Manatee County Retired Educators: November 2014

    Does it seem to you that life has speeded up so much that it is difficult to keep up? Or is it that time and events are keeping their usual pace and it is I who has slowed down? The cool weather, the election, the doctors' appointments, the meetings, the dinners with relatives, the bills to pay, the housework, the laundry, the meal prep all keep me running. While attempting to make dinner Wednesday evening, I had to field a call from a credit card company advising me that someone has been running up some hefty bills at Nordstroms, Toys Are Us, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I did shop at B.B.&B. last Christmas, but T.A.T. is a thing of the past, and I have never crossed the threshold of N. Luckily, the credit card company knew me for a tight wad.

    Then, my email program decided that I could no longer just type in "MCREA membership" and it would send to all the members. Have you ever tried to communicate with Microsoft problem solvers? They actually gave me websites that required at least 60 digits and letters to access. Then when I got there, I couldn't understand the information. So, I am left with the task of typing each one of your names into an email. I will shop around some more for a better service. I have tried Chrome, but they only accept Chrome users into their "Circles" which are called groups elsewhere. Would you all like to sign up for gmail? I didn't think so.

    Our trip to the Ringling Museum which was arranged by Minnie Lee Jones was really entertaining. We had a docent-guided tour of the Ringling Mansion. Of course, most of us had been there before, but many of us had never been upstairs to see the bedrooms and closets of the famous couple. John's feet were very long and very thin. In his room, his clothes were laid out on his bed as if he would be coming in at any moment and getting ready for his day. But, horrors! His hat was on his bed. Those of you who have Celtic ancestors are aware that is asking for big trouble.

Lunch in the Ringling Restaurant

In addition to our Halloween party at our October meeting, we were addressed by Dr. Diana Greene, Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services. She spoke about the new requirements in testing and technology which are affecting teachers and students in the Manatee Schools. Each course in K-12 must now have an exit exam which will be administered on a computer. Yes, even kindergarten. Even P.E. must have a written testn not a test of physical ability as one might logically expect. And, the results of these tests will determine 50% of a teacher's evaluation score, read salary.

The State of Florida is pushing for digital, on-line materials so that Manatee could buy the textbooks and get the digital tests to go with them. Grades 3-12 will all be assessed on line. 5th graders must type a five paragraph essay writing exam. So now keyboarding must be taught quickly. Cursive will also still be taught. Aren't you glad you are out of there?

Deborah Thomas has taken on the chairmanship of the FREA 5th grade essay contest. Packets which explain the contest, have been delivered to the elementary schools. The topic is a happy memory of time spent with grandparents or other elderly persons in a student's life. The FREA prizes are $150, $100, $50 for the best three essays. MCREA will award a $25 gift certificate to the winner here and a $25 gift certificate to the winner's class for the teacher to use as he or she sees fit. We hope teachers will be able to squeeze this in, perhaps as a topic for a practice essay.

Scholarship Chairs, Pat Griffin and Julia Forkgen have distributed the FREA Scholarship forms to the high schools. The Scholarship Committee is required to then choose one from all the entries to forward to FREF. We have had two winners in the last three years of this more lucrative state scholarship. When the winner has been chosen, then it will be time to send out applications for the MCREA Scholarship. Again, we need donations from you to make sure we have the funds to award to new recipients and to others who will be becoming college juniors. Julia and Pat will be happy to accept checks made out to MCREA Scholarship Fund or you can give or mail them to our Treasurer, Ron Schneider.

Our meeting on Nov. 20 will feature speaker, Nick Drizos of SMART (Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy). As usual, we will meet at Renaissance on 9th, at 11 a.m. Be sure to wear your nametag. If you don't have one yet, please see Sue Roe about picking yours up or having one made for you. Congratulations to Elaine Waldron for the excellent and timely Handbook. Again, if you haven't received one, come to the meeting and pick yours up. If you do not hear from your caller in the next week, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 to make a reservation.

A reminder for you is to start handing out cards with your purchases from Sunday, Nov. 9th to Sunday, Nov. 16th. You received these cards at the October meeting. If you were not there, then you do not have them. These cards are meant to inform local merchants how much we retired educators support the economy.

On a sad note, you probably read that Jeanne Parrish, a former member of MCREA and a long-time English teacher at Manatee High School passed away last week. I remember her a classy and yet down-to-earth lady with practical ideas for teaching English to teenagers.

Halloween was fun!