Social Studies Fair = Social Lesson
Today I judged a local middle school's social studies fair. I was a little leary being as I'm not really social studies geared; however after arriving, I quickly learned that I was definitely MORE than qualified. I judged the Sociology pair and individual projects. It's a sad state of affairs when you can't pick a first place project - not because there were so many good ones, but because none of them are "county" level material. Allow me to share some of my finer projects... The first project was "The Differences Between Guatemala and Puerto Rico." Sounded decent and the project board illustrated many differences between the two countries. Not surprisingly, the two girls giving the presentation were Hispanic - one from Puerto Rico and one from Guatemala. The true surprise was the Guatemala girl spoke NO English. That made judging a little difficult. The young girl from Puerto Rico translated. I'd like to say they wowed me...but they didn't. Infact, the girl from Puerto Rico couldn't figure out why the money in Puerto Rico is the same as money in the US (hello...US Protectorate!!!). That was my first project - and as the saying goes, what starts out bad only gets worse. There were missing abstracts, plagerized reports, missing reports, missing projects, missing students, etc. I did have 3 or 4 really good projects. One was on The Avian Flu - and that little boy blew me away. Very bright - but so nervous. After his presentation, I told him I was a pharmacy student and asked him about the drug of choice. He proudly told me it was Tamiflu and that Roche manufactures it. I was blown away. I almost danced him across the room - mainly because he was the first good project I had all day (but also because he knew some pharmacology!). The second project that was pretty good was on sign language. The girl signed a song to me - later it occurred to me that she could've been signing anything and I wouldn't have known any better. However, if she was faking it, she did keep a straight face. I awarded her second place. The next two projects were hard to decide between. I had one on Jehovah's Witnesses and one on Revolutionary Ancestors. Both were will researched - but were lacking an adequate research paper. I think with a little more guidance they would've done well. I told them both that. I tied them for third place. So I walked away from this experience realizing that I never want to teach middle school. :) Thank God!
posted by ahsirt at 6:03 PM
5 Comments:
You gave it to the Bird flu just because it had something to do with drugs-You cheater.
How do you get to judge all these events anyway? Who are you sleeping with to get these powerful positions?
Way to stand in for Axis. I did this several years ago and it was one of the most disappointing moments of my life. I judged projects that mostly ranged from "the worst excuse for a project I've ever seen" to "I should just slap the shit out of you for wasting my morning." These kids are 11-14 years old. They are old enough to put a simple project together. Our education system has reached a perfect storm of lazy, unmotivated kids with asshole parents and lazy, unmotivated and severely underpaid "teachers" who were not talented enough to succeed in any other profession. God help the truly talented individuals who chose teaching as a nobel profession. I don't know how they can possibly last in an enviroment of idiocy full of loser pupils and staff alike. My first grade daughter had a letter sent home by her teacher - it was to dumbass parents too lazy and stupid to even look at their kid's school work and remove it from their bookbags on a daily basis. This woman battled cancer to deal with these morons???? God bless her and I hope my daughter continues to find these wonderful teachers... But I'm not sure she'll always be this lucky...
Roma - :-p That's all I have to say to you. I did not give the child first place because he did a "drug" oriented project. He was actually the only person with a report more than 1 and 1/2 pages long. I get to judge these things because my mother was an educator in our county for 33 years. She gets asked back to do this stuff and drags my siblings along with her. I volunteer for the ones in Virginia through the pharmacy school.
Axis - Speaking of Virginia schools, it brings to a point I wanted to make with you (mostly in agreeance with you). Part of the reason for poor social studies fair projects is lazy kids and lazy parents. But I believe a larger responsibility lies with the teachers. The projects I judged in Virginia totally blew these projects away. There were projects that I had to read a report to even understand the topic. The kids spoke eloquently and had 7-8 page research papers. I don't think the difference is the learning ability of children in Virginia and West Virginia, but rather the standard to which these students are held. That's not entirely the teacher's fault. With this "No Child Left Behind" crap, teacher's can no longer teach. They are held to stupid standards and punished if kids don't succeed. Anyone that has stepped foot in a classroom knows this is a moronic ideal. There are some kids that do not want to learn and will not learn no matter how much heart and soul goes into teaching that child. That state of education in this country is pitiful. The sad part is - one day, these people will be running the country. God help us all...
No unfortunately these kids will not be running this country. We will be run by the smart kids that are studying in China right now. One of you two social studies geniuses explain to me how during the cold war we fought communism on every front and because of this Reagan goes down in the history books as a great President (cough, hack, cough) and now we want to buy everything that communist China has to sell and we are making them stronger and stronger? When did it become ok to support communism? I don’t know how many times I heard that Kerry was a communist during this past election, but with the support that this administration and Congress is getting from the strongest communist nation in the world I think they are Capitalist that loves the commies. As we keep selling America to the only country that can afford us our nation slips further and further behind educationally. It really does not matter how smart these kids are, the only important point is can they man a rifle.
Ashirt -
To me, it all comes back to pay. Frederick County, VA teachers make alot more money than Berkeley County. All the talent that our area has to offer gets sucked across the border and we end up where we always are - the absolute dumping ground fot the entire area. Want titty bars but not in your county, send your deviants to WV. Want to drink past 2AM, send your drunks to WV. Want to gamble your kids' future away, come to WV. We should legalize prostituion here, we already have a titty bar and a mini casino on every corner, why not a brothel?
ROMA -
I'll do you one better. The old Gipper propped up Sadaam in Iraq largely because he had good anit-Communist credentials. Thanks, Ronnie. Now his own party has jumped into bed with the Chinese because in the GOP, money trumps all, even God.
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