First T-Ball Game

There is probably nothing funnier than watching a bunch of 5-year-olds try to play T-ball for the first time. Highlights:
"No, no, run the other way!"
"You missed a base!"
3 runners on 3rd base, all at the same time.
"Throw it to first!" "What's first?"

"But the ball has dirt on it."

Things We Cannot Forget

Where to Begin?

Sometimes I wonder if there isn't so much nonsense going on in the education world that I just had to take a break from writing about it. It's hard to write about it, coming into it with my perspective, without the writing building the ire.

I saw the other day that Pearson (the for-profit education giant) and the Gates Foundation are teaming up to design (and of course, sell) curricula based on the new Common Core standards. The Gates Foundation (a nonprofit, one of the "reformers" crowd) has given a $3 million grant to develop this curriculum, which of course makes me wonder why in God's name the biggest education company in the world needs any outside money to invest in what will end up being another huge money-maker for them.

I can't help but imagine what I could do with 3 million dollars!

"More research is needed."

"We have more information now than we can use, and less knowledge and understanding than we need. Indeed, we seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven't devised means of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows."

~Warren Bennis

Who Will Be Left?

An excellent quote from a post over at Bridging Differences:

If we drive out those who are motivated by social norms, who will teach? How can we hope to have a stable education profession if we lose those who want to make education their career knowing full well that they will never get rich?

Read the whole thing.

Time

I can't believe how long ago already it was that I last wrote. Amazing how the hustle and bustle takes you away from things you love, but simply can't find time for.

My son is almost 5 now, starting kindergarten in the fall. I'm still long-term subbing it in the hopes of finding something permanent for the upcoming school year. I've got my students blogging over at KidBlog, which is working out fabulously, once we worked past a few minor kinks. The gravity of some of their writing is pretty awe-inspiring.

And ah, sweet spring has returned.