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Why I Opt-in and Support Standardized Testing
… Read MoreGrowing
up, I always took standardized tests. Every year, our teachers would say, “Get
a good night’s sleep and eat breakfast in the morning. You have a test
tomorrow.” And that was it.I
happened to start my career in education right around the time when this
approach to standardized testing completely shifted under the pressure of the
No Child Left Behind Act.As
an educator for the past 16 years, I’ve seen a lot of bad things. When I taught
in a Title I school in rural Louisiana where more than 90% of children lived
below the federal poverty line, the principal kept a paddle on her wall and -
Planning a Neighborhood Movie Night
When Matt and I were dreaming and scheming about building a house, we purchased a large outdoor movie screen, so that we could invite friends over and watch movies outside.Now that we’ve lived in our house for almost two years, we should get this party started!Maybe once a month? In April, May, June, July, August, and September?We would definitely need to do it after bedtime since our boys go to bed so early. Maybe it could start at 7pm? And we could socialize for the first 30 minutes and then start the movie at 7:30pm?We could just open the back gate and let people enter from… Read More -
May: Reflection & Rejuvenation
April! Wow. You went fast. And you pretty much thwarted my attempts at Balance.But, hey, I’ve got one more month of school left before I can officially declare our first year complete. How amazing is that? And despite the glitches that come from starting a school from scratch, we still had 11 times as many applications as spots for the 2015-16 school year. And it’s only going to get better from here.[Thank you for letting me indulge in a little pep talk to myself. These are the kinds of thing I have to remind myself of over and over because this work is so hard and the ratio… Read More
