused on relieving it? Dale supplies his own answer: Republicans are way too committed to their war on public education to allow positive change to get in their way. read more

2013042820131213

New report shows ed reform is failing our kids

The report Market-oriented education reforms’ rhetoric trumps reality issued this month (April 2013) by the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education concludes that so-called education reforms have led to bigger gaps and lost ground, “for the students they were supposed to support” – low-income, low achieving and Abbot District students. Outcomes were measured in Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Market-driven education is a concept introduced by Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom. read more

2013042520221207

Baby Micah & the magic tearing paper

Baby Micah loves to see his dad magically transform paper and celery into musical instruments by tearing them into little pieces. Micah laughs and laughs when these inanimate items suddenly spring to life with unique sounds of their own – that they won’t make for him but make for Dad every time. So fun to watch!

2013042020131213

Czech Embassy issues statement: We are not Chechnya

Where Czech Republic & Chechnya are on the map

I mention to people fairly often that I don’t know where countries are because geography isn’t taught in US public schools. Here, we have something called “Social Studies” instead of history or geography, which is supposed to teach how people in different cultures live and think. But wow! The world is finite and countries change borders or names fairly infrequently. Can’t we take a few months in one of the early school years to focus on teaching US students where other countries are on the world map? People from every other country I’ve ever met learn this in school at a pretty young age. Only in the United States, our students don’t know. read more

2013042020221207

Free prom dress programs across NJ and US

April is prom month. If you’re a young lady of modest means you can be the belle of the ball with a free or low-cost designer dress ($10 is low, right?) in beautiful condition from one of the prom dress giveaway programs in New Jersey and around the country. Act soon though. Giveaways are going on right now all over the New York/New Jersey area and in many cities across the country! Some programs provide accessories and shoes to match gowns … and they may share tasty treats and other gifts with “shoppers” and their moms, as well. The idea is, that every young person should have the chance to attend prom dressed fabulously and fashionably, whether they have lots of money or don’t. read more

2013041720131213

Customers petition Verizon to cut prices

Talk about hard to find! I learned from a Facebook post by Mayor Wayne Smith about 55,000+ customers petitioning Verizon to cut their fees. I looked at the Techyville article but founc no link to the petition. Several Google searches I ran through – web, Google News and a Google power search on the change.org website where the petition is supposed to be, didn’t pull anything up either.

Then I found an article which links to the petition at the end of a post. But then I stumbled across another url that couldn’t be any simpler: just change.org/contracts and this is the one I’m sharing. I can’t remember where I found it (oops) but no matter. The point is, you can now navigate to the petition and sign away! read more

2013040820131213

Pro-public education Board of Education 2013 candidates

Board of Education budgets are typically 3 times as big as the entire budgets of the municipalities in which they’re located. Those hugs pots of money are why Big-Business supporter Gov. Chris Christie and his GOP colleague Mitt Romney are so eager to get their hands on public education funds. They can’t stand money being spent to actually improve the lives of vulnerable children, and students of color, across America when that money could go to make their own children and grandchildren richer. read more