My First Year Teaching

Good morning scholars. I was disappointed to read the following in your texts: "Allied". Not Entente... Allied. Allied is a term used for the coalition of forces that fought the Axis in the Second World War. The countries that the US fought on the side of should be called the Entente. Further, on page 267 of your text it says this about the German spring offensive in 1918: "At this critical moment, General Pershing promised Allied commander Ferdinand Foch: 'Infantry, artillery, aviation-- all that we have... The American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle of history.' Two divisions of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) joined the French forces. "The Germans were unprepared for the fresh energy and fighting skills of the Americans. The US soldiers succeeded in stopping the German advance less than 50 miles from Paris..." United States History; Civil War to the Present. by History Channel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2015 p...

Good morning scholars. Thank you to the students who were able to attend the in-class session. Here is a summary of the lecture: We are currently experiencing an economic downturn. Within our lives we've seen another contraction in 2007-2008, with earlier contractions in 1988 and of course during the period we are currently studying: The Great Depression. Classical economics calls this the contraction side of a Kuznets cycle. However, classical economics says these cycles are caused by variations in the supply TRENDS of labor and other resources; variations in productivity TRENDS relating to efficiency with which those supplies are used; and variations in the average intensity with which resources get used-- in other words variations in rates of unemployment. (Economics, Samuelson, McGraw-Hill, 1967. P. 244) The Samuelson text goes on to say that fiscal policy can provide relief for these conditions. As you progress in your education you'll hear this called Keynesian Econ...

This week we've had several additional inches of snow here on the Front Range. This morning it is snowing after several inches fell overnight. Spring storms are not unusual. I'm certain that much of the moisture we receive annually comes with these spring storms. So outside it is very white, with snow clinging to the trees and covering the cars and rooftops. The yards are buried in snow of course. It creates a silence in the outside world that reflects on the industrial world that we've stopped in hopes of slowing this virus. My students are on break this week. That means that they are not being given new assignments. However I'm not easing up with regard to what I'm asking them to do. Just no new assignments. This morning I looked at their grades. Basically, if a student hasn't been submitting their assignments at least 50 percent of the time they are in danger of failing. Failing, in this case, is a grade of less than 70 percent overall, including the th...

It is early on Easter Sunday. It's a snowy day and the forecast calls for cold temperatures. Yesterday it was in the 70s. Today they will fall to below 20. The Easter weekend has special significance to the Irish. And II think that a president worth his salt would be able to call upon the imagery of this weekend to call make the sacrifice we are enduring this weekend have substance. He or she would make it clear that this isn't an end or a stall, but a new dawn. However this president is unable to call upon sacrifice as he has never made sacrifice He is unable to lead as he never had that quality and is convinced of his omnipotence. And his followers deceive themselves to follow the fix of appointments to the courts amid the loss of their souls. I do like the weather. Once, when I was a child living on Laramie Avenue I came out to join my family going to Mass. It must have been very early as the sidewalk had no footmarks on it, except one: a set of rabbit prints leading s...

This morning I wrote an angry letter to parents. What led up to this was students not passing open-book quizzes, and in fact answering questions with "IDK". IDK stands for I don't know. How the hell can a student get to the 8th grade and try to pass a quiz with IDK as an answer. Who the hell have they gone to school with? What these students try to do is retake the SAME quiz, asking one student to help them with the answers. Also, getting under my skin is the request of some of these students to get help raising their grade. Their grade, currently, is composed of readings and worksheets on the readings. That is about a third of their grade. And, it is marked as a binary: either you did it or not. The remainder of the work is the weekly quiz. One student asked why they didn't get points for a short answer on the quiz given that week. I've since decided that the tsunami of work that is being submitted, does not allow me to read and evaluate even short answer...

My friend Rt. Rev. Dr. Bonnie Perry is hitting out of the ballpark with her sermons. Ever since the pandemic hit she has been a source of inspiration and spiritual comfort. Her brief sermon, below, is short, relevant and a masterpiece, as was her sermon two Sundays ago "We are not alone."