Gossip

An incident that occurred a few weeks ago on a fan site I belong to has prompted this message.

As many of my friends know, I'm a big fan of Barry Manilow. I have been for many years ( and no, I will not go into how many). Barry's Fan Club has a Ning account that is used as a message board for blogs and discussions by his fans, for his fans. I've made a lot of really great friendships on this site, but there has been some drama lately.

One of the fans on the site, I'll call her Sally, posted a blog post on the site saying some rather not-so-nice things about how much the other fans were posting on the site about Michael Jackson. Then she got into another topic, one that didn't sit well at all with many of the fans, saying some inflammatory remarks about Barry. She was concerned about Barry regarding his personal life, and her posting it on a web site - operated by Barry's Fan Club - was how she felt it needed to be done. Sally, and now a friend of hers, is stating they have every right to post this because it is their opinion. I'm not buying that argument.

While I'm not privy to Barry and his personal life (and neither is Sally), things of this nature should be handled privately through his managers, not in a public forum where anyone can look it up and see this being posted.

When anyone talks about someone's private life without that person's consent, it moves from opinion to gossip. Gossip is very destructive and humiliating. I know as I've been the object of gossip myself, and while I do love the people behind the gossiping, they have lost my trust. Forgiveness is one thing, trust is another. It's also especially destructive because usually the object of the gossip is not there to defend themselves from what people are saying and/or accusing them of.

Sally backed up and made apologies, however she privately sent messages to some of the other fans stating she wasn't backing down from her "opinions".

I've stated on the site, a sincere apology comes in 3 parts: I'm sorry, it will never happen again and what can I do to make it right. Some wise words to live by from Randy Pausch. He stated that while a lot of people do the first, and should do the second parts, the third part of that is usually ignored. That's how you can tell that someone is being sincere in their apology.

The really sad part of gossiping is that the person gossiped about usually finds out. It was that way with me when I found out I was the butt of the gossip at my Church when my husband died. It was discovered, however the public apologies and tears didn't stop the gossiping, it still continues on to this day. As I've said, I love these people, however I will never trust them again, nor do I even want them setting foot inside my home. Sad. Very sad.

A Capitol 4th

Did you get to see the PBS special on the 4th of July?

If you didn't get to see it, click here to watch or download the video for it.

I have to say I loved it, but then again I'm biased. Why? BARRY MANILOW was on!

Enjoy.

Squatting

Have you ever heard of squatting? It's a term used from the last two centuries being reapplied today. It's living for free in a home you don't own. It's illegal, but that isn't stopping people from doing it, with the increasing numbers of homeless in this country.

If you've read my blog for a while, you'll remember a post I made earlier this year regarding how to use the bailout money to help the homeless, by using the money to legally lease from banks foreclosed homes and turn them into shelters. Here's the link to the post: Homeless Assistance

To me, my idea makes more sense because it brings the money back into the situation. Management agencies would need to be created to manage the leases and maintain the foreclosed homes, creating jobs. Homes not habitable will need to be fixed up before they could be used, that creates jobs.

Yes, it's a short term solution to a long term problem, but it would infuse money where it's needed, and at a local level.

The Illegal Seizure of Property

One of the great things about this country is we are allowed to question our Nation's leaders and tactics. So what does it tell you when people's property is illegally seized through Eminent Domain? We've seen it abused with shopping centers and baseball stadiums, now we are seeing it with the fence that is supposed to be protecting our border.

25,000 students in Arizona now homeless; up 18% in past year

This is just sad. The number of homeless students in Arizona is now the equivalent to the population of Fountain Hills.

25,000 students in Arizona now homeless; up 18% in past year

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Ghost

I'll have to remember this video the next time Halloween rolls around...

Finance 101 For Title 1 Part 2

Now, here are some solutions to this problem.

The first thing I do when I'm teaching kids about money is to start with the big picture. For that, I use a powerpoint I made, with the permission of the school Principal at that time, talking about the value of an education. I use that as a jumping point to talk about what kind money they can make based on the level of education.

Since many of these kids don't really understand that kind of money just yet, I used an excel spreadsheet to break down the national average amounts of earnings per level of degree and after taxes and using the budget I show the kids, give the amount per month that each earning level has for housing. I plugged each earning level for the housing budget into the powerpoint and included pictures of what kind of homes (at 2007 values) they could afford based on each earning level. What kind of home can you afford as a high school dropout, versus the home afforded by someone with a professional degree? The more education, the better the houses got. The kids are by this point wanting those nicer homes, so then I tell them that in order to have those nicer homes, they not only need to be making the money, but they need to know how to manage it.

The first part, which is already covered in 2nd and 3rd grades, is the basics of counting the coins and bills. For this we go to these web sites:

Counting Coins

Then we make things get a little harder:

Count The Money

Let's Compare

Counting Money

As you can see, these are some pretty good sites for counting money. But, with the first site, it's no longer being maintained, as the university program that made it is no longer functioning. With the Harcourt site, you may need the password to get into it, which you can't get unless you purchase the Harcourt textbooks. None of this is sponsored by the Dept. of Ed.

The second class period I use a SmartBoard lesson I created to show students how to count change correctly. Have you ever been to a store where someone hands you the change, based upon the calculations of a machine? Have you ever wondered if those calculations are correct? The key to counting change correctly is to start at the amount owed, and then use coins and bills to work your way up to the amount paid. I demonstrate this using fake bills and coins on the SmartBoard lesson. Then I have them spend at least 2 class sessions (30 minutes each) counting up their change on this site:

Change Maker

After they have mastered counting the money, now they are ready to manage the money.

I show them some videos provided by Discovery Education (you have to be an educator to get access to these) on simple and compound interest.

Then I have them go to this site on generating compound interest, so they can see how their money can grow:

Compound Interest Calculator

By this time, they are ready to move on to budgeting. Budgeting is about choices:

Feed The Pig

Goiing To The Market

Welcome To Fedville


One of the best sites that gives all around guidance for kids is not from the government, it's from a non-profit called TheMint.org.

TheMint.org

Once they've completed this series, they can look at the school's Delicious page under finance for more sites that I've found for them:

Laird Leopard Finance

Finance 101 For Title 1

Most educators who work at Title 1 schools - schools educating the poorest among us - know there is a serious lack of education regarding finance.

In the state of Arizona, where I live and work, students learn how to count money in the 2nd and 3rd grades. It's in the Mathematics curriculum. Here's basically what they are learning.

• The students learn the differences in amounts for coins and bills.
• The students learn to add coins to the equivalent of amounts or bills ( 4 quarters = 1 dollar)
• The students learn basic subtraction to determine amount of change.

This is a great start for second and third grade. There are a few problems with this, though.

1. The students at this rate have never been exposed to decimals, so they don't grasp the math behind the adding and subtracting of coins.
2. The following grades, where decimals are introduced, money is not specified in the curriculum, so the connections between two decimal numbers (in the hundreths) and money are not made.
3. Money is not addressed again in the curriculum until high school Economics.
4. Lower income students have a higher dropout rate by the time they've reached their junior or senior years of high school, many never make it to take the Economics class.
5. Between Elementary and High School, students are not being taught budgeting and saving their money.
6. Lower income students do not have a constant exposure to money (if you don't have it, you're not going to learn about it), so they have forgotten a lot of what they learned in 2nd and 3rd grades by the time they are in 5th and 6th grades.

Because of this, the cycle of poverty continues in a family until someone is actually taught about the basics in finance, such as budgeting and saving money.

This last school year, I asked the two 5th grade classes at my school how many had ever heard of a savings account. The result was about 1/2 of the students had heard about it, much less understood that when they save their money in a financial institution, they actually get money back as a reward (interest). About half of all students in this one grade level had never heard of this.

Now, take a look at our financial situation as a nation, and the growing number of people living in poverty. If parents don't understand finance well enough to raise themselves and their families out of poverty, how are the kids going to be able to do it?

Before... And After!

My doctor has put me on a diet, so I've lost a little bit of weight. I felt that as long as so much of my life is changing right now, I'd do a little something with my hair. Most of you know me as the ponytail wonder. No More! I'll post more pictures as I have some done with make up and a nice outfit. Oh, and yes, my lovely locks were donated to Locks of Love to make wigs for cancer patients.

Before...





And After!

Student Loan Sinkhole

This is from Now On PBS:



Source: Student Loan Sinkhole

A New One From Jib-Jab

Jib-Jab, you've done it again.

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Senate apologizes for slavery, segregation in U.S.

Senate apologizes for slavery, segregation in U.S.

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Yeah, our U.S. Senate is apologizing for racial segregation, I'm still waiting for them to apologize for financial segregation.