If you’re like many of the millions of American parents who have been directly affected by the Global COVID-19 Pandemic beginning in the United States around early 2020, then you understand the challenges and frustrations that have invariably come with remote learning for your kids. Virtually, in the blink of an eye, parents went from breadwinners and caregivers to homeschoolers and the resident IT help desk. The latter being no easy chore even for actual IT professionals! When the pandemic first hit here in The Bay State, schools immediately closed. In my family’s town, it was on Friday, March 13th. How apropos! First, there was two weeks off for kids as the school system attempted to figure out how to go forward with a remote learning model that had not existed in any appreciable form before for the grade schoolers. Needless to say, it was a bit of an expected technical challenge. Most of the work assigned to our kids were in the form of review material with no appreciable new materials being taught. Couple that with technological challenges almost equal to the quest of how to lockdown that states, test, trace, and develop a vaccine all to fight COVID-19. As well as, Congress figuring out a way to help small businesses and individuals alike with some form of comprehensive COVID relief package. So many things were happening at once. And providing some kind of technology equity for lower-income students to have both Internet bandwidth along with a working Internet-capable computer (most likely a Chromebook laptop) was also part of that challenge. This was because it quickly became evident that students were going to be staying home and learning remotely—to the end of 2020, and most likely hybrid (remote and in-person combo) until the end of the 2021 school year...
schools
-
-
January 1, 2020With the 34th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster this past Tuesday, I thought it would be fitting to pay tribute to Christa McAuliffe as the first teacher in space who perished on that fateful day back in 1986. And, I thought it would also be fitting to include Sally Ride, America’s first woman astronaut. Both are Progressive Pioneers who advanced space exploration for generations of future American female astronauts, young women everywhere. Here are their stories: Sharon Christa McAuliffe (A.K.A. Christa) is famously known for being chosen as America’s first teacher in space. Though, she never made it into space due to a tragic accident involving the Space Shuttle Challenger 73 seconds into liftoff on January 28, 1986. Despite the loss of McAuliffe and the other six crewmembers aboard the space craft, which is regarded as a national tragedy, McAuliffe’s life is celebrated and honored all across the country. Schools, scholarships, documentaries, and more have all been named in her honor. She has inspired whole generations of kids since that fateful day to reach for the stars and to achieve their dreams. McAuliffe was born in Boston on September 2, 1948. Her father, Edward Christopher Corrigan was an accountant of Irish descent, and her mother, Grace Mary Corrigan, was a teacher of Lebanese Maronite descent. McAuliffe received a bachelor’s degree in Education from Framingham State College and a master’s degree in Education (supervision & administration) from Bowie State University. She married Stephen J. McAuliffe in 1970, with whom she had two children, Scott and Caroline. She eventually took a teaching job Concord High School (Concord, NH), where she would eventually apply for President Ronald Reagan’s Teacher in Space Project for NASA. Out of 11,000+ applicants, she and teacher Barbara Morgan were the final two chosen in 1985, with McAuliffe earning the top spot. Both McAuliffe and Morgan took a year’s leave of absence to train for the space shuttle mission...
-
January 31, 2019So it turns out that Kevin Costner was right all along not to try to fake a British accent in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves! In fact, if anyone spoke closer to the way the mythical Robin Hood would have spoken back in those days, it would have been Costner (portraying the titular character) and not the predominantly British cast (with the exception of Morgan Freeman of course who played the Moor Azeem sporting a Persian dialect)! Okay, now before my British friends flame the hell out of me listen to my reasoning on this matter: So last night while watching an episode of Sleepy Hollow I was intrigued by an exchange between Ichabod Crane and one of the modern-day police officers. The officer was trying to insult Crane by saying something that he wasn’t an American because he spoke with a British accent. However, the officer didn’t realize that Crane was transported through time from the American Revolution to modern times (by witchcraft) and that would explain his accent because back then (ca. 1776) American colonists and their British counterparts all pretty much spoke with the same accent. So then my interest was piqued, and I looked up when did American English and British English accents diverge. The answer surprised the hell out of me! It turns out that it weren’t Americans who lost their so-called British accent. It was the British who gained theirs over the last 300 years or so (242 years since the American Revolution)! I couldn’t believe it! I have a degree in English but I don’t recall this being covered in any of my English classes. Please no comments about the quality of American education—let’s just stick to the subject at hand. So anyway, that blew my mind. I’ll post the link to the research here. Now there are a few exceptions to...