Decatur, Ala. | Saturday, May 25, 2013
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Vegas teacher back in class after Obama shout-out
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
Associated Press//Isaac Brekken
Claritssa Sanchez, a 10th grade teacher at Canyon Springs high school, introduces President Barack Obama on Aug. 22 during a campaign stop in North Las Vegas, Nev.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 10th-grade Las Vegas-area teacher mentioned by President Barack Obama during his first presidential campaign debate with Mitt Romney said in August that she wished she had fewer students so she could give each more attention.

Claritssa Sanchez was back in class Thursday, the morning after Obama said he recalled she had some students sitting on the floor for the first two weeks of school, and they were using 10-year-old textbooks.

She did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.

Obama didn't use Sanchez's name during Wednesday's debate against his Republican rival. But as he spoke of the need to improve education, he recalled meeting her when he was in Las Vegas. He said he remembered she told him she had 42 students in class.

"The first two weeks she's got them, some of them sitting on the floor until finally they get reassigned," Obama said during the debate. "They're using textbooks that are 10 years old."

Sanchez was among educators who talked with the president around a classroom table before an Aug. 22 campaign rally at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas.

She later introduced the president to the audience, saying, "Every single student of mine could do much better if they could just get five more minutes of my time."

White House officials said at the time that the average size of Sanchez's history and government classes grew from 33 students when she began teaching in 2007 to 44 this year.

The Clark County School District has more than 311,000 students and 18,000 teachers at 357 schools in a region that for months led the nation in unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies. The Las Vegas-based district ranks fifth in the nation in enrollment.

About 1,000 school staff positions were eliminated after the 2011-12 school year to deal with a $59 million budget shortfall — a move that administrators said would increase class sizes by an average of three students this school year.

Clark County School District spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson issued a statement Thursday saying district administrators agree that class sizes are too large. She conceded that some 10-year-old textbook are still in use.

"In a district as large as ours, you could surely find some large classes and older books," Fulkerson said. "But that is not the norm."

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3 comments on this item

So has the facts in those books changed? IMHO we need to go back to some of the older classroom books that taught about the U.S.A. and our history, instead of the liberal slated newer text books on the market.

We need more chalk, too!

Just for kicks-n-grins, here is an 8th grade Final exam from back in the day:

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.

2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.

3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph

4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'

5. Define case; illustrate each case.

6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.

7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?

4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?

8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.

9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?

10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided

2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus

3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.

4. Show the territorial growth of the United States

5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas

6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.

7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?

8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)

[Do we even know what this is??]

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication

2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?

3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals

4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)

5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.

6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.

7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.

8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.

9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks

and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?

2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?

3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?

4. Describe the mountains of North America

5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each..

8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?

9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.

10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

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