Mitch--got TAKS results in today--thank goodness these 8th graders did really good on the science section--first year reinstating it....now maybe the "powers that be" will back off a bit. Sure made up for the rotten day yesterday...I swear Monday was the worst day I'd had in months.
Come Sit A Spell - Early May
You are lucky - i dont give the TAKS, just ITBS (First grade) so I will not get my scores back untill sometime this summer. ...
Congrats on the test - I really think those tests are evil. We have 3rd graders here with ulcers from the worry about the test. How can this be good for our kids? I know we need something but they need a better way...
We also give the Stanford national norm test--but its alot easier for them than TAKS.
Think if you gave the Norm test to Spanish speaking kids - the Math is easy but the English (Reading, Vocab, and such). .. They are lost - but I am going to get ready next year I am tired of all the blank stares I am going to be getting a lot of extra workbooks to get them there on my own - they tell us not to, that the state books will give them everything they need.. these kids just need a little more.
Our school has one of the highes t levels of LEP kids in the state..Mitch...my students have to carry the school. I teach G/T and regular kids...only 9 kids failed science out of 122 that took it. My kids aren't LEP. That is the problem with the regular school.
Then you know the test - why do we put our kids through all that? I hear you on the Gen Ed kids carrying the LEP kids to keep the schools scores up there. We have 8 first grade classrooms - 172 kids and all but 8 are LEP (1874 kids in the whole school). One of those things, I hate the system but love the kids so I keep at it, and all said I just have fun.
Well Mitch, to answer that I'd have to talk politics and that's a no-no.....lol
If they can get their reading level up they generally can pass math but not reading.
I hear you - but what can we do?
Yowee! I nearly posted my most sincere thoughts about TAKS testing and child abuse, and I am glad you reminded me about the no-politics rule. Enough said!
lol Patricia
It's good to be retired and not responsible for the whole district's testing, but I still care about kids and what is being done to them. Mitch, I don't know how we change it. Kids have different abilities and different interests. We used to try to meet the individual needs of students. Now they are all "alike." Miracle!! All can do higher level math and science! All can graduate under the "Recommended Program." When I wake up tomorrow, I am going to go out and dig in the dirt and get in touch with reality.
I feel the same way, right with you. Reason 1 that I am going to have ( I hope) a garden here at school for the kids to play in - they just might learn something they will not be tested on and really enjoy it!
This is one (but only one) of the reasons we are going to homeschool our two daughters. They can learn at their own rates and can (within reason) follow their own interests. I think it will be fun! (At least most days... LOL)
~ Marylyn
I dont know what we are going to do with our son, we dont want to homeschool (no offence but I was homeschooled and there are somethings with it we just do not like), so it is private or public... really dont want the TAKS test... it is hard to know what to so for our kids.
I'm not offended. :-) Homeschooling isn't for everyone, obviously, and all the choices have good points and bad points. It can be very hard to decide which one to choose for our kids.
Very hard - but hey what part of being a parent is easy?When my parents at school tell me it is not working for them, or when a parent comes from any other type of schooling I tell them the same thing - You have to find the best thing for your kids, no ones kids but yours and if it works for them you have it made.
Have you thought about what books you are going to use - I went through most of them so could tell you a lot (we changed every few years from Life Packs, Rod and Staff, Bob Jones, and then to Abeka for High School) about them if you had any questions in a Dave Mail.
Now back to plants!
Hey, I have a daylily blooming! I didn't label them, so I don't know which one this is... It is one of the plants I bought at the daylily yard sale that I met vossner at last year. :-)
Nice Marylyn...do they have one of those sales this year?
I put this one up on the daylilly forum for ID but no one has been able to ID it. I know its real old and I was thinking that real old variety called Lemon Lily. I've had it about 17 years and know it was in the family of the person who gave it to me for many years. Its the only one I grow. Anyone know their daylilly's?
dmj - with over 10,000 DLs once a name is lost it is very very very hard to refind the name to any Daylily. That said it you have all the stats - how many stems, how tall, how big of a flower, how many blooms per stem, and branching... etc I would be happy yot look into seeing if we can get it into a few possibles. When blooming does it have the strong smell of Lemons? Looks much to modern in form to be the Lemon Lily IMHO. There has been breeding and named cultivars for more then 100 years so even if it is old it might still be a Dip or Tet rather then a cultivar (like citrona - Lemon Lily)
Yes, it is this coming Saturday. He always does it on the Saturday before Mother's Day. Here's a link for more information: http://www.ofts.com/bill/daylily.html Last year all of the daylilies were $4 each, but this year he has some more expensive ones. Still not TOO bad, though. :-)
If you want to go, be there at 6:45 at the very latest. He has the flowers in pots, lined up on his driveway and has the bottom of the driveway roped off until it is time for the sale to begin. Last year I got there at 6:50 and there were already a dozen people there. The sale was over in 90 seconds - and I am NOT exaggerating! LOL As soon as he dropped the rope, the people swarmed in and grabbed their pots and that was it. Several of the people came as a group and had a plan (having obviously done this before!) Poor Vossner got there at 7:05 and it was all over. We had a good time eating breakfast together afterwards, though.
Are you interested in going, Debbie? Maybe we can meet there. :-) He lives off of Antoine, not very far from me.
~ Marylyn
~ Marylyn
marylyn are you going???/ I am DL crazy and would love to have you pick up a few for me of the four dollar ones... dont know how or when I would get them up here - someone will head this way right? lol... let me know.
Moonlit Caress, Iselworth, Little Witchign Hour, and Dragon Dreams... ohhhhh yea..
Marylyn dmail me the street address of the guy please so I can google it...I'll let you know Friday whether or not I'll go...I assumed it was a fall sale since most people divide them then.
Thanks Mitch--didn't realize there was so much to daylillys!
Debbie
Mitch, Mitch.. You do not know what you are asking. LOL Here's the thread from last year: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/484349/ I took lots of orders and came back with exactly NOTHING that people had asked for. IF I make it to the sale (I'd like to!) and IF I can grab anything you would like before someone else does (not making any promises! LOL), I'll let you know and we'll figure out how to get it/them to you. Don't get your hopes up, though. :-)
Debbie, I was sure I had saved his address, but I haven't found it so far. I'll e-mail him to ask for it and get back to you. He lives by Ella and 610.
~ Marylyn
Never mind, I found it. Yayy! I'll dmail it to you now, Debbie.
Dont worry if you cannot find them there - I have seen the TV reports online from his sales and just dream every year..
I'm thinking seriously about meeting you there Marylyn...just my partner is having a "work" crisis...we work at the same building, at least for now. But I can probably go.
Caught this sunset last night which is kinda unusual for us...with all the air pollution and all...lol
Debbie
well, its the end of the school year....duh, no pic Debbie...just stick a fork in me, I'm done....lol
TV reports?? Really, Mitch? Are you sure it's the same sale? I'm tellin' you, it was over in 90 seconds last year! LOL Maybe he usually has more plants and last year was an exception...
Marylyn--I sent you a dmail that I would definitely go...dmail was acting strange...not sure if it went through so am posting here too.
Debbie
Yep - I like to watch the Houston area news (Well the ones we used to watch from down there on the web every so often.. ) This sale is a little famous too in the DL world :->
wow, hello everyone. just noticed this thread. Mitch, I didn't know this sale was famous, TV famous. but I t shouldn't surprise me as this guy is a "big wheel" in the houston hem society. He was my last hope for DL Little Mark, which I am still hunting for, BTW.
Marylyn and Debbie, have a great time at the sale.
I got your dmail, Debbie. This is going to be fun! I wrote your wishlist down, Mitch, and we will do our best. :-)
Above all have fun in that mess!
Here are your plants...ask, and DG folks shall recieve. It was great fun. You should have seen that guy's front yard--if your a big daylilly fan, it was pretty impressive. He wouldn't let us in the backyard. :(
Look huge and healty!! How bad was it?
Really quite tame...I was 45 minutes late...
Thank goodness Marylyn was still loading plants into the truck, I'm so embarrassed...I got lost.
She'll have to tell you which ones you were lucky enough to get....I just said I want any color but yellow...lol
It was SO much fun!! He had a lot more plants this year than last, so the sale was still going on at 7:15-ish when we left. Maybe last year's 90 second marathon was a fluke. LOL
Mitch, I thought I had 7plants for you, but it turns out that I only have 3 unless you want some of the ones I seem to have accidentally picked up... I don't know if he had some of the plants at the backs of the rows mixed up or if someone decided they like my choices better than what they had and swapped them while I was taking the first load to the car, but I ended up with some that I definitely did not pick up intentionally. :-( I'm sure they are nice anyway!! So.. I have 2 Dragon's Dreams and 1 Little Witching Hour from your wish list. And although I KNOW I picked up 2 Islesworth, 1 Moonlight Caress, and one more Little Witching Hour for you, I ended up with 1 Moon Dreamer, 2 seedling #03-026, and 1 seedling 03-005. (grumbling under my breath...) Next time I'll take my wagon so I can carry them all at once. :-( I bought 5 for myself and they made it here safely, but I could only carry 6 at a time, so I had to go back to my little batch to pick up the rest of them.
So.. If you are interested in any or all of these, Mitch, I'd be happy to un-pot them and ship them to you. They were all $4 apiece. Any you (or anyone else, for that matter :-) don't want I'll just plant. :-)
Our Roadrunner has been going off and on all week, so if I don't reply right away it's because it is down again.
~ Marylyn
Oh Mitch...still my beating heart--I saw the pic of that witching hour.
I ended up with 3 blue moon rising, 3 calgary stampede (on my list--with the directions, the ones I left at home..lol), and 1 mayfair season. Not sure about the blue moon (gotta look at his site...hehehe) but the other 2 aren't yellow. I had a great time, I'm happy.
Marylyn...email the guy on his site...surely he can tell you the colors.
Debbie
I just went back to his yard sale webpage page and looked up the ones I ended up with. (http://www.ofts.com/bill/daylily.html Click on "My daylily yard sale" on the left.) They are all very pretty, so if I wind up keeping them I won't be too upset. I'd just rather have gotten more stuff at Joshua's then the extra daylilies. LOL And it ticks me off that someone switched them. :-( I distinctly remember paying for the Islesworth because they were actually $5 instead of $4, so someone must have swapped them while I was taking a load to my car. I think that's very very sad. Oh, well... (sigh...)
I planted the pink skullcap already. They look great! I think I'll go back to Joshua's later and get a few more. :-) Charles had to go to work this afternoon to make up some hours that he lost while going to our daughter's ARD meeting this week, so I can't pop back out now. I'd never get the little one away from those water fountains. LOL Besides I pretty much spent all I can afford (plus your 50 cents!! Thank you!!!) today. I'll have to wait until next paycheck. :-)
Ok, let's see if Roadrunner will stay on long enough to send this.. They must have a loose connection or something.. Service keeps going on and off and on and off and on and...
~ Marylyn
Thank you Marylyn - Dave mail me the details and I will get everything sent to you ready to go! I will take the three for sure - and 005... let me know too if anyone does not want the others!
Thank you soooo much - Mitch