Welcome to Katfrog's Corner

Earlier this week, I heard that the superintendent of Cobb County Schools, Michael Hinojosa, wanted to hire 50 teachers from the Teach for America program.  The school board was supposed to vote on the issue at tonight's meeting.  I felt shocked, to say the least. When I graduated from Vanderbilt, I seriously considered applying to Teach for America.  It is a wonderful program that sends recent college graduates to school systems where no one wants to teach - mainly poor, inner city schools and poor, extremely rural schools.  Notice the common factor of  "poor".  By sending teachers to these areas, Teach for America helps students who might not get an education otherwise. But we have teachers here in Cobb County.  In fact, I recently read that we had thousands of applicants last year - thousands of people who are qualified teachers looking for a job.  And Cobb County is one of the richest counties in metro Atlanta (I daresay in Georgia, but I don't know the facts

For those who don't know, my father grew up in the Amish community.  He left it, but his sister Martha married an Amish man.  Here they are, singing a Swiss yodel.  I remember my grandparents singing this song at every reunion - I even know the yodeling part! Enjoy!!!

Lately I've been contemplating and researching the various types of intelligence.  In case you are wondering, "What are types of intelligence?", I made a list of the nine generally accepted types of intelligence: Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)  Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)  Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)  Existential Intelligence  Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart”)  Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)  Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)  Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart”) Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”) (For more information about the types of intelligence, see  http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm ) I actually knew about the various types of intelligence when my kids were invited into the elementary school target program.  The Target teachers explained that all children have these types of intelligence, and that the Target

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling My rating: 5 of 5 stars When the Harry Potter series first came out, my youngest was just too young to read the books. So we waited, and this past month the entire family read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". I must admit, I like the book more this time than I did the first time through. Maybe it was because I understood the universe more after reading all seven books, or maybe I enjoyed the joyful innocence of the book because I know exactly how dark things will get. But I found myself smiling at Harry's reaction to the wizard world in all its wonder. For those who have not read this book, I recommend it for anyone who loves a good fantasy story. There are scenes of suspense and excitement here, but Ms. Rowling also includes a fair amount of universe building that matters to the entire series. I love how each character comes alive, and I simply drooled over the puzzles presented within. I e