Archive for » August, 2005 «

Google this, I dare ya

30
Aug 2005

One of my favorite wastes of time on the Internet is to Google myself. For those few who really don’t know (minus the ones who just claim not to know), it’s what you do when you enter your name into a search engine, usually the one found at Google.com.

For instance, it is by Googling "Linda Sherwood" (with the quotation marks) that I learned there are more than 11 Linda Sherwoods in Michigan. Not to mention the ones not in Michigan. Some are athletic. Others serve on library boards. There’s one the communication committee of a church in Wisconsin with her husband, Ben. There’s a hair dresser with a salon in Loveland, Colorado. I wonder if my aunt and uncle (Sherwoods, both) who live in Loveland are familiar with it. She even has a web site, SalonSherwood.com and apparently you are required to look very good to work there. A professor in Montana who has written more than one book about microbiology. She’s riding high on her success in England and the Salisbury District Council. On the health and human service staff in Oregon. And something to do with horses. I thought my friend Teri was the Field Trip Lady, but apparently there’s a Linda Sherwood in Michigan that provides field trip resources as well. Not to mention the Linda that’s made it to the championships in bowling, which is so not me, as my family could attest to my average score of 60.

Not to mention, for $29.95 you can purchase a company profile of "LindaSherwood.com" and get immediate online access from Goliath. Apparently the company LindaSherwood.com is involved in "Game, Toy, and Children’s Vehicle Manufacturing." No wonder my house is always so messy! Trust me when I say Thompson and Dale of Goliath haven’t a clue about the manufacturing capabilities, or rather lack thereof, here at LindaSherwood.com. Is should come as no surprise that I do not recommend buying that report. But if you’d like, you can send me $29,95 and I’d be happy to indulge all of my company secrets. Heck, send half that and I’ll do the same. Although you can probalby just Google the info.

So it is with a great deal of irony that I share the following set of news articles regarding Google’s CEO, and the apparent grief it caused when a reporter armed with only 30 minutes and Google.com turned up some personal information on the search engine’s CEO using the company’s own search engine. Who knew it worked so well? Apparently not CEO Eric Schmidt.

Googler outs Google chief is a Susan Ager column in the Detroit Free Press. It starts, "If there’s anything more laughable than a hypocrite, it’s got to be a billionaire hypocrite indignant that his golden goose dumped on him."

Then there’s the original C-Net article by Elinor Mills, Google balance privacy, reach

And the New York Times reports on the fall out from Mills article in Google anything, so long as it’s not Google

Thanks for playing.

Category: Web/Tech  Comments off

Off to college!

26
Aug 2005

I have an announcement. (Drumroll, please)….

I’m returning to college. Classes start Monday. But  there’s a twist, I’ll be an instructor NOT a student.

That’s right! You are reading the words of the new journalism instructor at Kirtland Community College. I had an interview Wednesday, and it lasted more than two hours. They called Wednesday afternoon to offer me the position. Classes start Monday. Yeah. At least’s there isn’t a lot of time to get nervous.

I’ll be teaching two journalism classes and serve as the faculty advisor for the student newspaper. I’ll have to have office hours and I get an office. I’ll find out today if it has a door.

I’ve been assigned a mentor from the English Department to help me. You’ll never guess who the mentor is. OK, I’ll tell you. My mentor is Jon Thompson, who was the editor of my local community newspaper when I was a kid in middle school just getting interested in journalism.

There will be other familiar faces there too, like my former Advanced Studies teacher, Nancy Lemmen. I’ve worked with her before since I graduated, and she tried then to get me to call her Nancy. But old habits die hard. Soon as I saw her Wednesday, "Mrs. Lemmen" came out of my mouth instead of Nancy.

I am thrilled about this opportunity. I will still be working at the newspaper. The instructor position was only advertised as being for this semester, although I suspect it could be renewed if enough students enroll.

Upon hearing about my new job as a teacher, and with the closing of Merritt School being such a topic lately, my middle daughter, Maxine, asked me if my kids could attend the school where I teach if Merritt closes.

(End drumroll, bring in soap box)

Which brings me to the rest of my blog. I wrote the news article about the students leaving the district. I interviewed parents who left and those who are leaning towards leaving. I interviewed the principal and the superintendent of both school districts involved. And then I took that mess of a blog I wrote yesterday morning, and everything I learned during the day, and wrote a column that will be published in Sunday’s paper.

There was so much to say. It’s such an emotional topic. So many times yesterday I found tears well up. My children had trouble sleeping Wednesday night. They too, cried as they learned friends were leaving, or worried about what we would ultimately do. And I worry that my comments will be seen as unfair criticism of the parents who left, but I just had to share how I felt too.

Our school district is facing more financial cuts. For me, Merritt Elementary School is my pet project. But there are parents throughout the district that can name a program, teacher, service or buiding that is there personal project. I tried to keep that in mind as I formed my personal opinions and decided what to do with my family. It was from that perspective that I tried to write my column.

This morning, I had my husband read it. I wanted him to make sure he knew what I’d said. Some of the people who left the district are our relatives. When he was done reading, he said people, especially our relatives, could be upset about my comments. I realize that, but at the same time, what I wrote was something I did say to them yesterday.

In a situation like this, it’s so easy to focus on what’s being cut. But I really wanted to refocus attention away from blame and repurcussions and more to facing reality and working together to find a solution. Merritt Elementary School, I can’t even begin to explain the impact it has on my family and our Merritt community. But at some point, students leave Merritt and they go to Houghton Lake middle school and then the high school. I love Merritt, but when my family made the decision about what school district we wanted to send our children to, we considered the entire Houghton Lake Community Schools district. We made that choice for my children’s entire 13 years in the public school system, not just the first six years.

I am hopeful that it will convince at least a few parents to look past the pain that budget cuts will cause, and focus on solutions. If bussing is cut, parents can work together and form carpools. There are solutions and I hope people will work to find them. I’m sharing my column with my blog readers.

Houghton Lake is more than the sum of its parts

I’m the Mommy – By Linda Sherwood

I’m a Merritt mom. Three of my kids attend Merritt Elementary School and another one just started at Houghton Lake Middle School after attending Merritt for six years. It doesn’t matter where you live in the Houghton Lake School District, most know, Merritt’s a little different.

Merritt’s principal described Merritt as a community school. She compared the relationship between the staff, administrators, parents,  students and community to a family. We have great teachers, an awesome volunteer network and every school deserves a parent that cares and does as much as Sally Frey. It’s just a great place to be.

Tuesday at the middle school orientation, I heard the rumor all Merritt parents were hearing, or soon would: Merritt would close before the end of the school year. The school board hasn’t made a single decision. Not one option for budget cuts have been made. Mrs. Jury is gearing up to keep the school off the budget chopping block once again. And as a parent, I didn’t worry too much. I knew no decision had been made. Plus we have this great Parent Support Group. They’ve rallied the troops before, right?

What a difference 24 hours can make. By the end of the school day Wednesday, I learned 10 students from Merritt were being enrolled in McBain, including children of two officers on the Parent Support Group. What had been a possibility was surely becoming a reality as more parents abandoned the school without a fight for a neighboring school district.

Wednesday night I heard from some other parents. What are we doing? Where are my kids going? I heard more parents were leaving the next day. The budget cuts are looming, and people were making a hard decision. The board of education hadn’t made it, so they figured someone had to. They did what was right for their families and you can’t criticize them for that, but boy it sure knocks down the plan to fight for your little school. Why would the school district want to save a building the community no longer supports?

I’ll be honest. In our initial discussion, my husband and I said if they close Merritt and cut bussing, we’re going to Lake City. The Lake City school bus drives by my house twice a day. I’m sure they’d be happy to stop and collect my $26,800 in state aid funding, otherwise known as my four children. Or maybe I’ll bring them with me to work and enroll at Gerrish-Higgins. But what about the rest of the Houghton Lake school district? What about the kids that can’t go somewhere else?

Not to mention, I believe in more than that wonderful little Merritt School. I believe in the entire Houghton Lake Community Schools district and all of its teachers, staff and administrators and bus drivers.

The budget cuts are going to hurt and it’s going to hurt more than just that little school out there on the other side of the swamp. It’ s going to impact every single facet of Houghton Lake Community Schools. How can it not? It already has.

But we do have a choice. We can still rally the troops. Deb Davis, a teacher at Merritt says her philosophy is the same as Winston Churchill. "Never, never, never give up." Churchill, he’s pretty impressive, but I’m going to look a little closer to home for my inspiration, Louann Pachecho. The district’s cutting funding? OK, what can I do to help? What needs to be done? Because it’s decision making time and the biggest decision isn’t the one being made by that board of education. It’s going to be the one being made by the board of education. Do we stay or do we go? I’m staying, and I’m ready to help in whatever way I can. After all, the public school is the community’s school. What can you do to help?

Category: GradLife  Tags: ,  Comments off

Mass Exodus

25
Aug 2005

Earlier today I posted with a concern about whether or not my local school district would be closing my kids’ elementary school. Today was the first day of school.

Now my kids school is unlike any other school I know about. There’ s four classrooms that serve six grades (K-5). The classrooms are divided with two grades each. For instance, last year the split was K-1, 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5. I think that was it anyway. It may have been 1-2 instead of 3-4. Anyhoo… This allows kids to work at their pace. If they are behind or ahead, they just get shuffled into the other classroom that fits them, and most likely there’s other kids in their same grade there. Not to mention we have great teachers, an awesome volunteer network and a very strong parent group that works hard to do some amazing things for the kids each year.

It’s just a great place to be. Add that to the fact that this my kids are the third generation of Sherwood kids to attend, and it becomes a bit more. And to think about that being gone is painful.

But it’s been threatened before and the Merritt parents have rallied, and provided the stats and the school stayed open. This time’s different. The president of the parenting group pulled her kids. Her sister pulled her kids. The treasurer of the parenting group pulled her kids. Cousins pulled kids.

It’ s the first day of school and I understand 17 kids left the school to a neighboring district.

The thing is, NOTHING has been decided about the future of the school building or the district. It’s all up in the air. We don’t know what cuts are happening. We don’t know enough to make a decision on a maybe. But someone did, and maybe they know something I don’t. But they’re gone. And now people are following them.

Tonight, a mom called me just wanting to know what we planned to do with our kids. Her daughter was crying after learning another of her friends is leaving the district tomorrow. That brings the total to 19, that I know of, without one cut being made by the school district. With them gone, this mom realized that the only kids left in school that were friends of her kids were my kids and one other family. This for a school where families have attended for generations.

I talked to another mom with two kids who is really considering pulling them from the district.

And yeah, initially, Steve and I talked about maybe moving out of the district if they cut bussing. But we were waiting to see. Just overhearing Steve and I talk about concerns, my kids were upset. Tears flowed. It’s such an upheaval.

We do have concerns. It’s a huge issue. You don’t want your children to be hurt by a school district that can’t offer very much because of budget issues.  Especially when the district right next door isn’t struggling with such drastic cuts. You want the best education for your children. Obviously, the quality of the education right now ihs been hurt by the budget cuts. Class sizes are up. The number of teacher aides has been reduced. Supply budgets have been slashed. Funding for school trips and athletics has been abolished. Bus stops were consolidated to central locations instead of door to door. There’s been layoffs. More cuts are going to happen. There’s not much left to cut that doesn’t impact the classroom.

But as Steve and I continued to talk about it, we  realized leaving might help our kids in the short term, but it will definitely hurt everyone else’s kids who remain. I believe in the public school system. I know my children have received a good quality education from the district. I know that my tax money will support this school long after my children graduate.  It’s not going to be easy, but leaving the district isn’t going to help.

Do you turn your back when someone you know and care about needs help?

I know and care about the Houghton Lake Community Schools. For every student that withdrew from the district because of the THREAT that Merritt Elementary would close, they took $6,700 in state funding with them.

Initially, the school district estimated they were $600,000 short. I know 17 students left. $113,900 in revenue lost. I’ve heard another two are withdrawing tomorrow. $13,400 gone. Others could follow. It’s just sort of a mass exodus brought about by panic similar to the rush to the gas pumps after 9-11. One person started jumping off the bridge, and the rest are following.

So what did that achieve? A district that was short $600,000 just lost roughly $130,000 in revenue. That doesn’t automatically translate to a savings in expenses. More likely, the district now needs to cut even more to balance its budget. It hurts those students who remain, the ones who can’t for whatever reason go to another district.

The idea behind public education is that a community will provide funding to teach its own students. But half our community just fled our school because of a threat. And the parents who remain are scratching their heads wondering what memo they missed.

I believe there will be a rough road ahead, but I also believe that ultimately there will be a point where things start to improve. How soon can things improve? Can they get it back in a year? Two? What happens when they do? You live in this district and you’ve been jumping through hoops to take your kids to another district, but now things are back up to snuff here. Do you cause this huge upheaval in your child’s life AGAIN to bring them back to the district? Was it worth it? Especially if things get back on track sooner rather than later? I’m going to have children in school for the next 11 years.

I know that my children will get a good education regardless of whether or not there are budget problems in the district. I will do what it takes to make sure my kids learn what they need to learn. I can help fill in gaps, and provide extra attention at home. I have the resources and the skills. I can afford to drive my kids to school if the buses quit running. It will be a pain in the neck at times. It definitely won’t be perfect, but it can be done. But more importantly, by deciding to keep my four students in the district ($26,800 in state funding), I’m not just making sure my children get a good education, I’m helping out other students in the district as well.

The answer to this school funding crisis will be found. There will be a solution. Things will improve. And I believe it will happen sooner rather than later. I want to make sure that when it does, I can say I was part of the solution.

Does that mean Merritt remains open? I don’ t know. Will it improve the district’s budget? No.  Is it really so bad if it closes? No. As much as I love Merritt Elementary, I know it’s the people and not the building that made it possible. It was a wonderful working relationship between staff, parents and the community that made Merritt special.

Something hurtful has been mentioned. Yesterday, the threat was cutting athletics. Today, the threat is closing Merritt. But the reality is the the future of Houghton Lake Community Schools and every special interest, club and building is on the chopping block. It’s up to the community and the parents to decide the next step. We can be mad, stomp our feet, and pick up our marbles and walk out, slamming the door as we go, never to look back. Or we can follow the lead of the Houghton Lake Boosters Club and find a solution. Together.

We need to stop running around in a panic, and step up to the plate and help every child in our community get a quality education no matter what the budget may be.

Category: Parenting  Comments off

First Day of School

24
Aug 2005


First Day of School
Originally uploaded by writin99.

Here’s a picture of the kids are waiting for the bus taken this morning. They have on their new shoes, outfits and are carrying their book bags full of new school supplies.

This may turn out to be a bitter sweet photo. My kids attend Houghton Lake Community Schools. Three of them will be going to Merritt Elementary School this year.

Budget problems, however, means the school district needs to cut more than $600,000 from the budget that they hadn’t planned to cut. Bussing and Merritt Elementary School are on the chopping block.

If those cuts are made, class sizes (that are already large) in the elementary school will soar. My husband and I have already decided if class sizes get too large or bussing is cut, we’re transferring the kids to Lake City School District.

The kids are not thrilled about that thought. We’ve adopted a “wait and see” attitude. But it looks like it could be a rough ride this school year.

Category: Life with Linda  Comments off

Rain and Fun Mixed

22
Aug 2005


Sherwood Kids
Originally uploaded by writin99.

We’re back from our weekend in the straits. We spent time in Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, St. Ignace and had lots of fun and walked up a ton of stairs.

On Saturday, I took a shower around 8 a.m. My hair was still wet and soaked at 1 p.m, since it started raining immediately after my shower. We headed for the island as planned, despite the weather, hoping it would clear up in the afternoon and it did. We started our day at the fort, and that kept us mostly indoors, except for the walking between buildings.

It turned into a beautiful afternoon and we went biking. We climbed over 150 steps to Arch Rock on Saturday, more than 90 to Castle Rock on Sunday, and uncounted number of steps at Historic Mill Creek Sunday, plus pushed bicycles up a very steep hill on the island Saturday. Halfway up the hill, Justin said we should have rented horses instead of bicycles. It was much more fun when we rode the bicycles down the hill by the Grand Hotel. By Sunday afternoon, Autumn declared she would not be sleeping in her room Sunday night because she refused to go up any more stairs.

Saturday after our island adventure we spent an hour or so drying items from inside our tent, and getting all of the puddles out of our tent. We were lucky. Very little actually got wet inside the tents. It was mostly puddles on the floor. But that still meant taking everything out and getting all the water out. As for camping by ourselves, we did well. The only thing that we didn’t think to bring was a hatchet for fire building purposes, but we made do without it.

One of the highlights was taking the kids down to the shore of Lake Huron to see the Mackinac Bridge all lit up at night. They really liked that.

This was really a fun family vacation for me. It’s a place that I went to as a child, and it’s so very neat to be able to share that with your children. We did a lot of the same things I’d done as a kid, including one of my favorites — climbing Castle Rock. It is also a vacation that Steve and I took together for my 18th birthday, which was our very first vacation together.

I just want to say that I have a totally new respect for my mom after climbing all of these stairs with my kids. ;) Mom was 33 when she had me, so all those times she climbed Castle Rock with me, she had to have been at least 40 or so. And we did it a lot. Good job Mom!

To see a few of the pictures from our vacation, click here.

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