The Po Show

This Beats The Nigerian Prince All to Hell


This is, without a doubt, the funniest phishing email I have ever received:


Dear valued customer,

This notification is based on an instruction received from our headquarters and the united nations payment committee to urgently activate and release the funds on your ATM card.

Due to the new economical laws we have adapted, it has also come to our notice that scampers have taken advantage of this to defraud more people. In this vain we have adapted a new method of payments.

Your funds of 5.5 million dollars will now be transferred to you via wire transfer from our bank directly to your account which has been open for you at FEDERAL RESERVE BANK U.S.A.

You are here by advised to reconfirm your information in our possession to enable us make instant transfer.
With this mode of payment,
1. your funds will be transferred instantly into your account.

2. you can have 24 hrs access to your account vis your mobile phone.

3. A security pin will be provided to you which gives access to only authorized persons.

4. Freedom to make transfers via your mobile phone with our tele banking facility to any desalinated account of your choice.

5. No extra charges



MAC DONALD
HSBC INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER DEPT.

RECONFIRM YOUR DETAILS FOR THE RELEASE OF YOUR FUNDS

Keeping Score

We got Matthew's state tests scores from last year, and I was rather taken aback. He scored a "2" on the math test, which is the "Partially meeting the learning standard" level. His score was literally one point above the necessary score for that range. Two fewer points and he would have been at the "Not meeting the learning standard" level.

The previous year, he scored a "4" on the state math test, which corresponds to "Meeting the learning standard with distinction." The year before that, he scored the highest possible score given on the test, meaning that he answered every question correctly.

I have always said I don't give a flying rat's ass about state tests, that I hate how schools "teach to the tests" before they are given, to the exclusion of other subjects, how they are a product of No Child Left Behind that have had a horribly negative impact on how teachers are forced to teach. I was really happy to hear that while they have to administer the tests, the staff at Matthew's school basically just tell the kids not to worry about them. They do not alter their curriculum to time lessons to when the tests are given, and they ask the kids to just do their best.

I know math became difficult for Matthew in third grade, and that continued through fourth and fifth grade, because he could not memorize his multiplication tables. And so much of math during those years hinges on being able to automatically know them. Matthew could figure out in his head what seven times eight was, but it took a minute, and all those minutes add up when you have to multiply three digit numbers together. It continues with operations with fractions, and decimals, and so on. It's better now, in that his memory for multiplication has improved, but back in January when he took the state test, he still couldn't remember his times tables at all.

Also, the focus of last year was getting him settled in, getting him emotionally stabilized, and that has happened in ways that are jaw-dropping. He was going over his goals for the year with his therapist, and when they got to "social skills with classroom peers," he casually said, "Oh, that's not a problem anymore." (!!!!) So academics took a big backseat last year, as was necessary.

Still, this child is a freaking mathematical genius, when it comes to theory and underlying reasoning principles. I know that has little to do with mechanics, that these tests don't measure what he is capable of understanding, but seeing this score was disconcerting, contradictory to my conception of Matthew. But I need to get over it, because the true measure of what he is learning and how he is growing comes from completely different sources than these state tests.

It's a challenge for me, being a life-long "good test taker," to accept this, but deep down I really do know the score.

I Never Do This...

I never ever make fun of people's names, and I'm not really making fun here, but this just made my eyes bug out. I saw a picture of a little girl, about 8 years old, named:

Aleck Xandria

That was her first name. That is just setting up your child for a lifetime of trouble.

(And yes, I really am going to really blog again someday.)

Enriched

Tessa has started what they call "small group enrichment" at school. They don't want to call it gifted ed., which seems to have become a loaded term over the years around here (NY is one of the few states in the country that does not mandate dedicated gifted education). So all kids receive "whole class enrichment" starting in kindergarten, and then starting in third grade there is some type of pull-out for "small group enrichment" for kids who qualify based on various criteria that I am still not clear about. Different school districts handle this differently, and some offer a lot more than others. They don't even let the word gifted enter the discussion (though "gifted" is a recognized educational term!) and phrases like "for children needing more of a challenge" are substituted. Whatever.

So this is the first year that third graders in our district have been introduced to the new program that was brought into fourth and fifth grade last year. The previous program was, well, not very much. This new program is much more comprehensive, and there are three strands (humanities, math, and visual reasoning) and kids have to qualify for each strand individually. Pull-out is four days a cycle (cycles are six days) for about an hour and a half. They do projects and make presentations. We were sent home a rubric that outlines the progress kids are expected to make in order to stay in the program, which was also discussed with the kids on the first day (Tessa's friend got kind of freaked out about that, I guess. She told her mom, "I can't get any checks on the right side of the page!" and it took the whole evening and morning to calm her down about it :(. ) For the first strand, they are doing humanities, and they are studying Shakespeare (!!). They are doing an adaptation of Midsummer's Night Dream and discussing how Shakespeare's plays reflected his times and how these contrast to our current times.

Tessa is very excited, and relieved, because she was afraid she wasn't going to get to be in the program. The notification letters were mailed out from school around Sept. 25, and we had not received one last week. A couple other kids in her class had, and her friend's mom called me to talk about the letter, but I had to say that we were still waiting. I just couldn't imagine a world in which Tessa didn't meet the criteria (she reads at young adult level and is above grade level in math, social studies, and science). I knew not many kids made it in (about 10 from the whole grade, which is about 85 kids), but I couldn't believe she wasn't one of them. I commented to her teacher after school on Tues. that we hadn't gotten a letter, and she assured me that it was probably coming, though she hadn't seen a list yet. Then on Thurs. as I picked her up, Tessa excitedly told me, "I started WINGS today!" so it was all fine. Of course on Fri. the letter arrived, which was odd, that it took a week to get to us, considering the school is half a mile away.

So it's all fine, but I'm left thinking about why I was so freaked out by the prospect that she wasn't going to be included in the program. I guess it's just because, since she was 18 months old, I've considered her very gifted. I've felt badly that we live in a place that doesn't have dedicated gifted education, because I think it would have been so good for her. I've been waiting for her to be in third grade, so that she could start small group enrichment, and I was so glad to see last year that the program was going to be amped up considerably. So there was a distinct mental grinding at the thought that she might not get into the program.

Also, and I'm willing to admit this, I love having a child who does so well in school. It's like having a mini-me, this bright girl who performs so well, and having all her teachers rave about her. Plus she has the added component of being socially adept as well, and it's a joy to see her blossom. I can't wait to see the things she gets to do in the small group, enriching for us both.