There are few better ways to end the week than with a good laugh.
This week, a short story on McSweeney’s poked some gentle fun at what the common-core debate sounds like for people outside the education field:
Say what you want to, but this is what they call it now. With this Common Core." At the words, Buck turned and spit on the kitchen floor. I looked at my wife to gauge her reaction but she was shaking her head sadly. "This new math..." she began. "Math? That's not math! I don't know what you'd call it but it's not math. I know math! I got over a 90% on all my Math Regents in high school. What they're asking kids to do now? Ridiculous! I tried to help Jimmy on his homework last night. Didn't even know what the hell the question was asking! And I know math!" Buck had actually filed for bankruptcy last year, so I questioned that. But when you're in a room of teachers talking Common Core, you choose your words carefully. It's a volatile situation.
The whole piece is well worth a read.
Are you a soon-to-be-former teacher? Are you counting down the days until the end of the year? XKCD knows the feeling.
There are some concerns about the structural integrity of 1st grader Bradley Koenig’s spaceship design, The Onion reports:
I can't even begin to enumerate all the safety protocols and fundamental principles of spaceflight that this particular vehicle violates," said veteran NASA flight director Raymond Fletcher, who called the crayon-drawn spaceship the "most poorly conceived" and "shockingly hazardous" craft he had ever encountered. "The asymmetrical oval shape of the craft alone would likely cause it to break apart upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. That's assuming the long row of randomly spaced circular windows are properly coated with a heat-resistant material to ensure they don't disintegrate before reaching space in the first place." "Bradley's mockup ignores even the most basic laws of thermodynamics," Fletcher continued. "This ship is essentially just a death trap."
And finally:
teacher: there’s no such thing as a stupid question me: do stupid questions exist
-- Sage Boggs (@sageboggs) May 1, 2015