TAKS- The four letter word

**Disclaimer: These are MY opinions regarding TAKS and education**

This year, my Mini Me gets to experience taking The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. He’s been taught to take the TAKS since beginning school in kindergarten. 75% of what he’s learned has all been in an effort to create a great test taker by the time he’s reached 3rd grade. His school has been Exemplary for three years in a row, which the administration loves to reiterate to its student body. What does it all mean? It means they have added pressure to produce positive results. The focus on taking the TAKS is so brutal that it creates nerve-racked test takers. My Mini Me surprised me when he said he’d rather get pink eye and miss taking the TAKS than have to sit through two days of tests with no recess and no P.E. He’s a smart kid. He’ll breeze through the TAKS test. However, everything that the school administration stresses on passes on to their students. If our schools are focused on teaching our students how to test, why not include lessons in de-stressing or meditation?


I don’t believe in the TAKS test or any other State Assessment test. Why? I don’t believe in it because more and more of our graduating high school seniors are ending up in remedial college courses. Why? Students have been taught to test, not to advance or be prepared for the university level courses. The introduction of these state assessment tests haven’t created more knowledgeable students. They’ve created overly stressed 8 year olds with the weight of 2 days worth of tests to determine whether or not they learned. It’s no longer left up to the teacher to dictate whether or not the student should go to the next grade. One test, and that’s the final determination on passing to the next grade level? How is this TAKS test dictating whether or not my child is a well-rounded individual? Does it test on art? History? Science? Music? Languages? Etiquette? Manners? No. It doesn’t.

I have to agree with Sir Ken Robinson that our education system is broken. Not all children learn the same. So, why are they lumped together by age? Each child should progress at their own level and be moved up as they acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding. It really bites to hear my Mini Me’s teacher say, “I can only teach as fast as the slowest learner. So, most of the time, your Mini Me is waiting around for everyone else to catch up.” If I could afford to home school, I would take great consideration to do so. He’d learn tons more with the one-on-one interaction, BUT he’d lack the social skills that are needed in order to be a member of society.

Here’s hoping the kiddos do well during the TAKS!

Enjoy the following 11 minute animation adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson :

Art & Me

UK-based graphic designer Chris Thornley made this great “I love drawing” design that’s a take off of Milton Glaser’s iconic “I Love NY” logo.




The earliest I can recall myself drawing was in 1st grade. My teacher, Ms. Battoon, gave the class a “busy” project. She gave us a “ditto” (which is what copies were called back then) of a cartoonish illustration consisting of 3 astronauts floating in a ship in space. The instructions were as follows, “You are to copy, not trace, the image of the astronauts onto another sheet of paper.” Easy. I laid my ditto and white sheet side by side. As I began to draw, I began to overlap my white sheet with the ditto. I wanted to be able to draw the faces of the astronauts as close to the ditto’s was as possible. I was paying attention to detail a little too close for comfort for Ms. Battoon. She tore both sheets out of my hands and gave me a BIG, FAT ‘F’. She assumed I traced, when in fact I hadn’t. My pleas meant nothing and the ‘F’ remained. As an adult, I recall that day as if it was yesterday and realize that it was a hidden gem. As a 7 yr old, I was good enough to make my adult teacher believe my drawing had been traced. I was so young that I didn’t understand it at the time. All I know is that it made an impact on me and I was extremely upset. Had she been a little more observant, she may have nurtured my art ability from the get-go. Luckily, the incident didn’t turn me off from drawing. I only wish I had that drawing stashed away in a box, rather than decomposing or recycled sometime years back.

As an adult, my biggest achievement in the design field was having my little company, CXR Design, contracted to work for Microsoft as a graphic designer. It was fun trying to interpret post-it scribbles and creating them into clean vector images ready for publication. The best part was being published in 2 of their books! It’s probably my only proud job description so far.

Microsoft patterns & practices publications :)

I’ve only sold one fine arts piece as of today. It was a heart wrenching/exciting moment. From within, I wanted to scream and say, “NO!!! Please! Buy another piece from one of the other artists!! This is my baby.” As most of my art pieces, they each have a piece of me that becomes part of the final product. The art piece, Cristianeske, is an abstract, surrealist painting of my son (seen below).

Cristianeske

It used to hang in my bedroom before I displayed it at my first art show. My son loved it and was sad to learn that mommy had sold the piece. He drove with me on the day I delivered the 2’ x 3’ painting to its new home with its new owners. The owners were happy to have their new addition and invited us to take a look at where it would be displayed. In addition, they told my son that if he ever wanted the painting, they’d only re-sell the painting to him and no one else. We both left feeling better about leaving the painting in its new home. Now, a little piece of me and my son are making someone else happy. Maybe someday I’ll make more someones happy with original artwork. :)

HTC HD2 vs Galaxy S

While out hiking in the Sacramento Mountains this weekend with my Mini Me, my HTC HD2 phone gave out. The HTC Sence didn't work anymore so I couldn't make calls, text or take photos. This was my 3rd replacement this year of the same model of cell phone. In all honesty, when it worked, I loved it. What I wasn't fond of were the Windows apps since the majority in stock weren't freebies. Nor was the selection much to drool over. What I would put as #1 was the size of the screen for photos. I took a lot of great shots with it and it came w/ flash (though I rarely used the flash feature since I prefer natural light). I also liked that my Facebook would sync to my contacts even if my contacts were named differently in my contact list. And it would update their profile photos on the HTC HD2. In essence this is what it had or didn't have:

      HTC HD2

• Lots of glitches with freezing
• HTC Sense (Touch) would stop functioning (which meant time to replace phone)
• Minimal app selection
• Amazing screen size
• Awesome photo resolution
• Flash for photos
• A great light indicator notifying you of missed calls or received txts
• Sync contacts w/ Facebook friends (including their profile photos)
• Bluetooth with my car was a problem on the receiving end. I had to YELL!
• Came with Transformers 1 AND 2

 

So because it was the 3rd time I'd returned it, I went from this...

to this...

I think the girl behind the counter was much more excited about the phone than I was. I the agitated customer who loved a phone that didn't want to play nice all the time. Given that I wanted to have the same type of phone (touch) I was introduced to the Galaxy S 4G. I heard somewhere that 3G and 4G are the same thing. That basically it's all in the labeling. It gives the customer the sense that it's better if the # is greater but it's just a name change. It's heresay though. I haven't researched it thoroughly. Anyhow, the girl behind the counter said, "The phone has been out for 1 month and we haven't received any complaints." Hmm... well, let's just say that after day 1 of being an owner of the Galaxy S, it froze!!!!!! Since it wouldn't shut off, I attempted to remove the cover I'd bought for it in order to access the back of the phone to remove the battery. I broke the cover within a matter of minutes. Grrr!

Other than that, it did sync all of my contacts but it won't sync my contacts profile photos from Facebook. Boooo! I do have access to a ton of free apps now. That's a huge plus. I haven't had a chance to play with the photo feature like I'd like to. The screen size is disappointing but it'll have to do. I also miss having a little flashing light indicating that there's a missed call or text. The Galaxy S doesn't have that feature. So far, this is what I've observed:

      Galaxy S

• It has two camera features (facing rear or forward)
• No flash for photos
• Higher-Res photos
• Tons of free apps and widgets
• 7 pages to fill your cell desktop with apps or widgets
• No light indicator signaling missed calls or texts
• No option to remove the voicemail envelope indicator (I hate that)
• Came with Inception on a 16G memory card
• Bluetooth seems more compatible w/ my car. No yelling! :D
• Google Talk feature for easy texting while driving

I'm slowly coming to love my taped up new Galaxy S. Yes... I used Scotch tape to put my cover back on my phone. Gives it character. lol