School mornings
High School Freshman one hour before it’s time to leave: “I don’t want to be late. Let’s leave already.” High School Senior fifteen minutes before first bell: “I have plenty of time. I don’t want to be too early.”
Category: school
Friday Night Lights halftime show
I can’t post pics or videos from today’s parent performance of this season’s High School marching band show because my phone overheated as soon as I sat down on the cement bleachers. I will hint that the show theme is all over my bookshelves and even though the guard girl in our family is completely […]
Ed tech
At some point, we need to accept that tech companies and Internet providers marketed technology to schools like television show drug dealers. Schools were gifted one year of devices that become obsolete in four years and/or two years of Internet access. Using online textbooks and resources, multimedia assignments, online testing and online grading weren’t just […]
think like a middle schooler
Dad: “Siege towers sound like fun.” Mom: “He has an after school activity every single day next week and I don’t know when we’ll have time to do the written report OR the model. Hadrian’s Wall or an aqueduct seem easiest to build.” Child: “Let’s do a bathhouse! They’re not bathrooms. They’re swimming pools.” Mom […]
milestones
Two and a half weeks remain until we say goodbye to the elementary school that has been a huge part of our lives for 15 years. Fifteen years of the same teachers, staff and classmates. Fifteen years of clubs and activities. Fifteen years of homework and tests and projects. All of these things exist in […]
I see a pattern
“Why isn’t ensemble participating in competitions this year?” “Testing.” “Why aren’t Fifth and Eighth grades visiting their new schools this year?” “Testing.” “Why did Dr. Seuss Week get rescheduled?” “Testing.” “He doesn’t qualify for reading intervention, but he needs extra help that I can’t give because of teaching time lost to testing.” Testing != Teaching
volunteering at school is educational
If you want to break into children’s publishing, write/illustrate a picture book about an obscure holiday. A kindergarten class full of newly short hairstyles is a class with hair parasites. Dr. Seuss Week makes students happier than Pajama Day, Movie Day OR holiday party days. Everyone needs time to slow down.
Not Super
Our school Superintendent is resigning at the end of the school year. Maybe he was asked to leave. Maybe he was told to leave. Whatever the details, the end result remains that our school system will be leaderless at the end of this school year. I do not care about your feelings for the departing […]
If Wednesday, then school volunteer
On Wednesdays, I go to the elementary school. Because I am there every Wednesday, I know that the cutting board with the best blade is missing a wood chip that makes the alignment grid slightly skewed. I know that there’s never enough paper. I know the one person who can sometimes convince the color copier, […]
SpEd Vouchers
TN just passed a voucher bill for about 18,000 TN students with IEPs for “Autism, Down’s Syndrome and other severe mental disabilities, deaf and blind children, and those with severe physical disabilities.” It looks like the current plan is to take about $550 per month, per child from the public schools and allow families to […]