This past week, I attended teacher orientation at the synagogue. I was curious to meet the new education director, see what she was like. Over the summer, we had received scattered emails asking us several times what we were interested in teaching this upcoming year. Some teachers never received the emails, not all teachers had been told that they were hired. It seemed sort of disorganized. So, with these first impressions in mind, I set off to teacher orientation. There, we were greeted with nametags, binders, class assignments and a schedule for the day. The education director was much more prepared than I had expected. Granted, there were some things that could have been done better, such as having the teaching materials (textbooks etc) prepared beforehand as well as classroom assignments so we could see where we would be working for the year. But the content in the meeting--talking about classroom behavior and lesson planning, getting to know one another, discussion various resources within the community, it was very well put together. All in all, it was a good meeting and I am excited to work with these teachers this year.
And now for something completely different: Hurricane Irene. As I was reading the paper and talking to family this week, I was impressed with how much preparatory work was being done for Hurricane Irene--transportation systems were being shut down, lowlands were being evacuated--there was a lot being done to get ready for this storm. When the rains came, everyone seemed to take to facebook to share what was going on, to find out who still had power and to share pictures of the storm. In my sphere of friends and family, no one seemed too devastated. No one lost power, the basement stayed dry, no damage to worry about. It wasn't until after the rains hit that the major damage occurred--the flooding in Vermont and other areas. Since Hurricane Katrina and the devastation she caused in New Orleans, are we as a country better prepared for natural disasters? Did we take all these extras steps to over-prepare ourselves for the damage so that the actual damages were not as severe as we thought? What do you think?
And now for something completely different: Hurricane Irene. As I was reading the paper and talking to family this week, I was impressed with how much preparatory work was being done for Hurricane Irene--transportation systems were being shut down, lowlands were being evacuated--there was a lot being done to get ready for this storm. When the rains came, everyone seemed to take to facebook to share what was going on, to find out who still had power and to share pictures of the storm. In my sphere of friends and family, no one seemed too devastated. No one lost power, the basement stayed dry, no damage to worry about. It wasn't until after the rains hit that the major damage occurred--the flooding in Vermont and other areas. Since Hurricane Katrina and the devastation she caused in New Orleans, are we as a country better prepared for natural disasters? Did we take all these extras steps to over-prepare ourselves for the damage so that the actual damages were not as severe as we thought? What do you think?
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