Hyacinths

Are my favorite flower.  This is because:
*they are beautiful and smell heavenly
*they remind me of my grandma
*they come along just when you need them most

I went with my neighbor Lousia tonight to hear Alexander McCall Smith, the author of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series as well as other series set in Scotland, and, it turns out, a multitude of other books, including some for children and some professional texts.  I had expected him to be interesting and entertaining, being such an eclectic and multi-talented person, and my expectations were exceeded!  I bought this book:

and he autographed it.
Extra bonus:  David Lanz was also there, to perform some of his beautiful piano music.

Cutie Patootie

Spent a lovely hour or so with Ava at the Barkley Starbucks today.    Much of her time was spent making her way through the mountain of whipped cream perched on the top of her cup. But we also found time for talking, people watching, dog and bird watching, coloring and sharing a slice of lemon pound cake.  Sweet times!

Something has occurred to me

     In education we spent enormous amounts of time testing, assessing and progress monitoring students, and then  more time entering, graphing and evaluating the data collected.  So much time, in fact, that we have significantly less time to spend teaching, and planning for excellent teaching.  Sooner or later the pendulum will surely swing a bit, and we'll begin to see the ridiculous side of this.

 But now for the analogy that popped into my head the other day:
 
     In the 1950's, science was revered as the path to progress, enlightenment and success.  As a result, it became more common for women to bottle feed their babies, instead of relying on  the age old tradition of breast feeding.  This shift was a reflection of the new found faith in science, which manufactured formula was a product of.
     Eventually, we began to see (via science!) that the original way of feeding our babies actually was the very best way.  So did we outlaw formula?  Stop manufacturing it?  No, of course not.  It wasn't in itself a bad thing, just not the very best thing.  And in some circumstances, it actually was the best thing, and a very wonderful thing, if breastfeeding wasn't possible.  Baby formula is a great innovation to support infant nutrition, but its not the be all end all it was once considered to be.
     Okay.  Now on to data--one of my least favorite words, due to massive over use.  It's not a bad thing, at all.  Nor are testing and progress monitoring.  But right now we are worshipping at the altar of data in education, and acting as though it is the answer to everything.  The trouble is, it isn't.  The vast majority of the time it tells us exactly what we already knew--this child is struggling, this child is moving right along.  Should we throw out testing and data collection? YES!!  No, just kidding.  Let's just treat them more  like formula is used now--a useful tool, a piece of the puzzle, but not the primary focus of our time and effort with students.

There--I feel better.



"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire".  --William Butler Yeats

I do love picnics

Even the chilly ones.  Ron, Ava and I had the inaugural picnic of the season Saturday.  We went out to Birch Bay, where Ava loves to collect shells (she likes the broken pieces just as much as whole ones), dig in the sand, and collect cups of water from the bay. We didn't bring any dessert, so we could bribe her home with the promise of something sweet.  We were glad of that plan, because as the sun began to set it got very cool.  At least Ron and I thought so; Ava would probably still be there digging if she'd had her way.....

Signs of Spring

Yay--they're here!  Those brave, cheery little signs that winter truly is drawing to a close.

Another sight you don't see every day:

Chris' floor!!  It was there all along--we just had to dig a little.
And.....

his newly cleaned and organized desk, complete with files for each college under consideration.
Spring cleaning at its best!

My son the kite boarder

Pretty amazing!