I was waiting to post about it until I got it in my hot little hands but I just can't. I bought a tablet pc this weekend--WOO-HOO!!!

Here's the scoop. Included in my bloglines subscriptions are the blogs of tablet pc users and one of them had posted about a developer who was selling his new tablet pc. I contacted them both, found that the tablet was less than 3 months old, that it's exactly the model I've been wanting, and that I could save about $800.00 buying it from the developer. So I did!

My tablet is on it's way to me as we speak. I've been excitedly tracking its journey through FedEx, using the tracking number. Since yesterday was Veteran's Day there was no movement but as of the day before it was in New Jersey and it's too early now to find any further location change posted online. It's scheduled to be in my hands on Saturday, November 13th!!! I can't wait!

Crisis in education? Yeah. Here's the crisis--we're not teaching people to think critically, to look for evidence and not simply accept opinion (tv, magazines) as fact, and to engage in real dialogue about important issues. Hmmm... NCLB... I know we have to reach all students, but with the insane pacing plans and ongoing testing, there's even less time to teach/engage in exercises in critical thinking and fact finding. I've been seeing it in the classrooms. Teachers have been saying there's no time. Are we just building a nation of automotons who can read, write, and do math just well enough, but who can't think independently or deeply enough to make informed decisions about their lives, important social/national/world issues, and do not understand history and their place/connection to it? Ack, maybe it's just sour grapes on my part... I so wanted a change in our country's leadership.

Today I'm even more deeply connecting with what Will Richardson has been blogging about for the last year--that real blogging (the verb) is reading, digesting the information, thinking critically and deeply about it, and writing about it in a way that adds to our collective knowledge. It's Bloom's Taxonomy, Habits of Mind, Accountable Talk--pick your label. It's what "the gifted students" or the "priviledged students" get to engage in during school and at home while our struggling learners are just that, struggling--to survive, to overcome, to break the cycle of poverty, of foster care, of illness without health care, of drug, alcohol, and gang abuses. Do we even consider that NCLB's "corrective measures" are punishments that are a continuation of the message our students already receive in spades--"you're not good enough kid (for your parents to keep you, for society to keep drugs and violence away from you, for businesses to provide a decent wage and health insurance for your family, for government to equitably fund your education) and now we're going to publicly label you and your school, and point you out in the newspapers and the internet with a big scarlet-letter-like stamp."  It's such a huge job we're facing and I don't think that NCLB addresses that fact. The issue is bigger than the basics in school. There has to be a better way. And, I don't think our current leadership is going to look for one. It's up to us.  (Perhaps my friend C2 is right--one thing at a time...)

Kerry 199 -- Bush 207   ohmy goodness... My daughter is jumping up and down and whooping--ah, youth!

Well, my family and I went to our polling place and voted together. I was surprised to see not only one long line but two! Two lines went out the door and onto the stairs outside. We waited about 30 minutes. How wonderful that so many people took the vote seriously. I guess it helped that we had beautiful 80 degree weather today, too!

Most of the cars parked in front of the polling place had Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers, which was encouraging to me. But, as I type this I'm watching CNN--Bush has 171 electoral votes to Kerry's 112. *sigh* Well, regardless of my own personal opinion, I'm glad that so many more people are getting out and voting.

Still, I'm saddened to hear about all the barriers to people voting--intimidation, broken voting machines, missing absentee ballots, etc. What next? Do we need to have U.N. representatives to monitor our elections? What an embarrassment--what a shameful face this shows the world.

Well, my fellow Americans, good luck to us all.

Tablet PC sighting: Hey, there's using a tablet pc on KNBC to scribble out the count of the electoral votes. AWESOME!

Right after watching the tablet in use I found this pic via Engadget