CNN news 2011-02-20 加文本

cnn news 2011-02-20

pounds of Alaskan cod, 45 pounds of organic vegetables, and 4 gallons of salsa. These mouth-watering ingredients top our trek Cross Country. Students and staff at Atlanta's Emory University actually combined those items to make 260 fish tacos lined up end-to-end. And the goal? To break the record for the world's longest taco line.

Next stop, the campus of Auburn University, where officials say that some of the school's iconic oak trees have been poisoned. Auburn fans traditionally cover the trees with toilet paper to make big game wins. Now the university says that the culprits applied a herbicide commonly used to kill trees. The school says that the trees, believed to be more than 130 years old, are probably not going to survive.

And then, finally, in Phoenix, Arizona, dramatic horse rescue is caught on tape. A filly named Sugar was out for a ride with her owner when something spooked her, sending her falling into a canal. The owner managed to get out, but it took rescuers about a half an hour to actually pull Sugar out and get her to safety.

All right, Mom and Dad, how would you feel if a teacher described your son or daughter as lazy, disengaged, a whiner, an oaf, entitled, or even annoying? Would you be upset with the teacher, with your kid, with yourself maybe?

One high school English teacher near Philadelphia, Natalie Munroe, used those very words to describe her students and posted them on her personal blog for all to see. Now, she never identified the school. She didn't identify the kids. She didn't even identify herself, but the school found out anyway and they suspended her. So, are you thinking, "Bravo, Miss Munroe, what a way to tell the painful truth"? Or do you think that she could have picked maybe a more private, less snarky way to express herself? Well, Natalie is with us this morning, and so is her attorney, Steven Rovner. They join us from Philadelphia.

And Natalie, let me ask you, why did you write these things on your blog? Was this a way to just vent? Or were you frustrated and hoping somehow this would send out a message to these kids?

I was just writing for my friends and for myself. It was a personal blog. It was a way to keep in touch with my friends. I had seven followers. I really never thought that anyone would see it.

You had seven followers?

Seven.

OK. Well, I think that's increased quite a bit, now that you're talking about this on a national level.

Yes.

And let me just,you know,I mentioned some of the words that you used to describe your students. But I want to go into your fantasy report card.

You actually wrote that if you had a chance to do the report cards for their parents to read, you would actually say things like this. "I hear the trash company is hiring." "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son." "Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?" "Nowhere near as good as her sibling. Are you sure they're related?"

OK, we understand free speech. But you had to know that maybe, possibly, a student or two might be following you online and, so, were you thinking, constructive criticism? They've got to hear it somehow? Or did you ever imagine it would be controversial? Do you think this was the right thing to do?

I never, ever thought that it would be controversial or that anyone would see it. Because, again, I wrote it anonymously, I never posted any student names, I never posted my district's name, I never posted my school name.

So, it was really -- I mean, it was up there for over a year. It was discovered over a year after it had been written long since. So, it was never, no, it never occurred to me that anybody would find it or read it or anything like that. I wasn't making a social commentary when I wrote it. I was simply communicating with friends, like a diary for myself and my friends.

OK. So, when you wanted to become a teacher, what were you thinking? Were you thinking, oh, this is going to be great. I'm going to meet some fabulous kids, I'm going to make an impact in their life, I'm going to change the world. Why did you want to become a teacher?

All of those things. I love English, I love literature. I always wanted to be able to use my knowledge and sort of help change the world kind of thing. Even if it's on a small scale or a large scale. So, I was very enthusiastic to become a teacher.

I remember five years ago, when I got my own classroom, how exciting it was to go in the summer and set things up, and that was my intention for the whole time. So -- and that has never changed.

No. So, you still feel that way. That's still what you would like to do?

I had no plans for a career change. This is just -- this kind of blindsided me so, yes.

Now, you seem very young. How long have you been teaching? How many years?