Live and Learn New Mexico!

I've been applying for grants that I've found on the Center for Non Profit Excellence site. They have a handy calendar that puts all the deadlines and links in. I just go there to check out opportunities. I've learned a lot, sometimes a little too late. One foundation requires interested applicants to send in a letter of introduction first. They will then approve it or not. I didn't read this until Monday, and their deadline for proposals is today. I sent in my letter of intro and they responded that there isn't time to submit a proposal but they will look into it for next year. I also learned that each grant, especially federal grants, have requirements you have to meet to get the funding. For the YouthBuild grant, I have to come up with matching funds of 25% of whatever I'm granted. Now I have to figure out that so I can apply for that grant. I can do it. It isn't due until June. Finally, I learned from the WalMart Foundation State Giving Grant  gu...

Faced with the new challenge to buy this property before it is sold to someone else, I had to start thinking creatively. I've had to do that all my life in response to everyday challenges most "middle class" Americans face. Now I am faced with another challenge and I'm putting on my creative thinking cap for this one because that is what solves my problems, not anything I learned for a standardized test I probably couldn't pass if I took it today. The Department of Labor awards large grants that can be used to buy properties if they are used for business that would strengthen communities. The program I'm looking at is called YouthBuild . The goal of the program is to help at-risk adults between 16 and 24 learn the construction skills they need to get a good job in construction or a related field. So if I go for a grant from them, I need to incorporate construction. Piece of cake. The property itself is several construction projects in one. The barn and...

I'm sitting at my desk, looking out the glass sliding doors at an incredibly beautiful Spring morning. Yes, my allergies are killing me but right now, at this moment, I don't care. They won't really be bad until I step outside. Unable to pull my millions of fragmented thoughts together to create a cohesive blog, yet feeling the need to write, I started my morning by looking at other blogs and checking out some websites. I took a look at my hometown school district's site and noticed (it was hard to miss) that the kids there are taking the PARCC for the next two weeks, starting today. My sympathies and prayers are with the students, teachers, and parents as they endure this unnecessary ordeal. I know that it is a hard thing to do, but I really really hope that someone --ideally more than one person -- will simply not show up to take the test . I hope that parents will opt out their kids in the hundreds. I hope that at least one teacher. like this one in Tulsa , ...

I knew that our time here on this great property in Bosque Farms could be limited but still, it seems too soon to have to plan for the possibility of moving again. We are renting and the owners need to sell the place already. They tried for over a year before we moved in. When our lease is up in July, we will pay on a month by month basis. They are putting it on the market again in May. In the meantime, I plan to at least try to find a way to stay. We have horse stables. We have fields of alfalfa. Both of those could easily be built into our business. Both are opportunities for local employment for our students. We could also have classes/workshops built around them. There is a little casita we could rent out or do something worthwhile with. This week I have been writing grant proposals, mainly for salaries. Maybe there is a way to get grants to help buy this property. I'm thinking that I could put in a proposal each for a horse boarding business and a local organic farming o...

I wasn't planning to blog today but then I checked out Diane Ravitch's blog  with a link to Jon Stewart's discussion of the Atlanta teacher scandal in which teachers cheated on standardized tests so that their students would get better scores, resulting in a better outcome for teachers as well. When your job is on the line, you sometimes have to go to extremes to hold onto it, I believe these teachers were forced to make a decision and they decided to do what was best for their  students as well as themselves. I might have done the same thing if I were pushed to the wall. Someone in the Jon Stewart piece says all they want is teacher accountability. Teacher accountability? Really? Don't you think that maybe these teachers WERE being accountable -- to their students? And isn't that exactly who they should be accountable to? I think parents, students, and teachers all know that the only ones that need to be accountable at this point are the government and test...

All this talk and heartache over the PARCC, and I almost forgot about the GED, which has also come under the ownership of Pearson. If you have been reading my blog, first of all, thanks, but also, you know that I've grown to become strongly opposed to standardized testing. So where does that leave me with my own nonprofit, which was formed in part to provide instruction to help adults pass the GED? (GED, GED, GED...still can't find that registered trademark sign...I'm not looking that hard) I have to ask myself, are the issues the same with the GED as with the PARCC? In a way, yes, at least to those potential students who are just leaving high school. It has become "harder" so that it better matches what public schools are expected to learn. It aligns with the common core and all that crap. It is focused on the college-bound. But what about the 85% of the students in the program who are not just out of school? All they want is that piece of paper...

Continuing my discussion of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the show Reign , I have watched the next episode and, of course, Mary does not run off with Sebastian and defy the Pope but instead marries Francis, the successor to the King of France. There was a small window in which Mary and Sebastian could have changed the course of history and perhaps broken the political hold over them that existed simply because of their positions in society. What could have happened? Almost certainly, whatever could have happened would have been followed by death for someone. It seems at that time, even queens died at the drop of the hat. Mary missed that chance but it was probably a good thing for her. We haven't missed our chance to change education in New Mexico. The nationwide wave is just now picking up strength and all we need to do is jump on the bandwagon. Best part is that no one needs to die in this revolution. In fact, I see it as an almost joyous thing, where students, parents and ...

I just discovered the series, Reign , recently and have been watching an episode each day on Netflix. As I watch it, Mary, Queen of Scots, has become another hero to me. She was a leader, her first concern her friends and family. Yet she also was keenly aware of how important she was politically, and her concerns included her subjects and even France's subjects. She understood the big picture. Wow! How did she become such a strong, good person raised in exile? It was those nuns she was exiled with, obviously. Anyway, I'm at the part in the story where Mary tells the bastard son of the king of France, Sebastian, that they can't just wait for the Vatican to approve their marriage so they can rule France, Scotland, and England (that's the political reason; it's nice that they love each other, too). She tells him that they should just get married and force the Pope to recognize them instead of waiting for approval. I clapped, all alone in my room. Yeah, Mary! You ...

I've mentioned several times that I'm tutoring through Wyzant . Still only have one student but I'm having a blast and learning a lot, as is my student, I believe. I will have to assess that soon... Yesterday I started to apply for another tutoring job with another elementary student and was asked to provide my qualifications in this area. I'm guessing the parent wanted to know. At first, I thought, SAY WHAT? But then I realized that it was a fair request. As a parent, I would also think, why am I paying for someone who doesn't have the credentials to tutor my child? I might as well do it myself. That is absolutely true and fair. We all know that if you don't have that piece of paper saying that you are qualified, you aren't. I do not have any teacher licensure at this point, at any level. And I have no hope of getting any either, not the way the system is set up. So am I qualified to teach at all? No, I guess I'm not. But I am qualified to h...

Last week, I registered with the NM Center for Non Profit Excellence . That is when I discovered that, although I have been issued an EIN by the IRS, it is not on their registry. Another thing I have to fix. But that's not the point of this blog. The point is that the CNPE offers some pretty good services. I copied the list below from the email they sent me. Since I am feeling mellow today, I've decided not to get up on my soapbox. Instead, I will take some time to check this list out myself. Have a nice Tuesday. Go learn something! ·           Volunteer Connection :  post your Board and volunteer opportunities ·           Post jobs  as they become available in your organization ·           Gifts In-Kind :  list your needs (i.e., office equipment, supplies) ·           Pro Bo...

My daughter is off to her statistics class again. For a 50-minute class that she has to spend about 75 minutes getting to/from and finding parking (and the gas/mileage/parking fee), it just doesn't seem worth it. She mentioned that this class was offered online and she wished she had taken it instead. But she thought that she would get more individualized instruction if she went to an on-campus class. Seems like a reasonable assumption, given that that is probably the #1 argument against online learning. I really really really wish she had taken the online version. I won't rant about this. I won't get angry again. After I posted about TENURE, I discovered it was a touchy topic. No one, NO ONE, had anything to say, either in support or opposition to tenure. At first, I thought, oh no! No one likes my post. I want people to like me. Seriously, I do. But then I thought, well, let's raise hell then. I'm not about loss of teaching jobs or jobs in general, but what...

I really love Blogger because, like Facebook, they give me data about my blog that help me see who is reading, which posts go over better than others, etc. Today, I was interested in looking at where my readers come from. I say my readers like they regularly check out my blog but they may have visited it only once. Anyway, my posts go out to a US audience only. But I worked at UNM-Los Alamos, and the students, and instructors, in my ESL program were from all over the world. I think that some of those I have kept in touch with -- mainly through Facebook -- are checking it out. Since I have been blogging, this is how it looks audience-wise: United States 230 Russia 16 China 2 France 1 Kenya 1 Portugal 1 Romania 1 These are some of my thoughts, concerns, questions, as I look at this list: I know two people in Portugal; why is only one looking at my page? I won't name names... Kenya? I didn't expect that bu...

This has been a super productive week! How did that happen? Well, I'll tell ya. I was finally able to put a PayPal donation button on the L&LNM website (www.liveandlearnnm.com). No donations so far but that's okay. We are now registered with the NM Center for Nonprofit Excellence and can take advantage of the many helpful tools on their website. Last week, I saw a call for volunteers on their site for a  grant writer to work with a new nonprofit in the Los Lunas area. I had read about them in the Valencia newspaper when I first moved here. I responded to the ad, suggesting that we work in partnership to meet common goals. Turns out our goals fit together nicely. The name of the nonprofit is Love from Above . It is run by a couple who found themselves with an "extra" house on their property that they decided to turn into a safe home for homeless, pregnant women and teens. Their doors, once they are up and running, will be open to women throughout the state. ...

I have talked before about my daughter and her frustration with her college statistics class. I wondered at the time what I was paying for if she wasn't learning anything. Well, get ready for the next installment... This morning, Kelsey told me she just didn't want to go to class this morning. She absolutely hates it and much of that is due to an instructor who obviously doesn't know how to teach. As he tells the students often, he has tenure. So let's talk about that outdated institution -- tenure -- a reward for outlasting other instructors at a certain college or university. That's all it is. It certainly isn't a reward for helping their students learn. This is a perfect example of how learning these days, at the college level, has nothing to do with the students!!!! My daughter is being cheated out of her learning. She tells me that the TA, however, is a great teacher! He asks the class if they understand the concept and if even one person doesn't,...

(This is a re-post) I watched a documentary called Storied Streets , about the homeless in America. After it was over, I wanted to blog. But I made myself wait until I really had time to think about what I had learned. I discovered that many of the concepts I talk/think about as I set up my nonprofit are the same as those discussed in this film: It's not necessarily the fault of the homeless that they are in the position they are in, just as it's not necessarily the fault of high school dropouts that they didn't make it through school. In both cases, it's more that the system they try to operate within failed them.  According to the experts as well as the homeless featured in the film, the top problems contributing to the homeless problem are as follows: lack of 1) affordable housing, 2) jobs that pay well enough to live on, and 3) affordable healthcare. It's not so much about drug addiction or mental illness as many think. The attitude we have toward the home...

I drove to WalMart today and noticed the many pilgrims walking along the side of the road, this Good Friday. I lived in the Santa Fe/Los Alamos area for years and drove by many pilgrims on their way to Chimayo. The pilgrims I saw today must have been going to Tome. I always think about Chaucer's Canterbury Tales when Easter comes around. I am a nerd. A bunch of pilgrims from all walks of life sharing their stories as they walk along. The stories --and the characters who told them-- ranged from the lofty to the lurid. What kinds of stories are today's pilgrims sharing? They have plenty of time to talk. They are in no hurry. Are the conversations deeper as a result? Is it all about religion and spirituality? Does anyone talk about work or school? Do they talk about life goals and aspirations? Do friends and family who don't see each other much use this opportunity to do something together and catch up? What about those who choose to walk alone, as I might have done, wha...

I've been thinking a revolution in education is in order but maybe I'm wrong. The word revolution implies, to me, a sudden action, one that has built up over time but, once it happens, it happens fast and the whole community reels afterwards. There are still those who are trying to work within the system to fight the system, that is, speak out politically to change legislation. They are concerned that their actions could result in the loss of jobs for teachers or that, without funding, education can't happen. They want change but they don't want it to hurt, and they don't want to look bad, especially if their efforts fail. They only want revolution if they don't have to give anything up. I admit, it's hard to stand up against a long-standing system, however dysfunctional. That is where I and others come in. We don't want to mess with politics and bureaucracy. Just like in the old days, when teachers closed their classroom doors and taught well desp...