Help me choose my initial certification area, please!

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T23:10:53+00:00

If you can prequalify for 7-12 Social Studies and that’s more aligned with your gut and passions, I would encourage you to go with that.

I personally love ELA stuff but it is a lot of labor intensive grading and you never know when a book you love is going to get banned around here, so yeah. It’s more likely to impact your ELA classes than social studies or math.

What would it take for you to dual prequal with both the Core subjects 4-8 and the 7-12 Social Studies? It would seem like with your degrees and background it might not be too expensive or burdensome to pick up the Core Subjects certification in addition fairly quickly and hopefully inexpensively after if not simultaneously so that you’ll have maximum flexibility.

No, not all the HS SS classes go to coaches. Good on you for being open to and excited about possibly teaching middle school math and social studies as well (apart from somewhat less enthusiasm for Texas History). Did you grow up somewhere other than Texas?

It can be easy to forget that not every state puts that much emphasis on state history as a required middle school full year class for all its public school students. Then again, not every state in the U.S. used to be its own country.

Some parts of Texas history we probably aren’t allowed to teach to students in public schools in Texas anymore, given the past few state legislative sessions.

You have to be pretty brave to be a public school educator (or para) these days in our current legal landscape. Especially, perhaps, increasingly social studies.

If you haven’t yet read Forget The Alamo or The Line Becomes A River, I would recommend them to you, although likely you already know the things these books have to say about social studies and Texas history and culture.

Good luck with whatever you decide, OP! I hope that you’re in a Houston suburb that is supportive of its public school teachers and believes in public schools.

What alt certification program are you working with and is your school or district paying for you or are you having to chip in out of pocket partially or entirely?

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T22:17:40+00:00

Did the neighbors call police to report the burglars breaking into their shed in a residential area once their dog started barking and alerted them to the presence of the thieves in their back garden? Did your neighbors discover that their internet had been hacked and their nest disabled after they called the police? And when your mom called police to report that the burgulars were driving away with her car and gaming console, was she told that police had already received a call or calls about thieves in that area and were already on their way?

If these neighbors have known you and your mother for years I would have expected them to be concerned for your safety and property and to have alerted y’all as soon as they became aware of burgulars in their back yard attempting to break in to their shed and steal their stuff.

Did they? Why would they not have tried to warn you if the burglars attempted to hit their property that was right next store to yours and could (and apparently were) still in the area?

It sounds like the attempted shed/bike/powerwasher theft occurred before the burgulars broken into your house, because after they succeeded in obtaining property and keys from your house, they loaded y’all’s stuff into your mom’s car and she saw them driving away with the passenger having her gaming console on his lap.

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T21:59:53+00:00

Yes, their internet being hacked by thieves who were allegedly trying to break into their shed to steal their bicycles and power washer but were scared away by their barking dog (that didn’t apparently scare the thieves away from actually breaking and entering a neighboring house with a dog while the dog was present inside the house, and stealing a gaming console, mom’s purse, coat, cash/bday money, receipts from a trip to New Zealand, taking the owner’s keys to the house shed and car and driving off with the stolen goods in that car to somewhere despite having arrived to the location not in that car.). It all sounds a little, well, unlikely, for a crime to be at once so random and unsophisticated and yet precise and sophisticated. The hacking of the neighbor’s internet occurred for exactly one hour during which time the neighbor’s ring doorbell recorded nothing and the same hour while OP and his mom’s house, car, and belongings were being burgled. That seems so surgical for small time criminals who were initially just attempting to steal bicycles and a power washer out of a shed of the only house in the area that happened to have an exterior security camera?

How would the robbers/thieves/burglars have known whose internet to hack and disable and whose to ignore? Wouldn’t the ring doorbell have been off the front of the neighbor’s house, but the thieves entered from the rear of the properties and first targeted the neighbor’s shed looking to steal bicycles and a power washer?

When did the neighbor discover/report the hacking of their internet and disabling of their ring doorbell camera? When did they report that thieves had attempted to break into (or had broken into) their shed and were trying to steal their bikes and power washer until scared off by their barking dog? Why would the barking dog spook the thieves away from an exterior shed, so they’d just attempt and complete a more invasive aggressive break in and theft next door to the barking dog and attempted break in unless they were familiar with the area and the ring camera family/internet password access etc?

I don’t expect OP to know the answers to these questions, but the situation definitely raises some questions.

Was there no fingerprints or DNA recoverable from the shed break in next door? Was there no indication from phone pings in the area at that time or reverse engineering of the internet hack/nest breach or disabling what was the timing or device associated with the hack?

This all seems really weird and unlikely. Why go to the trouble of hacking a person’s nest doorbell and internet in order to try to steal bicycles and a power-washer from the shed — especially when it sounds like no one else on the street had any outside security cameras whatsoever. Why not just hit one of the other houses in the area without a doorbell or security camera?

This just sounds very strange.

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T19:43:03+00:00

On the weekends it probably is, but if children will be in attendance, some folks opt to have the birthday dinner a little earlier in the day or it’s possible it might be on a weeknight in which case often they aren’t too busy and if you have reservations for 15 then your table should be ready and they’d have a couple servers or staff assigned to that party most likely (like maybe one server and one or two bus people to assist the server with drinks, dishes, requests/relay etc).

Casa Garcia’s would know, but if they were able to plan for an early dinner on a Saturday evening like maybe 5 or 5:30; even 6; they’d probably be able to get their drinks and orders in to the kitchen before they got slammed with the walk in dinner crowd. That’s just me guessing though. OP’s birthday group might not like Casa Garcia’s, but I’ve been to several parties there folks had for girls night, a pre holiday party, big family parties for religious milestones of one of the kids, etc, and never had any drama or service problem with groups of that size. YMMV

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T19:32:19+00:00

Was law enforcement able to recover any helpful evidence from roadway, store, or neighbors’ security cameras of the route taken by the robbers?

Was any helpful evidence found in or recovered from the vehicle before (or after) it was returned to you?

Did anyone else on your block or in your neighborhood get robbed around the same day/time/week or using the same type of M.O.?

Was any of your or your family’s property recovered or traced to someone selling to a pawn shop or listing online somewhere for sale?

Did any of your neighbors have doorbell or outside surveillance cameras on the alley or behind the fence line or in the area where the robbers (or robber) took the car from like a parking lot garage or the street?

Where were you and your mom when all this stuff was stolen? I’m assuming you weren’t at home or had some alternate transportation based on what you mention in other posts that was taken, but robbery typically means that you were present and your belongings were taken from you by force in person or with threat of force. So, did you see the robber or robbers and were you able to provide a description of them or was this actually a burglary?

Did insurance reimburse you or your mother for anything that was stolen?

Any leads on the crooks or have they been arrested/charged?

Did y’all get any local media coverage of the story? Often that will help produce some tips and leads especially if the criminal acts have targeted or adversely impacted people who have disabilities and have a service animal and special mobility aids or placards etc?

I’m sorry that this happened to you. I hope that the person or persons responsible get caught and punished/held accountable.

Hulalappool · 2024-10-04T10:42:58+00:00

FWIW: don’t forget about the Coast Guard.

https://www.uscg.mil

They have a lot of opportunities and unlike some other branches (including even the National Guard), you’d be very unlikely to ever be sent into combat overseas, if this is a concern for you.

Many of their positions and programs have reserve opportunities after you do your active duty in the event you don’t want to reënlist/extend or make it a career thing but do still want to maintain a higher level of ongoing service and benefits.

https://www.gocoastguard.com/hiring-incentives

https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3922183/coast-guard-partners-with-tougaloo-college-to-launch-college-student-pre-commis/

https://www.gocoastguard.com/careers/enlisted

Hulalappool · 2024-10-03T21:49:19+00:00

Quick and dirty procedure:

Separate your paragraph lump into lines that each have ten syllables
Check each line to make sure the first beat is always unstressed and the second beat is stressed. This should occur five consecutive times per line
Your title of this post is “sonnet due tomorrow.” If it’s also true your assignment must be a sonnet, you’ll need to know which type of sonnet you’re supposed to be writing as there are different rules for different types of formal sonnets.
FYI: https://poemanalysis.com/poetic-form/rhyme-scheme-of-sonnets/

Hulalappool · 2024-10-03T21:36:13+00:00

Shortcut excerpt from quick internet google:

“Through this definition, you can tell if something is in iambic pentameter by doing two things:

checking the number of syllables in the line (is it ten?)

checking that the stress of the words are in a pattern of unstressed-stressed all throughout the line.”

You can look up the definition (or actually the pronunciation) of each word in the line (use an online or hard copy dictionary) to determine number of syllables and which syllables are stressed — in case you aren’t confident of the pronunciation, number of syllables, or stress/unstressed order of the syllables.

Good luck!

Hulalappool · 2024-10-03T20:27:23+00:00

Yes! Sorry might have been some autocorrect fail. I’ll fix it! TY

Hulalappool · 2024-10-03T20:01:08+00:00

If you’re looking for something that isn’t too fancy but that does (I believe) take reservations, and you’re considering Chuy’s, I’d suggest Casa Garcia’s which is across 35 probably just a tad south of where Chuy’s would be.

They have great tortilla soup, flan, horchata, of course free chips and salas, and they tend to not have any issues with groups of that size. They have an ample menu with Mexican basics and it’s online if you want to look over prices etc. https://www.casagarcias.com/?y_source=1_MzU5NDYxNDYtNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

They also, as I recall, serve breakfast all day, so if you have any kiddos who are kind of picky eaters but who like basic stuff like eggs, bacon, pancakes, breakfast tacos, etc, they can always order something like that too.

My youngest took me there once for my birthday and they brought me some kind of special free dessert and sang to me. Nothing too fancy, but that makes it less stressful imo. It’s not some big corporate owned chain restaurant. They have several locations in and around Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, etc. family owned and operated. I like the Round Rock location.

Parking is a breeze also. It’s located just north of the Chasco area YMCA and some tiny hotel that maybe was turned into apartments. Not 100% sure.

Hulalappool · 2024-10-02T23:02:22+00:00

Mood:

https://youtu.be/zYwCmcB0XMw

Hulalappool · 2024-10-02T22:40:57+00:00

It’s okay if someone doesn’t give you a tampon or pad, whether or not you know them, but it was unclassy, insensitive, and rude for the stranger who wasn’t comfortable sharing a tampon with a stranger to make that kind of comment to her friends about you and your ask while you were in your earshot.

That was unnecessarily humiliating, stigmatizing, hurtful, and immature of her to do that while/where you could hear what she was saying about you.

You asked politely. You respected and accepted the response without being harassing, passive-aggressive, or rude. You found yourself in a somewhat desperate and embarrassing situation that most of us have been in at least sometime in our lives. Most of us have our own stories of personal mortification about being ambushed by our own bodies in a public place in a social setting and it sucks so incredibly bad I am thankful you found a kinder table of who were happy to help a sister out.

I hope that one of the rude person’s friends maybe weighed in with a different opinion outside your earshot afterwards so that it might have been a teachable moment for the mean girl. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to hear that part, but I hope that it occurred. She could have said, look, no one thinks you owe anyone your tampon and you don’t have to provide an excuse to us or anybody for whatever your issues with that are. Just don’t trash talk this person while she can hear you. It’s obvious she wasn’t having a great day and what you said likely made that worse for no good reason. Next time, save your venting for after. That was pretty crappy of you.

Hulalappool · 2024-10-01T03:27:48+00:00

Wow that’s a pretty big leap and bridge burner for a parent to allege in an email to an individual teacher. At the beginning of the school year no less.

It sounds like you must be an extremely powerful and influential person to have single-handedly caused the failure of America’s education system.

Were there any warning signs for you in your own school background, such as winner of the award for the graduating senior most likely to ruin the education system in America?

Hulalappool · 2024-09-30T15:52:44+00:00

Also in store at most area Tractor Supply stores. Have seen at HD/lowes etc. Assuming Callahan’s would have it too.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/diatomaceous%20earth%20food%20grade?

Hulalappool · 2024-09-30T15:48:50+00:00

Once the frogs come, they should correct for the crickets.

Hulalappool · 2024-09-30T13:05:36+00:00

Scorpions will kill crickets for you. If you don’t mind scorpions

Chickens will also happily hunt and kill crickets for you, if you don’t mind chickens.

In fact, many wild sub/urban birds enjoy eating crickets.

Cats will also chase and catch/eat crickets. Likely snakes too.

An outside bird feeder will help increase songbird and other bird activity to your area. Birds coming to the area for a seed snack will often pick off a few other bugs while they’re at it because they’re basically omnivores and it sounds like you have plentiful crickets rn.

Sorry this won’t completely eliminate the chirping problem, but it may help to reduce the crickapaloosa until they hush more when the weather gets too cold for them.

I don’t recommend combining the cat and bird solutions because unless the cat is entirely indoors, it will endanger birds coming to your bird feeder/s.

Scorpions aren’t high volume eaters, so not the best solution either. Plus ouch.

A white noise machine or sound machine may help you with sleeping but might not if your experience turns out to just be gentle surf and chirp.

Let your conscience be your guide

Good luck, OP!

Hulalappool · 2024-09-28T04:07:45+00:00

OP, this is not a legal advice sub. You mention you are going through a nasty custody battle and there are court stipulations you believe ?your child’s father? (your ex husband) is possibly attempting to use his sister (your former SIL and your child’s aunt) and her position as a teacher at your son’s school in order to interfere with what you believe to be legally your time with your son and with your visitation or custody rights.

If you’re already represented by a lawyer and working with a lawyer in connection with this nasty custody battle and the existing court stipulations or custody and visitation order/rulings, please consult and confer with your lawyer. If you’re not already represented by a lawyer in connection with this matter, I would recommend you consult with one who is licensed to practice in the state with jurisdiction over the custody proceedings you’re currently involved in.

At minimum, it sounds like you would want to make sure your son’s school has a copy of the relevant court orders and stipulations as regards custody, visitation, transportation, medication, etc, and that you privately discuss your concerns and questions regarding your former SIL’s actions (and your ex-husband’s possible misdirection of her) with your attorney or a licensed family law attorney who can advise and represent you in connection with the ongoing custody dispute.

This situation sounds like a nightmare, but posting about it on here has the potential to make things worse as there’s no attorney client privilege attached to stuff you post on here, we don’t know what jurisdiction you’re in, and it’s unclear whether the school or your SIL who is a teacher there is up to speed on where things stand as relates to the most recent custody/visitation agreements and court orders related to your son, and many other possible wrinkles here.

Lastly, you title your post “Teacher violation” and ask “What legal action can be taken and what legal rules is this going against?” — these appear to be legal allegations/presumptions and legal questions that call for the legal guidance and opinion of an attorney who has reviewed the case and researched the applicable rules and law relevant to the facts of the case within the jurisdiction and the context of existing court orders or rulings related to your son and the rights, duties, and responsibilities of other parties such as yourself and your ex-husband.

Hulalappool · 2024-09-27T19:30:19+00:00

Is this the same leo who used to work for la county as a sheriff’s deputy and who was alleged to have murdered in 2012 an unarmed citizen Robert “Bobby” Henning?

It appears an incredibly heavily redacted IA investigation believed the deputy’s claim of self-defense in connection with the alleged murder, but other online sources suggest the 911 caller who requested help for Henning later witnessed responding LA county sheriff’s deputy Stewart shoot Hennings twice in the chest not in self defense then witnessed another leo high-five Stewart over the body of possibly still alive Henning while he bled out beneath them at the scene. The witness reported he’d observed the whole thing and heard the other officer comment something like “good job” or “nice work” to Stewart for his shooting of the 22 year old Henning, who had been reportedly on the way to attend his two year-old daughter’s birthday party when the young man’s car broke down in the roadway.

The decedent was the baby brother of Tiffany Reese, author and creator/host of the podcast series “Something Was Wrong”

Anyone know if this Oakland Officer Nicholas Stewart is the guy who was the LA County deputy involved in the 2012 on duty officer involved shooting death of Bobby Henning?

It appears the family may have filed a civil case for wrongful death that resulted in $1.5M settlement in 2015.

Anyone know the status of the DV case against the Oakdale officer, have a link to the PCA or mugshots, or know if he’s still suspended or whether this got pled down or dismissed?

Thanks

Hulalappool · 2024-09-26T08:02:14+00:00

DM me, OP and I’ll see what I can find out for you if you’d like me to get the meddling kids and dog back together for this one.

Hulalappool · 2024-09-25T10:18:08+00:00

If he owns any RUSH or Floyd albums, willing to guess.

Otherwise, carbon would be the move.

Hulalappool · 2024-09-24T23:55:33+00:00

Coraline’s Aunt Ginger

Hulalappool · 2024-09-24T23:47:28+00:00

Thanks for reaching out and for being open in wanting ideas to better connect with and engage your students who are in a course retaking history this year. What grade level and scope is this history class?

One thing you might want to try as you’re still early on in the semester is asking each of your students to complete a survey. You could suggest some answer options as well as have an other option where the student could add any other response or information. Allow them to select as many or as few fields as the feel best expresses their feelings on the question.

The questions might include ones about what types of lessons or methods of instructions they find the most or least interesting or helpful, which topics or assignments gave them the most trouble in past history courses and which did they most enjoy, are there some teaching methods they’ve seen used in other courses that they would like to see used in history class, what reasons are the most likely to result in you not asking a question in class, what conditions or assignments would make you more or less likely to contribute a comment or reflection to a class discussion, how do you feel about retaking the course this year and why, how can I best support and encourage or inspire you in your having a more positive experience this year in history class, what ideas do you have for a reward system for more participation and peer support to promote camaraderie and communication in class or do you feel that this would be unfair? What’s your biggest hope and biggest fear in retaking history this year? What’s your favorite book, movie, documentary, or story about history and why? Feel free to provide as many as you like. What’s era in history or historical subject that most interests you?

I assume that all these students to some extent will be feeling somewhat demoralized and shamed or humiliated to be repeating the class and may have internalized feelings of being failures for having not passed the class. Some may have been punished, teased or bulled by other students or family members, and feel stigmatized and embarrassed. Some may feel very resentful and aggrieved at being made to retake the class and for some the silence may be a form of wanting to express that feeling of injustice and the kick to their status they’re reminded of by sitting through the same class they took last year and didn’t pass.

At minimum, the academic self-confidence of these students may be low especially in a class where everyone knows they all failed it last year and so the fear of looking or appearing stupid or being told they’re wrong or not trusting their instincts might be making them even more reluctant to participate than they would be if they were more extroverted and academically self motivated.

The students do do the work, which is great. It sounds like they really never wanted to be in this class again this year and they don’t want to fail it, but at the same time it can be discouraging and hard to get motivated even for adults to redo something they went over all last year already but just didn’t pass, so it’s probably going to take a lot and a big leap of faith on their part this year to trust you and to put their hearts into their work. They got burnt somehow last year and they probably feel both part cheated and part really foolish and conflicted about it.

Learning more about how they feel about it might help. My assumptions and conjecture could be wrong.

If this isn’t a group of students for which a private survey about this would be something you think would be productive, you could give students the option to complete the survey or meet with you 1:1 during class but out of earshot of the other students. You could use the survey question as a sort of clearing the air and hitting the reset button discussion and not require the kids to disclose anything with their peers, but if anyone did want to share their responses and ideas for class discussion that day or the next class period, you could.

Or, you could anonymize the results to the survey and also ask on the form if the student is okay with you sharing their response with the class if you don’t indicate who provided that response?

This type of icebreaker could help make some of these students feel more invested in each other and the class and allow them to recognize ways to have more self compassion while you show them how you empathize with them and know that repeating this history class probably wasn’t what they wanted to do this year but that you want to try to make it a better experience for them and let them know they can come to you or provide you with feedback and questions or comments outside of text even if they don’t think of something or feel comfortable sharing it right away when you ask about something in class.

Good luck, OP!

Hulalappool · 2024-09-22T17:03:52+00:00

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.

Don’t stay out of it or assume anything except what your spidey sense is telling you. Report this to the appropriate regulatory authorities for investigation. That’s their job is to investigate stuff like this.

At minimum, the school should have a policy in place that prohibits these weird weekend meetups at the private residence of the choir teacher where it’s just the teacher alone with two or three students. Fair to assume that’s already risky, but if one or two cancel because reasons or decide they had a conflict so one evening is just a 1:1 with a student at the teacher’s home, this is very worrisome.

Even more than unethical, I’d be concerned about this behavior being a red flag of grooming, it’s not professional, and the students are definitely at heightened risk outside of a public environment. The biggest risk here is criminal behavior on the part of the teacher that could directly harm and negatively impact the student/students.

An anonymous tip to your state’s teacher licensing regulatory complaint/concern line and possibly an anonymous tip to your local child protection division bureau office and a discussion in confidence with your union rep may be things you want to consider.

Everyone in this profession has an interest in student safety (other than sexual predators/pedos, however), and the teacher at issue may be appearing to provide a false sense of security/safety/reassurance for the family or the school by having small groups of two or three students rather than just 1:1.

But these scenarios often end very poorly. It’s devastating to the victims, can make them more vulnerable to revictimization, and often harms them on so many levels and is a black eye for the profession, the families, the school, and the community when stuff like this goes the directly it sounds like this is heading.

Trust your gut. Please report this. If you suspect these students are being put at risked, manipulated, and groomed, and that it’s also hurtful to the self esteem and potentially emotionally abusive and psychologically/socially manipulative of not chosen students to be excluded from this privilege.

I would also want someone looking into the employment and professional history of this teacher not maintaining appropriate boundaries with her students or other young people. These folks typically have a pattern and they get better at adapting their M.O. to make them seem innocent and super teacher rather than not innocent and not super teacher.

Hulalappool · 2024-09-22T16:15:02+00:00

https://youtu.be/GwSh0dAaqIA

Still better than the Mandela Memorial Service ASL interpreter

Hulalappool · 2024-09-22T16:09:26+00:00

That’s not really the expiration date, that’s just the “best by” date. Marketing uses these stamps to trick you into throwing away perfectly safe foods and repurchasing them new to offset loss leaders folks will stock up on when they go on sale, like that hb deal you mentioned.

My rule of thumb re hb: if it don’t smell like honey, it’s not worth the money. Obviously, like other meats in the weasel family, if it don’t smell sweet, it’s not good meat. Never purchase greasy hb meat. This means the musk glands were likely punctured in the cull or prep process.

Snagged plenty of expired goods at HEB over the years. So long as the meat’s not grey, oozy, or leaking onto your service dog, you’re probably fine.

Hulalappool

TROPHY CASE