WLS Top 28 for Week of January 15, 1973-- Part 1: 'Rocky Mountain High'

That's right, these are the top songs in Chicago according to powerhouse WLS, 890 AM half a century ago.

Fifty years ago today, I was a student at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and finishing up my senoir year.  I was taking my final education classes before I started student teaching the last 9 weeks before graduation.  I was also getting my last good licks as a college student in and hitting the bars of Lincoln Highway.  Our main hangout was Andy's.

*  Means the song was climbing the charts.  The number behind the artist is how high it got on the Billboard Hot 100 National Chart.

28.  *THE WORLD IS A GHETTO--  War     #7     Great sound guaranteed to get you into the groovin'.   Latin Funk Rock band out of Long Beach, California.

27.  *ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH--  John Denver      #9    You forget how good of a voice he had.  And, he loved anything doing with mountains.  His second hit following you-know-what.

26.  *DO IT AGAIN--  Steely Dan      #6      That was some real good instrumentation.  Their first hit.   Jazz rock band formed in Los Angeles.

Name That Tune (from the above songs):  "Walkin' Down The Street, Smoggy-Eyed."  Answer below.  --RoadDog

"The World Is a Ghetto"

It's a College Thing: 2010-- Teaching About Education

Catching up on some old items.

Back in 2010, a report came out that many Illinois colleges don't prepare teachers for the classroom.  My old alma mater, Northern Illinois, and Illinois State are the state's two biggest producers of teachers.  I don't know, I taught for 33 years and thought I did a good job.

Back when I was taking my education classes in the 1972-1973 year, there were many things the professors told me to do, that I didn't as I didn't think it would work.  They hadn't been in the classroom in a long time.

I would like to see college education professors have a rotating basis:  Five years teaching at college and five years at a regular public school.  And that teaching definitely should not be in a college lab school or honors/magnet school or one in a rich area.

Then they would have a better grasp of what is going on "out there."

Well, That's What I'd Do.  --RoadDog

JSIS: Rob Grill Dies-- Beware the Lionfish-- No More Writing Test

JSIS-- Just Some Interesting Stuff.


1. ROB GRILL DIES-- Sorry to see Rob Grill, lead singer with the 60s-70s group Grass Roots died last Monday. I sure liked their songs like "Live for Today" and "Midnight Confessions." We were able to see him perform several years ago at Springfield, Illinois' Route 66 Festival.

More in my history blog: http://cootershistorything.blogspot.com.


2. BEWARE THE LIONFISH-- The pretty-but-voracious favorite in aquariums has made its way to the sea and is eating up reef fish in the Caribbean, along the Florida coast and into the Gulf of Mexico.

They eat just about anything that will fit into their mouth and have few, if any, natural predators.


3. NO MORE WRITING TEST--To save money, the state of Illinois has eliminated the writing skills test for juniors in high school on the state standardized tests. saving about $2.4 million from the debt. Writing tests for middle school and elementary have already been dropped.

Too bad, because this is one of the more important skills students need to master.

When I was teaching, almost every test I gave had one part where the students had to write. i sure hated grading them, but it was an important skill for them to master.

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy. Let's Write About It. --RoadDog


FUNNY THINGS TO SAY TO YOUR DOC DURING YOUR COLONOSCOPY..."You know in Arkansas, we're now legally married."

It's Them, Not Me: Time for the Chicago Tribune to Wise Up

And, it's my favorite paper, but when it comes to education, they are clueless.

They recently had an editorial lauding the efforts of the Florida Republican-dominated legislature for its education reform act.

Now teacher pay will be based on student performance. Layoffs will be based on teacher performance rather than seniority. "Good newer teachers are fired instead of less effective (teachers) protected by seniority."

To start with, we have to stop this Republican belief that the only good teachers are the new ones. Any teacher with tenure therefore is "bad." That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. New teachers are rookies. Sure, they are full of new ideas and willing to take chances. But, do they ever make the mistakes.

I'll take a building full of veteran teachers over rookies any day.

Now, why would a school district prefer new teachers over older ones? Could it have anything to do with the salaries of the two groups? Let's see, district having financial problems. Teacher A is first year earning $30,000. Teacher B has been there ten years and earning $60,000. Guess who is the "bad" teacher.

Plus, teacher pay in Florida is ridiculously low. Now, there is an embarrassment if there ever was one.

Plus, basing pay on student performance. What about teachers working in inner cities and districts in which most of the kids are low income? These kids do not perform well on those tests. Then take your teachers in upper class communities. Those kids do well.

If I am a Florida teacher, I would make sure I got into the rich schools to protect my salary.

These Guys in Florida and the Tribune are Clueless. --RoadDog

The Problem with Education

Yesterday, February 4th, we stayed around Bettendorf and Davenport.

We had our own private pool area all afternoon. Wrote in my journal and read the US News and World Report issue about the problem with schools. It is always made to seem as if this is critical in the US. I agree that in some schools it is.

However, blaming teachers is off base. When I started teaching back in 1973, the quality of teachers was much lower than when I retired in 2006. I was impressed with the dedication of the new teaching corps.

It is NOT the quality of teachers so much as the problem lies with parents. Too many to not encourage their children to get ahead by attending to school chores.

Plus, we are trying to teach kids higher orders of thinking before they are ready. Any engineer will tell you that you can't build a structure until you have a solid foundation. If you don't, it will fall down. We are not giving our kids that solid foundation, and, instead, rushing to construct the building.

That solid foundation is the four "R"s: Reading. 'Ritin'. 'Rithmetic and 'Rememberin'.

Don't Get Me Started. --RoadDog